Chapter 11- Preparing the Effective Mentee

The purpose of this chapter is to help the mentoring program director create, implement, and evaluate academic mentoring programs after identifying structures that can effectively prepare their mentors and mentees for a successful mentoring experience. Some of the considerations explored are mentor program structures that are relationally based, goal-oriented, and grounded in autonomy supportive strategies. This chapter opens with the author’s lens in order to describe a human development approach to mentoring and then how to prepare mentees to be self-directed. The third section portrays mentoring program structures that promote self-directed mentees. This chapter concludes with generalizable findings and recommendations based on key lessons learned. It is the author’s belief that mentees and mentors are learners who benefit most when they (a) have a clear understanding about the mentoring program’s purpose and objectives, (b) understand the rationale for and benefits of participating in a mentoring relationship, and (c) hold accurate schema for what is expected of them regarding program tasks and activities

Chapter 22- The Well-Prepared Adjunct: Peer Mentoring, Autonomy Supports, and Values-Based Pedagogy

This mentoring program was developed to meet two needs in the School of Human Development: college alumni who applied for adjunct faculty positions lacked college teaching experience, and non-alumni applicants lacked pedagogical skill with nontraditional adult learners. This college is a Hispanic-serving institution with core values of inclusion, diversity, respect, and social justice. Their transformational, culture-centered pedagogy is grounded in seven faculty values that develop learner competence across five domains: development, diversity, communication, research, and growth. The program meta-mentor describes how and why autonomy-supportive instruction (ASI), based on self-determination theory, is embedded into all elements of the adjunct faculty mentoring program structure: program design, implementation, assessment, and improvement. Two cross-generational and cross-cultural mentor-mentee pairs describe how they engaged with and applied ASI strategies in their relationship, teaching and peer observations, and reflective practice conversations. The case study concludes with lessons learned about the quality of faculty mentor-mentee relationships and its impact on their own professional learning and development

Increasing Community College Basic Skills English Instructors\u27 Use of Autonomy Supportive Instruction to Impact Students\u27 Perceptions of Autonomy and Engagement

There is concern in California community colleges about student success because persistence rates have decreased and graduation rates have declined. Basic skills students are underserved and underprepared, and their success rates are lower than traditional students. Nine California Community College Student Success Task Force recommendations were designed to increase basic skills student success. In this quasi-experimental study three basic skills English instructors were trained on two of the six autonomy-supportive instruction strategies. The training design was based on characteristics of effective ASI interventions and addressed recommendations to improve community college basic skills instruction with professional development on research-based pedagogies. The purpose of this study was to describe the impact of instructors\u27 use of autonomy supportive statements that nurtured students\u27 inner motivational resources and that provided informational feedback on their students\u27 perceived autonomy and engagement. Instructors attended a training session and two coaching sessions facilitated using ASI strategies. Data to measure instructors\u27 autonomy orientation were collected using a slightly modified Problems in Schools questionnaire and transcriptions of instructors comments during classroom instruction, that were coded on the ASI Observation Coding Guide, a new instrument based on the literature. Student autonomy and engagement was measured with a new instrument, the Student Learning Survey that combined autonomy items from the Learning Climate Questionnaire and classroom engagement items from the National Survey of Student Engagement. Results were compared between groups and across measurement times for control and treatment groups. Results showed that treatment instructors increased use of autonomy supportive statements and decreased use of controlling statements. Students reported higher perceived autonomy and increased engagement immediately following treatment, compared to pretest, but perceptions returned to pretest levels at the maintenance measure 3 weeks after posttest. Limitations were related the small population of instructors and a small student sample with missing data due to inconsistent classroom attendance. Suggestions for future research include replicating this study with a larger sample, providing scaffolds for faculty to sustain their provision of autonomy during maintenance, and providing an internet-based student survey available over a short amount of time to reduce the amount of missing student data

Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia

This book, Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia, makes a unique and needed contribution to the mentoring field as it focuses solely on mentoring in academia. This handbook is a collaborative institutional effort between Utah State University’s (USU) Empowering Teaching Open Access Book Series and the Mentoring Institute at the University of New Mexico (UNM). This book is available through (a) an e-book through Pressbooks, (b) a downloadable PDF version on USU’s Open Access Book Series website), and (c) a print version available for purchase on the USU Empower Teaching Open Access page, and on Amazon