Intentional Student Mentorship
This week I would like to share a timely tangent that might be useful as many of us begin another academic term. Georgetown University's Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship has created a toolkit for Intentional Student Mentorship (Ebenbach, 2022). They remind us that “Mentoring is teaching.” As such, they suggest starting with backward design: identifying outcomes and being transparent. For mentoring to be inclusive, consider the content, pedagogy, assessment, climate, and power dynamics.
The authors share resources on key topics.
Train to be a better mentor to ALL students. Studies have shown that mentors with unexamined privileges can be ineffective and even harm students that are already marginalized in academia (Duron et al, 2020; Brusma et al, 2016).
Model the importance of seeking resources. Campuses can be stressful spaces, especially for marginalized students, who are sometimes less likely to seek out resources (Lipson et al., 2022).
Create a culture of mentoring. A felt sense of connectedness between students predicts more student participation, greater investment and increased learning (MacLeod et al., 2019).
Create in-class study groups to get students ready for final assessments.
Create tiered mentoring structures for your students by linking present students to past students.
Offer small-group office hours so students can see how other students interact with you and can become resources for each other.
Treat your students as scholars. That kind of explicit recognition can help students see themselves as having a future in the field, and motivate them to pursue it (Wai-Ling Packard, 2015).
Find ways of showcasing scholarship (student research conferences.
Share publication and presentation opportunities.
Support capstone projects.
Design assignments to look/feel more explicit about mentoring students.
Feedback is mentoring. Positive and negative feedback improve student confidence, motivation, and academic growth, as long as the feedback is constructive (Auguste et al, 2018)
Engage in acts of “recognition” (Wai-LingPackard, 2015), telling students when their work is the kind of thing professionals in the discipline do.
When giving negative feedback, be explicit about your high standards and your confidence in students’ ability to achieve.
Positive feedback can take the form of micro-affirmations—quick comments before and after class, a brief email between sessions.
Create and respect clear boundaries. Help mentees find and build multiple mentoring relationships with different members that can each work to help them succeed (Chapman, 2018).
