CIRTL

Summer Seminar Will Mentor Future Mentors

Katherine Friedrich

Given that faculty only have limited time for research mentoring, how can they make those hours as effective for students as possible? An upcoming “Research Mentor Training Seminar” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will discuss strategies for supporting students in becoming independent, creative, confident researchers with strong communication skills.

“While many efforts have focused on helping prospective and new faculty learn skills in grant writing, lab management, and classroom teaching, mentoring has been conspicuously absent,” said seminar instructor Chris Pfund.

The eight-week summer seminar will consist of a series of collaborative discussions focused on problem-solving. Potential mentors will learn to communicate their expectations clearly, understand diversity issues, and apply a “scientific teaching” approach to their work with students. The seminar activities will include reading articles, discussing case studies, writing mentee biographies, comparing the goals of mentors and mentees, and writing mentoring philosophies. The group will also discuss ways to improve mentees’ research productivity, with an emphasis on methods that are particularly effective with future faculty.

This seminar has been widely disseminated throughout the United States. It was originally developed with funding from the HHMI Professors Program as “Entering Mentoring: The Wisconsin Mentoring Seminar.” Pfund and her colleague Jo Handelsman tested it with eight cohorts and four different facilitators. 900 future faculty members at 32 institutions nationwide have already participated.

This summer, the instructors will include Pfund and Handelsman, along with a group of experienced faculty and staff. The seminar is being offered by the Delta Program, which is a project of the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning and is now funded by the UW-Madison.

A guidebook for people interested in leading the seminar is freely available on the HHMI Web site.

For more information on this seminar, or to register, visit the Delta Program Web site.

May 13, 2008