Mentorship is a professional, in which individuals work together over time to support the personal and professional growth, development, and success of the relational partners through the provision of and .
Initiation: forming expectations and getting to know one another.
- their research interest and career goals
- about their general expectations from you as a mentor
- them your scientific expertise, previous roles
- your enthusiasm for mentoring
- on your expectations from mentees
Cultivation: relationship matures, provides greatest degree of psychosocial/career support.
- Mentor Responsibilities: (a) Welcoming and inclusive training environment; (b) appropriate level of supervision in research; (c) help with professional skill development.
- Mentee Responsibilities: (a) Develop goals for training and career; (b) be open to constructive criticism and advice; (c) follow through on tasks; (d) keep the mentor informed about progress and setbacks in the research project.
Separation: mentees seek independence from mentors.
Redefinition: transition to a more peer-like relationship or terminate the relationship.
Resources: advice for structuring the mentoring process.
For each case study, consider the following questions:
- What are the main themes raised in this case study?
- What do you think is causing this behavior with the student?
- What actions could the mentor take in this situation?
An experienced graduate researcher was constantly seeking input from his mentor on minor details regarding his project. Though he had regular meetings scheduled with his mentor, he would bombard her with several e-mails daily or seek her out anytime she was around, even if it meant interrupting her work or a meeting that was in progress. It was often the case that he was revisiting topics that had already been discussed. This was becoming increasingly frustrating for the mentor, since she knew the student was capable of independent work (having demonstrated this during times she was less available).
A graduate student - enrolled in a course requiring a final project paper - was assigned a supervisor for guidance. The course director had instructed the student that, given his graduate-level experience, he should be capable of completing the work independently and should contact the supervisor only for major issues. The student took this directive literally and reached out to his supervisor only a handful of times throughout the project. While he successfully completed and submitted his final paper, he later realized he had missed a valuable opportunity. By limiting his interactions so strictly, he had foregone the chance to engage in meaningful exchanges with a more experienced researcher who could have enriched his understanding of the topic and enhanced the quality of his work.
An ISP project is a that offers meaningful, practical work related to a student’s field of study or career interest.
Three domains of learning
Cognitive domain (Mental skills and knowledge)
Psychomotor domain (Physical skills and behaviors)
Affective domain (Attitude and beliefs)
How to integrate more deliberate attention to the Affective domain:
“(1) the person experiences being with respect to other people, groups, objects, organizations, environments, or spiritual dimensions; and (2) the person experiences a with other people, groups, objects, organizations, environments, or spiritual dimensions through shared or complementary characteristics” (Hagerty et al., 1992)
“Science identity can be broadly defined as the ” (Carlone and Johnson, 2007).Factors of Science identity:
- Performance: social performance of relevant scientific practices like talking and using tools.
- Recognition: recognizing oneself and getting recognized by others as a “science person”.
- Competence: knowledge and understanding of science content (less visible).
It refers to an individual's in their to execute behaviors necessary to produce (Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1997).
- Quality mentorship is key in increasing a sense of belonging, science identity and self-efficacy.
- Model positive self-talk, demonstrate how a ‘scientist’ thinks, demystify the invisible.
- Share personal stories and experiences (including failures!).
- ‘Fake it until you make it’: like learning anything, practice and repetition are needed to become proficient.
- Create networks of diverse professionals, and help your students do the same.
- Mentoring benefits both mentee and mentor.
- Learning is more than knowledge.
- Personal connections within science are important.