| Abstract |
How do you effectively mentor individuals at different stages of their
careers? Can you learn to become a more effective mentor through
training? Does one size fit all? Are you ready to address the NSF's new
requirement about mentoring post-docs in your next proposal? For many
academics, typical answers to these questions include, "I try to make
adjustments based on the trainee, but I don't have a specific
plan” "Yeah, I'd better start thinking about that” and
"There's training?” Scientists often are not trained for their
crucial role of mentoring the next generation. The University of
Wisconsin-Madison has developed, field tested, and publicly released
research mentor training materials for several STEM (science,
technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines, including
astronomy, to help fill this gap and improve the educational experience
and ultimate success of research trainees at several career stages, from
high school students to post-doctoral scholars. While initially aimed at
the mentoring of undergraduate researchers at research extensive
institutions, the topics are broad enough (e.g., expectations,
communication, understanding, diversity, ethics, independence) to be
applicable to mentoring in a wide range of project-based educational
activities. Indeed, these materials have been modified, only modestly,
to prepare graduate students and undergraduates to mentor high school
students.
In this session, we will describe the UW-Madison research mentor
training seminar and illustrate how the training can be adapted and
implemented. We will introduce an interactive "shopping cart”
style website which allows users to obtain the materials and
instructions on how to run the program at their institution. Most of the
session will be devoted to an interactive implementation of elements of
research mentor training using small discussion groups. Participants
will experience the training seminar in practice, come face-to-face with
some common mentoring challenges, and have a chance to reflect upon and
discuss these challenges. |