PROMISE at Schools within the USM: Salisbury, UMES, Bowie, Towson. “When Faculty Say X” discussion, Spring 2016.

This week, PROMISE is visiting schools around Maryland for meetings and workshops. The key feature will be the PROMISE annual workshop, “When Faculty Say ‘X’ …”

Description of the lecture:

Understanding professors’ expectations shouldn’t be a mystery. However, sometimes, there are disconnects between what a faculty member wants a student to produce for a project, and how the student interprets the instructions. In many cases, the expectations of faculty are clearly articulated, either in written or oral format. However, in other cases, there are situations where a faculty member’s feedback or outcomes from discussions regarding progress may not be as clear because they involve aspects of non-verbal communication such as eye contact, gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, and eye contact.

Addressing the Needs of Graduate Students

We draw particular attention to the needs of graduate students for our “When Faculty Say X” success seminar series. Graduate students have several forms of faculty interaction that have their own sets of nuances. For graduate students, the faculty member is a teacher, a mentor, an advisor, and a future colleague. There are several phases through which one must pass to navigate the transitions. During coursework, there is the phase where one follows the syllabus, turns in the homework, and takes the exam. During the qualifying exam and proposal stages, it can be difficult for a student to determine what they are supposed to know on the journey toward building expertise in a discipline or particular area of research. In addition to becoming a contributor to the field, a professor may have a methodology that must be employed by all in her lab, or a set of theories which need to be used set the foundation for all work that comes out of the research group. There may be bibliographies that one must reference, techniques that must be mastered, and simple “unwritten rules” that must be followed. Some of the rules may include attending every group meeting and each departmental colloquium. Other rules may extend to writing, i.e., explicit use of a citation style, paragraph structure, or drafting process.

The PROMISE AGEP launched the “When Faculty Say X …” series to answer some of these burning questions. The facilitator will be Dr. Renetta G. Tull, Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Student Development and Postdoctoral Affairs at UMBC, and Director of the University System of Maryland’s National Science Foundation’s PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP). Dr. Tull will present a series of scenarios that graduate students have experienced, along with responses from STEM faculty from the USM and other schools around the nation. Time will be set aside for students’ real-time Q&A, which is often the most important part of the program.

This week: