Engaging in a design process for a digital tool that could resolve a challenge at my current place of work, a post secondary institution, framed the beginning of LRNT 527. The challenge started with the crafting of a design question and this caused me to reflect on a mentorship training session that was created by my team in answer to a widening gap of quality between field settings for our students. The importance of mentorship for student success was initially inspired through “Secondary Research” (IDEO., 2015) and the article by Laura Doan “Mentoring: A Strategy to Support Novice Early Childhood Educators”. The resulting two hour face to face session was made mandatory for all field settings if they were to receive students. The training has since been presented at conferences and we are in our second year of rolling it out. Our feedback from the field was very supportive and participation in the training session created a good start for students. However, because mentors are not asked to retake the training every year we have since noticed that in some placements the quality of support has started to deteriorate again. A one time approach is not creating the consistency in practice we were hoping for and because access to training events in a rural area is always a barrier, the following design question emerged: ‘How might I create an approach for mentorship training that will increase the quality of practicum experiences for students and support mentors throughout the duration of the practicum?’.
In order to engage in a human centred design approach IDEO. (2015) offers a selection of methods to create an empathetic process to enlist user feedback. As I had already engaged in several methods introduced in the IDEO design kit, such as Secondary Research, Peers Observing Peers, Define Your Audience and Immersion. For this engagement I chose the ‘Extremes and Mainstreams’ method and decided to create a questionnaire, using Monkey Survey, and send it out to three former mentors. I made sure I selected participants ranging from different sized settings (private and public) and a range of skill levels. In my selection, I made sure to consider the different barriers each mentor may encounter using my digital tool from finding the time, technical ability, to working in isolation, even in this small selected group of users I was able to create variety. The challenge I anticipate is that summer is upon us and people are either on vacation or just not checking their emails as often. I would have liked to engage in person to person interviews but my rural and remote location makes that very difficult. Now that I have my design challenge and my questionnaire has been sent out to future users, I can’t wait to see where this will take me.
References
Doan, L. (2013). Mentoring: A Strategy to Support Novice Early Childhood Educators. Retrieved from https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/jcs/article/view/15447/6148
Hain, J. (2015). Parenting Friendship Nurturing Loving Psychology [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/parenting-friendship-nurturing-736384/
IDEO. (2015). Design Kit – Methods.Retrieved from http://www.designkit.org/methods
Hi Anita,
I really appreciate the focus of your design challenge. As I also send students out on a practicum, this is an area which we have never focused before. I see tremendous value in training the mentors. As you are sending out a questionnaire I am wondering how you intend to deal with the challenge of time on the part of the mentors. I find that a written exercise does not provide the same feedback as an in-person conversation as occasionally the respondent rushes through the answers just to complete the questionnaire (I myself am guilty of this). I am aware that some of your participants may be at distance and thought perhaps a Skype style interview might provide more candid insight?
As a side note to the original design challenge, I had another question relating to the initial use of this training. I believe you stated that it was mandatory for the mentor to take the training before receiving a student and I was wondering if you had any challenges or lost any mentors by implementing this change? I am not sure that our mentors would be so receptive to a mandatory training, and would feel like that was too much of a constraint on their time.
I am looking forward to reading about your follow up and resulting digital tool as I feel there may be potential for my program to use something similar.
Thank you for sharing your ideas Anita!
Hi Tanya, thank you for your great feedback and your questions. Because I have been working with our mentors for more than a decade, in my instructor position and before that as a consultant, I have had many conversations with them around practicum and have been able to form good relationships with most of them. Therefore, when I crafted my questions for this assignment I was able to focus in on specific areas where I still needed more information, the questionnaire ended up being short enough that none of my three participants waited long to fill it in. However, I really like your suggestion to do a follow-up conversation through Skype as I agree with your comment that a person to person “interview might provide more candid insight”. I also want to answer your question about the training being mandatory and if we have experienced any challenges resulting from this. We worried in the beginning that we would have a lot of resistance, but our intention was from the very start to make this training as supportive of our mentors as possible. We understood the challenges of the field and we really wanted this training to make practicum a welcome addition to their work rather than a burden. We ended up being able to train over 50 participants from a multitude of practicum settings. Feedback was very positive and practicum settings accepted the fact that training was necessary to receive a student. We now have settings contacting us for training when they have staff changeovers. Thanks again for your interest in my project.
Hi Anita,
I am very interested in your challenge, as I believe in the power that mentoring can have, and in the relationship potential it can foster. I have participated multiple times myself in mentor-mentee situations, always as the mentee though. I have done so through practicums while in school, as well as through work situations in my district.
For my district’s program, the mentors did get a half day of training every year, and then were introduced to the mentees in the afternoons. As for my practicum, I am not sure what kind of formal training, if any really, that was giving. It would be something interesting to look into though, as practicum for teachers is such a big part. I was fortunate to have amazing support from my mentors, but that is not the same story for everyone. I am sure many of them could have benefited from a program like you are describing. With these relationships there are always potential power dynamics and conflicts that may be impacting the overall experience.
I think contacting past mentors and getting their feedback is a great idea. You could also contact other post secondary institutions that run similar programs and see if any of them will share how they keep their mentors training fresh. I look forward to seeing your results!
Hi Amanda, thank you for your feedback on my post. I am very interested to hear more about the half day training for mentors your district engages in. I would in particular like to know more about the ‘meet and greet’ of mentors and mentees. My team has often discussed if such a meet and greet would be beneficial for the startup of practicum. I will also follow up with your suggestion to speak to other institutions. I know of one program that is engaging in mentorship training, as this is a new concept in early childhood education.
Hi Anita –
I am also very interested in your design challenge and a strong supporter of cultivating a mentor culture! Your challenge of time is one in which we can all identify with and it is difficult to think of strategies that can help with this. I agree with Tanya ‘s comments that surveys/questionnaires might not elicit the type of feedback gained from one-on-one conversations, but can also see their practicality in this situation. I am wondering if following up with a Zoom or Skype call (as Tanya suggested), even to a couple of the mentors might be possible? In this way, you will have a foundation from which to deepen your understanding of the barriers that the mentors face that might better be revealed through a conversation. However, I do understand this might not be possible in the remaining time we have for this project!
In your post, you said that “However, because mentors are not asked to retake the training every year we have since noticed that in some placements the quality of support has started to deteriorate again.” I am curious as to the what are the incentives provided for mentors to retake the training every year? Is there any minimal financial compensation provided to mentors who take on mentees, and therefore would be required to participate in annual training? Or are returning mentors invited to contribute to further training endeavors…how might this incentivize their involvement? I look forward to learning more and hearing about responses you receive from the mentors you contacted!
Hi Mel, thank you for your insightful comments. As you will see in my answer to Tanya, I intend to follow up with at least one personal interview to elicit more information than my questionnaire will have brought to light. I was very intrigued by your mention if “returning mentors [are] invited to contribute to further training endeavors”. I never thought to engage past mentors in further training! Mentors could share some of their successes or present on something they are really good at. What a great thought. Thank you for inspiring me!
Hi Anita,
I really enjoyed reading about your design challenge and the responses and feedback that were given.
When I worked at the hospital, I had the opportunity to be a mentor to medical and nursing students. To become a mentor in this capacity, I participated in a one day workshop where we learned how to be an effective mentor and communicator; what were the expectations of us being mentors; what were the expectations of the mentees, and what the goals of the mentor/mentee program were. The workshop was really helpful to those who never had a mentor role. At the end, there was a networking period where everyone could share previous experiences or who had questions. The mentees were then introduced to the mentors.
Currently, in our program, our students have an opportunity to work with our part-time instructors in a mentor/mentee relationship during clinical care sessions. Groups of students (4 to 6) are assigned to each mentor. Most mentors have been in this role for 10 years while others are fairly new. However, we found that the new mentors are being mentored by the ones who have had previous experience, so everyone is callibrated.
For your design challenge, I was happy to read that you would be doing a follow up interview with your participants. I feel that you will obtain a better perspective when you are able to clarify points and have a good discussion.
Look forward to your design solution!
Cheers!