Understanding university professors’ best mentoring practices in undergraduate research

ABSTRACT

Undergraduate research (UR) provides a sound academic foundation for student’s personal and professional development. This study aims to provide understanding and investigate the best UR mentoring practices of university professors from various institutions and disciplines. A total of 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using hybrid thematic analysis. Findings suggest common shared values on the importance of sharing personal research experience to build students’ confidence and foster empathic mentoring skills. Moreover, tailoring mentoring pedagogies to meet the diverse students’ learnings needs can be achieved by adapting the ‘just in time’ approach. This study further provides strategic recommendations to improve current UR mentorship programmes based on the emerging mentoring practices.

KEYWORDS:

• University professors
• undergraduate research
• mentor
• mentoring pedagogies

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by FPEND Research Grant (GG-2019-039) and Young Researcher Grant (GGPM-2017-076).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the FPEND Research Grant [GG-2019-039]; Young Research Grant [GGPM-2017-076].

Notes on contributors

Nurfaradilla Mohamad Nasri

Nurfaradilla Mohamad Nasri is a senior lecturer in curriculum and pedagogy at the Centre of Educational Leadership and Policy, Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She did her PhD at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her main research interest relates to the development of a culturally responsive curriculum and instruction, teachers’ professional development and self-directed learning.

Nurfarahin Nasri

Nurfarahin Nasri, M. D. is currently pursuing her postgraduate study at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She has been involved in many educational research. Her main research interests are innovative curriculum development, responsive pedagogy and qualitative methods.

Mohamad Asyraf Abd Talib

Mohamad Asyraf Abd Talib is a postgraduate (TESL) student at Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Previously, he has been involved in a few researches as a research assistant related to STEM and culturally relevant science teaching.