This quarter I’ve been tasked with mentoring not one but TWO rotation students in our lab. As a first time (official) mentor to younger lab members, I’ve found that I’m learning just about as much as my rotons are - but on a completely different subject: mentorship.
The first big lesson I’ve learned: Learning Styles are Important!
I knew this intellectually going into things and this was actually one of the first questions I asked my two rotation students. Despite asking that, however, I’ve discovered that:
(1) Students don’t always know their best learning style, especially when it comes to things like lab protocols
(2) Modifying my own practices to accommodate other’s learning styles takes more continuous mental effort than I expected.
Example:
One of my rotation students is a master’s student. He worked as a Naval officer for the last 6 years and is now at the university teaching Naval science and getting a Master’s in Chemistry. He’s bright, but because he’s been out of science so long he has a lot to catch up on.
When we first met, he said that he learned best by reading things. So naturally, I gave him things to read such as protocols and asked him to read them over since that is the way he learns best. Then the next day, we would go over the protocols together and discuss them.
What I didn’t expect, was that any new information we went over verbally wouldn’t stick for him. My first instinct was to think he wasn’t trying or perhaps not paying attention since we had to go over the same thing three times. I didn’t expect this as a barrier because I learn very well from conversing with others. It never occurred to me that if I explained something to him verbally he would retain almost none of it.
I’m glad to say now I think we are doing pretty well with this. I’ve learned that if I patiently wait for him to very carefully write everything out to reference later OR send detailed supplemental information (papers, youtube videos, etc.) that he can go over in his own time he’ll do very well. He’s definitely willing to put in the effort to learn – I just had to figure out how to set things up for him to succeed.
The first big lesson I’ve learned: Learning Styles are Important!
I knew this intellectually going into things and this was actually one of the first questions I asked my two rotation students. Despite asking that, however, I’ve discovered that:
(1) Students don’t always know their best learning style, especially when it comes to things like lab protocols
(2) Modifying my own practices to accommodate other’s learning styles takes more continuous mental effort than I expected.
Example:
One of my rotation students is a master’s student. He worked as a Naval officer for the last 6 years and is now at the university teaching Naval science and getting a Master’s in Chemistry. He’s bright, but because he’s been out of science so long he has a lot to catch up on.
When we first met, he said that he learned best by reading things. So naturally, I gave him things to read such as protocols and asked him to read them over since that is the way he learns best. Then the next day, we would go over the protocols together and discuss them.
What I didn’t expect, was that any new information we went over verbally wouldn’t stick for him. My first instinct was to think he wasn’t trying or perhaps not paying attention since we had to go over the same thing three times. I didn’t expect this as a barrier because I learn very well from conversing with others. It never occurred to me that if I explained something to him verbally he would retain almost none of it.
I’m glad to say now I think we are doing pretty well with this. I’ve learned that if I patiently wait for him to very carefully write everything out to reference later OR send detailed supplemental information (papers, youtube videos, etc.) that he can go over in his own time he’ll do very well. He’s definitely willing to put in the effort to learn – I just had to figure out how to set things up for him to succeed.