MENTORING THE MENTORS

Dr. Pankaj Kumar
Nov 8 · 4 min read

Are we as a nation heading towards collapse? Is there any deterioration of education in our society? Most of us will say yes. The reason lies in the dearth of quality teachers. If you ask any growing child about his/her career aspirations, I am sure, becoming teacher is seldom figured. This is, perhaps, the reason for qualitative deterioration of education.

Who among are teachers or want to become teacher? In the era of Millennial and Generation Z, sorry to say, people have adopted the profession of teaching not by passion but by force. Since a person fail to achieve the desired career objective so he / she started teaching. Most of the engineers and doctors have entered in the profession out of that reason only. The growing coaching institute has given air to such trend. But who is suffering? The first and last sufferer is the academics itself as the torch bearer himself is not capable of mentoring another. There is, in general, loss of qualitative aspect of education which is quite reflected in society. Today a student clear IITJEE but some of them fail to cope up with the study of IIT after joining. Whom to blame? What is net result? And what is the solution?

Frankly speaking I also hail from the same group. Followed a perfect ‘’Bihari dharm’’ of preparing for civil services, failed, and eventually decided to become teacher. But there is one big difference and that is of Mentoring. I would like to take this opportunity to share how I was mentored by my guru Dr. Ashok Ghosh and how it makes difference in teaching?

Ghosh sir was the student of Prof. R.P.Roy, the famous scientist whose work on sex-determination in plant is acknowledge by the world. He himself has worked in the area of environment and has guided number of research scholars and I am one of them.

I joined as CSIR fellow for Ph.D. program and in the process started teaching as well. I still remember that in the very first class I was thoroughly rejected by the students and written complaint against me was given to the management to withdraw my services.

I was called by Ghosh sir and he asked how I am teaching. Very interestingly, he has not shared that he received a complaint against me. He said “I know that there is no issue in your knowledge but I want to know how you teach in class.” He further added that his objective is to further enhance my teaching ability. I narrated the entire steps and he patiently listened. Then he said that I need to add some vital changes in my approach and gave lecture of 15 minutes.

I still rate those 15 minutes the most valuable period of my life which has shown me the path of becoming teacher. Whatever little today I am, the credit goes entirely to those 15 minutes of mentoring by Ghosh sir. The main suggestions were:

a. Never enter the class without preparation. You need to draw entire class in your mind before your actual delivery

b. Look into the eyes of students. You can command respect and control class by directly looking into their eyes

c. Voice modulation is the key. Lecture without voice modulation becomes monotonous and one need to modulate to make the class interesting and engaged.

d. Board work is very important. Divide board into two half without drawing line. He showed me how to stand on the board and from which corner I should start writing.

e. You must dictate lesson to the student so that when they want to recall your class, the sufficient content should be in their copies

f. There must be sinking time during lecture delivery. One can be good teacher if he allows his listener to accommodate the lecture in his brain.

Now look the way of grooming in which he does not criticised me for my failure rather gave encouragement. At the same time he identified the shortcomings and accordingly gave the suggestions. I can, now, confidently say, that pedigree of mentors matter and is quite reflected in the academic growth and teaching ability of the mentee.

I always remember the lesson of Ghosh sir as he used to say that as a teacher we should not overdo. Our job is not of spoon feeding but to show a correct path to the students. Giving minute information is not important rather requirement is enabling the student to get those details on their own. That is what Mentoring is all about.

Qualitative deterioration in education is not due to mentee but it is mainly on account of lack of Mentors. We badly need mentors who should not only take care of academics but also groom them to become successful mentors for the future generation. This is, perhaps, one of the solutions which can save us from heading towards collapse.

Dr. Pankaj Kumar

Written by

Chief Operating Officer, D Y Patil Academy, Pune

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