Mentoring Undergraduate Researchers: An Exploratory Study of Students’ and Professors’ Perceptions

Abstract

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.

Mentoring Undergraduate Students

“…Relatedly, there is a need for work that identifies the specific mentoring tasks or activities that are most effective in providing various types of support and how these activities may be similar or different for different student populations (e.g., older versus younger students and active military/veteran students). Additionally, extending the work of Holt and Berwise (2012) and Behar-Horenstein, Roberts, and Dix (2010), there is a need for research to examine how different groups (e.g., students and mentors of different racial/ethnic groups) experience mentoring.…”

“…Mentoring also directly addresses the need to diversify the STEM disciplines, which have historically not included underrepresented minority students (Perna et al, 2009), and is one of the most prominent efforts to increase the number of individuals from underrepresented groups earning degrees in STEM fields (Behar-Horenstein, Roberts, & Dix, 2010). Supportive mentoring relationships have the potential to increase career ambition and awareness (Parks-Yancy, 2012) and aid students' professional identity development (Murdock, Stipanovic, & Lucas, 2013).…”

The mentorship of undergraduate students in counselling psychology research

“…Mentorship of undergraduate students, especially in the Counselling Psychology Quarterly 413 early phase of their research involvement, can be quite time-consuming. Undergraduate students may require more time and engagement from mentors as their research skills are not as developed as those of graduate students (Behar-Horenstein et al, 2010;Brown et al, 2009;O'Clock & Rooney, 1996). Moreover, such mentorship is often not recognized in teaching loads (Thomas & Gillespie, 2008;Wayment & Dickson, 2008), and many URPs do not lead to scholarly publications (Lei & Chuang, 2009).…”

“…A number of studies have identified characteristics and functions of mentors that, from the perspectives of students and faculty members, contribute to successful research mentorship (Behar-Horenstein, Roberts, & Dix, 2010;Cox & Androit, 2009;Cramer & Prentice-Dunn, 2007;Shellito, Shea, Mueller-Solger, & Davis, 2001). In a study aimed at understanding how faculty members provide positive mentorship to undergraduate researchers, Shellito and her colleagues (2001) asked students who had engaged in an undergraduate research project (URP) in psychology, biology, physical sciences, mathematics, or engineering to complete a survey on their views and experiences of the research program.…”

Assessment of student and faculty mentor perceptions of an international undergraduate research program in physical geography

“…As argued by Behar-Horenstein et al (2010), students identify a good mentor as one who has "time for the mentee" and listens to the students, while less effective mentors are not readily available to spend time with the students, which forces the students to work independently and depend on postgraduates, technicians, and other students. Limited mentoring does not allow the student to develop a clear understanding of their research and how it will ultimately contribute to the literature (Hunter et al, 2007).…”