Part II: Nuts and Bolts of Mentoring

Transcription

1 Part II: Nuts and Bolts of Mentoring Mentoring Undergraduate Thesis Projects Claudia Lampman and John Petraitis (Psychology) Why are We Writing this Chapter? We have been faculty in the UAA Department of Psychology for 19 years, and in that time, we have supervised approximately 25 senior thesis projects. Most of our thesis students have been Psychology majors, but about a third of them were not. We find mentoring undergraduate students in research to be one of the most rewarding parts of our jobs. We teach classes at all undergraduate levels, including a 100-level General Psychology class, a 200-level Honors Social Science Seminar, a 300-level theory classes, and a 400-level class called Conducting Research in Psychology. You would think that the senior level research class would be Psychology professors John Petraitis and Claudia Lampman the one where we connect with most potential senior thesis students, but it is actually the other way around. We think about our lower-division classes as recruiting grounds we actively try to enlist the brightest and best students in these classes to become Psychology majors. When we read a great paper or exam we will write a note that says: Have you thought about becoming a Psychology major? or Graduate school in Psychology could be in your future. Establishing relationships with students when they are freshman and sophomores allows you to advise them early on about the value of doing a senior thesis project. They need to get to their senior year with the proper tools and enough time for a thesis project, and that takes planning. Most of our thesis students, then, are people we had in classes early on in their college years. We watch their skills develop in our courses and others, we follow their progress, and know their abilities. We talk to students about doing a thesis when we do advising. We mention the benefits of conducting such a project when applying to graduate school or for jobs. In short, the mentoring process usually starts much earlier than the senior year. By the time most of our senior thesis students begin their projects, we have had several semesters to get to know their work. 28

2 What is a Senior Thesis? Conducting a senior thesis project is a unique opportunity for student success. It should be a scholarly experience that distinguishes the student from his or her peers. Although a senior thesis should involve significant independent work on the student s part, it must also involve strong faculty mentorship. At the end of the project, the student should demonstrate an advanced understanding of an area of specialization, appropriate application of disciplinary techniques, tools, or methods and the ability to present the thesis project with competence. There are two basic senior thesis models. One model is the apprenticeship or partnership model. In the apprenticeship model, a student conducts a project that is part of a faculty member s general program of research. The faculty member can carve out a piece of his/her own research for the student to conduct. Alternatively, there may be a study that a faculty member would like to see completed, but doesn t have the time to do on her/his own. So, in this model, the student conducts an independent research project, although the design of the project may be largely set by the faculty member. It is especially important, however, that when senior thesis students conduct a project under the apprenticeship model, they still be required to write or present the methodology or process on their own. Typically, in this model, the student chooses the thesis chair first, and then comes to some agreement with the faculty member about the topic of the project. The other basic model is student-driven. In this case, a student first chooses a topic, and then seeks out a faculty member who is willing to supervise the project. Although the general topic area is chosen by the student, in our experience the chair usually needs to play a large role in the overall design of the project. Students often begin with thesis ideas that are way too grand projects that are unlikely to be accomplished in the course of two semesters. The chair can help the student design a project that can be managed in the student s time frame (usually a one-year period). Whichever model a student chooses, we think it is important to communicate to the student that a senior thesis does not need to be the perfect study or project. Many will have misconceptions about the process. Some students expect that a thesis needs to be entirely original and groundbreaking, while others believe they must write hundreds of pages for it to be an acceptable length. At the same time, many have ideas that can t possibly be accomplished within a one-year time frame. Mentoring Advice One of the most important things to keep in mind is that a senior thesis is largely about learning how to conduct scholarly work in a discipline, not just about the product. It is so tempting for the mentor to turn on track 29

3 changes in Microsoft Word and edit away, changing bad sentences to good ones and filling in gaps. In fact, sometimes we change perfectly adequate sentences (that sound like they were written by an undergraduate) to near perfect sentences (that sound like they were written by someone with a Ph.D.). We know this is tempting, and often feels like the very best way to teach a student how to write for your discipline. We would suggest, however, that it is better for you to guide and advise thesis students by telling them what is wrong (e.g., a split infinitive, a run-on or awkward sentence, redundancies in certain parts of the paper) but not telling them exactly how to fix the problem. That is where the best learning takes place. Different students, of course, require different amounts of guidance. This fact leads right into the next section: whom should you take on as a thesis student? Develop Some Personal Criteria for Thesis Supervision A professor who agrees to supervise or chair a senior thesis project is making a great commitment to a student. We have supervised about 25 senior thesis projects during our careers, but not all of them were completed. Our complete rate, however, has improved over time. Partly this is due to our own growth and development as academicians; we are better supervisors now than we were 19 years ago because we know a lot more about research in our field. At the same time, we are much choosier or selective now in terms of whom we agree to supervise. We would strongly recommend that you have a set of criteria that describes your requirements for thesis supervision. These criteria come in handy when a poorly-qualified student approaches you about supervising his or her thesis. For example, our criteria look like this. Requirements for Chairing a BA/BS Thesis Dr. Claudia Lampman 1. Receive a grade of A in PSY A420: Conducting Research in Psychology 2. Receive a grade of A in at least two courses (minimum 6 credits) taught by me (PSY A111, HNRS A292, PSY A313, PSY A420) a. One of these courses must have involved a major written project (PSY A313; HNRS A292; PSY A420) b. Independent Study courses (PSY A397/A497) excluded here 3. Overall college GPA consistent with University Honors and/or Departmental Honors Guidelines (i.e., GPA = 3.5 or above) 4. The student s research is on a topic where I have some expertise and am able to provide guidance. You can, of course, bend your own rules anytime you want. The one rule we have learned not to bend concerns the student s writing abilities. We 30

4 must have evidence that the student is an adequate writer before we will agree to supervise a project. Writing is a common part to most all senior thesis projects, and a student who has significant difficulty with writing will be a very difficult student to supervise. That said, great writing skills are not enough for a successful thesis. We recall a couple of thesis projects early on in our careers where the students were smart, capable writers, and proposed strong projects. But when they were not facing hard-and-fast deadlines and didn t have a handout to tell them exactly what the paper should look like, they turned in theses with a lot of missing information. It felt like they were turning in rough drafts with the expectation that we would fill in the missing pieces. With the criteria that we use now, this seems to happen less often. At the Introductory Meeting As soon as possible, have a meeting with the student to discuss the thesis process. Many students are intimidated and don t really know what to expect. Before the meeting, let the student know he/she should come prepared with questions and their calendar. One question you should ask is Why do you want to do a thesis? What is your motivation? Typically, there are five motives for pursuing the thesis experience among students in psychology: (1) as a way of getting upper-division credits, (2) as a way of impressing undergraduate faculty and thereby getting stronger letters of recommendation for graduate school or employment, (3) as a way of producing a research product that will impress graduate schools, (4) as a hands-on way of learning more about research in a one-on-one context, and (5) as a way to answer some research question that is intrinsically interesting to the student. To some extent, each motive is legitimate, but having only one or two motives might result in an unfinished thesis, and unproductive faculty time. Students, for instance, who are only doing a thesis for credits and letters of recommendation might give up on the thesis halfway through when they realize there are easier ways to get credits and that a letter of recommendation from a thesis advisor might not compensate for a modest GPA in the eyes of graduate school selection committees. Learning early on why a student wants to do a thesis might save you and the student a lot of time. Once you establish that the student has sufficient motivation to sustain a thesis, you should spend part of the initial meeting with a discussion of realistic expectations for a thesis. According to UAA s catalog, a normal three-credit class requires 2,250 in-class contact minutes and 4,500 minutes of course-related work completed outside the classroom. Applying this to a thesis where there is no in-class contact minutes, students conducting a three-credit thesis should expect to devote 112 ½ hours of work to their theses over a 15 week period, averaging to 7.5 hours per week. Six credit theses, of course, need either to double the time commitment per week to 15 hours or double the number of weeks into a two-semester thesis. The 31

5 faculty member and student should discuss these expectations and design a project that is neither too large nor too small. Some students will want to do a project that is simply too large, too complex, too expensive or requires too many resources that your department does not have. In these cases, the number of credits needs to be expanded or the scope of the thesis needs to be scaled back. Faculty, too, might be overambitious, suggesting that a student write the equivalent of a doctoral dissertation. The faculty supervisor needs to find the right balance and articulate that balance to the student. Additionally, during the initial meeting, the faculty supervisor should discuss timelines and deadlines for major pieces of the project. State clearly that it is the student s responsibility to meet those deadlines, and that you won t be reminding him/her when things are due. Explain to the student that it is a major investment of time to supervise a thesis, and that when they turn work in for you to read, it should be their best work (not a rough draft ). Timeline A sample timeline for a 6-credit thesis that works well for students in the Psychology Department appears below. It s helpful to go over something like this with students to demystify the process and give them benchmarks. Timeline: Semester I (3 credits) Conduct literature review Design study and write proposal Conduct statistical power analysis If going for departmental honors, apply to Undergraduate Studies Committee in writing. Apply for funding (such as Undergraduate Research Grant) Complete IRB or IACUC training If collecting data off-campus, get letters of support Complete and submit IRB or IACUC proposal, if applicable - Expect to wait 2-5 weeks for review, depending upon study - Expect revisions Timeline: Semester II (3 credits) Arrange for a second committee member Arrange rooms/lab for data collection, if necessary Collect data Follow department recruitment policy if collecting data from UAA classes Analyze data Write final thesis in APA style, but formatted to University thesis specifications 32

6 Submit thesis to committee no later than 4 weeks before end of semester Revise and re-submit until acceptable to committee Prepare thesis cover page which needs to be signed by: - Thesis Chair - Committee Member(s) - Department Chair Bring final copy of thesis to the Library Some Final Thoughts One of the best parts of being a faculty member is seeing your students succeed, not just while they are in college, but once they leave. We love the s, phone calls, and visits from former students who ve just been accepted to graduate school or landed a great job. We have these experiences pretty regularly, and much of the time, they are students who did a thesis project with us. Mentoring a thesis student is, for us, one of the most rewarding parts of our jobs. It is what being an academic is all about. It s an opportunity to feel proud of your student s accomplishment, and know that you played a role in their success. 33