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1 Introduction: Why Does Mentoring Matter?
Pages 15-32

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From page 15...
... Mentorship refers to a collaborative learning relationship and working alliance, historically but not always between a more experienced and less experienced individual, based on intentionality, responsiveness, reciprocity, trust, and shared responsibility for the interactions in that relationship and the effectiveness of those interactions.3 Effective mentorship provides aspects of both 1    e committee uses STEMM to indicate the inclusion of medicine but recognizes the significant differ Th ences in medical training culture. Mentorship in medicine is discussed in Chapter 4.
From page 16...
... as well as support, incentives, and evaluations of the degree of effective mentoring practices. As with any complex skill, individual mentors and mentees will have different levels of acquired skills, and everyone can improve their skills with instruction, practice, and feedback, including ongoing self-reflective processes that encourage intentional practices.
From page 17...
... This, in turn, will support inclusive learning experiences that benefit all mentees and their mentors -- regardless of their personal characteristics and identities. BACKGROUND OF THE REPORT In February 2017, the Board on Higher Education and Workforce convened a national participatory workshop to explore some of the major challenges for ensuring high-quality mentorship for undergraduate and graduate STEMM students (NASEM, 2017a)
From page 18...
... Box 1-1: The Flight Analogy for Mentoring Relationships (rotate 90 CCW) IMAGE SOURCE: Layne Scherer, reproduced from Effective Mentoring in STEMM: Practice, Research, and Future Directions: Proceedings of a Workshop -- in Brief (NASEM, 2017a)
From page 19...
... ABOUT THE WORK The committee approached the Statement of Task as a guide for an intensive literature review and a series of evidence-gathering activities. The three core questions provided in the Statement of Task helped to focus the committee's method of engaging this potentially BOX 1-2 Statement of Task The Committee on Effective Mentoring in STEMM Under the auspices of the Board on Higher Education and Workforce and the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and in collaboration with the Board on Science Educa­ion, an ad hoc committee will conduct a study of STEMM (science, technology, engineering, t mathematics, and medicine)
From page 20...
... Over the course of the study, the committee sought to understand the current state of the science of mentorship;6 identify gaps and potential areas for future research on mentorship; and provide mentors, mentees, and mentoring program directors with the evidence-based knowledge and skills necessary to ensure highly productive and sustainable mentoring relationships. The committee focused on the scholarship around elements or behaviors that support effective mentoring relationships themselves and considered outcomes, such as assessments of mentee success, to be one type of measure of effective mentorship.
From page 21...
... By focusing on the relationship, rather than solely on the mentee or the mentor, the committee calls out a paradigm shift in how both student agency and the burden of mentoring expectations for the participants are viewed. In general, students have a range of talents, strengths, and assets, all of which an effective mentoring relationship can capitalize on to facilitate their successful pursuit of and persistence in STEMM career pathways.
From page 22...
... Finally, the committee presumed that the understanding of interpersonal interac tions that has been developed through social science research can be applied to the development of effective mentoring relationships. Therefore, the committee chose six significant theories that can help frame practical questions and insights of mentorship to explore in depth in Chapter 2 and are referenced throughout the report.
From page 23...
... Sources of Evidence The committee's task was to examine the evidence supporting effective mentoring programs and to identify the characteristics that make for an effective mentoring relationship. However, different kinds of evidence (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, narrative, anecdotal observation)
From page 24...
... In addition, grey literature that focused on programs or experiences, as well as opinion pieces and editorials, were referenced to predominantly help frame issues, though not to inform conclusions or recommendations.16 The use of both opinion pieces and editorials and the grey literature was limited to domains where peer-reviewed resources and publications were not yet available to address emerging practices. For example, the grey literature was consulted in the domain of online peer mentoring network communities for scholars of color.  Integration of Mentoring Scholarship from Other Settings Although the committee focused on mentorship in academic settings, the commit tee utilized work drawn from outside of academic contexts as it pertained to broader findings about mentorship in general that apply within and beyond academic settings.
From page 25...
... A comprehensive review of all mentoring across all disciplinary contexts, however, is beyond the scope of this report. The committee reviewed mentoring literature only in domains determined to be highly relevant for mentoring in academic settings, but refrained from discipline-specific mentoring work, unless it provided theoretical advances that could be generalized beyond the disciplinary or professional/educational context.
From page 26...
... . The Importance of Mentorship in Supporting Diversity The 2013 National Center for Education Statistics study and others have identi fied several factors that lead undergraduate and graduate students to leave STEM fields.
From page 27...
... .18 While individuals' motivations cannot be known, evidence on the outcomes of mentoring indicates that effective mentoring relationships can improve outcomes both for individuals' career development and for their productivity, while for institutions, effective mentorship can lead to more effective placement of graduates in the job ­market.19 Lamar Smith of Texas, chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, in the Innovations in Mentoring, Training, and Apprenticeships Act of 2018, acknowledged that "[o]
From page 28...
... Supporting Effective Mentorship to Develop Diverse Talent Institutions can and have been supporting effective mentorship and mitigating negative mentoring experiences by developing cultures of inclusive excellence.21 The American Association of Colleges and Universities describes inclusive excellence as a "guiding principle for access, student success, and high-quality learning." Creating a culture of inclusive excellence requires academic institutions to identify where student success across demographic groups is unequal, discover which of their educational prac tices succeed in addressing those inequities, and work intentionally to build off of those practices in a way that sustains institutional change (Williams et al., 2005)
From page 29...
... academic institutions have evidence-based programs in place to foster effective mentoring relationships or recognize and reward good mentorship practices. And the conversations with students at the committee's listening sessions for this report ­ einforced the idea that poor or negative mentorship can occur across STEMM r disciplines.23 This report is based on a systematic compilation and analysis of current literature on mentorship in postsecondary STEMM contexts and is intended to provide a rigorous review of the relevant scholarship.
From page 30...
... STEMM enterprise and the institutions engaged in STEMM education.26 While many of the concepts discussed are highlighted because of specific influences on UR populations, effective mentorship practices are applicable to and will benefit the broader STEMM community. In addition, the committee identified key gaps in the available scholarship and provided recommendations on how to address those gaps.
From page 31...
... Chapter 5 describes effective and negative mentorship behavior, tools for developing and optimizing mentorship, and competency development, while Chapter 6 discusses assessment of mentorship practices and outcomes. Chapter 7 presents strategies that various stakeholders at different levels in institutions can implement to support highly effective mentorship, in part informed by the committee's listening session activities.


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