Transforming mentorship in STEM by training scientists to be better leaders

Abstract

Effective mentoring is a key component of academic and career success that contributes to overall measures of productivity. Mentoring relationships also play an important role in mental health and in recruiting and retaining students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. Despite these clear and measurable benefits, faculty generally do not receive mentorship training, and feedback mechanisms and assessment to improve mentoring in academia are limited. Ineffective mentoring can negatively impact students, faculty, departments, and institutions via decreased productivity, increased stress, and the loss of valuable research products and talented personnel. Thus, there are clear incentives to invest in and implement formal training to improve mentorship in STEM fields. Here, we outline the unique challenges of mentoring in academia and present results from a survey of STEM scientists that support both the need and desire for more formal mentorship training. Using survey results and the primary literature, we identify common behaviors of effective mentors and outline a set of mentorship best practices. We argue that these best practices, as well as the key qualities of flexibility, communication, and trust, are skills that can be taught to prospective and current faculty. We present a model and resources for mentorship training based on our research, which we successfully implemented at the University of Colorado, Boulder, with graduate students and postdocs. We conclude that such training is an important and cost‐effective step toward improving mentorship in STEM fields.

Students as ecologists: Strategies for successful mentorship of undergraduate researchers

“…In this situation, faculty mentors should check in regularly to ensure that the student receives the support they need. It is also important that mentors have discussions with their graduate student or postdoc about mentoring best practices and support further mentorship training for these early career scientists (Dooley, Mahon, & Oshiro, ; Hund et al, ; Weigel, ). These training opportunities are sometimes difficult to find, although many institutions provide mentorship resources or mentoring programs.…”

“…Student needs will also change as they gain experience and develop as scientists (Thiry & Laursen, 2011). Thus, individual students will need different types of support from their mentor, requiring different mentoring strategies that best fit a given student (Hund et al, 2018;O'Meara, Knudsen, & Jones, 2013;Opengart & Bierema, 2015). Developing a flexible communication plan starts with personalizing components of the mentoring contract and engaging in early discussions with students about the mentoring style that will help them thrive.…”

“…In this situation, faculty mentors should check in regularly to ensure that the student receives the support they need. It is also important that mentors have discussions with their graduate student or postdoc about mentoring best practices and support further mentorship training for these early career scientists (Dooley, Mahon, & Oshiro, 2004;Hund et al, 2018;Weigel, 2015 Laboratory productivity depends strongly on building a friendly community among students, staff, and faculty and establishing a culture of hard work and scientific ethics. Indeed, the friendlier and more supportive students act toward one another, the more each learns, and the more motivated and hardworking they become (Kobulnicky & Dale, 2016).…”

“…Particularly for ecologists, collaborating with undergraduates on research should feel natural, as collaborative research occurs frequently across the discipline (Gorham, ; Leimu & Koricheva, ). However, while mentoring and working with undergraduates comprises one of the core aspects of being a faculty member (Austin, ), academics often receive little to no training in mentoring skills and strategies (Hund et al, ). As ecologists with positions at a number of different universities, we sought to identify and describe best practices for collaborating with undergraduates on research projects including recruitment, development of a research question, submission of a publication, and to highlight strategies for success that apply to a variety of situations.…”

“…Particularly for ecologists, collaborating with undergraduates on research should feel natural, as collaborative research occurs frequently across the discipline (Gorham, 2014;Leimu & Koricheva, 2005). However, while mentoring and working with undergraduates comprises one of the core aspects of being a faculty member (Austin, 2002), academics often receive little to no training in mentoring skills and strategies (Hund et al, 2018).…”