Abstract

Abstract

There is an abundance of literature on mentoring, but significantly lesser so on team based mentoring models and their benefits. Team based mentoring in undergraduate research is important because it affects a wide range of people, in both the work place and the undergraduate collegiate community. The purpose of this study was to expand the literature on team based undergraduate mentoring and add to already existing mentoring structures in the field, through survey data and interviews. Survey data were collected over a period of two years and an interview was conducted, transcribed and coded in order to learn about a mentee’s research experience. This study contained 132 survey results and one interview case study. Results showed new thresholds in mentoring team sizes, creating brackets of 2-4, 5-6, 7, and 8 and above. A close analysis showed how team size determines the number of mentors. The analysis also explains that filling a higher number of roles give a better chance of being considered a mentor. These results were the gateway into understanding the interview case study, where the interviewee identified a new subcategory of Many to One mentoring, titled here the Solar System Model. The second important finding was the two important factors the interviewee noted in her consideration of mentors: filling “big picture” roles and having a personal relationship. These findings begin to fill an essential void in mentored undergraduate research literature; and in the future, other researchers can expand them and continue to identify additional team-based structures and important roles mentors need to provide. Understanding structures and mentoring roles is essential to making undergraduate research a better, more effective experience for all those involved.

Advisor

Pollock, Meagen

Department

Geology

Disciplines

Education | Sociology

Publication Date

2016

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

Download

Share

COinS
 

© Copyright 2016 Brittany A. Nicholson