Methodology for increasing the efficiency of the pairing between students in the student support process.

The supporting process between equals at the university has different objectives, however, whatever they are, the key is to find a good relationship between the participants in the interaction. On a large number of occasions some of the members of the team break off the relationship, with one of the main reasons being that the pairings are made randomly. Furthermore, the most common reason is that the members who have the most experience (mentors, tutors, monitors, etc.) are directed towards those with less experience trying to convince them of the virtues of the program, inviting them to join.

The objective of this work is to describe the reasons why some people are chosen more often than others at the time of making the pairings, when the participants are offered the possibility of having conversations together. For this reason, the methodological technique of role playing is used. The participants are later asked, by means of group discussion to relate what happened, what they said, what they thought, and how they felt. They then had to justify the choices made.

The results highlight the behaviours of the most frequently chosen members together with the different dynamics used by the participants.

The proposals that arose allowed ways to be established that improve the pairings in programs of support such as mentoring or tutorials between equals. They may be useful in other contexts such as the establishing of collaborative work groups in different subjects.