Mentoring is believed to be one of the most influential factors in US efforts to encourage college-aged students to seek careers in science, yet the role that mentoring plays in this process has not been elucidated. The researchers were interested in understanding whether the long-held beliefs about the importance of mentoring would be revealed as what actually occurs in an undergraduate research program. They describe students' perceptions of the mentoring process and students' beliefs about how it impacted their experiences as undergraduate researchers and their development as scientists. Also described are professors' perceptions of their roles and effectiveness as mentors in students' development as scientists. A multi-case narrative analysis was conducted of two groups, undergraduate science scholars (n=5) and mentoring professors (n=5), who were each interviewed on two occasions at the beginning and end of the first year of a funded research program. As this grounded research study shows, students and professors described student gains as increased technical expertise and communication skills. Professors suggested that they were available to students on a regular and frequent basis. However, students' experiences suggested a contradiction. They were often mentored by postgraduates, technical assistants, and other students; their meetings with mentoring professors were infrequent and at times distant. With respect to mentoring, this finding highlights the differences between beliefs and the reality of what was delivered. Professors discussed the challenges associated with mentoring including the recruitment of and difficulty of working with students whose first language was not English and concerns about the quality of instruction from graduate students.

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Tools for Teaching (2nd ed.), by Barbara Gross Davis, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009. 592 pp.Faculty approach teaching with a vast array of techniques, strategies, and approaches to address all aspects of a college course. The second edition of Tools for Teaching, written by Barbara Gross Davis, provides a comprehensive set of strategies and tools to inform all experience levels of faculty with every component of teaching in college. Since good teaching promotes college retention, a review of this book is pertinent to the Journal of College Student Retention. Davis covers every facet of a college course, including developing a syllabus; working with a changing student body; testing and grading; and evaluation to improve teaching. The purpose of the book is to serve as a resource, or toolbox, with tested strategies and methods for college teaching. She provides endless resources and references to literature that the reader can examine for further information on a topic. The book is written for both novice faculty members, who can benefit from the entire book as they are new to the act of teaching, as well as experienced faculty, as it contains updated information about students in the current social, political, and technological environments. The book is a strong resource for all faculty members as it provides information and references for all aspects of college teaching without being overly dense.Davis organized her book in a chronological sequence according to "the principal teaching responsibilities and activities of college instructors." She explained that this book is designed to be used as a reference and not read from cover to cover like a novel. The table of contents and index assist readers in finding the information they are looking for on any given topic. References are included throughout the text and at the end of each chapter. In addition, topics discussed throughout the book often contain information for further reading on the subject from college and university websites, organizations, and researchers. Davis is succinct when discussing findings from other sources, but provides references for those wishing to study more deeply.