Mentoring in Academia and Industry – serie

The purpose of this series is to provide resources related to teaching and career development for faculty at all stages of their careers and to scientists considering careers in industry. Young faculty (or graduate students and post docs thinking about going into academia) will find valuable information about how to design a course, how to find the right job, including academia and industry, and how to incorporate undergraduate research into their programs.

The term scienti?c inquiry as manifest in different educational settings covers a wide range of diverse activities. The differences in types of scienti?c inquiry can be organized along a continuum according to the degree of teacher control and intellectual sophistication involved in each type of inquiry. Types of scienti?c inquiry can also be de?ned according to whether they produce cultural knowledge or personal knowledge. Authentic scienti?c inquiry is de?ned according to ?ve characteristics: devel- ment of personal and cultural knowledge; contextualized scienti?c knowledge; the progression toward high-order problem solving; social interaction for s- enti?c goals; and scienti?c inquiry as a multi-stage and multi-representational process. The de?nition of scienti?c inquiry that forms the basis for the development of an assessment program consists of a two-part analytical frame: the de?nition of knowledge types relevant to scienti?c inquiry and the de?nition of an organi- tional frame for these knowledge types. Four types of knowledge are signi?cant for the de?nition of a speci?c s- enti?c inquiry program: cognitive knowledge, physical knowledge, represen- tional knowledge, and presentational knowledge. All four of these knowledge types are considered signi?cant. These four types of knowledge are organized in a framework that consists of two intersecting axes: the axis of knowledge types and the axis of stages of a s- ci?c scienti?c inquiry. This framework describes scienti?c inquiry as multi-stage process that involves the development of a series of in-lab outcomes (represen- tions) over an extended period of time.

Mentorship practice has been part of the human experience since the Golden Age of Greece. Engaging with a mentor as a way to learn and achieve one’s full potential is an ancient and respected practice. And, it has been the keystone on which the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) has built its program over the past three decades. Trailblazers, such as Dr. Estelle Ramey and Dr. Anne Briscoe, experienced first-hand the isolation of women in the country’s male-dominated scientific establishment and worked to build an organization that would promote women through mentoring relationships. Dr. Ramey, who earned her degree in p- siology and biophysics and taught at Georgetown Medical School, was a we- known feminist speaker and writer. Noted for her great wit, she once quipped, ‘‘I was startled to learn that ovarian hormones are toxic to brain cells. ’’ Throughout her career, Dr. Ramey decried sexist comments and situations that treated women as less than fully human. She felt very strongly about how little, if anything, it took to extend a helping hand to someone else in a way that could really make a huge difference in her life. As she wrote in her book called Letters to our Grandchildren, ‘‘If I could leave you with any advice, it would be to speak words of caring not only to those closest to you, but to all the hungry ears you encounter on your journey through a cold world.

Mentoring has always been an important factor in life and particularly in academia. In fact, making choices about educational pursuits and subsequent careers without input from mentors can prove disastrous. Fortunately, many individuals have “na- ral” mentors and for them these choices are greatly facilitated. Others are not pri- leged with natural mentors and as such often struggle with making these tough choices. Many times these individuals are from under served and disadvantaged backgrounds, where mentors are too few and far between. For them, deciding on which career path to take can be based not only on insufficient information but oft times on inaccurate information. Although the tips in this monograph are designed for helping all individuals who are interested in pursuing the study of science and science careers, a special mentoring focus is on those students who have not expe- enced the advantages of the privileged class. Additionally, tips are included for those who are interested in effectively mentoring these individuals. How and why a person gets to that point of wanting to mentor is not as important as the fact that they have made that commitment and this monograph will help them do exactly that. When I received my PhD in Reproductive Endocrinology from the University of Wisconsin, I was ready and anxious to discover all kinds of new and exciting aspects about this field of science.