Panther GROW Guides
Guided Reflection On Work (GROW) conversations are brief, intentional conversations between a student employee and their supervisor aimed at helping the student employee make a specific type of learning connection. Below are additional questions you can ask to help your students reflect about critical thinking, a Panther Edge competency. Use these questions for:
- Student employees who are beyond their first year of employment in your department.
- Student employees who you’ve had two or more Panther GROW conversations with.
- Student employees who have a junior standing or higher.
Critical Thinking
Purpose: To support students to make connections between work and coursework.
- Where are similarities between what you are learning at work and what you are learning in your courses?
- What ideas from your classes could you bring to your work here with us?
Purpose: To urge students to make connections between work and their career ambitions.
- Think of problems you have you resolved at work. How can this ability be helpful in your coursework?
- What are some decisions you’ve made working here that required reflection and analysis? In your future career as a ____________, how can that skill be useful to you?
Purpose: To encourage student employees to wrestle with relevant problems by foreseeing needs, identifying reliable sources and reporting and employing data.
- Tell me about a time when it was beneficial to view a situation from another person’s point-of-view.
- What is a specific goal you achieved in a class? How did you achieve it, in other words, what are the specific steps you took? Is the process you used to achieve that goal replicable here at work?
Purpose: To have students reflect on the importance of conveying information thinking about their audience.
- Which problem-solving processes you’ve observed here do you think will be applicable in your profession?
- Can you give me an example where someone here at work did a good job explaining complex things to you in a way that was easy to grasp?
Strong Communicators
Purpose: To support students to make connections between work and coursework.
- Describe how our communication processes fit in with your academic aspirations, and explain why.
- What can we model for you at work that would strengthen your communication skills?
Purpose: To urge students to make connections between work and their career ambitions.
- When have you successfully communicated with someone at work even though you weren’t sure if your perspective would be considered. How would that experience help you succeed in your classes?
- What is a positive example of clear communication you’ve seen? How would emulating that help you in your academic path?
Purpose: To encourage student employees to wrestle with relevant problems by foreseeing needs, identifying reliable sources and reporting and employing data.
- Can you share a situation where you voiced your opinion in a class or during a project in your college career? How does that skill translate here at work?
- Tell me about a time when you leveraged your written communication skills to make your point of view clear. How could you bring in those skills to your job?
Purpose: To have students reflect on the importance of conveying information thinking about their audience.
- Tell me about a complex idea you had to explain to a colleague at work. How did you go about explaining it? How does this skill make you a stronger candidate for your desired post-graduation job?
- Tell me about a sensitive situation (that you’re comfortable sharing) that required you to communicate with intention and care at work. How does this skill make you a stronger candidate for your desired post-graduation job?
Collaborators
Purpose: To support students to make connections between work and coursework.
- Share a time when you chose a colleague’s way of doing things because it was the best way to accomplish your shared goals. Can you explain how this ability is useful in your academic path?
- Think of a time when you used facts and reasoning to persuade someone at work to take on your recommendations. Can you explain how this skill is useful in your academic path?
Purpose: To urge students to make connections between work and their career ambitions.
- Think of a time when you were able to understand a colleague’s needs and adjust your approach to them. How would that experience help you succeed in your classes?
- Think of a time when you helped motivate a team member or colleague. How did your support help them accomplish their goal? How can being able to motivate others help you in your academic life?
Purpose: To encourage student employees to wrestle with relevant problems by foreseeing needs, identifying reliable sources and reporting and employing data.
- Based on your experience as a student, what do you think are key factors to building and maintaining successful relationships with your work colleagues?
- Share a memorable contribution you’ve made as part of a group or team in your academic life. Which elements of that experience translate here at work?
Purpose: To have students reflect on the importance of conveying information thinking about their audience.
- Describe a time when you set aside your own priorities to help a co-worker. What did you do and what was the result? How does this skill make you a stronger candidate for your desired post-graduation job?
- Describe a time when you worked effectively with a team, or person, that you had never worked with before. How does this skill make you a stronger candidate for your desired post-graduation job?
Career & Community Leaders
Purpose: To support students to make connections between work and coursework.
- Describe a time when you led by example at work. Explain how this skill is useful in your academic path.
- How would you boost our team’s optimism? Explain how this ability is useful in your academic path.
Purpose: To urge students to make connections between work and their career ambitions.
- Think of a time you took initiative at work. How would this ability help you succeed in your classes?
- Name two team members who you think show leadership skills that you’d like to emulate. Which skills are these? How would those skills help you succeed in your classes?
Purpose: To encourage student employees to wrestle with relevant problems by foreseeing needs, identifying reliable sources and reporting and employing data.
- How do you respond to academic criticism? How does the ability to handle criticism help you at work?
- What is your contribution to a safe and secure environment in your academic community? Which of these strategies and practices can you bring to our workplace?
Purpose: To have students reflect on the importance of conveying information thinking about their audience.
- From your experience working here, what practices do you think make people feel valued and respected? How does this knowledge make you a stronger candidate for your desired post-graduation job?
- What have you learned about handling disagreements in our workplace? How does this skill make you a stronger candidate for your desired post-graduation job?
Professional
Purpose: To support students to make connections between work and coursework.
- Which professional behaviors are most important to us at work? How would these behaviors be helpful in your academic path?
- Think about how your understanding of commitment has changed since working here. How does the ability to be committed to a goal help you in your academic path?
Purpose: To urge students to make connections between work and their career ambitions.
- What specific ethical principles or guidelines do we follow at work that apply to your academic life?
- How has this job’s responsibilities changed the way you manage your coursework?
Purpose: To encourage student employees to wrestle with relevant problems by foreseeing needs, identifying reliable sources and reporting and employing data.
- Think about a time when you had to address problematic behavior from a fellow student, and what you did. Which of the skills that you employed in that situation could be useful in your work here?
- Think of an example from any academic setting where you behaved ethically and with integrity to solve a problem. How do those behaviors translate here at work?
Purpose: To have students reflect on the importance of conveying information thinking about their audience.
- From your experience working here, what are three important characteristics of professional behavior? How does knowing these make you a stronger candidate for your desired post-graduation job?
- Let’s discuss the meaning of confidentiality. We’ll discuss how being able to identify what is/isn’t confidential and what to do when facing any breaches, will be useful in your chosen profession.
Community Change Agents
Purpose: To support students to make connections between work and coursework.
- You have been able to adapt to the demands of this job. How did you manage this change alongside with meeting the demands of your classwork?
- What has been the essential factor in your ability to prioritize your academics as you adapt to change in your life this job brought up?
Purpose: To urge students to make connections between work and their career ambitions.
- People have a natural tendency to resist change. What are different ways that you have observed our office overcoming this to achieve our goals? How do these lessons apply to your academic life?
- What are different ways you have learned to adapt in order to succeed here at work? How does this help you in school?
Purpose: To encourage student employees to wrestle with relevant problems by foreseeing needs, identifying reliable sources and reporting and employing data.
- What is the biggest change that you advocated or supported, throughout your academic career? How does that experience apply to your work?
- Think about a time when you had to take charge of a project involving numerous participants in your community. How did you manage their contribution and satisfaction? What lessons did you learn that could be brought to your job here?
Purpose: To have students reflect on the importance of conveying information thinking about their audience.
- What has been your greatest contribution to change here at work? What did you do, and how does that make you a stronger candidate for your chosen career path?
- If you see leaders at work as role models of change leadership, what have they modeled about becoming a change agent? How does their example contribute to your development within your chosen profession?
Self-Reflective Lifelong Learners
Purpose: To support students to make connections between work and coursework.
- Think about specific and realistic learning goals for your personal and professional development that fit with this job and your academics.
- This job offers many learning opportunities, how do you anticipate what you learn here will fit in with your academic learning?
Purpose: To urge students to make connections between work and their career ambitions.
- Think of a project at work that required you to learn something new. How did you approach it? Can this approach be useful in your academic life?
- Think about our team here and how we contribute to each other’s learning. How does this willingness to learn from others apply in your academic life?
Purpose: To encourage student employees to wrestle with relevant problems by foreseeing needs, identifying reliable sources and reporting and employing data.
- Think of feedback or recognition that you received in school and how it motivated you to keep learning. How does this experience inform your approach at work here?
- What five skills, talents, or pursuits do you anticipate learning through your coursework that would be applicable at work?
Purpose: To have students reflect on the importance of conveying information thinking about their audience.
- Reflect on your learning challenges and how you overcame them or learned from them at work. How does this ability prepare you to succeed in your chosen career?
- How have you grown personally while working here? What personal qualities or habits have you developed from working here, and how do you think these will be useful in your career?
Equitable and Inclusive
Purpose: To support students to make connections between work and coursework.
- How does our commitment to champion equity and inclusion fit in with what you are studying?
- We have done a)_____ and b)_____ in order to create a work environment that is equitable and inclusive. How does the example we set make a difference in the way you approach your academic work?
Purpose: To urge students to make connections between work and their career ambitions.
- Think about a situation that taught you the importance of equity and inclusion at work. How does that experience enhance your academic work?
- Think about a time when you or someone in our office acted in a way that was inclusive and respectful of others. How does this apply to your academic life?
Purpose: To encourage student employees to wrestle with relevant problems by foreseeing needs, identifying reliable sources and reporting and employing data.
- Describe a situation when you took steps to ensure that everyone (on your school group or team) felt included, the actions you took, and the outcome. How could you apply those skills to your work here?
- Think how your academic career has been enhanced by exposure to diverse people, places, or experiences. How can you bring this understanding about the value of diversity to your work here?
Purpose: To have students reflect on the importance of conveying information thinking about their audience.
- How have you included diverse viewpoints and perspectives into your work here? How will this skill be useful in your future career?
- Think about a time when you changed your style to work more effectively with a person from a different background. How is this skill applicable in your future career?