4.4 Formalizing a Mentoring Contract

Mentoring agreements help to set boundaries, parameters, expectations, and accountability within the framework of the mentoring experience (Galbraith, 1991). A mentoring partnership agreement looks like a learning contract that is consistent with sound learning principles and practices of adult learning. The contract must consider the following (Knowles, 1980):

• Objectives;
• Evidence of accomplishment of objectives;
• Learning resources and strategies;
• Criteria; and
• The means for validating the learning

A mentoring agreement established without conversation between mentor and mentee is a missed opportunity for setting goals, establishing commitment, clarifying expectations, solidifying connections, and arriving at agreements. The agreement must be revisited throughout the relationship. Samples of mentoring contracts and applications are found in Chapter 8.1 of this Handbook. In establishing a mentoring agreement, a scenario similar to the following case study should be considered.

Case Study: A Tale of Two Students

At the beginning of the semester, Professor Grasso announced in their physics class that they were looking for students to mentor in a research project. They stated that the required background was knowledge of differential equations. After interviewing students and asking them specifically about their mathematical background, they chose David and Michael, both of whom were enthusiastic, confident, and had taken upper-level mathematics courses, including differential equations.

However, after several weeks into the project, it became clear to Professor Grasso that David was having a hard time transferring his mathematics knowledge to the types of open-ended problems that one tends to encounter in research. Michael, on the other hand, caught on immediately. When exam time came around, the difference was even more apparent; Michael’s exams were neat, well organized, and perfectly correct, whereas David’s exams were messy and full of errors. While David had an insatiable scientific curiosity and enjoyed discussing esoteric concepts, Professor Grasso assumed that David lacked the basic skill sets required for the task at hand. Moreover, David was holding Michael back.

After much deliberation, Professor Grasso decided to continue the project with both students for the remainder of the semester. This enabled the project to reach a natural stopping point with the mentoring program poster session, thereby providing a sense of completion and minimizing hurt feelings. During this time, Professor Grasso discovered that David was the first person in his family to attend college. While David was extremely enthusiastic, he had no idea what he wanted to do after graduation and was lacking guidance. It was clear that what would benefit David more at this point in his studies than a research project was someone to advise him on career options.

At the end of the semester, Professor Grasso encouraged David to continue strengthening his basic skills and told him that they would always be around to discuss anything from physics to career options. During the following semester, they continued to have conversations with David about his potential career goals and how to achieve them, and they introduced David to graduate students who could play the role of “academic big siblings.” At the same time, Professor Grasso continued to do more technical research with Michael, which led to published papers.

Both David and Michael are now continuing in their Bachelor’s programs majoring in physics, and they both plan to continue in a doctoral program. They still stay in touch with Professor Grasso, and they value them as a source of guidance and reference.

Reflection: How differently do you think it would have been for both students if Professor Grasso had decided to sit with them and set specific mentoring goals, objectives, and timelines? What would have been learned if this had been done and revisited throughout the relationship? How did Professor Grasso modify their mentoring style for both David and Michael?