Technology Category
Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social ScienceCognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: (Computational) Cognitive ArchitecturesHumans and AI: Other Foundations of Human Computation & AI
Rethinking How We Discuss the Guidance of Student Researchers in Computing
🤖 AI Summary
Contemporary computing education often subsumes faculty research mentoring under vague terms like “consultation” or “mentorship,” obscuring the multifaceted nature of supervisory roles and inherent role-based tensions—thereby impeding professionalization of mentoring practice. Drawing on qualitative research and conceptual modeling, this study integrates educational theory with computing-domain praxis to propose a facet-based, multi-role mentoring framework. It decomposes faculty responsibilities into empirically grounded, assessable dimensions: academic training, career development, psychological support, and ethical guidance. The framework exposes latent accountability conflicts obscured by conventional terminology and enables the design of diversified, collaborative mentoring networks. Findings offer both theoretical grounding and actionable pathways for clarifying mentor–mentee relationships, reforming institutional advisor systems, and enhancing research collaboration efficacy in higher education.
Technology Category
Application Category
📝 Abstract
Computing faculty at research universities are often expected to guide the work of undergraduate and graduate student researchers. This guidance is typically called advising or mentoring, but these terms belie the complexity of the relationship, which includes several related but distinct roles. I examine the guidance of student researchers in computing (abbreviated to research guidance or guidance throughout) within a facet framework, creating an inventory of roles that faculty members can hold. By expanding and disambiguating the language of guidance, this approach reveals the full breadth of faculty responsibilities toward student researchers, and it facilitates discussing conflicts between those responsibilities. Additionally, the facet framework permits greater flexibility for students seeking guidance, allowing them a robust support network without implying inadequacy in an individual faculty member's skills. I further argue that an over-reliance on singular terms like advising or mentoring for the guidance of student researchers obscures the full scope of faculty responsibilities and interferes with improvement of those as skills. Finally, I provide suggestions for how the facet framework can be utilized by faculty and institutions, and how parts of it can be discussed with students for their benefit.
Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
Examines faculty guidance roles for computing student researchers
Addresses ambiguity in advising and mentoring terminology complexity
Proposes framework to clarify faculty responsibilities and conflicts
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
Creating a facet framework for research guidance
Expanding language to reveal faculty responsibilities
Allowing flexible student support networks
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