What a difference mentoring makes: service learning and engagement for college students

Colleges are increasingly interested in ways to better engage students in their academic careers. This article reports 20 college students' experiences as mentors for at‐risk fourth‐graders through a mentoring program called The Learning Connection (TLC), run by the Community Services Office at Moravian College. The study describes students' voluntary participation in service learning activities as a source of student engagement, the characteristics of the TLC mentoring program, the process by which student mentors reported their experiences over the course of the academic year, and the benefits of the mentoring program through the eyes of the college student mentors. At the beginning of the mentoring experience, mentors reported that the primary reasons for mentoring were to make a difference in a child's life and supplement classroom learning. At the end of the academic year, mentors reported that mentoring taught them important lessons about children, themselves, community work and the value of mentoring. Mentor feedback supports mentoring, specifically, and service learning, generally, as a source of student engagement for college students.     

基于数字读写项目的学术英语模块化课程构建与实践

如何促进大学生结合专业学习与国际学术交流的需要,发展数字时代的英语读写技能,是当前中国大学英语教育改革 的一个重要课题。本文通过北京大学学术英语通选课Doing English Digital 的课程构建与实践,提供了一个融教学与评价为一体的、基于数字读写项目的大学学术英语模块化课程的设计实例。     

Supporting Self-Regulated Learning for College Students with Asperger Syndrome: Exploring the “Strategies for College Learning” Model

In this study, I piloted the feasibility, effects, and perceived acceptability of a peer mentoring intervention targeting academic achievement and self-regulated learning (SRL) for three college students with Asperger syndrome. The approach, dubbed Strategies for College Learning (SCL), features individualized assessment of academic performance in target courses and direct instruction of learning and self-regulation strategies under the provision of a peer mentor. The pilot study resulted in successful implementation of SCL and the acquisition of numerous learning strategies among participants. Qualitative data indicated participants felt SCL was both useful and acceptable. As the incidence of autism spectrum disorders increases, so has the need to accommodate students with highly individualized learning needs. The pilot is among the first to explore peer mentoring as an approach at bolstering SRL and academic achievement for college students with Asperger syndrome. The limitations of the study are discussed as well as implications for future research and practice.     

Providing English Language Support through Collegial Mentoring: How do we measure its impact?

As staff developmental initiatives become increasingly common in educational institutions, the evaluation of such programmes may need careful consideration. This paper describes a staff developmental initiative in which a one-on-one mentoring service was offered as part of a funded staff development project entitled 'Effective English Communication for Teaching and Research' (EECTR). EECTR provides language support to all academic staff in a Hong Kong university. The mentoring sessions typically require a discussion of the nature of academic writing. For evaluation purposes, feedback was collected through various questionnaires which indicated that the EECTR mentoring had been a fairly successful programme. However, these traditional measures could not tell the stakeholders the impact of the mentoring process on individual clients. Thus two additional measures were taken. First, three in-depth case studies were undertaken to ascertain how individuals saw the impact of mentoring. Additionally, interviews with clients were also conducted over a two-year period. With support from the data, this paper demonstrates how multiple measures of evaluation provided an opportunity to see the dynamic interaction between general perceptions of impact and individual learning within a programme.     

Incorporating the notion of recontextualisation in academic literacies research: the case of a South African vocational web design and development course

This article describes a small scale ethnographically oriented research study seeking to contribute to understanding student academic literacy practices in a South African vocational, web design and development course. In this course digital multimodal assessments are the main means whereby students demonstrate their learning. The findings of the study provide insights into the contextualised ways in which student academic literacy practices are shaped by academic and professional contexts where digital and multimodal practices are privileged. The academic literacies perspective used in this study, while useful for exploring the nature of student academic literacy practices, has not paid enough attention to theorising how literacy practices are shaped by broader contextual influences. To address this limitation the paper speculates about how the Bernsteinian concept of knowledge recontextualisation might be used alongside an academic literacies frame. The inclusion of an empirical focus on recontextualisation can provide an opportunity to explore how knowledge construction and transformation processes in the academic and professional domains result in the privileging of particular academic literacy practices.     

Mentoring of Women Faculty: The Role of Organizational Politics and Culture

This article reports on a key finding of a phenomenological study on the mentoring experiences of women faculty. The study revealed the political climate of the organization as an essential attribute of this experience. Women faculty identified organizational culture and gender issues that affected the mentoring they received. This study suggests the need for human resource and organization development initiatives to facilitate the provision of academic mentoring for women faculty—individually, departmentally, and culturally—as a means to foster transformation and change in academic institutions.Sharon K. Gibson is an Assistant Professor of organization learning and development at the University of St. Thomas. She received her Ph.D. in adult education from the University of Minnesota. She holds an M.S.W. degree and graduate certificate in labor and industrial relations from the University of Michigan and a B.S. from Cornell University. Her research interests focus on developmental relationships including mentoring and coaching, strategic human resource and organization development, and adult learning.     

Peer mentoring among doctoral students of science and engineering in Taiwan

This study describes the peer mentoring experience from doctoral student mentors?? point of view. Twelve science and engineering doctoral students participated in this phenomenology study. The findings suggest doctoral peer mentors served instrumental, psychosocial, buffering, and liaison roles; they passed on their social, professional, and academic knowledge to their mentees and tried to assist them in adapting to the culture of the lab and academia. The study identified a variety of factors that influenced their attitudes and behaviors as peer mentors and concluded this system would be beneficial to the learning and development of both individual students and lab teams. The aims of this study were threefold: first, to identify the importance and necessity of peer mentoring systems as part of the experience of working in labs in graduate school; second, to ascertain which interactions and factors in the peer mentoring relationship benefitted both peer mentors and peer mentees; and third, to explore what might constitute best practices in the peer mentoring relationship.     

Evidence,argument and social responsibility: first‐year students’ experiences of information literacy when researching an essay

This paper describes a phenomenographic study of undergraduates’ experiences of information literacy when researching an essay in a first‐year environmental studies course. Three hierarchical categories were identified that represented students’ experiences: (i) seeking evidence; (ii) developing an argument; and (iii) learning as a social responsibility. The critical variation that delimited the categories included students’ focus on learning, focus on the essay task, use of information in the course, use of information in the essay, use of contrasting perspectives and development of argument. Strategies for designing curricula are suggested based on the educationally critical aspects that the study reveals, and the nature of information literacy as a ‘generic’ skill is questioned. The study has significance for students, teachers, librarians, academic skills advisers and academic developers in higher education.     

Long-Term Mentors’ Perceptions of Building Mentoring Relationships with At-Risk Youth

Youth mentoring, defined within this study, as the pairing of a youth at risk with a caring adult, is an intervention that is often used for youth at risk for academic and social failure. We sought to understand mentors’ perspectives of the fundamental elements that foster positive mentor–mentee relationships that build resiliency and increase social and academic success. Twelve participants with extensive experience in mentoring youth at high risk participated in structured interviews during two focus groups. Major themes revealed in data analysis included needs for supportive acceptance and consistency to help the mentees build social literacy and future visioning.     

The impact of peer mentoring on pupils’ emotional literacy competencies

Research suggests that peer mentoring can positively impact on emotional literacy competencies. This study explored the effects of peer mentoring on the emotional literacy competencies of Year 7 peer mentees using a quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test control group design. Results supported the hypothesis that peer mentoring has a positive impact on the emotional literacy competencies of mentees with low to average levels of emotional literacy at pre-intervention. Results also showed a significant negative correlation between attendance at sessions and perceived Conduct Problems. Unexpectedly, results indicated adverse effects of reading mentoring on the emotional literacy competencies of control participants.     

Students’ experiences of academic success with dyslexia: A call for alternative intervention

This article describes a small‐scale study exploring the perspectives of five undergraduate students with dyslexia. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted in two universities in the UK. The interviews explored participants’ perceptions of their dyslexia label and how it had affected their academic success. The aim of the research was to identify facilitating factors that supported participants with dyslexia during their education. The following themes were identified: age of dyslexia identification, family support, dyslexic identity, self‐advocacy skills and learning resources. The study makes a case for an intervention for children and young people (CYP) with dyslexia that, in addition to remedial literacy support, explores self‐advocacy, thinking and study skills and facilitates positive academic self‐concepts. Future research could evaluate such an intervention for its effectiveness on CYP's social emotional well‐being and literacy skills.     

From Crisis Management to Academic Achievement: A University Cluster-mentoring Model for Black Undergraduates

In spite of the widening racial achievement gap among U.S. college students (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011), some universities are achieving success in supporting the graduation and postcollege goals of Black undergraduates (Apprey, Bassett, Preston-Grimes, Lewis, & Wood 2014/this issue; Baker, 2006; Hrabowski, 2003; Hrabowski & Maton, 2009). Although research has documented efforts to improve students’ college academic success in mathematics, science, and engineering (Maton & Hrabowski, 2004), little research has examined the role of undergraduate support programs across the academic disciplines to bridge success for students from high school graduation through graduate school matriculation. This is a key link in the pipeline to career and lifelong achievement for Black students. The following case study describes an inclusive cluster-mentoring model for Black undergraduates at a Research I university that includes four elements—(a) student peer-advising, (b) faculty–student academic mentoring and advising, (c) culturally sensitive initiatives, and (d) organized parental support—to create high impact with measurable results. This university-based model can serve as a guide to improve and expand services that support the academic and leadership success of Black undergraduate students in other higher education settings.     

Lessons learned: Using the literacy histories of education students to foster empathy

In order for new teachers to foster equitable literacy learning environments, they must first understand the scope and variety of experience that will pervade their classrooms. The following multi-case study describes the potential of digital stories as an instructional tool in a literacy methods course at a northeastern university and college where the authors examined four digital autobiographical stories created by their students and the subsequent reactions to these stories by classmates. These stories were shared to allow the preservice teachers to reflect on social equity with a goal of building empathy.     

The ABC of peer mentoring – what secondary students have to say about cross-age peer mentoring in a regional Australian school

Cross-age peer mentoring is an educational model that builds on peer support and mentoring to assist young people to enhance social relationships, develop cognitive skills, and promote positive identity development. In this article, we outline the evaluation process of a cross-age peer-mentoring program implemented in an Australian secondary school. This program had a distinctive focus on blending cross-age peer mentoring, academic tutoring, and social support roles. We focus on the program's consumers – the voices of Year 7 students (mentees) and Year 10 students (mentors). Student perspectives were gathered using qualitative methods through repeated focus groups. Data were thematically analysed, and the findings show observed changes in social relationships, problem-solving skills, and engagement with literacy. We discuss the importance of this relationship for effective learning and examine the reported changes to engagement with relationship building. Implications for developing whole-of-school support and increasing wider participation are discussed.     

An evaluation of curriculum, setting, and mentoring on the performance of children enrolled in pre-kindergarten

An alarming number of American pre-school children lack sufficient language and literacy skills to succeed in kindergarten. The type of curriculum that is available within pre-kindergarten settings can impact children's academic readiness. This work presents results from an evaluation of two language and literacy curricula (i.e., Let's Begin with the Letter People and Doors to Discovery) from a random assignment study that occurred within three settings (i.e., Head Start, Title 1, and universal pre-kindergarten) and included a control group. The design included a mentoring and non- mentoring condition that was balanced across sites in either curriculum condition. A pre and post-test design was utilized in the analyses, with children (n = 603) tested before the intervention and at the end of the year. Multilevel growth curve modeling, where the child outcomes (dependent measures) are modeled as a function of the child's level of performance and rate of growth between pre and post-testing, was used for all analyses. Results indicated that in many key language/literacy areas, the skills of children in classrooms using either one of the target curricula grew at greater rates than children in control classrooms. This was especially true in the Head Start programs. The findings from this study indicate that at-risk children can benefit from a well-specified curriculum. Additionally, findings demonstrate that a well-detailed curriculum appeared to be less important for children from higher income families. The impact of mentoring was less clear and seemed dependent on the type of skill being measured and type of program.     

Curriculum-Integrated Information Literacy (CIIL) in a Community College Nursing Program: A Practical Model

This article describes a strategy to integrate information literacy into the curriculum of a nursing program in a community college. The model is articulated in four explained phases: preparatory, planning, implementation, and evaluation. It describes a collaborative process encouraging librarians to work with nursing faculty, driving students to acquire information literacy competencies, to use information resources as part of their learning process, and to be lifelong learners. The literature reviews the evolution of the concept of informatics in nursing practice and the different blueprints organized to attain information literacy competencies. It also describes studies that have included these competencies into nursing curriculum.     

Integrating Language,Literacy, and Academic Development: Alternatives to Traditional English as a Second Language and Remedial English for Language Minority Students in Community Colleges

This article argues for the importance of integrating a focus on language, literacy, and academic development for United States-educated language minority (US-LM) students, sometimes called Generation 1.5. It describes four initiatives at community colleges in California that aim to do so. US-LM students have completed some K–12 schooling in the United States, but their English is considered by community college faculty, staff, or assessment measures to be inadequate for college-level instruction. Although enacting effective language and literacy support for Generation 1.5 has centered on debates about whether these students belong in English as a Second Language (ESL) or remedial English courses, how they can best be identified and tested, or whether they should be taught in separate classes, we argue that more fundamental shifts are needed. Instead of conceiving of students’ language and literacy development solely in terms of progress through ESL or remedial English sequences, educators designing support for US-LM students must also consider larger contexts of students’ academic progress, promoting students’ development of language and literacy for success in academic and professional settings as well as progress toward completing credits required for associate degrees, certificates, and transfer to four-year institutions.     

The Conditions of Work Based Learning

The changing landscape of learning in graduate leadership programs has given way to the potential of online development programs. Currently, a lack of research exists that describes the role of the online leader, particularly in academic programs that utilize mentors as well. Identification and exploration of the leadership role in an online environment given the structural elements of mentorship and academic coursework, then becomes the context of this article. A case study using a systems framework of input-process-output=output was conducted to investigate a program of international collaboration, networking and mentoring relationships that attempted to unite leaders to prepare schools for globalization. What developed within the overall design was the identification of three levels of leaders that were involved in this program: Student (participant) leaders, process leaders, and instructor leaders that struggled to define identity roles within the virtual realm. A clear need for purpose, identification and role clarity to scaffold the virtual experience and fortify the mentoring process surfaced from the experi ences within this case. Further research and development will be needed to successfully design programs for leaders that will meet practical, relevant needs while establishing engaging, collaborative, interdependent relationships to affect the local environment and satisfy the necessary academic criteria.