The Application of Mentoring Method for University Faculty Members: A Review Study

This study is conducted with the purpose of evaluating the production of scientific works through mentoring for faculty members of higher education abroad. This review study seeks to underline the discussions and elements addressed in these studies. The present study is a descriptive-analytic research. Accordingly, all papers published from 2000 to 2016 in the Faculty of Education and Psychology database of Shahid Beheshti University are reviewed (ProQuest, Springer Link, Taylor & Francis, Sage, Wiley Online Library). The papers that are extracted from 28 scientific documents include 20 articles and 8 theses in the field of mentoring for faculty members that are analyzed through descriptive-analytic method. The findings are presented in two parts: the results of the first part regarding the discussions and factors considered by the researchers indicate that topics including the characteristics of the role of faculty members as mentors or mentees and different positive effects of mentoring program for newly hired faculty members are the main topics underlined by researchers. In the second part, the results of formal and descriptive analysis of the studies show that 43% of the studies used qualitative research and 17% used the quantitative method, interviews, questionnaires, and only 14% employed library method. In terms of cooperation and partnerships, 39% of studies are group research and 61% are individual research.