Use of an Interdisciplinary Sustained Mentoring Collaboration to Enhance Teaching and to Develop a Tool Kit for Continued Growth

Abstract

During the 2012 spring semester, three individuals who care deeply about the quality of teaching and learning in higher education embarked on a journey with the humble goal of improving the teaching ability of a single accounting professor. This goal was broadened when they realized the "model" they developed had general application. The model included sustained mentoring across an entire semester followed closely by communications among the team members. The uniqueness of their approach included the addition of a student who was double-majoring in education and accounting to the team.It should be noted that this study is an extension of a similar study recently completed by two of the authors. The previous 36 BRC Journal of Advances in Education Vol. 2, No. 1 study produced the "Driver/Guide" model. This study extended the model to include the perspective of a student and the creation of a detailed list of teaching tools developed and implemented in the class. Though the studies were similar in nature, the results achieved in this study confirmed the robustness of the Driver/ Guide model and further validated its usefulness and applicability. As such, there are numerous references to the Driver/Guide 2011 study in this paper.