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The Merits of Training Mentors

December 21, 2009

In research universities, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers often serve as the primary mentors for undergraduate researchers. Undergraduate researchers emphasize communication as a key feature of good mentoring. UW–Madison’s Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching helps science graduate students and postdoctoral researchers communicate more effectively, discuss mentoring approaches, consider issues of human diversity, and to apply a “scientific teaching” approach to mentoring. Mentors are encouraged to approach teaching with the same rigor and spirit of experimentation that they bring to their science research. They develop their own systematic approaches by identifying objectives and approaches to overcome associated challenges. Then they evaluate their approaches considering feedback from their undergraduate researchers, peers in the laboratory, and research advisers. Undergraduates consistently report that mentors who participated in the seminar were more available to them, were more interested in them as individuals, and gave them more independence. More information is available here.