Scientific Mentor Research Articles

Measures to support students’ research activities and scientific mentoring in Russian universities

The present paper is devoted to the search for successful experience and analysis of the problems of supporting students’ research work (R&D) and scientific mentoring in Russian universities. The relevance of the topic is due to the need to evaluate approaches to stimulating not only research and development, but also the activities of scientific mentors in terms of the sustainability and effectiveness of the impact of existing support measures on student involvement in science andteachers’ motivation to mentoring activities. Since the interaction of students and scientific mentors, implemented in the unique organizational conditions of each particular university, and a typical all-Russian context, forms an ecosystem, the article focuses on considering measures to support research and scientific mentoring in interrelation. The purpose of the article is to consider measures to support research and scientific mentoring in Russian universities. The results of an empirical study conducted in 2024 using the methods of traditional analysis of documents (normative legal acts on measures to support research and development at the federal, regional and local levels) and a semi-structured interview with scientific mentors from among academic staff of universities (n = 30) are presented. Main results: generalization of measures to support research and development at three levels (federal, regional and local) of higher education management. It is shown that, at the federal level, they are worded extremely broadly, allowing the regions and universities to specify and refine them.The uneven distribution of support measures by region and their emphasis on financial incentives are revealed. It is concluded that each university has a limited number of documents regulating the support of research and mentoring. The contradictions in the attitude of the academic staff to the measures of support for research and scientific mentoring were disclosed. The prospects for the development of a research programme to support research and scientific mentoring in universities are considered.

Students as partners of research projects in Russian universities: opportunities and barriers

The article shows the potential and barriers to the realization of the conception, treating students as partners in research projects of universities. The foreign experience of implementing this conception in various spheres of academic life is presented. The positive effects and limitations of the conception of students as partners in research are summarized. Based on the results of the empirical study «Scientific mentoring in Russian universities: institutional models, professional roles, everyday practices», the prerequisites and barriers to the implementation of this concept in Russian universities are identified. The administrative, economic and social barriers caused by both the institutional and organizational conditions for the implementation of university science and the peculiarities of the established model of relationships in the academic environment between different generations of researchers are revealed. The positive impact of student involvement in grant projects is shown. It is proved that this form of interaction between “adults” and young researchers creates prerequisites for the implementation of the principles of the concept of students as university partners.

Scientific mentoring in the higher education system: the results of an empirical study

The article is devoted to the problem of scientific mentoring in the higher education system. Research activities are an integral part of university education. The teaching staff of higher educational institutions is represented by scientific and pedagogical workers, the reproduction of human resources for this system requires active involvement in research activities, supporting postgraduate students. To ensure continuity, it is necessary to include students in this activity, only a successful process of scientific socialization during the years of study is able to ensure the subsequent professional realization of young specialists in the higher education system. Scientific mentoring can be implemented in various forms. The choice of the option depends on the target audience, specialty, course of study, established traditions, individual psychological and pedagogical characteristics of students, features of the professional trajectory of students. A survey of students of higher educational institutions and teaching staff was used as research methods. When working with the heads of structural divisions, the method of in-depth interview was chosen. The main conclusions of the conducted research are: high assessment of the importance of scientific mentoring by all participants of the survey. Among the most important qualities of mentors is a good command of their field of knowledge and the ability to intelligibly convey this knowledge to students. The teaching staff faces a number of organizational, methodological and informational difficulties in implementing the function of scientific mentors. The implementation of this activity is dominated by short trajectories of scientific leadership of students. In most cases, the mentor provides guidance as part of the preparation of articles. Heads of departments and deans among the barriers to the development of the mentoring system testify of a weak starting level of students, a low level of motivation of teachers.

Integrity, Structurality and Functionality of Everyday Practices of Scientific Mentoring as a Subject of Micro-sociological Analysis

Scientific mentoring at universities can be viewed not only as a scientific and educational institution, but also as a sphere and method of face-to-face interaction, in the process of which the meanings and motivation of the mentor’s and mentee’s research activities are born. Such an approach towards studying scientific mentoring is justified by sociological concepts of everyday life, but their key provisions require adaptation to the problems of scientific mentoring. The idea of science as the everyday life world of university researchers is revealed through a micro-sociological perspective. The interaction of a scientific mentor and a mentee student is interpreted as an element of their life world and is examined through this interaction manifesting in everyday academic activities. The purpose of the article is to examine the integrity, structure (routine actions, the objective world, language, space and time, rituals, signs and symbols, informal traditions) and functionality of everyday practices of scientific mentoring through the prism of sociological concepts of everyday life. A thesis is substantiated that everyday practices of interaction between a scientific mentor and mentee are a way of building and intergenerational translation of the meaning of research work and choice of academic profession.

Institutional Models of Scientific Mentoring for Russian University Students: Organizational and Managerial Aspects

The article aims at characterizing the institutional models of Russian university students’ scientific mentoring in the context of managing research activities. The institutional practices of scientific mentoring are an effective way to make an early academic career, to involve and retain talented students in the field of research and development, to popularize and strengthen the social status of science. Meanwhile, the traditional institutional forms existing in Russian universities should be developed and renewed. In addition, some practices of scientific mentoring are informal, which means that they do not have organizational support and conditions for reproduction. We focus on scientific mentoring for students of the first and second levels of higher education (bachelors, specialists, master students), who are considered as a «reserve» of the community of scientific youth. Our conclusions are based on the data of a sociological study carried out in 2023. Therein, we used methods of systematic analysis of scientific literature, of Russian and foreign universities’ websites content. The study included an online survey of 3032 students of Russian universities. The theoretical task is to substantiate the features of scientific mentoring as a scientific and educational institution. We highlight the institutional features and functions of scientific mentoring. Based on empirical data, we present the content of scientific mentoring institutional models, which have developed in modern foreign and Russian universities. The online survey of students showed their involvement in research activities, motivation for it, and the level of their scientific activity. The results of our research can be used in practice – to develop and improve scientific mentoring programs in Russian universities. The paper in general is the first attempt to interpret scientific mentoring from the standpoint of an institutional approach. We summarize the Soviet experience of scientific mentoring, as well as its modern institutional practices in foreign and Russian universities.

Менторство и наставничество – тренды развития научно-исследовательской деятельности студентов

The article considers mentoring and mentoring as one of the leading directions in the development of student science at the present stage. An appeal is made to the theoretical understanding of these event-related social practices, as well as examples from the experience of organizing research activities of students in the framework of cooperation between student scientific societies of the Kaluga State University. K.E. Tsiolkovsky and Kaluga Municipal Construction College named after I.K. Tsipulina. The risks of organizing scientific mentoring and mentoring in SVE institutions and universities are considered, and ways to prevent them are proposed. The materials of the article may be useful for teachers, leaders and members of student scientific societies.

The Role of the OLS Program in the Development of echinopscis (an Extensible Notebook for Open Science on Specimens)

Starting in early 2022, biodiversity informatics researchers at Kew have been developing echinopscis: an "extensible notebook for open science on specimens". This aims to build on the early experiments that our community conducted with "e-taxonomy": the development of tools and techniques to enable taxonomic research to be conducted online. Early e-taxonomic tools (e.g., Scratchpads Smith et al. 2011) had to perform a wide range of functions, but in the past decade or so the move towards open science has built better support for generic functionality, such as reference management (Zotero) and document production (pandoc), skills development in automation and revision control to support reproducible science, as documented by the Turing Way (The Turing Way Community 2022), and an awareness of the importance of community building. We have developed echinopscis at Kew via a cross-departmental collaboration between researchers in biodiversity informatics and accelerated taxonomy. We have also benefitted from valuable input and advice from our many colleagues in associated projects and organisations around the world. OLS (originally Open Life Sciences) is a training and mentoring program for Open Science leaders with a focus on community building. The name was recently (2023) made more generic—"Open Seeds"—whilst retaining their well-known acronym "OLS"*1. OLS is a 16-week cohort-based mentoring program. Participants apply to join a cohort with a project that is developed through the 16 weeks. Each week of the syllabus alternates between time with a dedicated Open Science mentor and cohort calls, which are used to develop skills in project design, community building, open development & licencing, and inclusivity. Over 500 practitioners, experts and learners have participated across the seven completed cohorts of OLS' Open Seeds training and mentoring. Through this programme, over 300 researchers and open leaders from across six continents have designed, lauched and supported 200 projects from different disciplines worldwide. The next cohort will run between September 2023 and January 2024, and will be the eighth iteration of the program. This talk will briefly outline the work that we have done to setup and experiment with echinopscis, but will focus on the impact that the OLS program has had in its development. We will also include the use of techniques learned through OLS in other biodiversity informatics projects. OLS acknowledges that their program receives relatively few applications from project leads in biodiversity and we hope that this talk will be informative for Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) participants and can be used to build productive links between these communities.

Group mentoring of youth scientists to enhance the students’ research literacy

The Youth Scientific Group (YSG) is an extracurricular activity that has a positive impact on students. Unfortunately, the presence of YSG in various schools, including SMAN 1 Tumpang, is still not optimal. In this high school located in Malang Regency, the YSG activities have not been carried out consistently. The scientific competence and research literacy of students at SMAN 1 Tumpang have not been fully utilized. In response to this issue, the aim of the Community Science and Technology Program (Community Service Program) is to enhance the scientific competence and literacy of students at SMAN 1 Tumpang through mentoring in the preparation of YSG. This Community Service Program consists of several stages, including observation and problem identification, preparation of YSG mentors, material presentation, training and mentoring, activity evaluation, and the preparation of scientific articles as program outputs. The average pretest score of the students' knowledge was 39.67, while the posttest score increased to 93.23. The average N-gain of their knowledge reached 0.836. Based on this N-gain value, the students' knowledge improvement is categorized as high. The paired t-test results indicate a significant difference in students' knowledge related to scientific work before (M = 39.7, SD = 20.6) and after the program (M = 93.2, SD = 7.5), t(30) = 14.6, p < .001. Therefore, the program implemented in the partner school has proven to be beneficial in enhancing students' scientific competence.

Organization and Self-Organization in Managing Student Science and Scientific Mentoring

The article examines organization and self organization as two principles of managing student science and scientific mentoring in a university. Student science and scientific mentoring are treated as two interrelated activities involving students and mentor instructors. It is demonstrated that their management relies on both organizational forms and processes of self-organization. The aim of the article is to uncover the significance of organizational and self-organizational principles for university management in student science and scientific mentoring. The tasks involve summarizing university practices of organizing student science and related scientific mentoring practices, as well as characterizing manifestations of self organization in the activities of student researchers and their scientific mentors. The empirical basis of the article comprises the results of a study carried out in 2023 using methods of systematic literature analysis, a nationwide student survey (n = 3032). Based on the results of the systematic review, five organizational forms of student science are identified, each associated with corresponding scientific mentoring practices. The equal importance of organizational and self organizational aspects in the development of student science and scientific mentoring in Russian universities is substantiated. The significance of mentoring programs is emphasized, as they contribute to students’ self­organization and initiative in the realm of scientific endeavors. The practical value of the research lies in advocating the integration of organizational and self organizational approaches in managing student science, which enhances the productivity of both student researchers and their scientific mentors.

Students’ view on a scientific mentor

The strategies of the universities involve strengthening the role of student science and developing programs to support it, including scientific mentoring. The implementation of the institute of scientific mentoring in Russian universities should be preceded by the study of students’ expectations regarding the qualities of a scientific mentor. The success of the interaction between a student and a scientific mentor (SM) is determined by the correspondence of the expectations of students and mentors from each other. In addition, a promising “partner” model of scientific interaction is based on taking into account or adjusting students’ expectations from the SM. The purpose of the study was to identify the ideas of students of Russian universities about the qualities of scientific mentors. The purpose is to identify students’ view on the ideal and real qualities of SM. The objectives were detection the significant socio-demographic, personal and professional characteristics of SM; establishment differences in the perceptions of SM among students with different educational and research experience, as well as students enrolled in programs of different profiles; fixing contradictions between the real and expected image of SM. The article is based on the results of the survey of students of Russian universities (N=3032 people). The results show the high importance for students of the personal and professional qualities of SM in comparison with their socio-demographic characteristics. Among the personal and professional characteristics of the mentor, pedagogical, cultural competencies come to the fore. Students who are successful in studies and research, as well as undergraduates and students studying in social and humanitarian programs, have high requirements for SM. There is a great need for scientific mentoring among students of a natural-technical profile. It is concluded that the majority of Russian students are guided by SM qualities corresponding to the authoritative style of mentoring. The features of the SM indicate the correspondence of the real and desired qualities of SM. The contradictions between the real and expected image of SM can be taken into consideration in scientific mentoring programs.

Mentoria científica na graduação em Medicina: repercussões na satisfação, engajamento e produção discente

Abstract: Introduction: Mentoring is an academic strategy that is increasingly present in the medical course, as it promotes benefits such as the creation of welcoming and affective environments, discussion of medical content and topics related to professional training. However, little is discussed about this strategy for scientific purposes. Objectives: To describe the implementation of the scientific mentoring program, investigate the students’ perception of its implementation and performance, in addition to measuring success indicators. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study carried out in an undergraduate medical course, located in Salvador/Bahia. Students from the 3rd to the 4th year of undergraduate school were included. A virtual, structured, anonymous questionnaire was applied, with objective questions related to the students’ profile, their perceptions in relation to the scientific mentorship program and the publication of the Term Paper (TP). Results: Of the 143 participating students, there was a predominance of single (90.9%), brown (46.2%), female individuals (72.0%), aged 25.3±5.54 years, those who did not participate in Undergraduate Research programs (88.8%). Among those who participated in mentorships (n=101), 97.1% considered that they contributed to the development of the TP, 98.0% are in favor of maintaining its offer and 85.0% consider the strategy to be innovative. In the time frame of two academic semesters, 131 TPs were presented, of which 27.5% were published with the participation of 19 teachers, with an average of 1.89 productions/teacher. Conclusion: Medical students are in favor of implementing the scientific mentoring system, and this strategy has shown to be feasible and effective.

Scientific mentoring in undergraduate medical school: impacts on student satisfaction, engagement and production

Resumo: Introdução: A mentoria é uma estratégia acadêmica que está cada vez mais presente no curso de Medicina por promover benefícios, como a criação de ambientes de acolhimento e afetividade, e discussão de conteúdos médicos e de temas relacionados à formação profissional. Entretanto, pouco se discute acerca dessa estratégia com finalidades científicas. Objetivo: Este estudo teve como objetivos descrever a implementação do programa de mentorias científicas, investigar a percepção dos estudantes sobre a sua implantação e execução, além de mensurar indicadores de êxito. Método: Trata-se de estudo seccional descritivo, realizado em um curso de graduação em Medicina, localizado em Salvador/Bahia. Foram incluídos estudantes do terceiro ao quarto ano da graduação. Aplicou-se um questionário virtual, estruturado, anônimo, com perguntas objetivas relacionadas ao perfil discente, às percepções sobre o programa de mentorias científicas e à publicação dos trabalhos de conclusão de curso (TCC). Resultado: Dos 143 estudantes participantes, houve predominância de solteiros (90,9%), pardos (46,2%), do sexo feminino (72,0%), com idade de 25,3 ± 5,54 anos, que não participaram de programas de iniciação científica (88,8%). Dentre aqueles que participaram das mentorias (n = 101), 97,1% afirmaram que elas contribuíram para o desenvolvimento do TCC, 98,0% se mostraram favoráveis à manutenção de sua oferta e 85,0% consideraram a estratégia inovadora. No recorte temporal de dois semestres letivos, apresentaram-se 131 TCC, dos quais 27,5% foram publicados contando com a participação de 19 professores, com média de 1,89 produção/professor. Conclusão: Os estudantes de Medicina são favoráveis à implementação do sistema de mentorias científicas, tendo essa estratégia se mostrado factível e eficaz.

Bottom-Up and Reciprocal Citizen Science: Untapped Resources of Novel Ideas. Preliminary Experiences of a Citizen Science As Public Engagement Program

In scientific research, citizen science is widely regarded as an involvement of the general public in scientific research initiated by universities, scientific organisations or research centres. In this top-down approach (top-down citizen science), participating citizens usually collect data or provide samples for research — that is, they are considered volunteer research assistants following instructions. This study analyses alternatives of top-down citizen science: one, widely known, which is the bottom-up way of citizen science and another, the reciprocal approach suggested by the authors. Bottom-up is based on local initiatives and is constituted by community-led projects. For bottom-up citizen science, scientific organisations may provide methodological and organisational frames. However, the idea and the implementation remain in the competence of the participant citizens. Reciprocal citizen science emerged from a need for a more holistic policy toward citizen science. As part of this, identifying viable citizen-initiated projects, measuring their scientific and/or innovation potential, and integrating them into a citizen science mentor program are questions to be systematically discussed and solved. This study addresses methodological challenges in mentoring citizen science projects, covering a mentor training concept for citizen science designed by the Institute of Transdisciplinary Discoveries. Encouraging citizen research is needed for a new impetus to scientific discoveries. The perspectives of people with no scientific background can also advance problems — mainly those that require fresh and unbiased approaches. Citizen science may also be a solution for leveraging the knowledge of science leavers.

Development and Validation of the ‘Mentoring for Effective Teaching Practicum Instrument’

In the context of improving the quality of teacher education, the focus of the present work was to adapt the Mentoring for Effective Primary Science Teaching instrument to become more universal and have the potential to be used beyond the elementary science mentoring context. The adapted instrument was renamed the Mentoring for Effective Teaching Practicum Instrument. The new, validated instrument enables the assessment of trainee teachers’ perceived experiences with their mentors during their two-week annual teaching practicum at elementary and high schools. In the first phase, the original 34-item Mentoring for Effective Primary Science Teaching instrument was expanded to 62 items with the addition of new items and items from the previous works. All items were rephrased to refer to contexts beyond primary science teaching. Based on responses on an expanded instrument received from 105 pre-service teachers, of whom 94 were females in their fourth year of study (approx. age 22–23 years), the instrument was reviewed and shortened to 36 items classified into six dimensions: personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modelling, feedback, and Information and Communication Technology due to outcomes of Principal Component and Confirmatory Factor analyses. All six dimensions of the revised instrument are unidimensional, with Cronbach alphas above 0.8 and factor loadings of items above 0.6. Such an instrument could be used in follow-up studies and to improve learning outcomes of teaching practice. As such, specific and general recommendations for the mentee, mentors, university lecturers, and other stakeholders could be derived from the findings to encourage reflection and offer suggestions for the future.

EXPLORING THE SCIENTIFIC SKILLS AND LEARNING STYLES OF FUTURE SCIENCE MENTORS: A SPRINGBOARD IN ENGAGING EFFECTIVE SCIENCE TEACHING PEDAGOGY

Fundamental competencies, skills, and styles of learning among students are the basis of planning an effective teaching-learning activity. Since most of the enrollees in the Bachelor of Secondary Education major in Science were graduates of non-Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) strand, there is a must to address the gap between the student’s competencies and skills from their chosen field by identifying their level of scientific skills and learning styles to effectively meet the demand of the mandated competencies in the major courses offered in the aforesaid program. In this study, the level of scientific skills and its components and the learning style of future science mentors were determined together with the correlation between the level of scientific skills and learning style. The research instrument used in this study was the researcher-made questionnaire for scientific skills which was subjected to reliability and validity testing and an adopted survey questionnaire developed by Kolb (1984) for learning style. Thus, it was determined that future science mentors as an entire group possess a “proficient” level of scientific skills and in terms of scientific inquiry and practical skills, both were determined as “proficient” in terms of processing data, it was determined as a “developing” level. Also, the learning style of future science mentors was an “activist” style of learning. A significant relationship was determined between the level of scientific skills and the learning style of future science mentors with a medium positive correlation. This study as well concluded that social constructivism and pragmatism science teaching pedagogies were the best-fit pedagogies among future science mentors in designing their learning landscape which the researchers recommend among science professors to be the reference in formulating effective strategies and learning activities to efficiently and effectively transfer learnings among their students. KEYWORDS: Competencies, Experiential Learning, Learning Style, and Scientific Skills

Advancing Nursing Science Through Site-Based Clinical Inquiry: Designing Problem Pyramids.

Advancing Nursing Science Through Site-Based Clinical Inquiry: Designing Problem Pyramids.

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.

SCIENTIFIC MENTORING AS A KIND OF PARTNERSHIP INTERACTION IN A MODERN UNIVERSITY

The article reveals the essential characteristics of the process of scientific mentoring as a type of partnership in a modern university; It is determined that research activity in a modern university is one of the most important forms of educational process, which improves the quality of training of future professionals, promotes the ability to use the latest advances in scientific, technical and cultural progress, promotes the maximum development of creative thinking, individual qualities, research skills of students, develops scientific intuition and creative approach to the perception of knowledge and their practical use to solve scientific problems, organizational, technical and applied problems and provides skills for independent research and more. It is noted that increasing the productivity of the research process in modern conditions requires the focus of this process on joint research activities on the basis of partnership, which involves adherence to ethics of communication, taking into account psychological characteristics, social characteristics and its values and values, factors of productive partnership. It is substantiated that mentoring in science acts as a component of professional activity of teachers aimed at activating the content characteristics of all structural components of pedagogical interaction and stimulating the development process through research activities of educational subjects at all stages of their individual and social formation and self-affirmation. It is determined that the main task of scientific mentoring is to direct higher education students to actualize their potential personal capabilities by immersing them in the scientific environment for effective acquisition of knowledge, development and acquisition of new skills, building a scenario of their own optimistic and successful self-actualization life strategy. A fragment of the research results on the attitude of students to personal and professional qualities in the process of research work with mentors. The results of the diagnosis showed that an important task of scientific mentoring at the university is the development of scientific mentors a new style of pedagogical thinking.

Fra rappresentazioni concettuali, categorie grammaticali e accidenti della storia: «il fascino inquieto della ricerca scientifica» di Romano Lazzeroni

This paper discusses the impact of Romano Lazzeroni’s scholarship on Historical Linguistics and Indo-European studies altogether, by analyzing his groundbreakingworks and long-lasting legacy in relation to the state of the art and current research on four main questions: 1. morphosyntax/semantics interface; 2. linguistic andcultural reconstruction; 3. linguistic categorization; 4. language change. A portrait of Romano Lazzeroni as a brilliant and unique Teacher is also provided, as a modest token of gratitude to a giant of science and big-hearted Mentor.

Examining mentor teachers’ critical pedagogical discourses and participation in an era of changing science standards and pedagogies

We provided secondary science mentor teachers (MTs) with a series of professional learning sessions to support their work with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) framework, which their preservice teachers (PSTs) encountered in methods courses. By investigating the MTs' critical pedagogical discourses using a situative theoretical approach, we found that how the MTs made sense of NGSS and AST differed depending on how they gauged student learning, that the MTs’ participation differed over time given their perceptions of NGSS and AST, and that the teacher preparation program needed to provide more support for MTs.