scholarly journals Adolescent leadership development through participation in a robotics design challenge experience

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
David Allan Doering
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Leadership Traits ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Adolescent Leadership ◽  
Design Challenge ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Adult Mentors ◽  
Robotics Design

This research study explored the adolescent leadership development experiences within teams participating in the Robotics Design Challenge sponsored by the University of Missouri Engineering Department. Since the design challenge was not a leadership development program, this research explored whether or not leadership development occurred. The first research question was whether leadership development experiences emerged. The second question took a constructivist and situational view of how the adolescents experience leadership development. The third research question examined roles of the adult mentors that fostered leadership development. The final question explored the adult-mentors' descriptions of the resulting leadership development experiences. Two sites, seven teams, and twenty-eight adolescents, ages 10 through 12, were observed during team meetings and participated in focus groups. The environment included authentic opportunity, mentor access, amount of challenge, variety of tasks, and quality and acceptance of feedback. The adolescents exhibited leadership traits and behaviors such as confidence, knowledge, teamwork, and problem solving. The adultmentors provided valuable structure and feedback. The adults reflected on the level of difficulty as being important to developing leadership and described several adolescents who exhibited leadership traits and behaviors. The robotics design challenge provided an environment in which adolescents could develop leadership skills. Providing similar opportunities to additional adolescents and incorporating leadership evelopment into those activities could be beneficial to the overall development of the adolescents.

Benefits and Characteristics of Mentoring Students and Young Professionals

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristal Mills
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Clinical Supervision ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Mentoring Programs ◽  
Teaching Skills ◽  
Online Mentoring ◽  
Young Professionals ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Workplace Retention

Abstract Mentoring has long been believed to be an effective means of developing students' clinical, research, and teaching skills to become competent professionals. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has developed two online mentoring programs, Student to Empowered Professional (S.T.E.P. 1:1) and Mentoring Academic Research Careers (MARC), to aid in the development of students. This paper provides a review of the literature on mentoring and compares and contrasts mentoring/mentors with clinical supervision/preceptors. Characteristics of effective mentors and mentees are offered. Additionally, the benefits of clinical mentoring such as, teambuilding in the workplace, retention of new staff, leadership development, and improved job satisfaction are discussed.

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