Project Background

1. Mindful Mentoring: Faculty Perceptions of Undergraduate Mentoring Practices Amanda Krueger & Tiffany Huynh Dr. Robert J. Eierman  ORSP University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Results Considerations and Challenges Demographic Patterns The Mindful Mentoring Project is part of a larger ORSP effort to define effective mentoring and help mentors learn to mentor well. This project is an attempt to gain an in-depth understanding of the prioritiesand challenges of mentors. First, a group of faculty and staff wrote a document that defined mentor characteristics and practices. Second, a survey was created to attain the knowledge of mentoring perceptions and practices at the UW-Eau Claire. The survey was built following the structure of the definition document. Response Summary • Recruitment Challenges: • Student Attributes (46 responses) • Recruitment Process/Organization (29 responses) • Trade Offs • Recruit all students vs. only those who are motivated/qualified • Recruit students with experience vs. potential • Recruit known students vs. unknown students Survey Design The survey was sent to about 350 faculty and staff who have received ORSP funding for collaborative research with students in the past 5 years (2009-2013). There were 6 paired items on different categories of mentoring collaborative projects with students. Explanation of Charts and Graphs: The charts on the right represent the responses to the survey questions regarding priorities and challenges of research mentors in two different categories of the survey. The graph above depicts the overall range of scores for mentoring priorities across the mentoring categories. The chart on the top right shows the results for the differences in the priorities between faculty who are in various stages of their careers. The bottom right graph depicts the differences in the priorities between men and women across the mentoring categories. Project Background Conclusions Quotations about Challenges On Mentoring Undergraduates: “We don’t train students, we prepare future colleagues. We operate transparently and intentionally with that future relationship in mind.” • Overall we can draw several conclusions regarding the priorities and challenges of research mentors: • Mentor responses did not significantly differ across the categories, although there are some valuable trends. • Mentors consider design and initial stages the most and student recruitment the least. • Males and females differed in several ways: • Males had higher averages when considering scholarly environment • Females had higher averages when considering continuing stages • Females had higher overall averages • Mentors indicated that recruitment was the most challenging stage. On the Challenges of Student Recruitment: “The biggest challenge is finding a student with the maturity to dig deep, think critically, stick to deadlines, and be transparent about the problems they encounter.” The format of the paired items is as follows: 1. When DESIGNING an undergraduate research project, how much do you consider each of the following aspects? This item then offered a set of issues to respond to using a five-point scale from Not at All to A Great Deal. 2. When thinking about DESIGN aspects, explain what you find most challenging and why. This item was a free response text entry item. Five demographic questions were asked as well. On the Challenges of Fostering a Scholarly Environment: “Providing clear, constructive critique of student performance and behavior…it is difficult to critique students that you are working so closely with in ways that they can hear and grow from it.” On the Challenges of Final Stages: “I want students to have to really grapple with all the methodological issues…I want them to really THINK about how our research practice will influence our results. If I make all of the decisions, they don’t get to do that.” Future Considerations: • Create a survey to gain insight on the point of view of Undergraduate Researchers • Apply these results to create materials for best practice in regards to effective mentoring • REFERENCES: • Johnson, W. Brad, 2007, On Being a Mentor: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty. Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 260pp. • Malachowski, Mitchell, 1996, The Mentoring Role in Undergraduate Research. CURQ, Winter 1996; Volume 12, 91-94 • Wadkins, Theresa and Richard Miller, 2008, Bending Twigs: The Act of Mentoring Undergraduate Student Research. In R.L. Miller, R.F. Rucek, E. Balcetis, S. Barney, S. Burns, R. Smith, and M.E. Ware (Eds.), Developing, promoting and sustaining the undergraduate research experience in psychology. Syracuse, NY: Society for the Teaching of Psychology, 209-214. Acknowledgements We thank the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for supporting this research, and Learning & Technology Services for printing this poster.