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Mentoring Strategies

Mentoring Strategies. Debra W. Stewart North Carolina Alliance to Create Opportunity through Education March 20, 2006 North Carolina State University. What is a Mentor?.

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Mentoring Strategies

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  1. Mentoring Strategies Debra W. Stewart North Carolina Alliance to Create Opportunity through Education March 20, 2006 North Carolina State University

  2. What is a Mentor? • “Someone on the faculty to whom students turn for advice, to review a paper, or for general support or encouragement” (Nettles & Millett, 2005) • A mentor is a key ingredient in student success (Harnett, 1976; Blackwell, 1987, Arce and Manning, 1984) • Cause of success in employment (Bargar and Mayo-Chamberlain, 1983)

  3. What Do We Know About Mentoring? • Good Mentoring Contributes to: • Retention • Degree Progress • Student Satisfaction • Research Productivity • Clear Academic Expectations • Degree Completion • Professional Development

  4. What Do We Know About Mentoring? • One-size does not fit all in mentoring • Mentors can be advisers, but not all advisers are mentors • Mentoring relationships are developed for the majority of students during the first year of graduate study • More women report having mentors than men • More than 30% of all graduate students never feel that they had or identified with a faculty mentor

  5. What Do We Know About Mentoring? • Same sex advising relationships more likely for men and for whites. • Women are more likely to switch from a male adviser to a female mentor. • In science and math, 76% of white students identified with a mentor but only 57% of African Americans identified with a mentor

  6. What Do We Know About Mentoring? • Differences across fields • Field of study determines the type of scholarly activity and mentorship. • Research productivity and publication is higher for students of all races in engineering and sciences than in education, humanities, or social sciences (Survey of Doctoral Student Finances, Experiences, and Achievements) • A mentor in education, engineering, & social science fields improves degree completion • A mentor in humanities and social science fields decreases time-to-degree

  7. Why is Mentoring a Key Aspect of Graduate Program Quality? • More than half of students completing the Ph.D. report that mentoring was a crucial component of their success in the doctoral program • “She was/is a strong advocate for her students in surmounting impediments in the way” (Student, Howard University) • “Encouragement, administrative guidance, support for me & my project” (Student, University of Notre Dame) • “Good advice on practical matters like "type" of jobs in academia” (Student, Yale University) • “Moral and humane support was the most important of all” (Student, Universite de Montreal)

  8. How are Graduate Schools Addressing Mentoring in Best Practices? • Preparing Future Faculty Projects • Ph.D. Completion Project • Pfizer Inc and the Ford Foundation • Responsible Conduct of Research Initiatives • Office of Research Integrity (ORI) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) • Professional Master’s Initiatives • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Ford Foundation

  9. What are Promising Mentoring Practices? Preparing Future Faculty Initiatives • Experiential mentoring opportunity • Collaborative mentoring with faculty from multiple institutions • Professional development • Teaching, Research, and Service • Diverse teaching opportunities • Cluster institution model permits student-faculty partnerships in diverse institutional settings • http://www.preparing-faculty.org/

  10. What are Promising Mentoring Practices? Ph.D. Completion Project – Early Insights on Student Needs: • Increase collaborative research opportunities early in the doctoral career • More emphasis on program plan and timely completion of academic milestones • Timely feedback from mentors • Foster intellectual capital • Model academic and professional networking across a range of settings • More frequent communication, in-person and via alternative methods • Guidance early and often • http://www.phdcompletion.org/

  11. What are Promising Mentoring Practices? Responsible Conduct of Research Initiative • Good mentoring means: • Communication of professional and ethical standards • Exposure to interdisciplinary standards of RCR • Development of critical thinking skills • http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=123

  12. What are Promising Mentoring Practices? Professional Master’s Degree Initiatives • Guided professional internship experience • On-site practical instruction • Field specific • Substantial time commitment • Direct guidance from industry • Encouraging faculty to value mentoring master’s students. • http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=120

  13. Questions Remaining: • What can be done to improve student perception of quality in mentoring relationships? • How do we assess the quality of mentoring relationships? • How do we integrate new techniques for future and current faculty? • Do different mentoring strategies need to be developed for different graduate constituencies?

  14. The Future According to Margaret King: “Because the appropriate balance between too much and too little supervision is both delicate and dynamic, research advising, like tightrope walking, requires constant and careful attention” (King, 2003, p. 8)

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