Preparation

As mentors, you provide a valuable resource for students just getting started on their learning journey. This page provides some resources to help you prepare for leading your cohort through reflection around their learning strategies.

One of the most crucial roles you can play in a cohort setting is to open the space and cultivate an inclusive climate where everyone feels invited to share and connect.

Story Sharing

  • Slide deck: How do I craft my mentoring story?

  • Before sharing a video, you or your co-mentor should do a short (1-2 minute) story share. To help this go smoothly, choose who will share prior to your session and prepare your story. You may wish to bounce ideas of each other to help choose a story that is:

    • Relevant and attainable

    • Authentic/true for you

    • Align with the desired impact to encourage and do no harm

Facilitation & Engagement

  • Slide deck: how do I invite participation?

  • After your cohort shares, you can synthesize & reflect back to signal you respect and value their contributions. Just like any other skill, this can feel bumpy at first and will improve with practice! You can always circle back later as well:
    "I was thinking about something that came up at our last session..."

Facilitation & Engagement Strategies

As a facilitator, set the norms for the space:

  • Practice active listening: listen to understand

  • Reflect back and synthesize: mirror what you heard and highlight common themes or salient differences

    • Reflect back: When your cohort shares their experiences, you mirror or restate in your own words what you heard.

    • Rather than comment after each person shares (aside from thanking them or clarifying what they said), hear back from each member first.

    • Synthesize across the group: Highlight themes/commonalities (“it is interesting that all of you found this component of the lesson to be so valuable.”) or contrasts/differences (“I noticed that this really resonated with some of you, while others of you felt less connected to it.”)

  • Step up, step back: be aware of when to take up space, and when to make room for more voices


Encourage reflection through these engagement strategies:

  • Individual reflection: some topics are more well-suited to individual reflection. Invite each person to take a few minutes to reflect and jot down some notes (just for themselves) in whatever format is most comfortable: on paper, typing in a doc, etc.

  • Pair-Share: Participants break into pairs where each person shares with a partner about their experience and actively listens to their partner's experience. It is typical for the pairs to come back to the large group and a member of the pair shares out to the larger group. Many who find large groups difficult will participate in a pair-share activity. A pair-share can be done with trios.

  • Round Robin: This method of participation is typically saved for the end of a structured group session, before moving into open discussion. Each person is called upon to share, and can pass their turn. Some may choose to defer (come back to them), or skip their turn (do not participate). This method helps all voices to be heard.

    • [Because we’re in a remote setting,] I’ll be calling on you to invite you to share out, but you can always pass.

    • X, we’d love to hear from you. [Unmute yourself.]
      Can you take a minute or so to tell us what resonated? Feel free to pass your turn or we can come back to you.

  • Share through a Chat: This can be used to complement a spoken round robin. Sometimes, people may not feel as comfortable or ready to speak openly in front of the group. The chat gives people the chance to compose their thoughts and not be put "on the spot"; it can also give the opportunity for more perspectives to be shared when time is tight.

    • Use zoom chat, moodle in-class chat or a tool like Poll Everywhere

    • Invite participants to share in a written format, but have them wait for your prompt before entering it the group chat:

    • Let's try sharing in the chat. Prepare your response, but don't hit enter just yet...
      Okay, hopefully you've had a chance to write something -- please go ahead and hit enter!

Video Pack

  • How can I build my tech resilience?
    Evidence shows that resilience, the ability to recover quickly from challenges, is a strong indicator of a learner’s success in a given field. People can tap into and grow their resilience.

  • What are we talking about? [Active Listening]
    Active listening is an important part of communication and refers to a process of listening to understand the speaker, rather than simply responding. You can signal you value and respect another person by listening with purpose.

  • Can I do it? [Self-efficacy]
    Self-efficacy is the belief in your ability to succeed in achieving a specific goal or task. The higher your self-efficacy is, the more you believe you are capable of accomplishing the task.

  • Is it possible for me to do this? [Mindset]
    Research has demonstrated that having a growth mindset toward learning can improve resilience and a students’ ability to succeed. A growth mindset is reflected through a passion for learning, not a hunger for approval; people don’t see themselves as failing, but as learning.

  • Is this for me? [Belongingness, Part 1]
    According to Brené Brown, fitting in is different than belonging. She writes, “Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.” Whether or not we think we can do something may influence our sense of belonging in tech fields.

  • Is this for me? [Belongingness, Part 2]
    Belonging is not always about whether you believe you can do something. It is also about whether you see yourself as a “tech person“ or as part of the “tech community.” This component of belonging is related to mindset: the static idea of a “tech person” or “the tech community” can indicate a fixed mindset about who is in tech.

  • How can I do this strategically? [Self-regulation]
    One thing that can help us to push through a challenging project is the ability to step outside of our own thinking and strategize about our plans. That capacity to create a plan, try it out, see how it works before regrouping and try again is called self-regulated learning.

  • What can I do to get through this? [Emotional Intelligence]
    Emotional intelligence (EQ) is defined as the ability to identify, name and manage your emotions. Exercising your emotional intelligence can help you improve your interactions with others. EQ isn’t typically taught in a CS curriculum, but is essential for the workplace, and importantly, you can grow this skill with practice.

  • Where do I go from here? [Cognitive Flexibility]
    The ability to pivot and change is called cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility goes beyond pivoting about plans. It’s also about stretching our imagination to see ourselves and others in our environments in new ways, which is especially important in tech fields.

  • Where did that come from? [Giving and Receiving Feedback]
    Feedback can vary widely in its content and delivery. Sometimes it’s hard to extract the next step or how to improve. Perhaps we’re only told that we went down the wrong path, and we have to continue the conversation to clarify the message.

Want to know more?