3.3 Mentoring doctoral students: the need for a pedagogy  (Page 6/10)

Evaluating Effective Mentoring. Our conceptual model is purposely cyclical. Certainly planning and practicing are ongoing, but would be futile without a regular and valid method of evaluation. The mentoring survey we propose ( Click Here to Access Survey ) can be used as an evaluation instrument for the mentoring of doctoral students. Universities use student evaluation feedback to design and alter the delivery of instruction in the classroom–we suggest the same procedure be used to design and alter effective mentoring systems.

Parks (2006) developed this survey and suggests it be given to doctoral students on a regular basis and especially during the dissertation phase. The instrument is constructed to assess three major domains: communication between mentor and student, the faculty’s ability to assist, and the faculty’s willingness to assist.

Working For and Working With My Dissertation Chair

The following is a communication one of us had with a doctoral student (now a first year faculty) while she was pursuing an EdD in Educational Leadership at Sam Houston State University:

I continued to be challenged with understanding more and more of the research process as I defined my study and formulated my research methods. Integral to my confidence and success was ready access to my chair. While he had to change“hats”from boss to chair, he did so easily and with clear regard for my research needs. He provided necessary redirection and afforded insight into the more difficult aspects of educational research. Throughout my educational career, I have been mentored and have mentored others. My mentor encouraged the group dynamic, and the each one/teach one philosophy, the whole is greater that the sum of its parts. He realized that the power of leadership is not threatened by intellectual exchange. He mentored so that others would mentor. (Dr. Janet Tareilo, Stephen F. Austin State University, January 2007)

Best practices of mentoring doctoral students

Based on empirical examinations of graduate education, Boyle and Boice (1998) reported that exemplary departments distinguished themselves in three ways: They foster collegiality among 1st-year students; they support both mentoring and professional relationships between these students and faculty; and they provide 1st-year students with a clear sense of program structure and faculty expectations. Perhaps we can begin to identify important components of effective mentoring of doctoral students by borrowing from Boyle and Boice: collegiality, professional relationship, and communicating program structure and faculty expectations.

When looking specifically at best practices, Boyle and Boice (1998) identified three critical components of effective mentoring. First, they found exemplary programs to routinely assign academic advisors to students at point of entry in the program. The rationale here is important to note: during the first year of graduate work, students spend most of their time and efforts on coursework. It is during this first year that“course-related not research-related counsel is most relevant”(p. 90).