A Study of Novice Faculty Members' Experiences During the Mentoring Process

Abstract

This chapter suggests a new framework for thinking about the role of informal mentoring in higher education based on the persistently changing role of education. The chapter provides the findings from a qualitative research study that examined how the lived experiences of three novice professors guided their engagement in informal mentoring opportunities. The study offers evidence to capture how engagement in mentoring opportunities improved the quality of teaching. With each mentoring opportunity, these three professors gained knowledge and skills that they integrated into their classrooms to be more effective teachers. The conclusions address the following areas: the importance of previous lived experiences as a catalyst for in engaging in mentoring opportunities; the importance of mentoring having an informal structure, one where they controlled the learning direction; the nature and ramifications of the informal versus formal aspects of this process; and the findings in this study align with Kolb's learning theory.