Mentoring Graduate Students Research Articles

Examining graduate student perspectives on supervision and peer mentoring across four professional faculties

Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine graduate student perspectives on the common and unique roles peer mentors and supervisors play in supporting student success and wellbeing during their program. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research design involving semistructured interviews with 62 thesis-based masters and doctoral students from four professional faculties, Education, Medicine, Nursing and Social Work, at a large public research-intensive university in Canada. Findings Findings transcend the four disciplines of study. Communities of support are described that involve both supervisors and peers in combination, clusters of meaning by supervisory paradigm are identified and original findings presented that expand upon the learning alliance framework by explicitly considering the role of peer mentors in graduate student success. Research limitations/implications While supervisors bear primary responsibility for fostering effective research-based relationships, this study’s findings strengthen the argument that mentoring and advising of graduate students is most effective when conducted within a collaborative community of support that involves learning alliances among faculty, peers, program staff and academic leaders across the institution. Practical implications A four-pronged approach to graduate education that emphasizes the collective responsibility of institutions, programs, supervisors and students in creating a supportive ecosystem for holistic graduate student academic success and wellbeing is recommended. Social implications Key argument that it is essential to embrace a collaborative and community of support mindset, where multiple stakeholders actively contribute to the wellbeing and academic development of graduate students throughout their programs. Originality/value A cross-disciplinary perspective is offered on the importance of both supervisors and peers in assisting thesis-based graduate students to successfully navigate academic, social and personal journeys through graduate school.

Exploring Graduate Students’ Experiences in a College of Agriculture

The past two decades have seen an overall increase in the number of students pursuing a graduate degree in the United States. Gaining a more nuanced understanding of how graduate students navigate the academic, personal, and professional challenges of post baccalaureate education will help programs better support them and ensure student success. With validation theory serving as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this study was to explore the graduate student experience within a college of agriculture at a southwestern university. This study focused on three aspects: resources students use, challenges they have experienced, and additional needs for support. Data for this phenomenological study were collected using focus groups with 24 students. Analysis of the data found students utilized a variety of resources including online content and peers. Another emergent theme recognized the significant role communication plays between faculty members and students. The final theme focused on solutions to support better communication and collaboration efforts. Several specific recommendations are provided to improve how validated graduate students feel in their academic pursuits. Future research should gather faculty perspectives to help shape professional development opportunities that would create enhanced graduate student mentoring.

Graduate students’ perspectives on the role of faculty advisors in helping students with mental health problems

Objective: Graduate students are more likely to experience mental illness than their peers in the general population. One potential source of support for personal issues and/or mental illness is a graduate student’s faculty advisor. Although the relationship between faculty advisors and graduate students can positively influence the success and overall well-being of graduate students, graduate students may be reluctant to disclose mental health issues to their advisors. This study explores graduate students’ perspectives on factors that influence their decision to disclose, or not to disclose, personal mental health information to their faculty advisor. Participants: The participants for this study were 28 graduate students from three universities in the southern United States. Methods: Four semi-structured focus groups were conducted over Zoom. Results: Thematic analysis of a series of focus groups with graduate students identified several consistent themes related to this disclosure decision-making process. Conclusions: Results have implications for mental health literacy and interpersonal communication interventions for those charged with mentoring graduate students.

Structure and Functional Responsibilities of Graduate Schools: An Organizational Analysis

The contemporary graduate ‘school’ is facing a number of significant challenges. In addition to the fundamental question of its role as a shared service provider, graduate education units are exploring ways that they can demonstrate a value-added component to the graduate school experience. These activities include offering graduate certificates about how to be a faculty member, how to best teach and mentor graduate students, and offering undergraduate courses on how to get into graduate school. The current study explored 84 graduate ‘school’ or equivalent unit organizational charts, noting major differences between those with research administration attached to them and those without such responsibilities. Findings also included the identification of small administrative staffs and growing innovation to serve graduate student needs, such as providing mental health services and food pantries.

Mentoring Graduate Students: A Study on Academic Rejection, the Pressure to Publish, and Career Paths

Within the academic context, mentoring is a positive and ongoing relationship between a professor and student that fosters academic growth and accomplishment. Thus, mentors are crucial for graduate students in both masters and doctoral programs. Currently, there is a lack of research regarding mentorship, especially when it involves common obstacles that a student may experience such as academic rejection, the pressure to publish scholarly work, and career conversations post-graduate school. Academic rejection refers to the act of receiving a rejection for a scholarly task such as a rejection notice for a manuscript, award, grant, or even employment. Accordingly, the current study aims to qualitatively explore academic rejection, the pressure to publish, and career conversations post-graduate school using a convenience sample of 75 current faculty members who are appointed to a criminology and criminal justice department at a university or college. Themes related to academic rejection, the pressure to publish, and career conversations are discussed, as well as the implications of these themes are further discussed.

Critical traits of graduate student mentors affecting students’ science identity development in an NSF-funded research experiences for undergraduates (REU) program

ABSTRACT Reported herein are the findings from a grounded study probing the impact of graduate student mentors in a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research experiences for undergraduates (REU) program (2014–2016) in chemistry & chemical biology at an urban private research university on undergraduates’ development through the lens of self-efficacy and science identity theory. Mentor traits that appear to be most important include availability, promoting students’ independence, being a good teacher, partnership, benchmarking, and demonstrating trust and respect for the protégé. These traits appear to influence recognition, competence, and performance in science identity theory. Identification of critical mentor traits and their significance to the protégé’s career development should be useful in the design of effective graduate student mentor training programs.

Commemorative Volumes in Archaeology and the (Preclassical) Southern Levant

Commemorative Volumes in Archaeology and the (Preclassical) Southern Levant

The academic collaborative statistician: Research, training and evaluation

AbstractStatisticians with a primary collaborative position at their academic institution have a unique role in combining domain science and statistical research and training and mentoring graduate students. As a result, it is important that their responsibilities be clearly understood by both the collaborative statisticians and their departments. In this paper, we discuss various steps that these statisticians can take to be successful and to be appropriately evaluated for their work. These steps are even more important now because a combination of new technologies, quantitative experts in other fields and the growth of data science in general seems to have put the field of Statistics at a crossroads. For the discipline to continue to flourish, we argue that it is critical that the role of the collaborative statistician be maintained and valued in statistics departments.

“It Felt Like a Little Community”: Supporting Rural Appalachian College Students

Students from rural Appalachian regions often face increased career development barriers within university spaces. As part of an NSF-funded program, we provided diverse, structured supports for a group of STEM majors from rural Appalachian backgrounds. We utilized narrative inquiry to interview 10 Program participants, which allowed us to explore which supports they described as impactful, including graduate student mentors, their fellow program peers, program coordinators, campus supports, and other various campus faculty. Participants further described being impacted in a variety of ways: as an individual person, in their research pursuits, in their future plans, academically, and financially through the program’s scholarship. Specifically, they described strategies for success and the importance of belonging as impactful. Implications for future college support programming and for how to best support the career development of rural Appalachian college students, along with suggestions for future research needs and limitations to the research, are provided.

University-Community Partnership Model to Support Rural STEM Teaching and Student Engagement

Rural economically disadvantaged communities face unique challenges in engaging students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). School district administrators, teachers, and students do not have access to high-quality STEM opportunities compared to urban schools. This article describes a partnership between a small, private STEM university and a network of school districts scattered across the geographically isolated region of upstate New York. The partnership’s primary goal is to support the teaching and learning of STEM. This is achieved through actively engaging a range of university and community stakeholders in STEM enrichment and professional development. Programming includes summer camps and after-school activities, challenges and competitions that focus on inspiring students to pursue STEM careers, undergraduate and graduate student mentors, and a university curriculum designed to prepare teachers to work in high-need school districts. Activities are supported by the university’s Institute for STEM Education, which fosters collaborations for like-minded faculty and campus members to pursue grant opportunities and connect with community members. The paper describes various program components and how they work to support each other, discusses impacts of the program, and describes ways in which elements can be implemented elsewhere.

Post Graduate Student Research Capacity Development: Through the Eyes of a Student Mentorship

Research capacity development in most African countries has been by and large hampered by inadequate infrastructure, poor remuneration and inability to mentor graduate students. While the capability of funding is a vital condition, however, there are a number of concrete initiatives that could be taken by the higher education and research institutions themselves. This may include the strengthening of graduate study improvements in the management of research and the pooling of resources within the individual departments, faculties as well as across institutions. In 2001, the University of the Western Cape initiated the Post Graduate Enrolment and Throughput (PET) project (division for post graduate studies) with the aim of helping post graduate students to complete their theses within a reasonable time frame while at the same time conducting workshops on research skills, technical assistance and research fund applications, among other issues. This paper discusses the post graduate peer mentoring experiences initiated by the University of the Western Cape. The experience of the writing coaches is discussed in relation to research productivity, capacity building, skills in practice and process of research, and contribution to post graduate student output. Furthermore, the paper focuses on the best practice and models arising from these experiences, and suggests a peer mentorship model to develop research capacity at institutional level, taking into account institutional strategic priorities.

Qualitative evaluation of postdoctoral trainee and faculty advisor experiences within a research-intensive school of pharmacy

BackgroundPostdoctoral trainees play a vital role in securing grant funding, building alliances, and mentoring graduate students under the guidance of a mentor who can help develop their intellectual independence. However, the experiences of postdoctoral trainees, particularly within health professions schools, is largely unexplored. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of postdoctoral trainees and faculty advisors at a public four-year school of pharmacy and identify areas of opportunity to improve postdoctoral training.MethodsFocus groups and interviews were conducted to elicit participants’ experiences, perceptions, and suggestions for improvement. Stakeholder groups included postdoctoral trainees and faculty who serve as postdoctoral advisors. Thematic coding was used to identify semantic themes, and summaries of participant perceptions were generated. Results were mapped to the identity-trajectory framework.ResultsParticipants described various experiences related to intellectual growth, networking opportunities, and institutional support. In addition, participant agency was critical for developing career goals and navigating transitions. COVID-19 introduced unique challenges associated with transitioning to remote work and managing goals/motivation. Areas of opportunity were identified, such as improving infrastructure, enhancing mentoring, and enhancing communication.ConclusionPostdoctoral trainees play a critical role in the success of academic institutions. Scholarly endeavors that explore postdoctoral experiences, specifically those utilizing qualitative methods, can help pharmacy education better understand and meet the needs of postdoctoral trainees and faculty advisors. This study provides insight into the experiences of postdoctoral scholars and provides evidence for improving these training programs in schools of pharmacy.

Mentoring Graduate Students at a Caribbean University: A Qualitative Study

This paper describes the experience of mentoring at a graduate level and the broader benefits of the relationship to the participants. Interpretation of the experience was achieved through conducting semi-structured interviews, generating patterns and then discusssing and analysing the findings from the experience. Five MPhil/PhD students and two supervisors participated in the study. Seven semi-structured interviews were used to explore the experiences of participants—two of whom were supervisors, while five were graduate students. The data were analyzed by identifying themes. The two main themes that emerged out of the analysis were: attributes of mentoring relationships and outcome of mentoring relationships. The mentees described the relationship as supportive in their academic pursuits and their personal lives. Mentors and mentees also recognised that the relationship was fulfilling and favourable but acknowledged that although there were challenges, they did not negatively affect the outcome of the relationship.

Experiencing Tightly and Loosely Structured Research Groups: The Influence on Preservice Science Teachers’ Abilities to Engage in Science Practices

There have been recent calls for students to not only learn the content of science, but also its practices. If teachers are to teach their students how to engage in those practice, then they need to have at least had some experience engaging in them. The US NSF research experiences for the teachers (RET) programs provide opportunities for the teachers to engage in those practices. In those programs, the teachers work in research groups that vary in the ways in which they are structured. This suggests they might gain different experiences depending on their research groups even if the teachers participate in the same program. Because of this reason, in this study we aimed to find out how participating in differently structured research groups influence preservice teachers’ abilities to engage in science practices. By using a comparative case study approach, we compared two preservice science teachers’ experiences and abilities in an RET program that required teachers to engage in research projects. Analysis of data from preservice teacher and graduate student mentor surveys and interviews, and observation notes indicated that the preservice teacher who participated in a loosely structured research group did not have the opportunity to improve in most of the practices and left the program as a novice researcher. On the other hand, the preservice teacher who participated in a tightly structured research group improved in most of the practices and to being a proficient technician.

Active learning for an evidence-based veterinary medicine course during COVID-19.

Epidemiology is often a challenging course that is not well appreciated by many students learning veterinary medicine. The curriculum for this topic can sometimes be dry, difficult for students to contextualize, and heavy with statistics and mathematical concepts. We incorporated the concepts of epidemiology that are most important for practicing veterinarians and combined these with evidence-based veterinary medicine principles to create a practical course for second-year undergraduate veterinary students. We share the structure of our course and the different learning components, which also included incorporating graduate student mentors for journal clubs and an assignment that culminated in some students publishing their review findings. Anecdotal responses from students suggest they enjoyed the course and learned skills they felt would be useful in veterinary practice to help them make evidence-based clinical decisions.

Framework to Enhance STEM Education for Community College Students

Community colleges (CCs) play a critical role in advancing the education of all learners. Approximately 40% of first-time college freshman begin in Community Colleges. The proposed framework seeks to support and excite CC students to persist in their STEM education to increase the pipeline for the STEM workforce. Its vision is to provide CC students engineering skills and to excite them about engineering research. The framework enables students to spend 10 summer weeks at Northeastern University to increase skills, confidence, and learn firsthand about research. Each student will join a research lab, working with faculty and graduate student mentors. Also, students will be mentored after summer to further support their successful graduation and/or transfer to a 4-year institution and beyond. The site is guided by two of the grand challenges of the National Academy of Engineering: personalized learning and scientific discovery. Unique aspects of the proposed framework include: a hands-on short course in engineering topics and software tools; formal mentor training including modules for mentoring CC students; daily student meetings with mentors; extensive professional development seminars; formal research training including daily reflection journals, poster presentations and technical writing with a faculty member; and recruitment from a unique pool of highly talented URM students.

High-Flying Interns: NASA’s Student Airborne Research Program (SARP)

Abstract NASA’s Student Airborne Research Program (SARP) has completed 13 years of airborne student research since its inception in 2009. The 8-week summer internship program provides students, typically rising undergraduate seniors, with an opportunity to get hands-on experience in making Earth system measurements using NASA’s airborne science platforms. Students also make complementary surface-based measurements, analyze airborne and surface data in the context of related data (e.g. coincident satellite measurements or prior-year SARP data), and present results to peers, program leadership, agency management, and the community. The program splits its time between the NASA Armstrong flight facility in Palmdale, California, and the University of California, Irvine. It is implemented with participation of faculty advisors (who provide many of the instruments used) and graduate student mentors, under the overall leadership of the NASA Earth Science Division. Disciplinary foci include atmospheric gases and aerosols, ocean biology, and terrestrial ecology using both in situ and remote sensing instruments. Students are also taken on site visits to nearby laboratories and facilities and attend lectures from visiting faculty and NASA agency personnel. The program engages approximately 30 students per year, with overall approximate gender balance. The program has a high rate of STEM retention, and its alumni are actively engaged in graduate and postgraduate programs in Earth system science and other disciplines. A summary of scientific and programmatic outcomes and a description of how the program has evolved will be presented.

Bioacoustics and beyond: Investigating animal sensory systems and cognitive processes

Whit Au served on my dissertation committee at the University of Hawaii and mentored me while I was in the Marine Mammal Research Program at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (1997–2003). He guided me through the process of recording echoes from objects ensonified by dolphins and oversaw my first human listening study. When I became a professor, I continued to study dolphin bioacoustics. I also broadened the scope of my research program to accommodate the interests of my students, just like Whit did. In this talk, I will summarize several animal perception and cognition projects I have pursued with my graduate students. First, we explored how humans discriminate acoustically among bottlenose dolphin signature whistles with and without masking by boat noise. In another study, we investigated auditory rhythm perception in African penguins. Next, we researched long-term memory in river otters using multimodal stimuli. One of our current projects focuses on visual object perception and learning in olive baboons. I will always be grateful for Whit’s support when I was in graduate school and I will continue to follow his model for graduate student mentoring in the future.

Mentoring Graduate Students in Music Education: A Mixed-Methods Phenomenological Study

Mentoring is a critical element in the well-being, socialization, and professional identity development of graduate students. Yet in music education, little is known about the graduate student mentoring experience from the mentors’ perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine music teacher educators’ perspectives on and experiences with graduate student mentoring. We used a concurrent nested approach to mixed-methods phenomenological research (QUAN + PHEN) with a survey of a national sample of music teacher educators ( N = 142) and a phenomenology built from a three-interview series with individuals ( n = 6) at various career stages. After analyzing each phase separately, we engaged in data integration and interpretation of study findings to reveal a description of current mentoring practices and beliefs. Key elements include relationship building, a multilayered community of practice, and intentional acts of anticipatory socialization that empower students as they transition to the role of colleague.

Shifting from replication to recognition and care: a prescription for improving graduate student mentoring in political science

ABSTRACT Political science recognizes that it has a problem in recruiting and maintaining scholars from historically excluded groups and turned to the catch-all solution of “mentoring.” In this paper, we argue that those mentoring strategies are a means for neoliberal assimilation and replication, rather than supporting those scholars from historically excluded groups, which is why the leaky pipeline persists. Utilizing the results of an original survey we fielded in 2018, we prescribe that mentors adopt a pedagogies of care approach (Motta and Bennett 2018) to minimize the harm of the current system on those PhD students and early career faculty who do not fit the ideal worker image.