Abstract Book of the 9th International Conference on New Trends in Teaching and Education
Year: 2025
[PDF]
Development of a Peer Mentoring-Based Protocol to Enhance the Success of Engineering Students in Their Final Bachelor’s Thesis
María González Alriols, Eneritz Onaindia, Ainara Sánchez, Oihana Aristondo, M. Mirari Antxustegi
ABSTRACT:
Final Bachelor’s Theses (FBTs), typically undertaken in the last semester of engineering studies, should be practical activities that closely mirror real-world engineering practice. By developing FBTs within complex, collaborative, transdisciplinary, and practical projects, students can enhance essential skills such as initiative, autonomy, creativity, work organization, critical thinking, teamwork, and project management—skills that are highly valued in the engineering profession. Engaging students in ongoing, intricate practical projects as part of their FBTs ensures they meet learning objectives while gaining valuable work experience. However, aligning a six-month FBT with longer research projects can be challenging and complex. Ensuring continuity throughout the process is crucial to prevent the loss of valuable knowledge during student transitions. Peer mentoring (PM) has been recognized as an effective tool for guiding students in developing their Final Bachelor’s Thesis (FBT) in engineering studies (Andrews and Clark, 2011). The literature uses various terms to describe mentoring activities, such as guiding, tutoring, assisting, and coaching, reflecting the complexity of the concept (D’Abate et al., 2003). Additionally, studies have documented mentoring experiences in different contexts, such as helping first-year students acclimate to university life or assisting with personal issues, cultural adjustments, or language difficulties. This work details the experience and outcomes of using PM to coordinate FBT students through complex cross-disciplinary research projects. In this context, the goals and boundaries of PM are specifically focused on transferring knowledge about project organization, development, and completion to less experienced peers. Preliminary results indicated that guidance and advice from experienced students were highly valued by professors, FBT supervisors, and new students. This support was particularly appreciated for its contributions to continuity, effectiveness, time-saving, and the management of experimental work and characterization analyses.
Keywords: peer learning, engineering studies, final bachelor’s thesis, transdisciplinary projects.