Development of the Effective Mentoring of Student Researchers Scale

• In Event: 54.041 - Understanding Access and Student Success in Graduate Education

Abstract

Mentoring is a critical aspect of graduate education, but few studies have explored the mentoring behaviors that specifically contribute to effective mentoring, making it difficult to train mentors to behave in a way that optimally supports students’ development. The Effective Mentoring of Student Researchers Scale (EMSRS) was developed an instrument to identify graduate advisors’ key mentoring behaviors, distributed the survey instrument to graduate students at a large Midwestern university, finalized items using exploratory factor analysis (principal axis factoring with promax rotation), and conducted confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the factor structure. We identified four components of effective mentoring, as follows: Engaged, Positive, Professional, and Present. Implications for training new mentors and improving the mentoring of graduate students are discussed.

Authors

• Arlene de la Mora, Iowa State University

• Brandi N Geisinger, Iowa State University

• Dan Li, Iowa Department of Education

• D. Raj Raman, Iowa State University

• Mari Kemis, Research Institute for Studies in Education