Training Computer Science (CS) Mentors: How Training, Modeling, and Reflective Practice Support CS Mentors' Growth

• In Event: Training, Knowledge, and Agency: A Focus on Computer Science and Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Though mentoring is often used as an intervention to broaden participation in Computer Science, little is known about how to train CS mentors, or which aspects of training shape good mentoring practices. Drawing from the theoretical perspective of legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice, we use post-training and daily mentoring interviews to show how two facets of this theory, exemplars and reflective practice, that were integrated in our training, shaped mentoring practices of new high school mentors. We found that while training and exposure to exemplars in training had effect on mentor training in three different areas, daily reflective practice with lead mentors during mentoring polished those practices and established several others that are equally important for effective mentoring.

Author

• Katarina Pantic, Weber State University