ADVISER, TEACHER, ROLE MODEL, FRIEND
Note: This form is suggested as a model for the purpose of commenting on the quality of faculty mentoring. It is intended only as a sample for institutions or departments that want to adapt this format or design their own. The mentoring comment form is updated constantly as we receive comments on its content and usage. Please let us know if you do use the form and whether or not you find it useful. We do expect everyone to modify it for their situation, and we would like to see yours if it is available. Please send comments to Deborah D. Stine at dstine@nas.edu.
Institutions might want
to include an introduction, such as the sample that follows:
Faculty interact with students in many ways. The relationships between student and adviser are varied, complicated and subtle. Among the most important is mentoring, a relationship of continuing guidance and role modeling that transcends classroom teaching or single-issue advising. The purpose of this comment form is to encourage better mentoring and to provide a means for graduate students, postdoctoral students, and junior faculty to communicate their assessment of the effectiveness of faculty mentors. On this form we ask you to comment on your mentoring experiences with the faculty of this department. The intention is both to provide faculty with constructive feedback on what they are doing well and on what needs improvement. In filling out this form, you are asked to comment frankly on your mentor and any other faculty member with whom you have had substantial interaction during the last year. Leave blank any spaces that do not apply to you. In asking you to be frank, we remind you that good mentoring is not the same thing as leniency or permissiveness. Be as objective as you can in considering how well a faculty member has helped to prepare you for a productive and satisfying career. This survey is anonymous to all faculty except the department chair, but students who wish to are encouraged to speak directly to their advisers about these or related issues. In addition, the back of the form provides you with the opportunity to comment on the institution's role in mentoring activities, such as the guidance provided through seminars or activities on skills development, career opportunities and placement, professional development, and so on.
We hope all graduate students will participate in this survey.
Faculty Member:_______________________________________________________________
Relationship to Student (e.g.,
primary mentor, laboratory director, incidental faculty contact,
etc.):
General comments on institutional
leadership: Please
comment on the mentoring and guidance activites of this institution
at the university, college, and departmental level.
B. What mentoring activities
have you found useful? Should they be continued?
C. What mentoring activities
have not been useful? How could they be improved?
D. What new mentoring activities
do you believe we should undertake?
E. How has your mentoring
experience encouraged you to be a mentor?
Mentoring Comment Form: Do you think this comment form is a good idea? How could it be improved?
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