Laura Roberts
Gwynedd Mercy University, Education, Faculty Member
Are you a doctoral mentor seeking to “up your game?” You can launch your proteges to brilliant careers in the world of scholarship. It’s a good feeling when your proteges become scholarly ambassadors who carry your intellectual legacy... more
Are you a doctoral mentor seeking to “up your game?” You can launch your proteges to brilliant careers in the world of scholarship. It’s a good feeling when your proteges become scholarly ambassadors who carry your intellectual legacy into the future! Compassionate Candor is the secret to success. This paper will provide invaluable insights and evidence of success!!
Research Interests:
Doctoral student completion rates are notoriously low; although statistics differ depending on which study one consults, a typical completion rate is about 50%. However, studies show mentors can use strategies to improve students’... more
Doctoral student completion rates are notoriously low; although statistics differ depending on which study one consults, a typical completion rate is about 50%. However, studies show mentors can use strategies to improve students’ graduation rates. Our purpose was to learn from effective mentors about the processes they believe are most important in guiding doctoral students to the successful completion of a dissertation and, specifically, the strategies they implement to help students with writing and research methods. The study was confirmatory and exploratory; we posed several hypotheses and we were attentive to emergent themes in the data.
This paper addresses the problem by providing practical strategies mentors can use to help students succeed.
We conducted semi-structured interviews of 21 effective mentors of doctoral students representing highly ranked educational programs at universities across the United States. We conducted conventional and summative content analysis of the qualitative data.
This research showed that effective mentors provide students with technical support (e.g., scholarly writing and research methods), managerial support (e.g., goal-setting and time management), and emotional support in the form of encouragement. This research goes beyond prior studies by providing specific strategies mentors can apply to improve their practice, particularly regarding support with research methods.
This paper addresses the problem by providing practical strategies mentors can use to help students succeed.
We conducted semi-structured interviews of 21 effective mentors of doctoral students representing highly ranked educational programs at universities across the United States. We conducted conventional and summative content analysis of the qualitative data.
This research showed that effective mentors provide students with technical support (e.g., scholarly writing and research methods), managerial support (e.g., goal-setting and time management), and emotional support in the form of encouragement. This research goes beyond prior studies by providing specific strategies mentors can apply to improve their practice, particularly regarding support with research methods.
Research Interests:
“It makes me sick when I see dissertation work completed by the advisor. I can name several scholars who do it. Faculty get overly involved in students’ writing,” was a comment we heard recently from a colleague. This led us to wonder... more
“It makes me sick when I see dissertation work completed by the advisor. I can name several scholars who do it. Faculty get overly involved in students’ writing,” was a comment we heard recently from a colleague. This led us to wonder whether advisors have been generally too involved in their students’ work. If so, this presents a problem because the dissertation is designed to be an independent project created by the student. The whole point of doctoral study is to bring about a transformation from dependent student to independent scholar. Obviously, if advisors have been writing for students the goal of the program will not be met.
On the other hand, research indicates some advisors are too busy or unwilling to support doctoral students properly (Lovitts, 2008). Consider this quote from an interview of a doctoral advisor by Aitchison (2012): “[Students are] forced, they’re facilitated and encouraged from Day 1 to write. We’ve no shortage of students and you want to cut your losses early if they’re not going to perform, particularly in the current metrics.” So, the message here was students were on their own to learn scholarly writing; moreover, there was competition among students and those who could perform independently would move forward; those who needed support would be left behind. This approach is also flawed because doctoral work is a dynamic journey that transforms a dependent student into an independent scholar. We believe an effective mentor must be sensitive to individual differences in the developmental progress of students. We also believe effective mentors must be skilled at directing their instruction to the appropriate level based on students’ needs.
On the other hand, research indicates some advisors are too busy or unwilling to support doctoral students properly (Lovitts, 2008). Consider this quote from an interview of a doctoral advisor by Aitchison (2012): “[Students are] forced, they’re facilitated and encouraged from Day 1 to write. We’ve no shortage of students and you want to cut your losses early if they’re not going to perform, particularly in the current metrics.” So, the message here was students were on their own to learn scholarly writing; moreover, there was competition among students and those who could perform independently would move forward; those who needed support would be left behind. This approach is also flawed because doctoral work is a dynamic journey that transforms a dependent student into an independent scholar. We believe an effective mentor must be sensitive to individual differences in the developmental progress of students. We also believe effective mentors must be skilled at directing their instruction to the appropriate level based on students’ needs.
Research Interests:
“It makes me sick when I see dissertation work completed by the advisor. I can name several scholars who do it. Faculty get overly involved in students’ writing,” was a comment we heard recently from a colleague. This led us to wonder... more
“It makes me sick when I see dissertation work completed by the advisor. I can name several scholars who do it. Faculty get overly involved in students’ writing,” was a comment we heard recently from a colleague. This led us to wonder whether advisors have been generally too involved in their students’ work. If so, this presents a problem because the dissertation is designed to be an independent project created by the student. The whole point of doctoral study is to bring about a transformation from dependent student to independent scholar. Obviously, if advisors have been writing for students the goal of the program will not be met.
On the other hand, research indicates some advisors are too busy or unwilling to support doctoral students properly (Lovitts, 2008). Consider this quote from an interview of a doctoral advisor by Aitchison (2012): “[Students are] forced, they’re facilitated and encouraged from Day 1 to write. We’ve no shortage of students and you want to cut your losses early if they’re not going to perform, particularly in the current metrics.” So, the message here was students were on their own to learn scholarly writing; moreover, there was competition among students and those who could perform independently would move forward; those who needed support would be left behind. This approach is also flawed because doctoral work is a dynamic journey that transforms a dependent student into an independent scholar. We believe an effective mentor must be sensitive to individual differences in the developmental progress of students. We also believe effective mentors must be skilled at directing their instruction to the appropriate level based on students’ needs. This paper will explore this duality.
On the other hand, research indicates some advisors are too busy or unwilling to support doctoral students properly (Lovitts, 2008). Consider this quote from an interview of a doctoral advisor by Aitchison (2012): “[Students are] forced, they’re facilitated and encouraged from Day 1 to write. We’ve no shortage of students and you want to cut your losses early if they’re not going to perform, particularly in the current metrics.” So, the message here was students were on their own to learn scholarly writing; moreover, there was competition among students and those who could perform independently would move forward; those who needed support would be left behind. This approach is also flawed because doctoral work is a dynamic journey that transforms a dependent student into an independent scholar. We believe an effective mentor must be sensitive to individual differences in the developmental progress of students. We also believe effective mentors must be skilled at directing their instruction to the appropriate level based on students’ needs. This paper will explore this duality.
Research Interests:
The Problem " It makes me sick when I see dissertation work completed by the advisor. I can name several scholars who do it. Faculty get overly involved in students' writing, " was a comment we heard recently from a colleague. This led us... more
The Problem " It makes me sick when I see dissertation work completed by the advisor. I can name several scholars who do it. Faculty get overly involved in students' writing, " was a comment we heard recently from a colleague. This led us to wonder whether advisors have been generally too involved in their students' work. If so, this presents a problem because the dissertation is designed to be an independent project created by the student. The whole point of doctoral study is to bring about a transformation from dependent student to independent scholar. Obviously, if advisors have been writing for students the goal of the program will not be met. On the other hand, research indicates some advisors are too busy or unwilling to support doctoral students properly (Lovitts, 2008). Consider this quote from an interview of a doctoral advisor by Aitchison (2012): " [Students are] forced, they're facilitated and encouraged from Day 1 to write. We've no shortage of students and you want to cut your losses early if they're not going to perform, particularly in the current metrics. " So, the message here was students were on their own to learn scholarly writing; moreover, there was competition among students and those who could perform independently would move forward; those who needed support would be left behind. This approach is also flawed because doctoral work is a dynamic journey that transforms a dependent student into an independent scholar. This paper will help mentors strike the right balance. Journal of Higher Education Management, 32(2), xx-xx (ISSN-2640-7515).