Mentor Training

Mentors will have the knowledge and skills to

• Provide constructive feedback
• Use multiple strategies for improving communication
• Engage in active listening
• Communicate effectively across diverse dimensions, including varied backgrounds, disciplines, ethnicities, and positions of power

Learning Objectives

• Design and communicate clear goals for the research project
• Listen to and consider the expectations of their mentee in the mentoring relationship
• Consider how personal and professional differences may impact expectations
• Clearly communicate expectations for the mentoring relationship
• Align mentee and mentor expectations

Mentors will have the knowledge and skills to

• Assess their mentee's understanding of core concepts and processes and ability to develop and conduct a research project, analyze data, and present results
• Identify reasons for a lack of understanding, including expert-novice differences
• Use multiple strategies to enhance mentee understanding across diverse disciplinary perspectives

Mentors will have the knowledge and skills to 

• Define independence, its core elements, and how those elements change over the course of a mentoring relationship
• Employ various strategies to build their mentee's confidence, establish trust, and foster independence
• Create an environment in which mentees can achieve goals

Mentors will have the knowledge and skills to 

• Articulate ethical issues they need to discuss with their mentees
• Clarify their roles as teachers and role models in educating mentees about ethics
• Manage the power dynamic inherent in the mentoring relationship

Mentors will have the knowledge and skills to

• Recognize the impact of conscious and unconscious assumptions, preconceptions, biases, and prejudices on the mentor-mentee relationship and acquire skills to manage them
• Identify concrete strategies for addressing issues

Mentors will have the knowledge and skills to

• Identify the roles mentors play in the overall professional development of their mentees
• Develop a strategy for guiding professional development using a written format
• Initiate and sustain periodic conversations with mentees on professional goals and career development objectives and strategies
• Engage in open dialogue on balancing the competing demands, needs, and interests of mentors and mentees

Mentors will have the knowledge and skills to

• Reflect on the mentor-training experience
• Reflect on intended behavioral or philosophical changes
• Articulate an approach for working with mentees in the future