Becoming a Better Faculty Mentor

Research and Innovation

RESEARCH MENTOR TRAINING

Faculty from a broad reach of disciplinary backgrounds are welcome to sign up for research mentor training sessions taught by qualified, UD-based facilitators. The training aims to accelerate the process of becoming an effective mentor by providing faculty with an intellectual framework, an opportunity to experiment with various methods and a forum in which to solve mentoring dilemmas with the help of their peers.

By the end of the training, mentors will be able to articulate their personal style and philosophy of mentoring and have a toolbox of strategies for resolving difficult mentoring situations.

UD mentor training covers also such topics as:

Aligning Expectations
Articulating Your Mentoring Philosophy and Plan
Assessing Understanding
Cultivating Ethical Behavior
Enhancing Work-Life Integration
Fostering Independence

Fostering Wellbeing
Maintaining Effective Communication
Promoting Mentee Research Self-Efficacy
Promoting Professional Development
Reflecting on Diversity and Establishing a Practice of Inclusion

Benefits of the trainings

Structured training programs like those offered at UD have been shown to be effective in instilling the knowledge, skills and behaviors you need to be an effective mentor to undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers or junior faculty working with trainees across disciplines.

With a firm background in mentorship dynamics, faculty gain effective tools for empowering students to become the scientific leaders and high-caliber research team members of the future. Crucially, faculty mentors can also play a key role in ensuring that historically underrepresented mentees can overcome social and cultural barriers and find success in their research careers. Faculty also will find that well-crafted mentor-mentee plans help ensure compliance with grant requirements.

Upcoming Workshops

The Graduate College will be hosting mentorship trainings on April 10 and 24. Use the link below to register or contact LaRuth McAfee for more information.

Registration for these trainings end on April 3.

Register Today

Self-Serve Resources

MENTORING ACTION PLANS

A mentoring action plan is a crucial tool for ensuring every student and mentor are aligned with best practices. Which one is right for you?

Program-level plan: Designed to suit the needs of specific programs, program-level plans are especially valuable for getting incoming and younger students off to a good start. Guidance on creating individual development plans can be found at such free-to-use, web-based, career-planning tools as MyIDP.sciencecareers.org (for STEM majors) or ImaginePhD.com (for arts and humanities majors). These tools help establish common professional development expectations for all students.

Potential components of a program-level plan:

Course, publication, presentation and grant-writing expectations for all students
Resources provided to support students in achieving expectations
Structured faculty, peer connections, especially targeting newer students
Expected interactions with advisor, other faculty (e.g., thesis committee members) throughout program

Note: Program-level plans are especially valuable for students mainly focused on courses/core program requirements.

Student-level plan: These are especially valuable for more advanced students who are focused on research and mainly interact with their research advisor and committee. A completed student-level plan can also help facilitate the renewal of Graduate Scholar Awards since they demonstrate that the student has connected with an advisor who is supporting them toward graduation.

Potential components of a student-level plan:

Desired outcomes and the steps expected of mentor and mentee to meet those expectations
Resources likely to be important to student’s success given their background and salient identities