Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 11 Summer 2019 | Page 60

the workshop via email. All mentors had attended
a Keele Mentor Training session ran by student
services covering aspects such as: what is a mentor,
mentoring process, challenges, support available,
communication, keeping records, running a mentor
meeting, confidentiality and practice scenarios. All
mentors had access to Keele University Student
Services personnel, an experienced year 3 mentor
and the Year 1 Head of Study.
All first year BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy and BSc
(Hons) Rehabilitation Science students were invited
to participate in the workshop via email and an
in-class explanation of the workshop.
Outcomes
A questionnaire was created using Google Forms and
sent to all students who had attended the workshop
which was used to gather feedback on the workshop
identifying benefits and drawbacks and to identify
any practical implications from the study. Semester
1 module results for those students who attended
were evaluated by comparing to the year group
mean performance.
Data Analysis
Results from the Questionnaire were downloaded
from Google Forms in a spreadsheet and uploaded
to SPSS Statistics for Windows (IBM Corp. Released
2016. Version 24.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp) which
was used to analyse the results. Coding was used
to analyse open ended question; initially themes
were identified and then analysed in greater detail to
identify trends or patterns in the replies.
Examination results were obtained from university
systems. Mean and standard deviations were
calculated for the group of year 1 students who
attended the workshop, and compared to the overall
module mean mark and standard deviation for the
modules reported in end of semester examination
boards.
Results/Discussion
29 students attended the workshop (n=14 year
60

1 students, 15 mentors). Feedback from the
questionnaires was received from 14 students
(n=7 year 1 students, n=7 mentors). 100% of
respondent’s reported that they found the facilitated
mentor meeting beneficial. Reported benefits are
displayed in table 1.
Table 1 reported benefits from mentor meeting
B E N E FIT
M E NTORS
ST U D E NTS
Share /
Receive Advice 5 5
Reassure 4 4
Reflect on
performance 1 0
New approaches
to study 0 2
Advice
Both mentors and year 1 students reported that
they found the meeting a useful forum to give and
receive feedback. Mentors reported:
“It’s nice to give advice to the year 1 about do’s
and dont’s for examination”
“it was great sharing what I could have done
better and passing on advice”
“I think it was good to catch up with the first
years and to be able to pass on some advice for
what they can expect from the rest of the year ”
Year 1 students reported:
“It is helpful to know different method [Sic] to
revise and how to cope with new style of exam ”
“Useful to hear what not to do! ”
This is consistent with numerous studies that
demonstrate that peer mentoring leads to mutual
benefits for both mentors and mentees (Turban
and Dougherty, 1994, Andrews and Clark, 2009,
Christiansen and Bell, 2010, Feldman et al., 2010) .