University of Southern Maine

Importance of Academic Advising

Academic advising as a formalized process has been an integral part of higher education for decades, emerging along with the elective system at the turn of the century when students were no longer forced into proscribed curricula, but instead were faced with discipline and course choices and, ultimately, career decisions. The importance that institutions have placed on the advising process has certainly varied over the years and has seemed to coincide with institutional growth patterns. Thus, during the sixties and seventies, when colleges and universities were experiencing phenomenal growth, advising as a function was not considered as important as when institutional growth slowed and schools became interested in the retention of students as well as recruitment. From a retention perspective, good academic advising is critical. Academic advising provides institutions with the opportunity to personalize education and to engage students in their own learning. Through advising, advisors help students to become integrated into the academic and social fabric of the institution; this integration has proven to contribute to student persistence and success (Tinto, 1993). The influence that academic advising can have on student retention can be most positive when those involved (both faculty and staff) view it as a developmental process, rather than a technical one synonymous with course registration.

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Academic Advising as a Developmental Process

Two approaches to academic advising appear to be prominent in the literature. Inherent in each is an assumption about the nature of students. The first is a prescriptive approach that assumes that students are immature and irresponsible. Prescriptive advising makes students peripheral, not integral, to the educational planning process. The role of the advisor is not to facilitate and guide decision making but, rather, to make decisions for students. Developmental advising, on the other hand, assumes that students are striving, responsible, and capable of self-direction and should be integral, not peripheral, to educational planning (Gordon, 1988). Advising, in this sense, is viewed as a partnership between the student and his or her advisor, with the advisor's role being defined as facilitator and educator rather than prescriber.

Formal definitions of developmental advising do exist. Winston, Miller, Ender, Grites, et.al. (1984) define it as:

a systematic process based on a close student-advisor relationship intended to aid students in achieving educational, career, and personal goals through the utilization of the full range of institutional and community resources. (p.19)

Academic advising is a developmental process which assists students in the clarification of their life and career goals and in the development of educational plans for the realization of these goals. It is a decision-making process by which students realize their maximum educational potential through communication and information exchanges with an advisor; it is ongoing, multifaceted, and the responsibility of both students and advisors. (p.9)

As a process, developmental academic advising draws heavily upon student and adult development theory. Most of these theories fall into one of four basic categories: 1) psychosocial models, where the focus is on the individual as he/she develops through a sequence of stages which define the life cycle, 2) cognitive models, where development is viewed as a sequence of irreversible shifts in the process by which individuals perceive and reason about their world, 3) maturity models, which synthesize the developmental picture by focusing on the simultaneous development of thinking, valuing, relating, and inquiring skills, or 4) typologies, which suggest that there are persistent individual differences such as cognitive style or temperament which interact with developments. (Gordon, 1988). Developmental advising draws heavily from the pyschosocial models and, in particular, the one developed by Chickering.

Because it specifically addresses the developmental importance of the college years, Chickering's psychosocial model has particular relevance to developmental tasks of college-age students. These are:

1. *Developing Competence - increased skills in intellectual, physical, and social competence lead to a sense of confidence that one is capable of handling and mastering a range of tasks.
2. Managing emotions - increasing awareness of one's feelings which allows flexible control and expression.
3. *Developing Autonomy - confronting a series of issues which ultimately lead to the recognition of one's independence.
4. Establishing Identity - integrating the many facets of one's experience and negotiating a realistic and stable self-image.
5. Freeing Interpersonal Relationships - increasing tolerance and acceptance of differences between individuals and increasing capacity for mature and intimate relationships.
6. *Developing Purpose - assessing and clarifying interests, educational and career options, and lifestyle preferences and integrating those factors in setting coherent direction for one's life.
7. Developing integrity - defining a set of values that guide one's actions.

*Of particular relevance to developmental advising are Chickering's vectors of : developing competence, developing autonomy, and developing purpose. It is within these vectors that an advisor can have the most impact. As Gordon (1988) comments:

The advisor can assist in developing a student's sense of competence by helping to identify both strengths and weaknesses and by recommending courses that stretch, but do not overextend those strengths, that address but do not focus on weaknesses. In developing a student's sense of autonomy an advisor must understand that it is the right of the student to make decisions just as it is the responsibility of the student to live with those decisions. And, in the development of purpose, the advisor must assist the student in developing an awareness of what is involved in educational and career decision making. Helping students set life goals and develop action plans for implementation is, then, an important aspect of developmental advising.

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