Effective Student Mentoring Strategies by Maria Gini

Mentoring Students Maria Gini Dept of CSE, University of Minnesota

My background • Faculty at the University of Minnesota for more than 20 years • 40 faculty in the Department • Department is in College of Engineering and Physical Sciences • Large undergraduate program (~550 students, 130 graduates/year) • Large classes (100+ in lower division, 20-50 in upper division electives)

Outline • WHAT TO DO • A full range of activities to do with students • HOW: • Know your students and give them opportunities • Decide your mentoring style

WHAT: Full range of activities Examples: • Attract students to CS (non-engineering students, women and underrepresented groups) • Reach students through classes • Retain students by engaging them • Use support groups and extra-curricular activities

I - Attract students to CS • Branch out course topics and material in courses to attract non-typical majors, women and other underrepresented groups • Add flexibility to curriculum (for example provide dual majors and minors) • Reach freshmen, for instance via freshman seminars • Example: freshman seminar on “Robots as Pets” I offered last Fall • Outreach activities

II- Reach students through classes • Consider special activities to get students excited about CS and curious about research • Example: using the dogs AIBO in CS1 course (video) • Get students engaged in classes • Example: consider using a Student Management Team [see: Nuhfer, E. B., 2003, Manual for Student Management Teams, Idaho State University]

III- Retain students by engaging them In course work: • Individual or group projects can be used in upper division courses. Often they are a good start for research • Allow students to take advanced classes when they are ready • Maintain flexibility in curricula • Add challenging material to courses to keep students engaged

III- Retain students by engaging them In research: • Honors programs • Thesis work, other research activities • Example: being an unpaid TA for a semester • Research experiences • Support undergraduate research with REU supplements to NSF grants (easy to get!) • Summer internships • Connect with local companies, former students

IV- Support groups and extra-curricular activities • Types of groups/activities: • Example: establish a support group for women • Role of professional societies • Outreach activities • Funding • Often funds exist at Dept, College, University level • A little money goes a long way

Example: Support group for Women in CS at Minnesota • The Women in CS group is a support group for women (students and faculty) • The group meets monthly for lunch and activities such as • lunch with distinguished women speakers • workshops (negotiation skills, combining career and personal life, etc.) • game night and other fun activities • Started with a small grant from University, now is self sustaining via small grants from local companies • Attendance of a large group of women to Grace Hopper conferences • Started a focus women group for women in CS1 to get them connected

Role of chapters of professional societies • The local ACM chapter and the SWE chapter can support a variety of activities such as • career fairs • game nights • outreach activities • meet the faculty to hear about their research • Consider starting a ACM-W chapter

Outreach activities • Demonstrations at Science Fairs for elementary, junior high, high schools students • Helping judging local science competitions in schools • Activities at local science museum • Summer camps

HOW - Know your students and give them opportunities • Talk with students about career choices (graduate school, jobs, internships, etc) • Get them out to internships, Summer experiences, study abroad, etc • Get them to present their work at local workshops, poster presentations, and undergraduate conferences

HOW - Decide your mentoring style • Be yourself, take mentoring roles you are comfortable with • example: you do not need to take your students out to football games or invite them to your home to connect with them at a personal level • Key ingredients to success: • Respect students • Give them choices • Let them chose what to work on and control pace of work • Keep them motivated, praise them • Give them opportunities to excel and be recognized • Be patient

Reference on what students value in teachers Look at www.stephenbrookfield.com under ‘Workshop materials, power points, book extracts’. Look at Chapter 4 of The Skillful Teacher, 2nd edition (2006): “What Students Value in Teachers”. Brookfield identifies two major characteristics: Credibility and Authenticity. Credibility – “the perception that the teacher has something important to offer…and learning it will benefit the student considerably.” (page 67) Authenticity – “the perception that the teacher is being open and honest in her attempts to help students learn.” (page 67-68)

For more information email: gini@cs.umn.edu http://www.cs.umn.edu/~gini

Effective Student Mentoring Strategies by Maria Gini