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Faculty Mentoring and Professional Development
Winthrop University and the Teaching and Learning Center are committed to ensuring that "opportunities for engaged growth and development are encouraged and available for members of the university community of learners on an individual and collective basis" (2008-2009 Vision of Distinction). One of the ways this is accomplished is through faculty mentoring.
Traditionally, faculty mentoring has been defined as “a structured relationship between a senior faculty member with experience and a new faculty member” (David A. Probst, Academic Leader, September 1966, p.2). Winthrop’s approach to mentoring, however, is broader. It encompasses a wide range of support and developmental activities for faculty at all stages of their careers at the University, College and Department levels.
University Mentoring: The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) annually provides a series of presentations and seminars on a variety of topics about teaching, students, and various aspects of the university.
These programs give faculty new-to-Winthrop opportunities to meet one another and get to know senior faculty and administrative staff who can help them become an integral part of the university. They also provide a forum in which they may discuss first-year experiences and gain support and perspective from colleagues.
College and Department Mentoring: Because of the diversity among and within colleges, mentoring activities also occur within the colleges and departments.
College of Arts and Sciences: Experienced faculty within their departments often mentor new faculty formally or informally.
Department chairs are responsible for describing procedures and expectations to each newly employed faculty member. Many chairs discuss the need for faculty to establish annual teaching and professional goals that will help them meet the Arts and Sciences Scholarship Statement. In meetings with the dean at the end of their first year, probationary faculty have indicated adequate support from their chairs and colleagues. The College's pre-tenure, third year review gives probationary faculty information about their progress toward tenure from both the department and Dean.
College of Business Administration (CBA): The Associate Dean holds an orientation workshop for all new and part-time faculty. At this meeting, all new faculty are introduced to the internal operation of the College. The CBA Faculty Manual and CBA Part-time Faculty Manual are reviewed with special emphasis on the mission, teaching methods, and course syllabi. Instruction and advice are given on teaching, evaluations, technology, and standard operating procedures. Special emphasis is devoted to what constitutes good teaching in the CBA and what activities new faculty members should undertake to be “good academic citizens.” New full-time faculty are given copies of the AACSB and CAC/ABET standards, and the processes in place to meet accreditation standards are reviewed. The Dean and Associate Dean conduct three subsequent meetings with new faculty during the first year. The first meeting, held near the mid-point of the first semester, deals with personnel issues, evaluations, and classes, the Winthrop and CBA cultures, research, teaching, services, and other topics of interest or concern to new faculty. The second meeting, held near the end of the first semester, involves reviewing progress on annual goals, peer evaluations, student evaluations, testing, and grading. The third meeting is held at the beginning of the second semester. It is a general review of the CBA processes and suggestions from new faculty for improvements on the CBA orientation.
At the department level, new faculty are each assigned a mentor – other than the chair of their department – to guide them through their first year. The mentoring relationship goes beyond the organizational chart and enables newcomers to establish a strong and trusting bond with a senior faculty.
The faculty of the College of Business Administration are committed to improvement of teaching and other aspects of faculty productivity. An important component of that improvement effort is peer review. This formal review is required of all non-tenured faculty. It is designed to give constructive criticism in all aspects of faculty work. The review is purely developmental and is in no way considered in any evaluative process. The CBA Peer Review System is described in the current CBA Faculty Manual.
Richard W. Riley College of Education (COE): Each new full-time faculty member is assigned a faculty mentor for teaching and/or scholarship in his or her first year at Winthrop. Continuing faculty members can request mentors for teaching and/or scholarship through their department chairs. The COE Mentoring Committee has developed a process for selection of mentors and guidelines for faculty mentoring in teaching and scholarship. Training sessions for new mentors are held yearly.
In addition, a full or half day retreat is held at the beginning of the fall semester for all faculty and staff in the college. Each faculty member receives a COE Faculty Manual, attends an orientation to advising session, and enrolls in training on the Student Information System (SIS) as soon as possible. The dean makes several presentations on tenure and promotion policies and guidelines, and emphasizes the need for peer review of teaching.
To promote faculty development in teaching, the TAKE THIRTY program provides short thirty-minute sessions on aspects of teaching that are of interest to faculty. These sessions are held monthly before the college-wide Faculty Assembly meeting.
Department chairs hold goal setting sessions with new faculty at the beginning of the year and mid-year, "How is it going?" sessions. These, monthly college and departmental meetings, and informal meetings, provide new faculty with opportunities to ask questions, reflect on their teaching, and learn about the College of Education. In addition, chairs observe faculty each semester in a formal classroom-teaching situation, conference with the professor, and provide written feedback on the observation. A monthly newsletter, News and Notes of the Riley College of Education provides faculty with information on upcoming events and the teaching, scholarship and service activities of colleagues.
College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA): According to the college’s “guidelines and procedures for tenure review” the department chair appoints a full-time, tenured faculty mentor to each new tenure-track faculty member in the first semester of the first year. New faculty members are encouraged to engage in ongoing dialogue with the mentor regarding all aspects of teaching, scholarship and service. The mentor may observe classes and meet informally with the protégé as needed. The mentor serves as a guide and advises the new faculty member on how to prepare for the third-year, pre-tenure review and assists the faculty member in developing a plan leading to the actual tenure review in the sixth year.
The CVPA Mentor/Protégé Program provides structured orientation, training, and support to CVPA faculty mentors and their protégés. This program augments the TLC New Faculty Mentoring Program and other professional development opportunities offered by TLC. The Associate Dean of CVPA administers the CVPA Mentor/Protégé Program, which consists of several workshops each semester for mentors and protégés during the period leading up to the protégé’s pre-tenure review. The Mentor/Protégé Program encourages both formal and informal mentorship activities and provides a forum wherein new faculty may engage in dialogue about their professional development as educators, scholars, artists, and citizens of the university and in which senior faculty may share their experiences and insights into the institutional culture and their academic fields.
The Library: New library faculty are paired with a tenured library faculty member with whom they meet as needed to discuss professional and research responsibilities, work on individual problems, and chart a course for the future. These mentoring activities are supplemented by regularly offered development workshops, on-the-job orientation and guidance from department chairs and colleagues.
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