Handling Tricky Situations as an Early Career Faculty

June L. Preast, The University of Alabama

MacKenzie Sidwell, Mississippi State University

Within our academic positions, we encounter a range of experiences that seem to go beyond the typical Research, Teaching, and Service loads. While research productivity is often the focus in earning tenure and promotions, especially at research-intensive institutions, it is the unexpected situations that impede time spent on scholarship. As an early-career faculty member, tricky situations, especially those involving students, can be stressful, tough to navigate, and take up more time and energy than imagined. Below, we provide some guidance for handling tricky student situations and ensuring you and your scholarship feel supported. 

Courses

A common setting for tricky situations with students is our classes, where disagreements arise over grades and/or assignments. When developing (or updating) your syllabi, provide explicit instructions and clear explanations for all course expectations. Consider having detailed rubrics for each assignment and providing those at the beginning of the semester. While time-consuming, the more structure you provide students before they even begin assignments, the harder it will be for them to dispute the grades you assign. Clearly outlining procedures, resources, and expectations is just one of the ways you can maintain inclusive syllabi for your courses. This is not to say that flexibility cannot be provided to your students and for your courses based on a variety of needs and situations. If changes are made during the semester, take note of all changes and rationales, and clearly document your communication of those changes to students in case there are any questions later. Given the impact of AI on instruction, it is helpful to include an AI policy in your syllabus, with clear language about its use in coursework. Faculty will likely need to confer with colleagues, institutional policies, guidance from the field, and recommendations in the literature when crafting this language. Clear communication, whether through grading with comments or responses to student inquiries, is key to lessening disagreements within courses. If you are unsure how to handle a dispute about course grades or assignments, review your institution’s faculty handbook for guidance. 

Field Experiences

For some of our students, participating in field experiences may be the first time they have had to show up to a “job,” where they might not be getting paid directly but have important responsibilities. It’s important to set expectations for students' field experiences from both the university program and site perspectives. Students may not know that they are expected to show up on time or early for their placements, that business casual is the dress code, or that it is unprofessional to be on your phone during an IEP meeting. Our site supervisors may have different expectations of our students than we, as faculty, do. It’s also important for site supervisors and university supervisors to communicate early and often, especially if there are any concerns or skills of the student(s) that require more training. If a tricky situation arises involving a student and their field experience placement, make sure any conversations with the student and the placement site have been documented. Review the memorandum of agreement (or memorandum of understanding) between the placement site and the program/institution to ensure that no breach of contract has occurred. If your program has procedures for issues with field placement sites, review them and ensure the student has received adequate and appropriate support.

Research 

Mentoring students in research can be a fulfilling aspect of our jobs in academia. With mentoring also comes providing advice, coaching, and teaching to support the mentee's professional development. Regarding research with students, it is important for us to encourage growth in their research skills while also providing instruction. When working with student researchers, whether in research teams or one-to-one, set clear expectations and boundaries. Creating a formal agreement at the beginning of a project or semester may help prevent future disputes. If students are not completing assigned tasks or engaging in potentially unethical behavior (e.g., plagiarism, inappropriate AI use), have a conversation with them to remind them of the stated expectations and next steps for their participation in research. As such, dissertation contracts can be particularly helpful tools to delineate the dissertation-related tasks to be completed by the student that both you and the student agree represent satisfactory progress each semester.  

General Issues

Sometimes, students forget that program colleagues communicate with each other, especially about how best to support students. With that, students sometimes attempt to triangulate, or ask multiple faculty for the same thing in an effort to get their desired outcome, similar to asking dad for something after mom refused. Students sometimes also go to female faculty with questions or requests for help more than to male faculty. And early-career faculty can also be targets, typically being closer in age to the students or being seen as more of a pushover than more seasoned faculty. Certainly, not all students are out to get faculty, and some who engage in this behavior do so because they struggle to communicate their needs to faculty due to insecurity or unclear boundaries and expectations. It is helpful to be mindful that this might happen, and take note if a student comes to you for something that feels a bit off, or is related to a program or course expectation that is not solely under your purview. At the beginning of the semester, remind students of the different options for seeking support within your program and at your institution, and when these situations do arise, don’t feel like you have to answer all student questions right away. Take time to find the correct answers, consult with your colleagues, or point them to a colleague who is better suited to answer their question. 

Finding Support

Hopefully, issues related to students are few and far between in your career, and taking proactive steps may help to prevent issues down the line. Setting boundaries can be helpful not only for promoting your research productivity but also for your well-being. Clear communication and expectations at the beginning of each course, supervision experience, or research project will help to lay a solid foundation for positive interactions with students. Mentors at your institution and external to your institution (e.g., NASP, APA Division 2, state school psychology organizations) may provide pertinent perspectives and guidance on navigating situations that may arise that align with university policy and norms. In addition to the multitude of blog posts from the Early Career Forum, both the Trainers of School Psychologists and the Council of Directors of School Psychology Programs provide resources for graduate training, including supporting students. Finally, the Early Career Forum also hosts a happy hour during the NASP Annual Convention, offering early career faculty a chance to connect around research and collaboration, while also building community and finding peers who understand the challenges of navigating tricky situations, and who can remind you that you’re not alone.

Cultivating Growth and Balance: Strategies for Supervising Graduate Assistants Effectively

Kai Zhuang Shum, Ph.D., University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and Hailey Ripple, Ph.D., Mississippi State University

Graduate assistants (GAs) are the lifeblood of many university programs, particularly in applied settings such as school psychology clinics, research labs, and community partnerships. When managed thoughtfully, GAs not only help sustain program operations but also develop professional competencies, leadership skills, and a stronger sense of belonging in their training environment. Drawing on our experiences mentoring graduate assistants across a variety of settings, including research, teaching, and clinical settings, we compiled a list of practical strategies to promote GAs’ productivity and growth. 

Understanding Different Types of GAs

Not all GA positions are alike. Within most programs, GAs may serve in several distinct capacities—each with unique expectations and learning opportunities.

Teaching Assistants (TAs)

• Support instruction in undergraduate or graduate courses. 
• Responsibilities often include grading, holding office hours, lecturing, and leading student activities. 
• TAs benefit from mentorship in pedagogy, classroom management, and professional communication with students.

Research Assistants (RAs)

• Contribute to ongoing faculty or grant-funded projects.
• Tasks may include conducting literature reviews, collecting and coding data, analyzing data, and preparing manuscripts.
• Internal department awards fund some RAs, while others are supported through external grants. This distinction can affect expectations and funding structures.

Clinical GAs

• Typically, advanced students (third- or fourth-year students) who carry a clinical caseload manage specialized administrative tasks, such as scheduling, supervising undergraduate volunteers, or maintaining waitlists.

Administrative GAs

• Provide essential operational support to programs or clinics.
• Typical responsibilities include answering phones, managing intake processes, assisting with communications, and coordinating logistics.

Mentoring, Not Just Managing

Supervision shouldn’t be limited to task oversight. A good relationship with your GAs helps them build confidence, independence, and professional identity.

Develop a mentoring plan that includes both professional development and job expectations. Encourage GAs to identify learning goals and revisit them throughout the semester. If you are supervising online GAs, here is a remote mentoring plan.

You can also use tools such as the Mentoring Competency Assessment to self-assess your ability to communicate effectively, align expectations, assess understanding, address diversity, and foster independence. 

Consider meta-supervision models, such as having a lead GA or structured peer supervision. If a student holds relevant licensure or certification (e.g., BCBA, educator license), involve them in training peers—with appropriate faculty oversight. This not only lightens your load but builds leadership capacity among advanced trainees.

Clinical Setting Example: 

• As faculty, assign a 4th-year doctoral student who currently holds a BCBA credential to supervise one or two 2nd- or 3rd-year students.
  • Be mindful of the students you assign to the 4th year student and potentially cater to the 4th year student’s strengths (e.g., if the 4th year student has ample experience in providing academic interventions, assign them students with similar caseloads). 
  • The peer-to-peer supervisory activities can vary (e.g., completing direct observations of sessions, meeting for individual supervision, training them on new intervention procedures, editing treatment plans, etc.). 
• Meet weekly with the 4th-year student to discuss the supervisory relationship, explore various supervision methods, and address any challenges. 
• Meet weekly with a 2nd- or 3rd-year student for supplemental supervision and check-in. 
• Ultimately, through this model, the workload associated with the faculty member's direct supervision of practicum activities is reduced, while providing meaningful supervisory experiences for the advanced student. 

Setting Clear Expectations and Boundaries

Transparency at the beginning prevents misunderstandings later.

• Outline roles and responsibilities clearly, acknowledging that tasks may ebb and flow during the semester.
• Discuss workload expectations, including how you expect students to juggle assistantship tasks, practicum, and coursework.
• Clarify time-off policies and expectations during university breaks, which can vary by supervisor or department/college/university. 
• When possible, put these expectations in writing—a formal agreement can go a long way.

Creating Structure: Systemic GA Management

A consistent system helps maintain fairness, accountability, and efficiency.

• Manualize operations. Create a GA handbook for each position type. Include step-by-step task analyses for everyday duties.
• Define mastery. Clearly state when GAs can complete tasks independently (e.g., after meeting mastery upon observation or treatment integrity checks).
• Track progress. Use tools like Notion, Teams, or Gantt charts to document task completion and progress toward goals.

Promoting Fairness and Preventing Burnout

Even the most motivated GAs can overextend themselves—especially when balancing coursework, practicum, and personal responsibilities.

• Check in regularly about workload and boundaries. 
• Request brief documentation of hours or activities throughout the semester. 
• If a GA seems overwhelmed, advocate for them and connect with administrators to recalibrate expectations.

Be mindful of perceived inequities among GA roles. Some positions, like grant-funded or research-based GAs, naturally offer greater visibility and professional opportunities (e.g., the chance to present at conferences or publish). 

• Address these differences openly and affirm that all roles contribute meaningfully to the program’s mission. 
• Use program-wide spaces, such as group supervision or colloquia, to highlight different GA roles. Encourage GAs to present case examples or research updates to showcase their work. 

Building a Sense of Community

A culture of shared learning helps everyone feel connected and appreciated.

• Facilitate cross-role collaboration, such as pairing research and clinical GAs to co-create materials or troubleshoot systems issues. These connections help students see their role within a larger ecosystem.

Final Reflections

Managing GAs is one of the most rewarding aspects of faculty life. Done thoughtfully, it’s not just about getting work done; it’s about mentoring emerging professionals, strengthening program culture, and creating systems that make everyone’s work more sustainable. 

What to Know About Inclusive Syllabi

By: Geremy Grant Ph.D. NCSP

Scholars who train future school psychologists have a responsibility to integrate diversity and social justice (DSJ) throughout their program curricula, using affirming and strengths-based approaches (see Standard 1.5 for the Graduate Preparation of School Psychologists). Implicit within this standard are course syllabi, which should evidence a commitment to equitable teaching practices. Equitable teaching practices are particularly important for early career scholars who prioritize training school psychologists to be critical consumers of research in addition to researchers themselves. DSJ-centered syllabi may have particular benefits for underrepresented students (Taylor et al., 2019), which aids our field in its efforts to retain and support minoritized trainees. To successfully apply diversity and social justice principles to one’s work, early career scholars must first immerse themselves in the literature, and critique available research to glean evidence-based practices that can inform their teaching. Moreover, equitable teaching practices can serve to inform how early career scholars’ approach other areas of their work including scholarship (e.g., centering DSJ within conceptualization, development, implementation, analyses, and interpretation of research).

To further our understanding of the importance of inclusive syllabi in course construction, I had the honor and privilege of interviewing Dr. Charles Barrett (CB) and Dr. Leandra Parris (LP), two well-known scholars who instruct graduate-level school psychology courses. 

How would you describe an “inclusive syllabus”? What characteristics distinguish it from a traditional syllabus?

CB: ​​Many elements come to mind that distinguish an inclusive syllabus from a typical syllabus.  First and foremost, an inclusive syllabus includes readings and resources from a variety of authors who represent varied professional backgrounds and disciplines, as well as races, ethnicities, genders, and a host of other identities. For example, books, articles, podcasts, and other resources are not only written by or feature school psychology faculty or researchers, but also those who are practitioners, and individuals from other disciplines (e.g., economics, sociology, history, and education) when their perspective is relevant to the course’s subject matter.  Next, the authors of assigned readings are not only those from the typical [school psychology] cannon, which are often cisgender White men and women, but racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) individuals, and those representing marginalized identities (e.g., LGBTQ+ individuals) are also included. Notably, who is reflected in a syllabus is one way to measure the extent to which diverse perspectives are valued in the course. Additionally, an inclusive syllabus intentionally includes assignments (e.g., projects) that reflect a variety of modalities (e.g., presentations, papers, small group/partner activities, individual tasks) that allow students an array of access points to demonstrate their strengths as they show their understanding of course content.  In sum, an inclusive syllabus is mindful of what students should know, and how they should demonstrate such knowledge, rather than only valuing what the instructor is comfortable offering.

LP: There is a difference in intention. The traditional syllabus is about telling students what they will be doing and what individual students need to do to get a good grade. The approach is “you will do this thing and here is how you will be evaluated and if you do not perform well, here are the consequences.” The instructor is seen as an evaluative expert rather than someone sharing a learning space with students. An inclusive syllabus is more about sharing what we will be doing together, how we will accomplish shared learning, and how we will ensure that we create a safe, supportive environment as a group. The approach is, “we will be accomplishing these things together, here’s how we’re going to do that in a safe learning environment, and here’s how to communicate your needs." There is still the evaluation piece, etc., but the presentation is student-centered, accessible, and flexible.

How do you think an inclusive syllabus relates to social justice pedagogy?

CB: An inclusive syllabus is central to social justice pedagogy because it is one way that graduate instructors model that social justice is more than the latest hot topic, buzzword, or fad in psychology or education.  More importantly, social justice, and social justice pedagogy is how we think about the discipline of school psychology, especially the students and families we serve, and the purposeful actions we engage in to promote equitable outcomes. An inclusive syllabus, by incorporating the perspectives of individuals who represent communities whose voices have been historically muted, overlooked, or ignored, is one way to center these necessary ideas.  An inclusive syllabus, by including content from other disciplines that might be more knowledgeable than school psychology currently is about systemic issues such as racism, access to quality healthcare, access to high-quality preschool, living in safe and supportive communities, the history of American policing and subsequent police violence in REM communities, and low-income and economic marginalization (LIEM; American Psychological Association, 2019), models the importance of students learning about the structural challenges that fundamentally affect children’s opportunity, access, and subsequent academic and behavioral outcomes.

LP: Inclusive syllabi clearly outline procedures and processes for engagement in the course (i.e., procedural justice), how resources and your time as an instructor will be equitably shared and accessible (i.e., distributive justice), and expectations for interacting and working together within the learning space (i.e., relational justice). Those expectations should include cultural humility, open and curious approaches to learning, grace when giving and receiving feedback, the expectation that we’ll disrupt bias when we hear/see it, etc. There should also be space for critical reflection, making it transparent how you, as the instructor, will elicit and respond to feedback and student needs as the course progresses. Finally, I think it helps to have an acknowledgment of the systems that impact the course topics and student experiences (e.g., including the university’s statement on the history of enslavement, land acknowledgment, acknowledgment of violent socio-political climates, etc.) that is coupled with resources, both academic and mental-health focused.

What strategies do you find most useful when revising your syllabi to be more inclusive?

CB: Because effective instruction is about teaching students more than content or information, I regularly ask myself, “What does this group of students need to know this semester?”  Based on the makeup of the class, including their personal and professional experiences, I include readings and other resources that might be more salient to support the course’s curriculum or extend students’ learning.  Personally, I share with my students that the syllabus is an iterative document that will be revised, as necessary, throughout the semester.  As such, remaining attuned to current events is one of the best ways to add readings and other resources (e.g., podcasts) as they are released, almost in real time.  For example, while teaching an advanced assessment course for rising 2^nd year graduate students during the summer of 2020, although police violence wasn’t particularly relevant to the course objectives, it would have been irresponsible to ignore the social climate that was unfolding in America.  As such, I shared an article by a pediatrician, Rhea Boyd, whose research was focused on police violence, equity, and child health outcomes.  It wasn’t difficult to highlight the connections between the article and the implications for the course and school psychologists (e.g., the importance of school psychologists thinking about what is happening around children rather than only focusing on what is happening within them), and it was also a way to acknowledge what could have been on the minds of some of my students, particularly those from REM backgrounds.

LP: There is a group of us who will run our syllabi by each other, ask for feedback, etc. I think finding that support network of people who truly understand what inclusion and social justice are, and getting their perspective on your syllabus, is crucial. I review materials each semester not only to update them, but to make sure that I don’t miss a voice. I also review my assignments to ensure accountability for addressing social justice and inclusion are always present and that the assignment is flexible and adaptive. I also try to find things that are not just readings, including podcasts, videos, TedTalks, etc., to make it not only more accessible but more meaningful.

Are there specific resources you’ve found helpful in your creation of inclusive syllabi?

CB: One reading that I often assign is Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders his Ability to Alter Public Space.  Published in Ms. magazine in 1987, and written by Brent Staples, a sociologist, the piece is an excellent example of how racism, privilege, implicit bias, and intersectionality impact the daily decisions of a Black male living in an urban center.  As a magazine article, it cuts to the core of these issues and is more emotive than what is typically published in peer-reviewed journals.  Other excellent readings and resources that I’ve assigned include Enrique’s Journey, which is a book that was written by Sonia Nazario, a Hispanic, female journalist, and How to Be an Antiracist, a book that was written by history professor, Ibram X. Kendi.  Last, in my assessment courses, I have students listen to several episodes of a podcast about Larry P., which not only features the real “Larry P.,” but also several school psychologist practitioners in California.

LP: APA Bias-Free Language, National Communication Association Guidelines, and APA’s Inclusive Syllabi Resources.

Any additional advice for early career educators on writing inclusive syllabi?

CB: Because school psychology doesn’t have the market cornered on what students need to know to be effective school psychologists who are prepared to infuse a social justice paradigm into their research and practice, actively seek the perspectives of people beyond school psychology who are researching and writing about issues that affect children in schools.  In many ways, creating an inclusive syllabus is a multi-method (e.g., including different types of activities, projects, and assignments) and multi-source (e.g., including diverse (broadly defined) authors) process that leads to better outcomes, not only for school-age children but also graduate students.

LP: Remember that the syllabus is your handbook and contract so to speak. If it does not include accountability for professional dispositions and inclusive behaviors, then you will find it hard to enforce expectations around inclusion, belonging, and diversity. Model what you want to see through your syllabus, which includes how you will take responsibility when you make a mistake and what students can expect of you in terms of diversity, inclusion, and belonging.

Concluding Thoughts

There are several key takeaways from the rich information provided by the esteemed interviewees. I summarize a few of these points below:

• An inclusive syllabus acts as an extension of the instructor, demonstrating their commitment to cultural diversity and social justice. As both are foundational to our practice as school psychologists, it is paramount that educators model for students a dedication to these domains.
• Because inclusive syllabi are an extension of the instructor, their creation requires graduate educators to be critically reflexive regarding perceptions of their course content and students, in addition to broader issues related to the field and society.
• Inclusive syllabi acknowledge that course content does not exist in a vacuum, and that university, regional, and broader societal events have implications for the course and the practice of school psychology.
• Inclusive syllabi offer educators an opportunity to center quality research that models good theory and methodology and advances cultural diversity and social justice issues.
  • Educators should elevate the work and efforts of scholars and practitioners who belong to historically marginalized groups that are often silenced within general society. Intentional inclusion of their voices allows for more diverse perspectives and critical issues to be addressed in the classroom.
  • To ensure voices are being elevated appropriately, and that syllabus language is bias-free, educators should strongly consider engaging in a syllabi peer-review process.
  • To promote student learning, and application of research provided in courses, inclusive syllabi apply diverse evaluative procedures, beyond traditional quizzes/tests. Alternative evaluation procedures could include class presentations, group assignments, creation of practical resources for school staff/parents, conducting professional development workshops, submitting research proposals to state/national conferences, and providing research critiques. Below are three examples of activities I have included in my courses to evaluate students’ consumption and/or application of research:
    • Fact Sheets/Brochures (Social Psychology Course): Students create a fact sheet that applies learned social psychology concepts to a real-world educational problem faced by school psychologists, caregivers, teachers, etc. They must use peer-reviewed literature to explain the problem, and to justify any recommendations to remediate the issue. When completed, the fact sheet often serves as a resource for practicum/internship.
    • Cultural Diversity/Social Justice Presentation (Cultural Diversity Course): Students conduct a 30-minute presentation on a cultural diversity/social justice issue. They provide practice recommendations, and discuss how school psychologists can advocate for change, basing their discussion on peer-reviewed sources.
    • Test Evaluation Presentation & Paper (Psychological Measurements Course): Students practice being consumers of research by reviewing the theoretical and empirical merit of a norm-referenced test that a school psychologist might use in practice. They present their impressions to their peers and generate a written test review.
• Inclusive syllabi use clear and specific language to convey that the classroom is an identity-safe space that encourages collaboration and co-creation in the learning process.
• Early career scholars may consider how their scholarship informs their teaching and how their teaching informs their scholarship. Thus, they could consider how being thoughtful in developing and incorporating inclusive syllabi may inform their scholarship and vice versa, particularly specific to centering DSJ in their work.

Additional Resources:

Taylor et al.’s (2019) Social Justice Syllabus Design Tool(SJSDT), was born out of the need for greater support for women and students of color in STEM. The SJSDT is a checklist consisting of 19 straightforward yes/no questions that can be used to guide syllabus development.

Fuentes et al. (2020) offer numerous practical suggestions on how we can promote equity, diversity, and inclusion when generating syllabi. 

APA’s (2023) comprehensive Inclusive Language Guide can be used to check the language used in your syllabi, regardless of the course content.

The Society for the Teaching of Psychology offers Project Syllabus, a collection of peer-reviewed syllabi across approximately 38 different categories. All syllabi post-2017 are assessed based on their 1) teaching methods, 2) learner support and resources, 3) assessment and evaluation procedures, 4) course design, goals, and learning objectives, and 5) syllabus organization and design. Overall, having access to multiple examples may facilitate understanding of what differentiates an “adequate” syllabus from one that is “well-constructed”.

Brodsky & Green (2020): Ways to Make Classrooms More Inclusive, Equitable, and Anti-Racist

Thanks to Drs. Lindsay Fallon and Kathrin Maki for their review and input on earlier drafts of this blog post.

Have you started to revise your syllabi to make them more inclusive? What resources do you find to be the most useful? Comment below!

Opportunities to Reconceptualize and Advance Mentoring Practices

By Bryn Harris, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Colorado Denver & Sally Grapin, PhD, Associate Professor, Montclair State UniversityIn their recent article, Grapin et al. (2021) review 16 empirical studies of mentorship in the field of school psychology. In line with previous work (Cobb et al., 2018; Johnson, 2014), the authors define mentorship as “a positive, reciprocal, and proactive relationship in which a less experienced individual receives intentional support (e.g., career and psychosocial support) from a more senior one.” There are multiple empirically supported benefits of mentorship, ranging from guidance on career planning to supports for psychosocial well-being. However, the article also discusses several barriers to mentorship; particularly among individuals with racial, ethnic, sex, and gender minoritized identities.Grapin and colleagues (2021) identify a number of descriptive themes across the school psychology mentoring literature. While more detail can be found in the manuscript, we have summarized selected themes from the article and provided reflection questions to assist with furthering your own mentorship abilities.Access and Availability Key Takeaway: Being accessible (within reason) to your mentees is important for building positive relationships. For mentees, having access to networks of multiple mentors can be beneficial as well.

• In what ways do you demonstrate availability and accessibility with your mentees?
• Are the ways in which you demonstrate this availability clear and consistent among mentees?
• Have you explored and disseminated information about other formal and informal mentorship opportunities?

Structure of MentoringKey Takeaway: Mentees can benefit from both formal and informal mentoring experiences. Mentees may have different preferences and needs, so discussing expectations for the mentoring relationship in advance can be helpful.

• Have you explicitly discussed expectations for the mentoring relationship with your mentees?
• What type of structure do your mentees desire from your mentoring relationship? How can you work with mentees to ensure they have access to the supports they need?

Supporting Mentees with Minoritized IdentitiesKey Takeaway: Mentoring occurs within a variety of larger programmatic, institutional, societal, and cultural contexts. Understanding how dynamics of power, privilege and oppression can shape mentoring processes is essential. Proactively disrupting injustice in the context of mentoring relationships is imperative.

• How might dynamics of social power, privilege, and oppression impact your relationships with your mentees?
• How might aspects of identity such as sex, gender, race, and ethnicity (and their intersections) impact your interactions?
• Are you ensuring that your mentees have access to supportive and affirming learning environments?

Modeling Key Takeaway: Modeling constructive, just, and ethical behavior can support mentees’ personal and professional development. Mentees may look to their mentors to model behaviors they can replicate in their own careers.

• In what ways do you model collaborative research skills?
• In what ways do you model socially just approaches to your professional activities?
• In what ways do you model self-care and work-life balance?

Personal and Psychosocial SupportKey Takeaway: Mentees may value not only professional support but also personal and psychosocial support in mentoring relationships. These types of supports can facilitate strong, positive relationships that empower mentees.

• How are you expressing empathy, care, and warmth to your mentees? Do you express these supports differently among mentees, and if so, how?
• How do you take a personal interest in their lives?
• How do you ensure that you are conveying encouragement instead of discouragement?

Career Exploration and Decision-MakingKey Takeaway: Mentoring relationships can be powerful facilitators of career exploration and decision-making. Ask your mentees about the types of career supports that would be most helpful to them.

• How are you supporting your mentees in experimenting with a wide variety of career roles?
• How are you increasing transparency within areas of career advancement that may be difficult to navigate (e.g., tenure and promotion)?

Collaborative and Reciprocal PartnershipsKey Takeaway: Involve mentees in research and other professional activities in meaningful ways. Providing opportunities for mentees to incorporate or pursue their professional interests through this work may promote engagement.

• Are you providing meaningful opportunities for collaboration with your mentees?
• Are these experiences allowing your mentees to substantively engage with the research process and understand it holistically?

Socialization and NetworkingKey Takeaway: Mentoring can be a valuable outlet for socializing and orienting mentees to the field as well as building professional networks. Provide support for mentees in building their professional networks and connecting with others who share their interests and career goals.

• How are you encouraging the creation of collaborative partnerships among your own mentees within their graduate programs and across various professional networks?
• Are you supporting your mentees in developing and applying networking skills?

What ideas do you have for advancing mentoring relationships? What advice might you give others to improve their own mentorship skills?ReferencesCobb, C., Zamboanga, B., Xie, D., Schwartz, S., Meca, A., & Sanders, G. (2018). From advising to mentoring: Toward proactive mentoring in health service psychology doctoral training programs. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 12(1), 38–45. https://doi.org/10.1037/tep0000187Grapin, S. L., Collier-Meek, M. A., January, S. A. A., Yang, C., & Portillo, N. L. (2021). Reconceptualizing Mentorship for the 21st Century: A Systematic Mapping of Research in School Psychology. School Psychology Review, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2021.1910861Johnson, W. (2014). Mentoring in psychology education and training: A mentoring relationship continuum model. In W. Johnson & N. Kaslow (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of education and training in clinical psychology (pp. 272–290). Oxford University Press.  

Coping with COVID-19 As An Early Career Scholar (Part I)

By Lindsay M. Fallon, University of Massachusetts – Boston; and Amanda L. Sullivan, University of Minnesota Over the past few months, COVID-19 has been known to infect over a million people worldwide. Its spread brings great concern for physical health and safety, but also emotional wellness; access to healthcare, education and employment; caring for oneself and others; managing competing responsibilities; and much more. A pandemic of this magnitude is uncharted territory for most of us and there remain many unknowns. Intense and new feelings about the virus and its impact are justified. Kindness to oneself is critical in navigating through this difficult and unsettling time.As early career scholars in a helping profession, it can be hard to know exactly what to do or how to help. Those whom we support, teach, and mentor may be experiencing illness or significant disruptions to their life (e.g., moving away or back home to be with family, experiencing an abrupt end to on-site fieldwork, managing the interruption to dissertation data collection, unemployment or illness among family members). Challenges may be exacerbated for individuals from historically minoritized backgrounds, including first-gen students, individuals from racially minoritized backgrounds, women, and others given racialized, classist, gendered, and ableist dimensions of this crisis. Taken together, this may bring about feelings of disappointment, discomfort, and even grief. Those we mentor may require additional and more intensive support during a time when we also need time and space to process and adjust to unanticipated changes ourselves. It is critical we engage in self-care, access social support, and set and maintain manageable expectations now and in the coming months.There are many ways to engage in self-care. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend: 

• Taking breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including social media. Hearing about the pandemic repeatedly can be upsetting.
• Taking care of one’s body by engaging in relaxation techniques (deep breathing, stretching, meditation), healthy eating, exercise, and adequate sleep.
• Making time to unwind and connect with others. Talking with trusted friends and colleagues can help to process difficult events and feelings.

Additional recommendations and resources have been offered by NASP, SAMHSA and others. Accessing necessary social support is, of course, impacted by the practice of social distancing, or physical distancing as it is more aptly named. Guidance by the American Psychological Association (APA) emphasizes the value of using technology in the absence of face-to-face interactions. This includes using phone calls, text messages, video chat and social media to access social support networks. There are many virtual social media support groups emerging (e.g., Facebook groups) to facilitate communication and a sense of community. While social and professional support needs will vary for individuals, the realization that all early career scholars are experiencing this pandemic together is powerful. We hope that early career scholars utilize each other as support systems and build stronger collaborative relationships as a result of these challenging times.It’s also important to set and maintain manageable expectations in the coming weeks and months. What is manageable is necessarily different now and will likely vary throughout this pandemic. Most faculty are grappling with the unwieldy task of quickly transitioning to online instruction while also managing extensive, and perhaps growing, personal demands. Rebecca Barrett-Fox offered numerous reasons why you should please do a bad job of putting your courses online during this unprecedented time. Her rationale and corresponding recommendations are especially helpful for scholars who are deeply committed to high quality preparation of school psychologists and high personal standards of excellence generally. We all want to do our best. As she points out, present circumstances necessitate a qualitatively different approach to online teaching than we’d pursue outside of a crisis. Be kind to yourself and your students by doing less. That’s more important now than learning and implementing the most recent teaching apps or ensuring that your online course is as rigorous as you’d intended the in-person class to be before COVID-19 upended everything. Elsewhere, recommendations for supporting struggling online learners are increasingly abundant, but the general themes are to be flexible, low tech, and as minimalistic as possible. It's also reasonable to assume your students are or will be struggling with COVID-related challenges and to practice compassion accordingly.Contrary to early posturing about mimicking Shakespeare or Newton’s pandemic productivity, this crisis does not lend itself to research productivity for most of us. We aren’t on mandatory writing retreats when stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders are issued by university and state leaders. This is especially true for individuals now acclimating to round-the-clock childcare duties; distance learning support for school-age kids; mutual aid for friends, loved ones, and community members; and supporting our students, advisees, supervisees, and colleagues---to say nothing of the personal emotional toll of all of this. We are anxious. We are angry. We are grieving. We are scared.As scholars and graduate educators, most of us have the privilege of being able to continue our work from our homes following social distancing and home isolation orders. Yet, as many have pointed out, “You’re not working from home. You’re sheltering in place during a pandemic and trying to get work done in the gaps between taking care of yourself, your loved ones, and your worries.” Such pandemic work is fundamentally different from choosing to work from home outside of an international crisis. Research findings on employees’ stable or enhanced productivity when working from home are not generalizable to our present context. We must give ourselves permission to expect less from everyone---ourselves, our students, our collaborators, our colleagues---right now. 

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— Seánie (@seanieflanagan) April 1, 2020

Indeed, it may be hard to concentrate or focus on certain tasks, making it difficult to feel productive. This can feel stressful, but is completely understandable. Now, productivity will likely look very different than it did last semester. Practice acknowledging and accepting this, along with celebrating what you are doing: responding to the needs of students, colleagues, clients, etc. is essential, meaningful work. Also, many of us now have children at home all day and are navigating work and caregiving responsibilities. This calls for flexibility with deadlines, requests, and workload. As such, it might also be important to communicate with professional colleagues about capacity and deadlines (e.g., asking for more time to review manuscripts for editorial boards). It is important to think about ways to advocate for one’s needs during this time. Don’t be afraid to request extensions, step away from projects, or ask for other assistance. For tenure-track junior faculty, it may be necessary to discuss with department, college, and university colleagues about adjusted expectations pre-tenure (e.g., fewer publications required; paused tenure clocks). Many universities are automatically extending probationary periods or are allowing faculty to opt in to pausing their clocks. It can be difficult to grant yourself use of such allowances because of common criticisms of pausing clocks that many of us have encountered from senior scholars and others, not to mention concern for how it may widen gender disparities, but these are extraordinarily challenging times. Those of us with more privilege* must advocate and assist our more vulnerable colleagues. This means being flexible with scheduling, deadlines, and delegation of responsibilities and assignments. It means, as much as possible given our own challenges, shouldering more of the burden than we put on junior faculty, contingent faculty colleagues, and students. It also means advocating for tenure clock extensions if they aren’t already in place and ensuring that we make allowances for this lost year when evaluating junior scholars’ accomplishments and potential in the context of promotion, tenure (pssst - external reviewers), student reviews, hiring, or grant or fellowship proposals. The likely impact on grades, research output, teaching evaluations, service activities, and other professional activities or accomplishments should not be ignored or downplayed once this pandemic passes. In the coming days, weeks, and months, we will have a better sense of how long COVID-19 will impact our daily lives and of the long lasting impact the pandemic will have on our field and society. In the meantime, we can take care of ourselves and others by normalizing our own feelings of discomfort and stress, engaging in self-care to the extent that we’re able, accessing social support as needed, setting and maintaining manageable expectations, and being an advocate for what we need at this time. This is undoubtedly a pivotal moment in history. Let’s be kind to ourselves as we navigate the duality of this unprecedented time.

 

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This is part 1 of at least two posts the Early Career Forum is preparing to address the unique circumstances COVID-19 presents for early career scholars and others in our school psychology community. Our next installment will address the research challenges for early career scholars in school psychology. To our readers: What questions do you have for the ECF? What resources or opportunities would you like to see? What other recommendations would you offer to our community for coping with COVID-related issues as an early career scholar? Tell us in the comments section below or comment on Twitter or Facebook.* As a full professor, I (Amanda) know that I am co-writing this from a place of immense privilege. I challenge myself and my similarly privileged peers to ask how we can support those without the luxuries of rank, tenure, and everything that comes with it. We must also keep in mind that the consequences of this crisis will continue to reverberate, even when/if we return to business as usual, so our grace must extend beyond the crisis.

Engaging in Proactive Teaching Preparation Practices to Maximize Overall Productivity

By Katie Maki, University of FloridaThe ECF’s overarching focus typically centers around the research-related activities of academia. Although this month’s blog post is seemingly focused on teaching responsibilities, in actuality, streamlining teaching practices is extremely important for research productivity. We all have a finite amount of time in the work week to accomplish our research, teaching, and service responsibilities, and thus, unbound time spent on one area of work can come at the expense of others. Systematically organizing your teaching practices is therefore imperative to ensuring that you maintain your research productivity to meet your university’s expectations for reappointment or tenure and promotion. The purpose of this month’s post is to discuss strategies for streamlining teaching practices so as not to compromise research productivity.Be Proactive with SchedulingAs an academic, it is very easy to spend a significant amount of time on teaching responsibilities whether you teach four classes each semester or one class each semester. The accountability of your teaching practices is built in each week – your students will be waiting for you to show up to class to teach and, likely in all fairness, they will continue to ask you when you are going to grade their assignment until you do it. Thus, structuring your time around those immediate and concrete teaching demands can often take precedence over your other position responsibilities. Personally, I could easily spend two days a week on a single course because it always seems like there is so much important content to cover in class with students. However, doing so is not likely to result in a class session that is two times as good as if I spent one day on the course, and it will definitely eat away at my research productivity. Compared to teaching where you will obtain routine feedback, the institutional check-ins regarding research productivity will be far less frequent (e.g., yearly, every three years) and therefore your productivity is dependent upon your ability to manage and prioritize your responsibilities.Not everyone has the option of indicating a preference for when their classes are held, but if you do, don’t be afraid to ask for your classes to be held on specific days and at a time of day that work well for you. I like teaching in the mid- to late afternoon because I am usually pretty tired after teaching and then I can call it a day without negatively impacting my productivity (or feeling that reoccurring academic guilt of “I should be writing.”). Currently, I teach a three-hour graduate level class one day per week, which also allows me to designate that day as my teaching day. On my teaching day, I read, prepare presentations and activities, hold office hours, and grade student work. For me, setting aside one day each week as my teaching day helps me to ensure that I don’t spend 50% of my work week on teaching responsibilities because doing so will undermine my ability to meet the research expectations of my university. Of course, different universities have different teaching loads and not everyone will be able to set up their schedule so that all of their teaching responsibilities fall on one day. Thus, scheduling when you complete your teaching activities (e.g., preparation, grading, meetings with students) each week is important to ensure that you don’t inadvertently sacrifice research productivity.Engage in Advanced Planning There are times when I find course preparation to be challenging and somewhat daunting. There is always a lot of material to cover over the course of a semester and it is sometimes difficult to know how best to deliver certain content. That said, one approach to course preparation that I have found particularly helpful is to use my current teaching to help prepare for future teaching. Of course, it may seem obvious that when prepping for a class in the future you would rely on previous material. However, in this case, I’m referring to prepping now for the next semester you teach the class. This kind of advanced planning may make your head spin, and honestly, it does not come naturally to me, but when I make myself plan ahead, it has also been invaluable. If I made you sweat thinking about next semester or even next year, the good news is that advanced planning does not have to be intensive. Spending 10 to 15 minutes reflecting on the previous class session can be a meaningful way to prepare for the next round of teaching.To do so, at the end of each class, make note of what worked well and what could be improved. If you are like me, you find yourself exhausted after teaching a three-hour class and the last thing you want to do is spend more time on class when it ends, especially if you teach in the late afternoon or evening. But future you will be very happy when you teach the class again and you have notes about how to make the class better. I use my course syllabus to make note of the successes and challenges during each class session by inserting comments and using track changes in the syllabus document. I make note of the content that seemed particularly challenging for students and the activities that worked well and the activities that fell flat. These notes are really helpful for planning activities in future semesters, but I also keep in mind that the same activity may be more or less successful with a future cohort of students. I have used the same activity with one cohort very successfully and the next year encountered significant challenges with the activity with a different cohort. However, making specific note of these difficulties allows me to make revisions to course activities as I get to know future cohorts’ student personalities and background knowledge.I also get feedback from students on course readings and note the readings students found particularly challenging, the readings students really enjoyed, and the readings they found most helpful. Although I don’t always exclude readings in the future that students found challenging or didn’t like, it is still helpful to have insight into student perspectives and be prepared for how future students might interact with course readings. There have been many days at the end of class when I have convinced myself I would remember any challenges the students and I encountered when prepping the next semester. I am sure no one is surprised that while I sometimes remembered that there was an issue, I typically can’t. Consequently, it is important to indicate not only that something did not work well, but to be specific about the challenge (e.g., activity directions were confusing to students, students were unfamiliar with reading methodology, my difficulty concisely explaining specific class topic or idea).Be StrategicTeaching is of course an important part of our positions as faculty in the field of school psychology. As an applied field, many of our students will go on to work in settings supporting children who demonstrate a range of academic, social, behavioral, and emotional needs. I find teaching to be one of the most rewarding parts of my job in academia. Working with students is fun and it is really heartening to see how excited they get about being a future school psychologist. Thus, the weight of what we teach students and the experiences with which we provide them can hardly be understated. However, this weight and time we spend on teaching preparation are not necessarily synonymous. Being strategic with how you prepare a course for the semester and your teaching on a weekly basis are important for supporting both your effectiveness and efficiency in teaching.Do you have other suggestions for how to maximize your teaching productivity? Post your comments below.

Making the Most of Student Research Teams

By Lindsay Fallon, University of Massachusetts BostonContributors: Drs. Bridget Dever (Lehigh University), Bridget Hier (University of Buffalo), Shane Jimerson (University of California – Santa Barbara), and Faith Miller (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities)Early career faculty may enter into an academic position excited to have student support to assist with research activities. Yet, as the semester begins, questions may surface -- including what projects to tackle, how to divide tasks, and what level of supervision is needed. As a result, early career faculty may wonder how to make the most of their research team experience. I asked four faculty members who have found success in this area to share their tips. Overall, their message was simple: a productive, efficient student research team is often the result of organization, effort, and time.Specifically, our experts suggested that early career faculty might

• Build students’ research skills strategically. Teach concrete tasks initially (e.g., how to conduct a literature search) and strive to mentor students to engage in more complex processes (e.g., conceptualizing a research study) when ready and appropriate.
• Invest time in organizing and planning research team systems (e.g., regular meeting time, structure, agenda, shared cloud space) to maximize productivity.
• Have clear team/lab goals that can be tracked with data.
• Be explicit about expectations and lead by example.
• Train students to engage in vertical mentorship across cohorts as it can be mutually beneficial. Consider opportunities for leadership on the team, too.
• Find interested student collaborators by spreading the word about your work. If you are without funded research assistants, seek student volunteers by visiting classes and talking with students about your projects.
• Celebrate successes and show appreciation! Enjoy and acknowledge the team’s collaborative efforts.

Below are the panel’s complete thoughts. (Also, a pro tip from Dr. Dever is to start at the end of this post and work your way backwards. She reminds us that building a research team is indeed a deliberate, comprehensive process!)

1. How would you describe your research team or lab? How many students are involved, how frequently do you meet, and what is your focus?

BD: My research team is large and vibrant, including nine doctoral students and two undergraduate students. This semester we have a new and substantial data collection project, so we have been meeting weekly for an hour as a team.  During [our weekly] meetings, we focus on issues related to [the] new project for the most part, but I also try to leave 10-15 minutes at the end for students to raise questions or concerns “for the good of the group.”  I feel that this has been helpful for group advising, as students will typically bring up questions that are useful to discuss as a group in order to get other students’ perspectives.BH: My research team currently consists of three Ph.D. students, eight master’s students, and 14 undergraduate research assistants (RAs). We meet weekly so that I can review what was completed the prior week, discuss what needs to be completed in the upcoming week, provide direct training on new tasks when needed, provide feedback and reminders, and answer questions.SJ: I would describe my / our research team as a group of vibrant, passionate, curious problem solvers who are committed to applied scholarship that advances science and informs practice to promote the social, cognitive, and academic development of all children (with a particular focus on students from disadvantaged backgrounds). Team members include graduate students, undergraduate students, and often includes visiting scholars and collaborations with other colleagues.Our research team motto is -- Show Me the Data. Some of our guiding principles include Data over Dogma, Reality over Rhetoric, and What's next? We meet at least once a week (have met almost every Friday for the past 22 years, and I had met for research team meeting every Friday in graduate school for the preceding 5 years), and typically have subgroups of the team who also meet separately each week.In addition, I meet individually with research team members each week, typically more meetings with the graduate students. The focus of each of our meetings addresses contemporary topics related to each of the projects. For instance, depending upon the particular project, we may discuss theoretical foundations, relevant research, literature review, methods, institutional review procedures, data collection procedures, measures, collaboration with administrators/teachers, key questions, hypotheses, data collection, data management, analyses, interpretation of findings, preparation of posters and paper presentations, and preparation of manuscripts. Often our weekly meetings will include several of these topics across multiple projects.FM: My lab, the School Mental Health AIMS (Assessment and Intervention in Multi-tiered Systems of Support) Lab, focuses on advancing evidence-based practices in early identification and intervention for social-emotional and behavioral difficulties in schools. My group typically consists of four to nine graduate students, and we have a standing meeting throughout the academic year that occurs bi-weekly for two hours. The purpose of my lab is twofold: 1) to support students’ independent research and 2) to provide scaffolded opportunities for students to gain research experience with my projects. To this end, my team engages in all stages of the research production process – from conceptualization to dissemination.

2. Tell us a little about the type of research students conduct and/or coordinate.

BD: This answer depends on the students’ experiences and also the source of the students’ funding. Students coordinate projects [from which funding is derived] and supervise data collection and entry efforts, which are largely already in place from work done in previous years.In terms of independent research projects for students, this very much depends on student experience/years in the program. Keep in mind that for graduate students, most of Year 1 is spent learning the basics – yes of research, but also of [my] research team, mentoring style, the program, the University, and in many cases a new area. By the end of Year 1, my hope is that doctoral students have started to develop their own independent research question(s) using one of my datasets, so that we can work together to draft a NASP proposal early that summer. This looks similar for Ed.S. students who are involved with my research as well. In Year 2, students flesh their ideas out further, and if all goes well, they present their research project at NASP. For doctoral students, the goal is to have a compete manuscript written late in Year 2 or early in Year 3, as an independent research paper is one of the requirements of our program. That manuscript then gets revised in Year 3, and I work with my students to aim for publication in Year 4. That is typically simultaneous with thinking about their own dissertations, for which the students really “take the wheel.”  All of these are rough estimates of course, but I think having a roadmap in mind helps to keep both you and the student on track.Usually once students have their first NASP experience, they also work on smaller projects along the way to get more conference opportunities, and often these are collaborative efforts on posters and papers that are led by myself or another student. The goal is to scaffold research experiences so that each student is developing the skills that match with his/her own level of expertise with data management, analysis, technical writing, and research goals during any given year. For doctoral students, the expectation is that by the time they begin their dissertation they will have the skillset to work on their research fairly independently, with guidance and feedback from me as needed along the way.BH: The students’ research responsibilities vary as a function of training and experience.  Generally, the graduate students are trained to implement the intervention protocols in the schools, and the undergraduate students are trained to conduct fidelity assessments.  Everyone is trained to score our dependent measures, and a subset of the research team is trained to enter the data.SJ: Students participate in all aspects of the research initiatives. Each of these are field-based, applied, developmental science initiatives focused on promoting the social, cognitive, behavioral, and academic development of children. Granted, their participation and contributions vary by their level of development and previous experiences. For some, specific content is way beyond their zone of proximal development, however, I believe that being involved in the discussions and then subsequent tutorials / collaboration with more advanced students provides the necessary scaffolding to facilitate their development of the skills.When discussing topics with team members, I expect that those with knowledge and understanding of the specifics will be highly engaged during the group discussions and that they will also spend additional time with other team members outside of the team meeting to help further develop relevant skills and knowledge. Each member of the team brings specific skills, knowledge and experiences. Each of the graduate students typically have many more research related skills compared to the undergraduate students, however, this is not always the case for specific skills. The emphasis of our research team is to embrace the strengths that each team member brings to the table, and engage all in activities that will further develop their knowledge and skills.FM: Within my lab, we use diverse research methodologies ranging from single-case design intervention studies, to meta-analyses, to large N assessment studies. Consequently, students are exposed to a variety of different research methods and approaches, as well as the strengths and difficulties associated with them. I think this exposure is really important from the time students start attending graduate school. When it comes time for them to conduct their first original independent research project (their thesis), they will have a better understanding of the kinds of research questions that can be answered using different methods. This exposure is also beneficial in helping to train well-rounded scholars who can advance the science and practice of school psychology. In addition to exposure to diverse research methodologies, I aim to tailor student research experiences based on their current developmental level and training. Given the scaffolded and vertical mentoring structure of my research team, experiences are appropriately matched to the student’s developmental level. For example, first year graduate students often complete relatively concrete activities, such as conducting literature searches, creating annotated bibliographies, reviewing psychometric properties of assessments, and building tables and figures, while advanced students complete more complex and abstract activities.

3. How is mentorship built in to your research team structure?

BD: Mentorship is the thing that holds the team together, and keeps us moving forward both individually and as a system. I work to provide students with opportunities to not only assist with tasks such as data collection and entry, but also to include them in conference presentations and as coauthors on manuscripts. I take a mentorship role in my students’ independent research, which includes encouraging them to take on their own projects or pieces of projects, setting clear and meaningful deadlines, and holding myself accountable to students for timely feedback. Of course, it is also important to provide opportunities for face-to-face mentorship as well. Some students meet with me individually as often as twice a month, depending on their own needs and projects. I also rely on my more experienced students to provide mentorship as appropriate to newer students on the team.In addition, as needed, I provide opportunities for students to practice presenting to the group before conferences or proposal meetings so that they can get feedback on their research and presentation skills from me and their peers in a non-evaluative setting. Finally, I try to meet with my research team off-campus once a semester both as a celebration and as an opportunity for cross-cohort advising and mentorship. Sometimes I think we all get so wrapped up in our work during the semester, so it’s nice to take some time socially away from the classroom setting to get to know each other and connect as human beings. The cross-cohort connections are especially critical. Students earlier in their trajectories benefit from hearing about how others made it through their classes, milestones, etc. (and relatively unscathed, we hope!) in order to demystify the process of grad school. I also host a similar social event for my research team at NASP -- it’s a huge accomplishment for students to present their work to a national audience, and I think it’s important to celebrate that success as a team.BH: Graduate students, and even undergraduate RAs, who perform strongly in terms of their accuracy and reliability with research tasks are selected for leadership roles within the team. Those individuals gain experience training the other RAs, monitoring accuracy of the research tasks, and holding feedback meetings.Students also gain mentoring experience with conference presentations.  The doctoral students are expected to present our research at NASP as well as local conferences.  Through that experience, they mentor master’s students in how to conceptualize a research question, conduct analyses, and prepare for a presentation.Aside from mentorship around research tasks, we also provide undergraduate RAs with mentorship around applying to graduate school.  Each year, I conduct a seminar during one of our research team meetings on considerations for graduate school, how to apply, and what to expect.  The graduate students edit the undergraduate students’ CVs and personal statements, and they conduct mock interviews to help the RAs prepare.SJ: Mentoring on my / our research team is characterized by being both sensitive and responsive to the individual strengths and needs of each of the students. Mentorship is the core of all our collaborative activities. Those with more experience, skills, and knowledge with particular activities/topics are expected to provide leadership. This includes active participation during team meetings, arranging for additional sessions with others who are ready to engage in further learning to build their knowledge of particular skills and knowledge. As a faculty member, I intend to mentor each of the graduate and undergraduate students in both personal and professional development. It is also expected that the graduate students will mentor each other as related to specific tasks, skills, and knowledge throughout graduate school. In addition, graduate students are expected to mentor undergraduate students collaborating with us on various projects. Also, experienced undergraduate research assistants are expected to mentor incoming undergraduate research assistants. Mentoring and support is emphasized throughout all team activities. I provide specific direction and support for graduate students and undergraduate students regarding mentoring other students, and I am also sensitive and responsive to their mentoring challenges and needs to help support them in this process.FM: In addition to the mentorship that I provide to students directly, I have found that a vertical team structure is helpful. Within this structure, more advanced students in the program serve as mentors to students who are newer to the program. I have found this vertical peer mentoring structure beneficial in numerous ways: in enhancing the capacity of our team, in building a sense of camaraderie as opposed to competitiveness, in reducing anxiety surrounding conducting independent research, and in learning vicariously from others’ experience. Vertical mentoring occurs in a few different ways in my lab, including: (a) in advanced students sharing their progress, successes, and challenges with the group, (b) in novice students asking process-oriented questions to advanced students, (c) in viewing my role as facilitator to these interactions and in building these connections through our group discussions, and (d) encouraging students to support each other in their work, including peer-review of written products and assisting with data collection efforts. Essentially, the giving and receiving of mentorship has become a group norm in my lab.

4. How do you maximize efficiency and productivity with your team?

BD: Full disclosure – I think we are all constantly trying to improve our efficiency and productivity, and I’m not sure that ever goes away. I’m excited to see what others say about this, because I feel like there’s still a lot for me to learn as well. That being said, here are some strategies that have helped me to feel somewhat more efficient and productive as a mentor. First, meet only when you need to meet. Just as faculty members get frustrated with service commitments that just check a box, our students’ time is valuable and should be respected. Sometimes this means canceling a team meeting or just meeting with a small subset of team members. Second, when you do meet, take the time to draft an agenda or list of goals for the meeting in advance. Having even an informal agenda in mind helps make efficient and productive use of everyone’s time in each meeting. Third, have mechanisms in place for students to transfer knowledge to one another; once you have an advanced student or two on the team, allow them to take more responsibility for training and mentoring the others. Finally, envision each students’ independent research projects as publications, and keep that vision in mind every step of the way. Treating those posters, presentations, qualifying projects, etc. as future publications from the beginning will help everyone’s productivity, as well as structure your mentoring of students through the entire process from research idea to seeing their work in print. From day one, I ask my students to consider what they want to be “the expert in” when they graduate. Of course that may change along the way, but I think helping students to see that their posters, papers, projects, presentations, and other research activities should tell a story about them as a researcher empowers students to see how these experiences are linked and map onto a larger goal (rather than being isolated events/experiences).BH: I typically prefer to have roughly six undergraduate RAs on my team at a time to maximize efficiency, as more RAs equals more training, more supervision, and more double-checking of accuracy. However, I currently have more than double that amount due to the nature of a large, labor-intensive longitudinal RCT I am completing. To be able to manage that amount of people, I created three sub-teams, which each have specific tasks and are each managed by two graduate students. The Scoring Team is responsible for scoring our research participants’ weekly CBM-writing progress monitoring data. Once that is complete, they give the data to the Data Entry team for initial entry and double-checking. The Dissemination Team is then responsible for graphing the student participants’ progress monitoring data so I can share those data with our school partners for instructional decision-making (which is cleared by the IRB in advance). The graduate students who lead each of those teams are responsible for training their teams, monitoring task accuracy, conducting feedback meetings with the RAs, and holding weekly meetings to review upcoming tasks. I meet weekly with the graduate students to supervise their supervision of the RAs.SJ: Excellence is expected -- anything worth doing is worth doing well. There are 86,400 seconds each day, therefore, we establish clear timelines and objectives and communicate frequently. It is expected that tasks will be completed on-time, and when needed, additional support and scaffolding is provided to actualize each objective in a timely manner. The weekly meetings and mid-week meetings between individuals is helpful to establish clear timelines and being certain that activities are completed in advance of the upcoming team meeting.FM: Building a structure to support these efforts is really important. So, for example, we always start lab meetings with student updates on independent research projects, which includes discussion of progress, successes and challenges, and an opportunity for group problem-solving. Next, we move to lab projects currently in progress, with a point-person assigned to each project who is responsible for updating the team and developing action items regarding next steps to move the project forward. Organization is also key to facilitate efficiency and productivity: we have a Google Team Drive for our lab with all materials readily accessible, we keep detailed meeting minutes, and review action items at the end of every lab meeting.

5. What is important for early career faculty to consider when starting their research team or lab?

BD: As an Early Career faculty member, you may only have one or two students and you will be the sole mentor on the team. I think a trap a lot of us fall into (myself included) is doing a short-term cost-benefit analysis and deciding that rather than delegate to students, “it’ll be quicker to just do it myself.” This is particularly true when beginning a research team, as you are likely trying to develop your own research agenda and may feel like you don’t have the time to invest in training a student from the ground up. In the short-term, you may be right – in fact, you may be able to crank out the output you need much more quickly than it would take to both train the student and then have the student do the task independently. However, I strongly recommend shifting your perspective to the long game, as you’re likely going to be at this whole research thing for a while. In the long-term, it will be much more efficient and productive to sit with your students and involve them in every step of the research process early on. Not only will they appreciate the experiences and learn so much from you, later on down the road they will be able to share their expertise with other students, lightening your load as a mentor. As you are getting started, it would be ideal if you could choose an incoming student or two to work with you based on matched research interests – but that doesn’t always work out. If your program does provide a graduate assistant, often Early Career faculty think that requesting a more advanced student would be best in order to get someone on board who has already developed some research skills. Again, I’m going to encourage you to play the long game, and to see your new graduate assistant as someone who ideally would be with you for four or five years. So if you’re given the opportunity, request a student who is at the beginning of his/her training, and really spend the time training that student and encouraging him/her to get excited about research. This will require an investment of your time now, but in two or three years you will be in a great position to delegate and expand your research team.I know that not all early career faculty members are in the position of having a funded graduate assistant. Don’t let that derail you from starting your research team! In my first year, the majority of my research team included graduate students who were volunteering their time to work on my project. As you’re starting out, talk to current students about your research.  Make shameless plugs about volunteer opportunities in your classes or larger program meetings that include students. Invite students to come talk with you about your work and how they might be able to connect and contribute to it. Keep in mind that while you are somewhat of an “unknown” among students when you are starting out, they are excited about a new faculty member joining the program. Making yourself approachable and giving students opportunities to work with you will go a long way in developing your reputation as a collaborator, which will encourage more students to want to work with you in the future.BH: I find that the assistance of undergraduate RAs is imperative for getting my research completed. Oftentimes psychology majors are looking for research experience, and you may be able to send an email blast through the Psychology Department at your institution to recruit RAs. Most universities allow you to offer course credits for their work. I often try to recruit sophomores because once they are trained, they typically remain on the research team for three years and then are set up to enter graduate school with a fantastic skill set.SJ: Be thoughtful and intentional about your infrastructure and expectations. Meet with your team members at least once a week as a group. Establish smaller group or individual meetings with team members each week, as there are some activities that are more efficient to address in a smaller group / individual context. Expect and scaffold more advanced research team members in mentoring and supervising activities of other team members. Be sensitive and response to individual strengths and needs. Maintain and encourage frequent communications among team members. Clearly delineate weekly / monthly objectives and monitor progress on each of these activities. Celebrate successes (e.g., data collected, highlighting findings, conference proposals accepted / presented, manuscripts submitted / accepted, defenses, orals passed). Start small and build from a strong foundation. Ultimately you are responsible for the well-being of every team member, therefore, do not expect that more team members will necessarily be better. Add undergraduate research assistants who are highly motivated, skilled, and can be responsive to supervision from the graduate students (and transition team members who are not contributing to the team dynamic and productivity). Develop a series of questions that you will ask of any undergraduate students who are interested in applying to work with your research team. If you teach an undergraduate course, you can highlight the opportunities for students to apply to become a team member. Including questions about their future education / career aspirations is very important, as those students seeking to attend graduate school and careers related to the research are often the most highly motivated and highly engaged in all team activities.FM: I think that research labs are really critical in socializing students to the research production process. That is, they provide a “behind the scenes” look at just how difficult it can be to conduct high-quality original research. To me, that modeling of best practices, instilling of passion for conducting research, normalization of challenges and difficulties, and work-shopping of ideas is time very well-spent. For me personally, as a first-generation college graduate, I realized how important it is to demystify the process and make conducting rigorous research approachable to everyone, regardless of prior opportunities that students may or may not have had access to.

6. Do you have any other advice about making the most of student research teams that may benefit early career faculty?

BD: Mentorship is not easy, but it’s incredibly rewarding.  Please know that it is worth the effort to scaffold meaningful research experiences that meet each student where he/she is. Always remember that as a mentor, you are given the opportunity to shape your future colleague, your future coauthor, or your future ambassador in the field.BH: It is crucial to provide student research teams with adequate support to be successful. For undergraduate RAs, one of the most common strategies I use is to review behavioral expectations early and frequently. Even when I am initially interviewing undergraduate RA candidates, I review the basic behaviors that I expect of my team members should they be selected for the position. I then explicitly teach those behavioral expectations to all RAs who newly join the team, and I ask them to sign a behavioral contract agreeing to those expectations. With both my undergraduate and graduate team members, I find that simply providing pre-corrections is a small but powerful tool to prompt successful completion of the research tasks.SJ: Be the change and lead by example. Providing a positive experience is important to further engage and motivate research team members. Through your collaborative activities and leadership, aim to prepare team members to be the best possible faculty colleagues and graduate students that you can imagine.  The team’s success is dependent upon your leadership. Embrace the skills, competencies, and knowledge of each team members, and aim to maximize the participation and contributions of each. Be prepared to take care of any and all tasks that any research assistant is not fulfilling. In some instances, still requiring the team member to complete the task and providing scaffolding, but, getting things completed so that all moves forward. Be an inspiration to team members, highlighting the contributions that emerge from the research to help benefit children, families, schools and expressing gratitude for individual and collective efforts.FM: The time and effort spent in setting up your lab up front is well worth it! Take the time at the beginning of each year to map out a general plan for the year, keeping in mind that it will be a bit of a moving target as the year progresses. By having several projects going and at different stages of development, adjustments can be made to prioritize tasks as needed and keep the work moving forward.--My thanks to the contributors of this post. I’ll conclude with a few comments. In a 2013 Gallup report on workplace productivity, the main message was to build structure that can stretch, and to remember four “needs” as a leader. That is, individuals need (a) to know what’s expected, (b) the right materials and tools, (c) the skills to achieve, and (d) recognition for accomplishments. Build on successes and, as Dr. Dever advised, play the long game!To make the most of your research team, take advantage of other resources the ECF has made available, including blog posts such as a 2014 entry titled, “Developing a Research Agenda” as well as conference materials, such as handouts from a NASP 2019 presentation titled, “Hitting the Ground Running: Maximizing Your Early Years in Academia”.Have you had experience leading or participating in a research team? If so, what facilitated or hindered the success of that team? 

Being Efficient in Course Preparation

October 14, 2013

By Bryn HarrisAs an early career scholar or as a seasoned instructor, course preparation can be a challenging task. Much of this challenge comes from the fact that course preparation never feels “done.” There are always more articles to read, grading rubrics to expand, or modifications to make based on continuous feedback. In the absence of a clear plan, time spent in course prep can overcrowd other important activities. Below are some recommendations for making course preparation manageable, and protecting time for other tasks that important to your success:·      Schedule it! Time management may be my answer to a lot of things, and this is one of them. Allocating specific time from our schedule to course preparation makes us more purposeful in our preparation and thus, more efficient. Some people use kitchen timers or an alarm on a cell phone for a physical and auditory reminder. You might also consider limiting course preparation to certain blocks of time or days of the week.·      Make revisions right away! Take notes during or immediately after class on the things that went well and things that need to be improved. In addition, I like to make notes of all the activities I do, how long certain activities took, and feedback from students within these notes. Make course revisions as quickly as possible, immediately after class being the best time.·      Use technology! While it can take some time to learn new technologies, judicious use of them can improve efficiency. For example, you may consider creating a short video on a tablet about a question that is asked a lot so students can refer to it on their own time. Or you may consider using Google Drive or Dropbox to save course material so it can be accessed anywhere at any time. Lastly, you may want to check out such resources such as Evernote (www.evernote.com), Explain Everything, (www.explaineverything.com) or Google Apps (http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/education/) to find a plethora of ways to facilitate simple technology integration and other solutions to your course needs. If you plan on using a novel application as part of an in-class activity, make sure you test it out in the classroom before class. It working on your home computer does not guarantee it will work with the projector and wireless in your classroom.·      Take advantage of university resources! Most colleges and universities have faculty development centers or teaching resources. While there are days it can seem difficult to take an hour to attend a presentation, these trainings can be highly valuable. In addition, faculty members should learn about the other campus resources that may be beneficial such as the Writing Center, Office of Disability Services, and the Academic Advising services. There are other professionals on campus that can assist students, so use them! Lastly, faculty members should consider collaborating with the campus library. Librarians can inform you of new books and articles related to your course and resources for students.·      Ask for help! New faculty members often report feeling overwhelmed by course preparation tasks their first, second, and sometimes 5th semester of teaching. It is very common to feel this way. I have found that once I have taught the same course 4-5 times I start to feel more confident in my teaching, course activities, and assignments. Preparing for a course for the first time is incredibly draining and can easily take precedence over other required tasks because you have to be ready to teach each week. Course preparation does get better over time! Experienced faculty members can provide support and mentorship to new faculty members by sharing or reviewing syllabi, observing classes, and meeting with the faculty member to review lesson plans and course feedback.Other tips:·      Teach early in the week if you can- it forces you to be efficient, and leaves the rest of the week for other tasks.·      Take notes- use Adobe to highlight and make notes on the important features in your reading. This improves your efficiency in reading them on subsequent occasions. The same can be done with texts if you use the kindle/iBook version.·      Use the notes feature in PowerPoint to remind you what you were thinking when you made the slide a year ago. Be kind to your future self! Charts are a good place to use this strategy. Bullet the important points you want to make. You can make notes on anecdotes or examples so you don't have to reinvent them each year. You can come up with new ones of course, but having the old ones helps you improve them each time.How are you efficient in course preparation? Please share your tips with us!

How do You Prepare for the New Academic Year?

August 22, 2013

By Bryn Harris

With the new academic year upon us, we share our strategies for preparing for the fall semester.RobBeing a university professor has to be one of the greatest jobs in the world. It is hard to imagine a career that would match it in terms of flexibility with regard to topics of study and scheduling. With the exception of service obligations and teaching, you really do make your own hours. Indeed, to a large extent you can choose how much time you allocate to the big three areas of effort: research, teaching and service. For many of us, this is a tremendous asset, but it can also lead to stress and undermine our success when we do not set clear priorities and devise mechanisms to structure our time. The parameters of this blog will not allow me to go into any significant detail initially on this topic, but let me hit on some important themes here and we can follow-up with discussion or perhaps another thread. Two notions guide my advice for beginning of the semester planning:1.     Because we have so much control over how we allocate our time an important skill to develop as a university professor is regulating our motivation. This involves forethought and planning.2.     Often, the frequency and proximity of the feedback we receive about our work is high and closer respectively for teaching and service than it is for research. For many of us it is important to supplement feedback on our progress in research by goal setting and keeping track of our progress.I believe it is important to take a significant amount of time off in the summer. For me personally, I need the time to think about other things, to reenergize and to pursue other interests. For me, getting geared up for the new academic year is all about planning and preparing to get started on the right foot and to keep my motivation high for those things that are most important to me. The key things I do to keep motivation high are to positively frame my work, to set short and long-term goals, to plan how much time I will allocate to achieving these goals (protecting time), and to pick two or three things that will take priority over all other tasks. Planning is so important at this time of the year, because when the semester gets rolling, it is easy to become overwhelmed and to get into what I call “survival mode.” Survival mode is when you are reacting instead of acting- like riding in a rollercoaster as opposed to driving a car. It is not fun. Planning ahead and setting clear priorities will help you make the most of your time when you get into those situations. Right now I am planning studies and writing projects I will complete over the fall semester (detailed plans) and spring semester (less detailed plans). Though in past years, I have instead allocated time for reading about a new area of interest to get to that point where I can design and write-up those studies.A key motivation killer is getting overwhelmed. For me, writing down the things I need to do helps me keep from getting to that point. Well, that is one part of it. Sometimes that list can be intimidating itself, but when you plan when you will do each task in your calendar or whiteboard, it has the magical effect of making it much less so. We have so many little tasks to do to get ready for the new semester (updating syllabi, setting up blackboard/WebCT sites, finishing up tasks that were supposed to be done over the summer…) that we can easily fill up our days and feel like we have not accomplished much at all. Also, a lot of valuable time can be spent spinning our wheels because we don’t know what to do next. This is especially true when we finish a big task. When you have a well thought out calendar, it is possible to reward productivity on difficult tasks with something else that we might think of as more fun. I like to schedule more fun kinds of tasks later in the day. Like writing this post for example. I worked on a grant budget this morning (not that much fun for me), and I am now doing something much more fun (the good old Premack Principle works for us all). It is quite possible that I will go for a sail when I am done writing this because I finished my tasks for the day—it is still summer after all.

BrynThe beginning of the academic year is exciting yet also anxiety provoking. The summer always seems too short, and my ideas for preparing for the academic year far in advance are never realized. However, in the past five years, I have learned a few strategies that help start the academic year positively and efficiently.1)   Time Management – This is the concept that seems to be the most important to my productivity. Of course, it is also critical to consider when preparing for the new year. Now that I have an 11-month-old son, I find it even more important to create work time and family time. My husband and I discuss childcare, family obligations, and other issues far in advance to eliminate the dreaded “I thought you were picking him up?” scenario. I also spend some time at the beginning of the year creating yearlong goals for each of my responsibilities (research, teaching, and service). Lastly, on Sunday evening, I go over my weekly, monthly, and longitudinal to-do lists and make sure I am focusing on the most important tasks during the week. As an early career scholar it is easy to spend a lot of your time working. However, if you are more purposeful with your time, I think you will find you feel more productive.2)   Calendar Creation - I allocate some time in mid-August to prepare my semester-long calendar. I teach two days a week, and I try to use those days to work on course preparation, grade, advise/mentor students, and attend meetings at my university. I then allocate other days of the week to research and service tasks. By blocking off time in my calendar for specific tasks, I find I am more productive in those areas. In terms of my courses, I make sure that assignments are not due at the same time so that I am not struggling to provide feedback in a timely manner. I also upload all materials to our online course management system one week prior to class and request that students print materials themselves if they wish.3)   Grant Submissions – Grant RFPs always seem to have such short deadlines! At the beginning of the year, I email the director of grant services at my university to inform her of the grants I intend to apply for the year. She sends valuable reminders to me prior to the RFP, during the grant writing process, and also informs me of other grants I may be interested in. This assistance is invaluable! While I understand that not all readers will be writing grants, my advice would be to find people at your university who can support you in your endeavors – you do not need to do this alone!

AmandaAs Rob notes, one of the greatest advantages of this career is the flexibility, but capitalizing on this freedom and avoiding its potential pitfalls requires intentionality in one’s professional activities. Thus, for me, August is a time for reflection and strategizing. The beginning of a new academic year provides a natural point at which to reflect on the activities of the previous year, but more importantly, to think back on my own practices to consider what worked and what didn’t, what I did well and what I can do better.I am a list-maker, so this is a great time to consolidate my various project lists for research, teaching, service, and professional development (which can get disorganized when I kick into survival mode at the end of the semester) to re-prioritize and strategize for how to accomplish my goals given what I’ve learned over the past year and how each project aligns with my annual goals and long-term targets. This year, I attend primarily to my research projects, thinking carefully about where each project is, how it fits (or doesn’t—file-drawering is a topic for another day) with my research agenda and long-term goals, and on what timeline it should move forward. Once I’ve developed a plan for the term, I work out from there to account for my other responsibilities. Building my annual plan around research works for me because my position is more heavily loaded on research and I am not teaching this fall, but for others, having teaching activities at the core might make more sense.Like Bryn, I set aside time to revisit my calendar, entering all obligatory activities (e.g., faculty meetings, committee meetings, research group, spring classes) for the academic year and preferred activities (e.g., spin class) so I can build in office hours and writing time. The two days of the week in which I have standing meetings are the ones I reserve for teaching/advising and service activities. I’ve learned that compartmentalizing each domain in this way can help minimize the overflow that often crowds out writing time.I am also not one of those people who can progress on papers when writing in small chunks of time, so I like to block out larger segments of time for research activities and writing time. My intent is to align my actual apportionment of time with my workload. By scheduling out the obligatory events for the year, I can then fill in research and writing time and develop targets for each project that account for the real constraints on my schedule. Color-blocking (i.e., red for teaching, orange for advising, green for meetings, blue for research activities, purple for writing, etc.) provides an easy visual  that I use to determine whether my actual time allotment corresponds with my workload and goals. I then make the adjustments necessary either in specific activities or in my commitments to bring the two into alignment.Having done these two main activities, I feel invigorated for the new academic year. There are certainly smaller tasks that must be done, but the project lists and calendaring provide a road map for the coming term. I have a plan and I know what I want and need to accomplish over the months to come. I’ll revisit my project list every few weeks and tweak my calendar as necessary, but for now, I’ve got a clear (color-coded) vision of what the fall semester holds.What do you do to gear up for the new academic year?