Mentoring of Doctoral Students

Mentoring of doctoral students includes activities to help assure their timely progress in the program and a successful transition to the profession.

Introducing Students to the Academic Culture of the Discipline
Establishing a Sense of Community
Preparing Students to Publish Articles and Write Grant Proposals
Preparing Students for Teaching Responsibilities
Assisting with Job Placement
 

Introducing Students to the Academic Culture of the Discipline

Departments should have strategies for introducing their doctoral students to the academic culture of the discipline. Various approaches are in use in doctoral departments including:

• Research experiences in the first semester.
   
• A series of seminars involving faculty and students at which research issues in the discipline are explored.
   
• Special graduate seminars to address current research topics and to discuss research methodology in the discipline.
   
• Sponsoring graduate research symposia and poster sessions.
   
• Encouraging students to use directed study (7990) or pre-dissertation research (9990) courses to work with different faculty and thereby gain insights into the research interests available in the department.
   
• Encouraging the formation of research groups involving faculty and students, or student research groups in which students share results of their own research efforts with other students and interested faculty.
   
• Encouraging and providing opportunity for students to submit their scholarship for presentation at conferences and for publication.
   
• Encouraging faculty to make themselves available during selected office hours for students to interview them about their research interests and publications.
   
• Circulating brief curriculum vitae of all faculty as a means of informing the students of the scholarly accomplishments and interests of faculty.

Establishing a Sense of Community among Faculty and Doctoral Students

Departments should consider establishing programs that help to create a sense of community among doctoral students and faculty. Arrangements that promote this aim include:

• Providing an area in the department where faculty and graduate students can interact informally.
   
• Encouraging faculty to invite doctoral students, especially international students, to social events at which other students and faculty are present.
   
• Encouraging faculty to avail themselves of information about the cultural backgrounds and special concerns of minority students. This information would help faculty to interact comfortably with students from ethnically and racially diverse backgrounds.
   
• Creating a student organization.
   
• Establishing student/faculty support groups to assist faculty and doctoral students who are preparing grant proposals, or papers for presentation at conferences.
   
• Working to create peer support groups for students preparing for qualifying exams and working on their dissertations. These points in a student’s program may be particularly stressful, and students may benefit most from the support of their peers.

Preparing the Doctoral Student to Publish Articles and Write Grant Proposals

The doctoral student should be helped to understand the culture of publishing in scholarly journals and scholarly presses. Among the strategies the department could employ to achieve this end are the following:

• Holding seminars for doctoral students on scholarly publishing. The seminars should cover such matters as writing letters of intent to journal and book editors; preparing book prospectuses; understanding and following style sheet requirements for major journals in the field, including citation rules; interpreting the responses of journal editors; revising manuscripts; preparing an article for different audiences; and finding the appropriate journal for papers.
   
• Doctoral students could learn successful publishing behavior from participation with faculty on articles being submitted for publication.

The doctoral student also should receive guidance from the department on writing grant and fellowship proposals. This could be achieved by exposing the student to the following activities:

• Holding workshops or offering courses on preparing fellowship and grant proposals. Such workshops or courses should include instruction on writing effective personal statements for fellowship proposals; writing the narrative sections of grant proposals; preparing the budget in grant proposals; and the funding patterns of various federal and private foundations.
   
• The doctoral student could learn how to write excellent grant proposals by participating with faculty on grant-writing projects.
   
• Students also should be referred to the Graduate School’s Graduate Writing Resources web page.

Preparing Doctoral Students for Teaching Responsibilities

In preparing doctoral students academically, departments are often training the future professoriate. Even when students do not go on to academic careers, communication skills developed in the context of teaching are important in many professional positions. It should therefore be a departmental goal to provide doctoral students with the opportunity to serve as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA). With this in mind, the department should publicize its procedures for awarding teaching assistantships to doctoral students. The department should inform doctoral students that each new GTA must attend the Graduate School's annual GTA orientation program, and that international GTAs must also pass the Test of Spoken English (TSE) and Wayne State University's SPEAK test before they are allowed to teach courses.

Departments should monitor the teaching competence of their TAs. Methods to do this could include:

• Assigning a faculty mentor to each TA. This faculty mentor should observe classes taught by TAs and make suggestions for the improvement of techniques.
   
• Encouraging TAs to sit in on classes taught by faculty who are exceptional teachers.
   
• Meeting regularly with TAs to discuss college pedagogy.
   
• Making books and articles on college pedagogy available in the department's library, and encouraging doctoral students and faculty to read these texts.
   
• Informing students of the opportunity to earn the Graduate Certificate in College and University Teaching, offered through the Instructional Technology program.
   
• Encouraging students to make use of the Office for Teaching and Learning(OTL), located on the first floor of the Purdy/Kresge Library in the Technology Resource Center (telephone: 313-577-1980). The office holds workshops and maintains a library on teaching skills. The OTL will also provide feedback on teaching in the classroom.

Placement

Students need assistance finding a job. In addition to keeping students informed of job ads, talking with colleagues when a student is on the job market, and informing students of job placement services at professional meetings, the Graduate Director can organize helpful activities. These include the following:

• Make information available on a variety of career options.
   
• Job placement information of past graduates should be provided.
   
• Placement workshops should be held featuring c.v. writing, interviewing techniques, and tips on the job talk. Faculty, students on the job market, and placed students should be included as speakers.