Mentor's Influence on Self-identification of Older Adolescents in Joint Activities
This paper presents the results of the research on selfidentification in teams at the adolescent engineering competitions. Two sources of self-identification were considered: 1) the influence of mentors on the process of self-identification of team members; 2) the relationship of sociocognitive conflicts and solidarity among team members over the roles' distribution in a group. The basic theoretical concepts, such as joint activity, sociocognitive conflict, and the concept of self-identification as a newly formed structure of the older adolescence were examined. Besides, the concept of mentoring was described in the context of the role a mentor plays in the joint activities as a manager of a communication space. The research involved 493 participants (age 14-18 years) - the finalists of the National Technology Initiative Contest (The NTI Contest). The survey was conducted using the methodology developed at the preliminary stages of the research. The results of the research show: 1) a low-level influence of a mentor on a group of adolescents outside of an organized environment and training; 2) a high-level influence of the solidarity factor within the engineering team.