Modeling individual development plans, mentoring support, and career preparedness relationships among Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) trainees in the life sciences

Background: As greater career development support for doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers has been emphasized, the individual development plan (IDP) has become a recommended mentoring tool. However, little is known about the effect of IDPs on mentoring and career development. This study proposed two conceptual models to examine the interrelationships among the use of IDPs, mentoring support, and career preparedness with a diverse sample of doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in the life sciences. Methods: The data leveraged for this study was collected over a three-month period, March 2016 to June 2016, as part of a cross-sectional, online survey. The survey was distributed through social media and direct email to participants enrolled in life/biological/medical or physical/applied doctoral programs at U.S. institutions. To test the proposed conceptual models, this study employed the design-based multilevel structural equation modeling. Results: The analytic sample comprised 660 doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in the life sciences from 91 institutions. The results suggested that 1) using the IDP could enhance mentoring support and career preparedness of doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers; 2) greater mentoring support and career preparedness would motivate mentees to continue utilizing the IDP with their principal investigator (PI) or advisor; and 3) females, postdoctoral researchers, and international scholars might need more support throughout the mentoring and career development process. Conclusions: This research offered empirical evidence for how an IDP, mentorship, and career preparedness interact. Findings revealed the IDP enhances mentoring support and career preparedness, as well as mentoring support and career preparedness predict IDP use. We conclude the IDP is an important mentorship tool that enhances trainees’ overall career preparation.

A pathway to teaching for paraprofessionals of color

Research has shown that students of color benefit from having teachers who share their racial background. The paraprofessionals and education assistants currently working in schools represent one potential source of such teachers. Many of them are committed to schools and students but need support to obtain a teaching license. Laura Delgado, Kristin Baese, and Ally Hauptman describe a program for helping these paraprofessionals become full-time lead teachers by taking graduate courses while continuing to work as assistants and receiving mentoring support as they move through the licensure process.

Embedding mentoring to support trial processes and implementation fidelity in a randomised controlled trial of vocational rehabilitation for stroke survivors

Background Little guidance exists regarding how best to upskill and support those delivering complex healthcare interventions to ensure robust trial outcomes and implementation fidelity. Mentoring was provided to occupational therapists (OTs) delivering a complex vocational rehabilitation (VR) intervention to stroke survivors. This study aimed to explore mentors’ roles in supporting OTs with intervention delivery and fidelity, and to describe factors affecting the mentoring process and intervention delivery. Methods Quantitative data (duration, mode and total time of mentoring support) was extracted from mentoring records and emails between mentors and OTs, alongside qualitative data on barriers and facilitators to intervention delivery. Semi-structured interviews with mentors (n = 6) and OTs (n = 19) explored experiences and perceptions of intervention training, delivery and the mentoring process. Mean total and monthly time spent mentoring were calculated per trial site. Qualitative data were analysed thematically. Results Forty-one OTs across 16 sites were mentored between March 2018 and April 2020. Most mentoring was provided by phone or Microsoft Teams (range: 88.6–100%), with the remainder via email and SMS (Short Message Service) text messages. Mentors suggested strategies to enhance trial recruitment, improved OTs’ understanding of- and adherence to trial processes, intervention delivery and fidelity, and facilitated independent problem-solving. Barriers to mentoring included OT non-attendance at mentoring sessions and mentors struggling to balance mentoring with clinical roles. Facilitators included support from the trial team and mentors having protected time for mentoring. Conclusions Mentoring supported mentee OTs in various ways, but it remains unclear to what extent the OTS would have been able to deliver the intervention without mentoring support, or how this might have impacted fidelity. Successful implementation of mentoring alongside new complex interventions may increase the likelihood of intervention effectiveness being observed and sustained in real-life contexts. Further research is needed to investigate how mentors could be selected, upskilled, funded and mentoring provided to maximise impact. The clinical- and cost-effectiveness of mentoring as an implementation strategy and its impact on fidelity also requires testing in a future trial. Trial registration ISRCTN, ISRCTN12464275. Registered on 13th March 2018.

Professional Growth of Novice and Experienced STEM Teachers

The first years of teaching are crucial for novice teachers’ integration into and retainment in the education system. The support they receive from experienced teachers impacts their professional development. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers require specialized support from domain-specific mentors. In this study, we examined how a three-level mentoring support system contributes to STEM novice teachers’ professional growth (PG) and to their mentors. The support system levels are individual mentoring, group mentoring, and mentoring networks. Based on the framework of teachers’ professional development, there are three PG dimensions: personal, professional, and social. Our research goal was to analyze teachers’ professional growth by the various mentoring level and dimension combinations. The study, conducted using a mixed methods approach, included 123 novice and 78 experienced STEM teachers. We examined the novice teachers’ perceptions of their teaching efficacy, the mentoring factors, correlations between the professional growth dimensions, and the contribution of each support level to the growth dimensions. We found that experienced teachers perceive novice teachers’ efficacy as lower than that perceived by the novice teachers. We identified gaps between the mentoring factors described by novice and experienced teachers and a strong correlation between the growth dimensions. All three mentoring support levels facilitate substantive personal, professional, and social growth. Individual mentoring contributes the most to all three growth dimensions, followed by mentoring networks. The contribution of this research is its elucidation of the intertwined support levels, which provide scaffolds for the novice teachers and facilitate the growth of the experienced teachers.

Modeling individual development plans, mentoring support, and career preparedness relationships among Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) trainees in the life sciences

Background: As greater career development support for doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers has been emphasized, the individual development plan (IDP) has become a recommended mentoring tool. However, little is known about the effect of IDPs on mentoring and career development. This study proposed two conceptual models to examine the interrelationships among the use of IDPs, mentoring support, and career preparedness with a diverse sample of doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in the life sciences. Methods: The data leveraged for this study was collected over a three-month period, March 2016 to June 2016, as part of a cross-sectional, online survey. The survey was distributed through social media and direct email to participants enrolled in life/biological/medical or physical/applied doctoral programs at U.S. institutions. To test the proposed conceptual models, this study employed the design-based multilevel structural equation modeling. Results: The analytic sample comprised 660 doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in the life sciences from 91 institutions. The results suggested that 1) using the IDP could enhance mentoring support and career preparedness of doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers; 2) greater mentoring support and career preparedness would motivate mentees to continue utilizing the IDP with their principal investigator (PI) or advisor; and 3) females, postdoctoral researchers, and international scholars might need more support throughout the mentoring and career development process. Conclusions: This research demonstrated the empirical evidence an IDP has within mentorship and career preparedness, and that an IDP is an important career development tool that enhances trainees’ overall career preparation.

Mentoring Support of Cooperating Teachers: Insights from Filipino Practice Teachers

ABSTRACT The literature reveals the indispensable role of mentoring in practice teaching. However, little is known about the mentoring support the Filipino cooperating teachers (CTs) extended to their practice teachers (PTs). Also, no study has been conducted yet on mentoring using a constructively aligned scale with the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST). Through sequential explanatory mixed-method design, this study determined the extent of CTs’ mentoring support from the viewpoint of the PTs. There were 840 PTs (680 females, 160 males) from a public university who participated in the survey using the Mentoring Practices Scale. Besides, 25 randomly selected PTs’ portfolios were content analysed to substantiate the quantitative data. Findings revealed that the CTs provided mentoring to a very great extent along with personal, career, professional knowledge, instructional process, and role modelling supports. Indeed, though preliminary research, this study serves as a take-off for strengthening the mentoring activities to benefit both Filipino CTs and PTs.

The positive impact of mentoring on burnout: Organizational research and best practice interventions for cancer hospital employees.

11012 Background: While burnout is not a new concept, combating it is becoming an increasingly important focus for organizations across all industries. Recently, the World Health Organization recognized burnout as an “occupational phenomenon” (WHO, 2019), and it was included in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases, where it is defined as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center addresses burnout at the institutional level in support of all 22,000 workforce members. One avenue of this work focuses on mentoring. Mentorship, both formal and informal, has demonstrated positive effects to include empirical investigations that demonstrate its benefit in reducing risk of burnout in multiple settings for a variety of audiences (Qian et al., 2014; Thomas & Lankau, 2009; van Emmerik, 2004; Varghese at al., 2020). Although mentoring is not as flashy as other interventions, what the last year has shown is that people need human connection now more than ever. Methods: In order to investigate the relationship between burnout and mentoring in our organization, we analyzed responses to our biennial voluntary employee survey, in which all employees were asked whether they are involved in a mentoring relationship and completed a single-item burnout scale. Results: We analyzed the survey data using a chi-square test and found that employees participating in mentoring relationships were less likely to report burnout than employees who are not participating in a mentoring relationship, χ2 (1, 14,486) = 17.431, p < 0.005. The same pattern held for all types of employees; faculty, classified staff, leaders, clinical employees, and non-clinical employees, indicating that the experience of mentorship may be universal regardless of role, rank, and type of work. We suspect that the benefits of mentoring are bi-directional for mentors and mentees, though this should be investigated directly. Conclusions: Both formal and informal types of mentoring programs exist within MD Anderson to support retention, professional fulfillment, and reduce burnout. All employees have access to a centralized online mentoring platform to find a mentor. Formal mentoring support is also provided through various programs developed for specific professional cohorts, including physicians, advanced practice providers, and registered nurses. In addition, informal mentoring support is offered in the form of employee volunteer wellness champions. Together, these formal and informal mentoring programs have positively influenced burnout across the organization.[Table: see text]