Faculty Mentoring in an Academic Success Program

ABSTRACT

Over the past decades, there has been growth in student academic success programs in institutions of higher learning. However, with this growth instructors in these programs have not always been prepared to teach courses focused on supporting student academic success. The purpose of this study was to understand the role that mentoring plays in the performance of new faculty in the Success Courses department at Arizona State University. The guiding questions of the study examined the degree to which mentoring affected instructors’ efficacy in implementing the core tenets of the Success Courses Department and the features of the mentoring program that new instructors found useful. I used an action research, mixed method approach with focus groups, interviews, and surveys serving as data collection tools. The participants in the study were new department faculty mentees who taught for the Success Courses department at ASU in the fall of 2018. The quantitative data suggested that the faculty mentoring program helped new instructors improve their understanding of their students and the classroom environment. The qualitative findings indicated that faculty mentoring provided overall support, enhanced preparedness to deliver course content, created opportunities for professional growth and development, and supported positive relationships and collaboration. The faculty mentoring program enhanced the development of relationships between mentors and mentees, which is important for assisting new instructors as they seek to address individual challenges related to their teaching practices.