Peer-mentors reflect on the benefits of mentoring: An autoethography

Many PhD candidates bring with them a wealth of knowledge and skills; however, these may not sufficiently prepare candidates to work with high autonomy on a project with often limited interaction with the wider research community. A peer-mentor program model, in which a mentor delivers dyadic and gr...

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Main Authors: Booth, S., Merga, Margaret, Mat Roni, S.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Informing Science Institute 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67338
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author Booth, S.
Merga, Margaret
Mat Roni, S.
author_facet Booth, S.
Merga, Margaret
Mat Roni, S.
author_sort Booth, S.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Many PhD candidates bring with them a wealth of knowledge and skills; however, these may not sufficiently prepare candidates to work with high autonomy on a project with often limited interaction with the wider research community. A peer-mentor program model, in which a mentor delivers dyadic and group support to higher degree by research students from different disciplines and backgrounds, has the potential to enhance candidates’ knowledge and skills. However, the mentors themselves can experience significant advantages, as peer-mentoring can also have a positive effect on the mentors’ research experience. In order to further understanding of the potential benefits of peer-mentoring for mentors, three researchers explore their experiences as peer-mentors through an autoethnographic framework. Through discussing their personal experiences as peer-mentors, the researchers identified a range of benefits for themselves. These benefits in-volved finding that peer- mentoring enhanced their own learning, fostered reflective practice, and provided current tertiary teaching and research support experience. Peer mentoring also gave them broad exposure to a breadth of disciplines, theories, and methods; provided project management insights; created opportunities for professional networking; supported their social needs; and gave them invaluable insight into other candidate/supervisor relationships. Their role in a peer-mentor model has shaped their experiences as PhD candidates and also informed their decisions after graduation.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-673382024-06-06T02:03:34Z Peer-mentors reflect on the benefits of mentoring: An autoethography Booth, S. Merga, Margaret Mat Roni, S. Many PhD candidates bring with them a wealth of knowledge and skills; however, these may not sufficiently prepare candidates to work with high autonomy on a project with often limited interaction with the wider research community. A peer-mentor program model, in which a mentor delivers dyadic and group support to higher degree by research students from different disciplines and backgrounds, has the potential to enhance candidates’ knowledge and skills. However, the mentors themselves can experience significant advantages, as peer-mentoring can also have a positive effect on the mentors’ research experience. In order to further understanding of the potential benefits of peer-mentoring for mentors, three researchers explore their experiences as peer-mentors through an autoethnographic framework. Through discussing their personal experiences as peer-mentors, the researchers identified a range of benefits for themselves. These benefits in-volved finding that peer- mentoring enhanced their own learning, fostered reflective practice, and provided current tertiary teaching and research support experience. Peer mentoring also gave them broad exposure to a breadth of disciplines, theories, and methods; provided project management insights; created opportunities for professional networking; supported their social needs; and gave them invaluable insight into other candidate/supervisor relationships. Their role in a peer-mentor model has shaped their experiences as PhD candidates and also informed their decisions after graduation. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67338 10.28945/3603 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Informing Science Institute fulltext
spellingShingle Booth, S.
Merga, Margaret
Mat Roni, S.
Peer-mentors reflect on the benefits of mentoring: An autoethography
title Peer-mentors reflect on the benefits of mentoring: An autoethography
title_full Peer-mentors reflect on the benefits of mentoring: An autoethography
title_fullStr Peer-mentors reflect on the benefits of mentoring: An autoethography
title_full_unstemmed Peer-mentors reflect on the benefits of mentoring: An autoethography
title_short Peer-mentors reflect on the benefits of mentoring: An autoethography
title_sort peer-mentors reflect on the benefits of mentoring: an autoethography
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67338