Weekly teaching tips are designed to bolster your teaching toolbelt with local examples grounded in teaching and learning literature and relevant professional development opportunities.

Tuesday Teaching Tip: Peer Mentorship

Introduction

We have been thinking and talking a lot about mentorship across multiple faculty development conversations this year. Our September 28th CAFE on student mentorship provided frameworks and strategies from faculty perspectives across disciplines. We know that relationships matter for students’ persistence and thriving in their educational journey. Meaningful collegial mentorship relationships are also critical for faculty thriving. In addition to understanding the why, faculty are seeking pathways to level up their mentorship skill set for their students and in support of their colleagues and themselves. 

Faculty Associates in Faculty Development/CETL are SCU leaders recognized for their commitment to collaboration, teaching excellence, and the professional development of themselves and their colleagues. At our Fall orientation meeting, in an effort to start refining the support we offer at SCU for developing as a mentor, we asked this team to reflect on a time when another person helped them grow as a teacher and why they think it made a difference.

Across their reflections, several qualities emerged in the relationships and experiences that helped faculty grow:

• Exposure to different approaches expanded their sense of what teaching could look like.
• Sharing concrete examples and practices gave them new possibilities to adapt and try.
• Listening without judgment created trust for honest reflection and feedback.
• Having someone attend closely to their teaching helped faculty see connections between their intentions, choices, and impact.
• Encouragement to experiment gave them permission to take risks, play, and move beyond familiar approaches.
• Approaching learning as reciprocal allowed expertise and insight to move across roles and levels of experience.
• Sustained conversation and reflection helped them make meaning of their experiences and continue evolving their practice.
  
  

Want to explore further?

The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) is an independent professional development, training and mentoring community. All SCU faculty can access these resources including workshops, synchronous and asynchronous training, and intensive mentorship programs.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Center for Engaged Teaching & Learning Launch Party on Wednesday, October 7 RSVP
  
  
• Third Thursdays Shut Up & Write on Thursday, October 15 RSVP
  
  
• CAFE: Mind/Body: Joy and Creativity in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship on Tuesday, October 20 RSVP

Missed a teaching tip? Read them all here. 

And check out our full calendar of CAFEs and other Faculty Development events.