Mentoring Toolkit

The Graduate School provides multiple resources for faculty, postdocs, and students to engage in the mentorship process, either as the mentor or mentee. Below are some additional resources for enhancement of mentoring skills.

• Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS) Mentoring Toolkit Presentation by: Joan Lakoski PhD and Mary Lou Voytko, PhD
  "The Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS) advances the full and successful participation and inclusion of women within academic medicine by addressing gender equity, recruitment and retention, awards and recognition, and career advancement."
• National Research Mentoring Network
  "The National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) is a nationwide consortium of biomedical professionals and institutions collaborating to provide all trainees across the biomedical, behavioral, clinical and social sciences with evidence-based mentorship and professional development programming."
• Mentoring Action Plan Seven Core Principles of Effective Mentoring Relationships
  Steve Lee
• Antiracism and the Problems with "Achievement Gaps" in STEM Education
  Julia Svoboda Gouvea
  This Current Insights draws together recent scholarship to motivate critical reflection on the problem of "achievement gaps" in STEM education.
• Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education
  Maryrose Weatherton and Elisabeth E. Schussler
  This essay explores how "student success" is defined in the education literature broadly, using specific examples from CBE-Life Sciences Education from 2015 to 2020. This essay posits that success is most often implicitly defined by researchers in terms of quantitative outcomes. Recommendations for centering student voice within policy, practice, and research are provided.
• Reassess-Realign-Reimagine: A Guide for Mentors Pivoting to Remote Research Mentoring
  Christine Pfund, Janet L. Branchaw, Melissa McDaniels, Angela Byars-Winston, Steven P. Lee,, and Bruce Birren
  An unprecedented situation requiring remote research mentorship from faculty and research group leaders has emerged from the COVID-19 health crisis. The ability of mentors to pivot and adopt new ways to lead their research teams during this time will be a critical factor in maintaining research productivity and fostering talent development.
• Instructor Strategies to Alleviate Stress and Anxiety among College and University STEM Students
  Jeremy L. Hsu and Gregory R. Goldsmith
  Student stress and anxiety often negatively impact students’ academic performance. This Essay provides summaries of different evidence-based strategies, ranging from changes in instructional strategies to specific classroom interventions, that instructors can employ to address and ameliorate student stress and anxiety.
• "I Like and Prefer to Work Alone": Social Anxiety, Academic Self-Efficacy, and Students’ Perceptions of Active Learning
  S. Hood, N. Barrickman, N. Djerdjian, M. Farr, S. Magner, H. Roychowdhury, R. Gerrits, H. Lawford, B. Ott, K. Ross, O. Paige, S. Stowe, M. Jensen, and K. Hull
  Two psychological variables, social anxiety (psychological distress relating to the fear of negative evaluation by others) and academic self-efficacy (confidence in one’s ability to overcome academic challenges) are linked with student perceptions of active-learning practices and final grades in a course.
• The Dark Side of Development: A Systems Characterization of the Negative Mentoring Experiences of Doctoral Students
  Trevor T. Tuma, John D. Adams, Benjamin C. Hultquist, and Erin L. Dolan
  A characterization of the negative mentoring doctoral students experience during their graduate research is presented. Students attributed their negative mentoring experiences to interacting factors at multiple levels of the academic research system, which they perceived as harmful to their development.
• PhDepression: Examining How Graduate Research and Teaching Affect Depression in Life Sciences PhD Students
  Logan E. Gin, Nicholas J. Wiesenthal, Isabella Ferreira, and Katelyn M. Cooper
  This interview study of 50 biology PhD students with depression examines how aspects of graduate teaching and research affect depression and how depression affects students’ experiences teaching and researching. This work identifies aspects of graduate school that PhD programs can target to improve mental health among graduate students.