Mentoring Program for New Faculty
Found in Scholarship and Professional Development > Mentoring
Mentoring Program Goal:
To assist faculty in becoming effective and satisfied teachers in the academy, to equip them for potential advancement into positions of leadership in either institutional service or scholarship, and offer encouragement in believing that pursuit of truth, beauty and justice honors God and allows one more fully to know and love God.
Mentoring is a process and your willingness to be teachable will ensure the quality of your experience.
Mentoring is collegial and develops self-reliance, enabling you to make your own value judgments about your work. Mentoring is not hierarchical; your mentor is not your supervisor evaluating your work. (Hal Portner; Mentoring New Teachers, pp. 6 & 41; Corwin Press (1998).
Making the Most of your Mentoring Opportunity
Reflective Questions in Preparation for Mentoring:
1. Begin by asking yourself not only what you want, but what you need.
2. Where do you see yourself in five years?
3. What type of person are you the most willing to learn from?
4. What do you anticipate learning from this person?
5. Are you willing to consider your fears, self-doubts, strengths and weaknesses?
Reflective Questions While You Are Being Mentored:
1. Does this person have a similar vision of a professor's job (ideas about teaching, learning and scholarship), or can he/she help you to develop a vision?
2. Are you gaining some degree of familiarity regarding the "inner workings" of life at Union University, as well as a sense of loyalty to the mission?
3. Consider the following “Quick Starters” section and to what degree is this a part of your current experience.
"Being a humble learner makes you a great colleague and master teacher." - Robert Boice
Profile of Academic Mentors
Understand and share the mission and values of Union University.
Pursue their own professional development and encourage their colleagues to do likewise.
Exemplify a strong teaching commitment and provide an environment that fosters creativity and encourages curiosity within themselves, their colleagues and their students.
Perceive their work as a "calling" that involves loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, which inspires them to consider the foundations of their discipline from a Biblical worldview.
Embrace knowledge as good with the confidence necessary to pursue truth and beauty knowing that they are advancing to the vision of God.
Seek involvement in the Union University community through institutional service (i.e., serving on committees, advising student groups) and attendance at campus wide events (special lectures, the arts, athletics); while holding Biblical principles as priority in balancing their time and energy.
Pursue student relationships.
Demonstrate mature discipleship of Jesus Christ by growing in obedience to the Scriptures and manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22.
Quick starters: (As defined by Robert Boice are exemplary new faculty who are quite successful while maintaining balance between teaching, scholarship, and social networking.)
Ø establish relationships with colleagues and students.
Ø highly identify with their institutions.
Ø limit tasks and achieve more balance between teaching, research and social networking.
Mentors encourage:
Ø Involvement - Developing social networks that provide support. Getting to know professors and students--establishing membership on campus.
Ø Regimen - Establishing task management through moderation and efficiency (breaking habits, getting organized, getting things done on time, apportioning one's study time).
Ø Self Management - Learning to solve the right problems. Accepting responsibility and knowing how one works best.
Ø Social Networks - Identifying with Union University and their discipline through relationships with others.
Robert Boice; The New Faculty Member, pp. 45-49, Jossey-Bass Publishers (1992).