Academic Advising Approaches E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 525

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Strong academic advising has been found to be a key contributor to student persistence (Center for Public Education, 2012), and many are expected to play an advising role, including academic, career, and faculty advisors; counselors; tutors; and student affairs staff. Yet there is little training on how to do so. Various advising strategies exist, each of which has its own proponents. To serve increasingly complex higher education institutions around the world and their diverse student cohorts, academic advisors must understand multiple advising approaches and adroitly adapt them to their own student populations. Academic Advising Approaches outlines a wide variety of proven advising practices and strategies that help students master the necessary skills to achieve their academic and career goals. This book embeds theoretical bases within practical explanations and examples advisors can use in answering fundamental questions such as: * What will make me a more effective advisor? * What can I do to enhance student success? * What conversations do I need to initiate with my colleagues to improve my unit, campus, and profession? Linking theory with practice, Academic Advising Approaches provides an accessible reference useful to all who serve in an advising role. Based upon accepted theories within the social sciences and humanities, the approaches covered include those incorporating developmental, learning-centered, appreciative, proactive, strengths-based, Socratic, and hermeneutic advising as well as those featuring advising as teaching, motivational interviewing, self-authorship, and advising as coaching. All advocate relationship-building as a means to encourage students to take charge of their own academic, personal, and professional progress. This book serves as the practice-based companion to Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook, also from NACADA. Whereas the handbook addresses the concepts advisors and advising administrators need to know in order to build a success advising program, Academic Advising Approaches explains the delivery strategies successful advisors can use to help students make the most of their college experience.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title page

Copyright page

Epigraph

Dedication

Preface

Prescriptive Advising as the Foundation

Definition of Terms: Theories, Approaches, and Strategies

Organization of the Book

Scenarios

Voices From the Field

The Challenge

Acknowledgments

The Editors

The Authors

PART ONE: Foundations of Academic Advising Practice

1: Advising Strategies to Support Student Learning Success

The Philosophical and Sociological Basis of Advising

The Role of Advising in Student Success

Summary

2: Advising as Teaching and the Advisor as Teacher in Theory and in Practice

Instructional Pedagogy: The Advisor as Teacher

Advising-as-Teaching Scenario

3: Learning-Centered Advising

7 Principles for Good Practice

14 General, Research-Based Principles for Improving Higher Learning

Connecting Learning Principles to Advising

Implications

4: Developmental Academic Advising

Historical Contributions

Developmental Academic Advising Today

Summary

Developmental Advising Scenarios

Voices From the Field

PART TWO: A New Light: Viewing the Practice of Academic Advising from Different Perspectives

5: Motivational Interviewing

Four Processes in the Use of the Motivational Interview

Motivational Interview Outcomes

General Principles of the Motivational Interview

Motivational Interview Strategies

Prochaska and DiClemente Stages of Change

Best Practices

Motivational Interview Scenarios

Summary

6: Appreciative Advising

Appreciative Advising Matters

The Six Phases of Appreciative Advising

Features of Appreciative Advising

Appreciative Advising Scenario

Summary

Voices From the Field

7: Strengths-Based Advising

Foundations of Strengths-Based Advising

Steps in Strengths-Based Advising

The Skills and Tools of Strengths-Based Advisors

Training Strengths-Based Advisors

Strengths-Based Advising Scenario

Summary

8: Academic Advising Informed by Self-authorship Theory

The Basics of Self-authorship Theory

The Learning Partnerships Model

Translating Theory to Advising Practice

Self-authorship Advising Scenarios

Summary

9: Proactive Advising

Historical Context

Development of the Proactive Advising Approach

Proactive Advising Defined

Necessary Conditions for Proactive Advising

Building a Literature Base for the Proactive Advising Approach

Proactive Advising and Retention

Proactive Advising and At-Risk Students

Proactive Advising Strategies

Proactive Advising Scenarios

Summary

Voices from the Field

10: Advising as Coaching

Coaching and Advising: History and Similarities

The Three Levels of Advising as Coaching

Advising-as-Coaching Scenario

Summary

PART THREE: A New Lens: Applying Theories From Other Disciplines to the Practice of Academic Advising

11: The Application of Constructivism and Systems Theory to Academic Advising

Thinking Theoretically and Philosophically

Making the Case for Constructivism

Systems Theory

A Brief Overview of Student Development and Cognitive Learning Theories

Learning Theories

Summary

12: Socratic Advising

Overview of Socratic Advising

History and Tradition of the Socratic Method

The Anatomy of Socratic Advising

Socratic Questioning

Application of the Socratic Advising Approach

Desired Outcomes of Socratic Advising

Assessment

Socratic Advising Scenario

Summary

Acknowledgments

13: Understanding and Interpretation

Hermeneutics: Toward Interpretation

Hermeneutic Foundations for Academic Advising: Heidegger and Gadamer

Practical Applications

Summary

PART FOUR: A New Path: Envisioning the Future of Academic Advising

14: Envisioning the Future

A Fable

A Vision, Not a Prediction

A Note on Sources

Advisors and Students

Advisors and Institutions

Advisors and Academia

Reflections: Fantasy and Reality

Name Index

Subject Index

Cover design by Michael Cook

Copyright © 2013 by The National Academic Advising Association. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Drake, Jayne K.

Academic advising approaches : strategies that teach students to make the most of college / Jayne K. Drake, Peggy Jordan, Marsha A. Miller. – First edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-10092-9 (hardback); ISBN 978-1-118-41876-5 (ebk.); ISBN 978-1-118-41603-7 (ebk.)

1. Counseling in higher education–United States–Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Faculty advisors–United States–Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.

LB2343.D73 2013

378.1'94–dc23

2013013535

Good advising may be the single most underestimated characteristic of a successful college experience.

—Richard Light, Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds, 2001

This book is dedicated to academic advisors across the globe whose efforts help students make the most of their college experiences.

Preface

The publication of this book signals a significant step forward in the evolution of academic advising as a profession. Its purpose is to expand the knowledge base of advising and link theory with practice. It provides a deep look at the scholarship that underpins advising and offers practical applications for advising contact with students. It highlights the various interdisciplinary connections between advising and other disciplines, especially the social sciences, education, and the humanities. It also challenges professional and faculty advisors, counselors, personal tutors, and advising administrators around the world to become thought leaders and scholar-practitioners (Schulenberg & Lindhorst, 2008, p. 43)—those who study the knowledge base, engage in research, explore the viability and applicability of various theories to student interactions, and assess the practical applications to their own advising practice. As Shaffer, Zalewski, and Leveille (2010) stated in “The Professionalization of Academic Advising,” “academic advisors need to develop a body of theory from which to educate future advisors” (p. 73). Doing so, they maintain, “is as critical to the future of the profession as is the need for empirical research into the effectiveness of academic advising practice” (p. 73). Good practice is grounded in knowledge, research, and assessment.

To serve increasingly complex and diverse institutions of higher education around the world and their burgeoning diverse student populations, academic advising professionals need to understand that one unified theory of academic advising is neither possible nor necessary (Hagen & Jordan, 2008, p. 19). They must be able to recognize various advising approaches and adapt them to their own student populations with the expectation of enhancing student satisfaction with their academic experiences and helping students articulate and achieve their academic goals and career aspirations.

The contributors to this book provide theoretical background and practical developmental approaches to advising around the understanding that students are learners who establish a partnership of responsibility with their advisors and who ultimately take charge of their own academic, personal, and professional progress. Building relationships and encouraging this holistic development of all students are key elements in all the described approaches.

Prescriptive Advising as the Foundation

In the years following the 1972 publication of Burns Crookston's “A Developmental View of Academic Advising,” in which he distinguishes between developmental and prescriptive practices, advisors have embraced a more student-centered, active-learning approach to the advising process. Attention turned from the necessity of a service orientation—the advisor as the repository and disseminator of knowledge on curricular requirements and other academic information about students' records and academic progress—to the advisor as teacher, mentor, facilitator, guide. Prescriptive advising, Crookston (1972/1994/2009) wrote, may best be seen as a largely one-way process in which the student offers little to the process. It is hierarchical in nature, “with the advisor in command of the knowledge and the advisement sessions; the advisee is passive and in receipt of advice” (1972, p. 13). His guiding metaphor is of the advisor as doctor who examines patients and prescribes the medication that will make them better. In the prevailing literature, this do-as-I-say approach has increasingly fallen on hard times and sometimes contrasts unfavorably with student development theories and approaches; some have dismissed it as a viable option for advising students.

However, all student populations, whether comprising first-year, first-generation, international, at-risk, exploratory, or military veteran students, respond well to a more prescriptive approach when direct instruction is necessary and appropriate. Students are encouraged to view their advisors as expert information and advice givers: “If you need to activate your PIN number, see your advisor.” “If you need to pick several electives, see your advisor.” “If you want to change your major, see your advisor.” “If your GPA has slipped, see your advisor.”

In the same way that classroom teachers must impart critical subject matter to their students for them to learn the discipline, so too must advisors offer key information to students as part of the learning process. Once important data, ideas, and concepts are communicated and understood, teachers incorporate the processing and application of that information as well as encourage the development of the critical and analytical thinking skills that characterize knowledge development. In both the classroom and advising settings, the prescriptive information that attracts student attention forms the basis for critical thinking and intellectual growth.

Today's practitioner knows that developmental and prescriptive advising approaches should not be seen as separate and mutually exclusive. In fact, prescriptive advising serves as the sturdy platform from which developmental advising approaches take wing. The need for information and advice often draws students into advising offices. The informational necessities of prescriptive advising create the opportunity for advisors to engage students in knowledge building and active learning—the developmental and relational components of advising. While no one will argue that a prescriptive model should be employed in isolation or adopted as the sole approach to student advising and learning, it is, nevertheless, an important and necessary element in the teaching and student-centered learning process that defines academic advising. Therefore, it warrants attention, research, and assessment.

Definition of Terms: Theories, Approaches, and Strategies

The academic approaches in this book are not considered theories. Theories provide the conceptual frameworks for academic advising as derived largely from social science, humanities, and education disciplines and applied to advising students. This book focuses on the variety of both approaches to academic advising as derived from a number of theories and strategies that advisors may employ to implement a particular approach.

Organization of the Book

The chapters in this book are arranged into four parts: the foundations and history of developmental advising, advising as filtered through the prism of social science disciplines, theories from other disciplines that inform advising practice, and possible futures for the profession of advising. Although the sequence of the chapters is meant to provide a reasonable ordering of the theories, approaches, and strategies that influence advising practice, it is not critical to understanding the material. Whether this book is read from cover to cover or the chapters read selectively, the chapters stand on their own as important guides that influence advising practice and student success.

The chapters in part one look at the foundations of academic advising that owe their beginnings to a developmental view of students as individual learners with their own academic, career, and personal goals. Chapter 1 invites advisors to think critically and intentionally about their professional responsibilities by becoming familiar with the scholarly research in the field, advising approaches, and strategies, and then applying those tools to enhance student success and retention. Chapter 2 views academic advising from the versatile perspective of teaching and learning and in the context of the student as learner and advisor as teacher. The advising-as-teaching model rests on the important connections advisors forge with students. Chapter 3 shifts from the advisor as teacher to the student as learner and explores the principles and strategies that promote learning and underpin learning-centered advising. It lays out the teacher's dozen—research-based, practical strategies for teaching and learning—with the caveat that advisors are not just teaching skills or values; they are teaching students. Chapter 4 carefully traces the history and principles of developmental advising 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 …” (Winston, Miller, Ender, & Grites, 1984, p. 19).

The chapters in part two offer perspectives on advising from the time-honored and time-tested approaches derived from the social sciences. Chapter 5 defines and discusses the person-centered or motivational-interviewing approach that encourages positive behavior change. This approach when placed in the context of academic advising situates the advisor as the key facilitator in encouraging such change. Chapter 6 on appreciative advising, like the other chapters in this section, discusses the importance of intentional and collaborative relationships that rely on a positive, trusting advisor–student rapport. Appreciative advising is built on the practice of asking open-ended questions designed to help students think critically about their own strengths and then constructing a pathway to help their goals become a reality. Chapter 7 on strengths-based advising focuses on the talents all students bring to the academy and how advisors might use these talents to challenge and motivate students to be successful. From its deeply social science–based roots, this approach offers strong evidence of effectiveness with a wide variety of students. Chapter 8 on self-authorship theory stresses the development of students' complex decision-making skills and their capacity to balance personal beliefs and values with critical evaluation of information. Rooted in constructivist-developmental theories in cognitive psychology, self-authorship theory encourages students to learn how to learn and to develop higher order thinking skills. Chapter 9 discusses proactive (formerly intrusive) advising as purposeful outreach to students before they find themselves in academic difficulty. Using the best of both prescriptive and developmental advising approaches, proactive advising has the goal of helping students engage the institutional services and programs designed to improve their academic skills and lead to increased academic motivation and persistence. Chapter 10 on advising as coaching draws connections between leadership/personal life coaching and developmental advising approaches. It provides useful, practical coaching approaches to academic advising and outlines how to implement them to strengthen advisor–student relationships and enhance student-learning outcomes.

Part three provides a new lens, new ways of seeing, by applying theories from other disciplines not typically applied to advising—constructivism and systems theory, Socratic dialogue, and hermeneutics. Chapter 11 argues that constructivism, which defines learning as an active process of constructing knowledge rather a passive process of simply receiving it, serves as a broad foundation for nearly all advising approaches. Through the use of system theory, the chapter also offers a visual mind map of the four basic elements that underpin any advising interaction—the student, advisor, institution, and external influences. Chapter 12 delves into an exploration of the Socratic method as it applies to academic advising and the cultivation of students' critical-thinking skills. The goal of this approach is to produce a self-aware, educated citizenry who can make informed decisions, engage in self-reflection, and consider different viewpoints. Chapter 13 looks at academic advising through the perspective of hermeneutics or the art of interpretation as grounded in the humanities through the work of Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer. It begins by outlining and conceptualizing the process of “understanding” and ends by offering hands-on suggestions for applying a hermeneutics approach to advising practice.

In part four, Envisioning the Future of Academic Advising, chapter 14 does not presume to predict the future of academic advising, but it does describe a possible future and posits a number of ideas and goals to consider. It is a world in which advising is “the most important academic resource in higher education if only the advising community will embrace the ideas and goals set forth here and effectively articulate them to the wider academic world.”

Scenarios

Students frequently ask academic advisors to help them problem solve and make decisions. To best assist them, advisors consider various approaches, often wondering which will yield the best outcomes for a specific situation or individual advisee.

To illustrate how particular advising approaches work in practice, most chapters incorporate one or both of the scenarios provided below. Each scenario features typical issues students bring to advisors. Kimball and Campbell state in their chapter that “approaches to academic advising mirror personal values and beliefs as well as the diversity of ways students learn, grow, and develop.” While the scenarios are the same throughout the book, the practical strategies used to address them vary with each advising approach and thus lead to different student-learning opportunities.

Scenario I: Academic Reasons

A first-generation college sophomore, Riley, comes to Skylar, an academic advisor, and says, “I'm having trouble in two of my classes. I don't understand what the professor is talking about in one of them, but it's a required course in my major. The other is only a gen ed course, but I keep getting low grades on the writing assignments. I was always good in writing in high school. If I do poorly, this will lower my GPA, and I just got off academic probation last term. I want to stay in my major, but I don't know if I can pass this one course and that would really disappoint my family. What do you suggest I do?”

Scenario II: Nonacademic Reasons

Ali, a second-year student, comes to Drew, an academic advisor, to discuss withdrawing from school: “I'm really not doing well this term. It's not the courses or the professors—I just don't feel like I fit in. A few of my friends left after last year, and I haven't really found any new ones. My new roommates are not really like me, so they kind of stick together by themselves. I'm not in any clubs or anything like that although I do work off campus. Also, I feel my parents and I have spent lots of money, but I'm not sure it's worth spending more if I'm not that interested. Do you have any suggestions? What do you think I should do?”

Voices From the Field

In Voices From the Field articles, practicing advisors share their experiences, including successes and challenges, with the approach discussed in the accompanying chapter. We hope that the stories will encourage readers to try the featured practice with students facing a variety of academic, career, and life issues.

The Challenge

The authors and editors of Academic Advising Approaches challenge advisors, counselors, faculty members, personal tutors, and advising administrators everywhere to take up this book. Choose a chapter a month for a reading circle or workshop. Discuss the various strategies connected to the approach. Debate their applicability to various advising circumstances. Create the academic advising experiences that promote student growth and learning. Test them with students who will benefit most from the approach. Record your findings. Write a research article on the empirical study.

We invite everyone to interrogate the chapters in this book by using the following questions (Nutt, 2008) as guides:

What are the key concepts that will make me a better advisor?What are the key concepts that will enhance the academic advising experiences of my students?How can I use the strategies I have learned to impact our advising program?What have I learned that I can use in working with my colleagues and administrators on my campus to affect change in our advising program?What have I learned that triggers my own thoughts for research and publication within the field? (p. xii)

The authors and editors challenge readers to use the theories, approaches, and strategies in this book to influence advising practice and help students better meet their academic goals and career aspirations.

Jayne K. Drake

Peggy Jordan

Marsha A. Miller

References

Crookston, B. B. (2009). A developmental view of academic advising as teaching. NACADA Journal, 29(1), 78–82. (Reprinted from Journal of College Student Personnel, 13, 1972, pp. 12–17; NACADA Journal, 14[2], 1994, pp. 5–9)

Hagen, P. L., & Jordan, P. (2008). Theoretical foundations of academic advising. In V. N. Gordon, W. R. Habley, & T. J. Grites (Eds.), Academic advising: A comprehensive handbook (2nd ed.) (pp. 17–35). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Nutt, C. L. (2008). Foreword. In V. N. Gordon, W. R. Habley, & T. J. Grites (Eds.), Academic advising: A comprehensive handbook (2nd ed.) (pp. xi–xii). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Schulenberg, J. K., & Lindhorst, M. J. (2008). Advising is advising: Toward defining the practice and scholarship of academic advising. NACADA Journal, 28(1), 43–53.

Shaffer, L. S., Zalewski, J. M., & Leveille, J. (2010). The professionalization of academic advising: Where are we in 2010? NACADA Journal, 30(1), 66–77.

Winston, R. B., Jr., Miller, T. K., Ender, S. C., & Grites, T. J. (Eds.). (1984). Developmental academic advising. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Acknowledgments

Good academic advising does not just happen. To be effective, be they new or veterans to the advising chair, advisors need training and development in three key components of advising—informational, conceptual, and relational (Habley, 1995, p. 76). The relational component often is the hardest area to address in effective initial advisor training and ongoing skill development for those experienced in the field.

It should surprise few familiar with the field of academic advising that the relational component was one of the key competencies delineated by a 2003 NACADA Certification Task Force chaired by Virginia Gordon. In identifying skills academic advisors must possess, that Task Force noted that academic advisors must communicate and engage students through the use of skills in interpersonal relations, communication, helping, and problem solving (para. 4). The question remained: “What curriculum can we use to teach advisors the theory and practice of various methods, or approaches, for effectively advising students?”

As recently as 2010, Shaffer, Zalewski, and Leveille noted that advising must create an acknowledged curriculum built upon accepted theories with a broad and deep research base to train advisors (p. 75). Shaffer et al. laid a challenge for advisors to create a rich and vibrant literature base to address the key components of academic advising. With this book we, as editors, take up that challenge as it applies to the relational component.

We first thank the NACADA Publications Advisory Board and NACADA Executive Director Charlie Nutt for their unqualified support of our vision for this book. We thank the scholar practitioners (listed in the Table of Contents) who accepted our challenge to document for this book the advising approaches they use successfully in working with advisees. These authors devoted considerable time and effort to this work, including submitting multiple drafts that evolved into the final manuscript. We greatly appreciate their insights and efforts.

The Content Review Panel for this book made an important contribution early in the process by asking the questions that helped authors bring clarity to the more complex aspects of advising within, and between, different approaches. We thank the members of this group for their guidance and input.

content review panel

LaDonna Bridges, Framingham State UniversityAdam Duberstein, Ohio Dominican and Bowling Green State UniversitySusan Fread, Lehigh Carbon Community CollegeDavid Freitag, Pima Community CollegeJulie Givans Voller, Arizona State UniversityGayle Juneau, University of Nevada, Las VegasKerry Kincanon, Oregon State UniversityNancy Markee, University of Nevada, RenoHolly Martin, Notre Dame UniversityPat Mason-Brown, University of IowaLisa Peck, Western Connecticut State UniversityJeanette Wong, Azusa Pacific University

We greatly appreciate and thank Nancy Vesta, NACADA copy editor extraordinaire, for her guidance and editing expertise. Nancy is able to read and review authors' work with new eyes; her experience polishes and enhances the work of each author and contributor. For that we are ever grateful. We thank Erin Null and her associates at Jossey-Bass for their faith that we could deliver what we promised: a ground-breaking addition to the literature within our field.

And finally, thanks to you, the reader, for your interest in helping students succeed. Whether you are new to advising or a veteran of the advising chair, we firmly believe that the ideas and insights shared within these pages will improve your advising practice and thus help your students make the most of their college experiences.

Jayne K. Drake

Peggy Jordan

Marsha A. Miller

Editors

References

Gordon, V. N. (2003). National Academic Advising Association certification task force advisor competencies. Retrieved from http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Academic-advisor-competencies.aspx

Habley, W. R. (1995). Advisor training in the context of a teaching enhancement center. In R. E. Glennen & F. N. Vowell (Eds.), Academic advising as a comprehensive campus process (Monograph No. 2) (pp. 75–79). Manhattan, KS: National Academic Advising Association.

Light, R. J. (2001). Making the most of college: Students speak their minds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Shaffer, L. S., Zalewski, J. M., & Leveille, J. (2010). The professionalization of academic advising: Where are we in 2010? NACADA Journal, 30(1), 66–77.

The Editors

Jayne K. Drake is the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, Director of the Master of Liberal Arts Program, and associate professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As Vice Dean, she is responsible for all academic matters, student services, programs, academic advising, and curricular initiatives for the College's undergraduate and graduate students. Dr. Drake is a “lifer” at Temple and has served in a number of administrative posts over the years, including Director of Academic Advising, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, Associate Dean for Student Services, and the Director of the Teaching and Learning Center, to name a few.

Dr. Drake is a past President of NACADA and publishes broadly in the field of advising. In 2012, she was awarded the Association's highest recognition, the Virginia N. Gordon Award for Excellence in the Field of Advising. As a member of the NACADA Academic Advising Consultants and Speakers Service, Dr. Drake travels nationally and internationally to provide keynote addresses and conduct workshops on a number of advising-related topics, and she serves as a consultant and reviewer to a number of universities regarding the development and reorganization of advising services.

She earned her PhD in English at Penn State. Her teaching and publication interests include 17th- though 19th-century American literature, the history of printing and publishing in America, and literary research methods. She has published numerous articles and reviews in these fields and written books on American literary periodicals and John Greenleaf Whittier.

Peggy Jordan is a professor of psychology at Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC), where she has worked for 14 years. She is a faculty advisor for approximately 250 students, serves on OCCC's training team for Cooperative Learning, and is involved in a trial study of the use of motivational interviewing in the classroom. Dr. Jordan has served as chair of NACADA's Publications Advisory Board and Two-Year Colleges Commission. She has contributed to numerous NACADA publications and presented at numerous state, regional, and national conferences. Before working in higher education, she worked as a psychotherapist in agencies and in a private practice. Dr. Jordan received a PhD in Counseling Psychology from Oklahoma State University and a MEd and BA from the University of Central Oklahoma.

Marsha A. Miller, Kansas State University, has been a NACADA member since 1988 and serves as NACADA's Assistant Director for Resources and Services. Ms. Miller was a peer advisor at the University of Missouri–Columbia and has earned graduate degrees from the University of Iowa and Emporia State University. She advised and taught at Cloud County Community College for 14 years while working in various capacities at the college. She also chaired the committee charged with restructuring Cloud's advising and academic support services, and she was appointed as the first Director of Cloud's Advising Center, which received both the NACADA Outstanding Advising Program Award and the Noel-Levitz citation for Excellence in Student Retention while under her direction.

Ms. Miller has written extensively on academic advising issues and is the managing editor for all NACADA print-based publications. She was coeditor of NACADA's monograph Comprehensive Advisor Training and Development: Practices that Deliver and directs the web-based NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources. Ms. Miller is a frequent faculty member at the NACADA Academic Advising Summer Institute. She is the NACADA representative to the Council for the Advancement of Standards Board and answers NACADA member questions regarding advising-related issues.

Editor photos courtesy of:

Dr. Drake: Ryan Brandenberg, Temple UniversityDr. Jordan: Tony JordanMs. Miller: Gail Anne Aurand, Moments in Time Photography

The Authors

Jennifer L. Bloom, EdD, is a clinical professor and Director of the Higher Education and Student Affairs Master's Degree Program in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of South Carolina. She also is an adjunct associate professor for the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign. She previously served as the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and the Medical Scholars Program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign (2003–07). She was elected to the position of President of NACADA for 2007–08. Her research interests include appreciative advising, academic advising, career paths in higher education administration, leadership, and change.

Susan M. Campbell serves as University of Southern Maine's Chief Student Success Officer. She earned her BS in Speech and Theatre from Ball State University, her MS in Adult Education from the University of Southern Maine, and her EdD in Higher Education Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dr. Campbell also holds an adjunct appointment as associate professor in the School of Education, where she coordinates the student affairs concentration in one of the master's programs.

Dr. Campbell served as President of NACADA, has held other leadership positions within the association, and received NACADA's Virginia N. Gordon Award in 2005. Her publications include contributions to the NACADA Guide to Assessment in Academic Advising (2005), NACADA Monograph No. 13, Peer Advising: Intentional Connections to Support Student Learning (Korning & Campbell, eds.), both editions of The Distance Learner's Guide (1999 and 2004) published by Prentice-Hall, and the second edition of Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook (Gordon, Habley, & Grites, eds.) published by Jossey-Bass.

Patrick Cate is the Director for the University Studies Department at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, New Hampshire. He holds a BA in Biology from Keene State College and an MEd in Educational Counseling from Plymouth State University. He is the creator of the targeted advising model and has consulted with a number of institutions on its use. He has presented a number of times at state, regional, and national conferences, winning a Best of Region 1 Award in 2009 from NACADA. Mr. Cate also published an article in the NACADA Clearinghouse and the NACADA blog. Currently, he serves as the New Hampshire state liaison for NACADA.

Sarah Champlin-Scharff earned her undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Women's Studies from the University of New Hampshire, her MA in Philosophy from Boston College, and her MEd from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has been at Harvard University since 1999 and is currently Director of Administration for the History of Science Department. Prior to that, she was Undergraduate Program Administrator for the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies. She has been a member of Harvard's Board of Freshman Advisors since 2004 and an active member of NACADA since 2005. She is currently Chair of its Theory and Philosophy Commission (2012–14), a member of its Research Committee, and a regular presenter at the national conference. Her chapter, “A Field Guide to Epistemology in Academic Advising Research,” appears in the 2010 NACADA Monograph No. 20, Scholarly Inquiry in Academic Advising (Hagen, Kuhn, & Padak, eds.), and her article, “Advising With Understanding: Considering Hermeneutic Theory in Academic Advising,” was published in the Spring 2010 issue of the NACADA Journal.

Thomas J. Grites is Assistant Provost at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, where he has served in a number of capacities in his 35 years there. He was one of the founding members of NACADA and served as its President for two terms. He serves as a senior editor of the NACADA Journal and regularly provides other services to NACADA. Dr. Grites has written more than 60 journal articles, book chapters, and professional reports; he has delivered more than 120 conference presentations; and he has conducted academic advising workshops and program reviews on more than 100 campuses. Dr. Grites earned his BS and MS degrees from Illinois State University and his PhD from the University of Maryland. Both institutions have awarded him distinguished alumni awards, and he was inducted into the College of Education Hall of Fame at Illinois State.

Peter L. Hagen serves as Director of the Center for Academic Advising at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. He was the founding Chair of the NACADA's Theory and Philosophy of Academic Advising Commission, served as guest editor of the Fall 2005 issue of the NACADA Journal, and was a member of the task force that wrote “The Concept of Academic Advising,” now widely adopted by the NACADA membership. For NACADA, he currently serves on the Publications Review Board and the NACADA Journal's Editorial Board. He won the 2007 Virginia Gordon Award for Service to the Field of Advising. He served as lead editor for NACADA Monograph No. 20, Scholarly Inquiry in Academic Advising, published by NACADA in March 2010 (Hagen, Kuhn, & Padak, eds.).

Ye He, PhD, is assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in teacher education. As coordinator for the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) Teacher Education Program, Dr. He serves as faculty advisor for undergraduate and graduate students. Her research areas include ESL teacher education, diversity and equity in education, program evaluation in higher education settings, and the use of mixed methods in educational research and evaluation.

Bryant L. Hutson, PhD, is Associate Director for Student Academic Services at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and coordinates programming and assessment for a number of student support and retention efforts. He holds a PhD in Higher Education Administration with a concentration in educational research, measurement, and evaluation. Previously, he was research associate at the Center for Educational Research and Evaluation. His research areas include college student retention and persistence, first-generation and at-risk college student academic support, and program evaluation in higher education settings.

Judy Hughey, a national certified counselor, is an associate professor at Kansas State University in the Department of Special Education, Counseling, and Student Affairs. She earned a doctorate from the University of Missouri–Columbia. Dr. Hughey's teaching responsibilities include teaching graduate courses in counselor education and supervision and undergraduate educational psychology. She is the coordinator of the Master's Program for School Counseling and is the Chair of the College of Education Faculty Assembly and Executive Committee, a member of the University Faculty Senate and serves on the Senate Leadership Council. Her research interests include counseling and advisor skill development, learning environments, and career development. Dr. Hughey has served as assistant managing editor for the Journal of Vocational Special Needs and assistant to the editor for Professional School Counseling. Dr. Hughey has copublished in The Handbook of Career Advising and in Educational Considerations, Journal of Career Development, Community College Journal, School Counselor, ASCA Counselor, and Academic Advising Today as well as in ERIC publications.

Ezekiel Kimball is the Director of Institutional Research at Curry College. Prior to this appointment, he was a graduate fellow and research assistant in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at The Pennsylvania State University. His prior experience includes work related to college access and student affairs in a range of nonprofit and university settings. He earned a PhD in Higher Education with a graduate minor in Social Theory from The Pennsylvania State University, an MS in Adult Education from the University of Southern Maine, and BA in History also from the University of Southern Maine. His dissertation, Developing a Model of Theory-to-Practice-to-Theory in Student Affairs: An Extended Case Analysis of Theories of Student Learning and Development, examined the theory use of student affairs practitioners. His published or forthcoming works include journal articles and book chapters on social theory, college admissions, and student affairs practice.

Marc Lowenstein recently retired as Associate Provost for Personnel, Programs, and Policy at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, where he had served since 1976 in various roles, including seven years as Dean of Professional Studies. Past responsibilities included managing Stockton's student self-designed degree program and supervising the academic component of orientation. His academic background is in philosophy, in which he holds a bachelor's degree from Colgate University and a PhD from the University of Rochester. Dr. Lowenstein has published articles on ethics in academic advising and on the theory and philosophy of advising, and has made numerous presentations on these topics at national and regional conferences.

Holly E. Martin is the Assistant Dean for Mentoring and Student Development in the First Year of Studies College at the University of Notre Dame and a recipient of the University's Dockweiler Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising. She is a Co-director of the cultural competence and the e-portfolio initiatives for the First Year of Studies, and she also co-directs the First Year of Studies conferences on advising highly talented undergraduates. Dr. Martin is the past Chair of NACADA's Advising First Year Students Interest Group and is a current member of the Steering Committee for the Advising Student-Athletes Commission. In addition to advising and administrative work at Notre Dame, she teaches courses in Shakespeare, drama, interdisciplinary approaches to the arts, student advising e-portfolios, and cultural competence.

Jeffrey McClellan is an assistant professor of Management at Frostburg State University and the former Director of Advisor Training and Development at Utah Valley State College in Orem, Utah. He has worked as an advisor, counselor, faculty member, and administrator at four different institutions over the past 11 years. He holds a PhD in Leadership Studies from Gonzaga University and is the former Chair of the Commission on the Theory and Philosophy of Advising. His research interests include servant leadership development, organizational and individual growth, development and change, academic and career advising administration and leadership, and conflict management. Dr. McClellan lives with his wife and six children in Cumberland, Maryland.

Joseph Murray has served as the Director of Academic Advising and Retention Services at Miami University's Hamilton Campus since 1992. He earned both a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a Master of Science in Human Resource Management degrees from Purdue University. He has helped to develop and refine the Appreciative Advising Inventory and has been part of a national task force aimed at advancing the concept of appreciative advising. Most recently, he served on the faculty for the 2010 National Conference on Academic Advising Strategies to Increase Persistence and for the 2011 and 2012 Appreciative Advising Institutes. Mr. Murray works tirelessly to help students who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education. He has been a driving force behind Ohio Reach, a state and national effort to increase access and retention to higher education for Ohio's lower income/disadvantaged youth and foster care alumni. He has served as the Co-chair of the First-Generation College Student Interest Group for NACADA from 2007 until 2012.

Terry Musser has worked at The Pennsylvania State University for 27 years where she also acquired two degrees in Agricultural Education and her doctorate in Instructional Systems. She has advised undecided students, coordinated the University Academic Orientation Program, and conducted research and assessment activities. Dr. Musser currently coordinates advising activities for the College of Agricultural Sciences. She has presented and published on topics related to advising undecided students, theory and philosophy of advising, research in advising, and using technology in advising. She has been active in NACADA leadership, including serving as the representative for Region 2, regional division representative to the Council, the Board of Directors, the Diversity Committee, the Reorganization Task Force, Chair of the Webinar Advisory Board, and as a mentor in the Emerging Leaders Program.

Robert Pettay, PhD, is the advising coordinator and an instructor in the Department of Kinesiology at Kansas State University. He earned his doctorate in Counselor Education from Kansas State University. Dr. Pettay's research interests relate to the use of motivational interviewing in advising and physical activity and the relationship of health and academic behaviors and life satisfaction.

Maura M. Reynolds is associate professor of Latin and since 1988 has been the Director of Academic Advising at Hope College, Holland, Michigan. Her work with NACADA has included serving on a variety of committees, being appointed to Council, and chairing the Small Colleges and Universities Commission as well as the Publications Advisory Board. She has served on the faculty of the NACADA Administrator's Institute and the Summer Institute and has been energized by working with and learning from the staff and participants. Ms. Reynolds has been a frequent presenter at NACADA conferences and webinars, has authored book reviews, articles, and monograph and book chapters, and has served as a consultant. At Hope College, she directs a faculty-only advising program, teaches in and has supervised Hope's First Year Seminar Program, and spends lots of time working with students, families, and the faculty.

Laurie A. Schreiner is professor and Chair of the Doctoral Programs in Higher Education at Azusa Pacific University, having spent 25 years in higher education as a psychology professor and associate academic dean prior to coming to Azusa Pacific. Coauthor of The Student Satisfaction Inventory (1994), Dr. Schreiner is also coauthor of Helping Sophomores Succeed (2010) and StrengthsQuest: Discover and Develop Your Strengths in College and Beyond (2006), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters on engaged learning, student satisfaction, sophomore success, faculty development, and advising. She has consulted with more than 100 colleges and universities on strengths-based education, retention, academic advising, student satisfaction, and effective teaching strategies. Her most recent publications include a three-part series on college student thriving for About Campus and an article on the impact of faculty and staff on high-risk students for the Journal of College Student Development.

Janet K. Schulenberg earned her BS in Biology and Anthropology from SUNY Geneseo and her MA and PhD in Anthropology from The Pennsylvania State University. She is a Senior Undergraduate Studies adviser in the Division of Undergraduate Studies, and Coordinator of the First-Year Testing, Consulting, and Advising Program at Penn State. She was assistant professor of anthropology and coordinator of Archaeological Studies at SUNY Potsdam before returning to Penn State in 2005. Dr. Schulenberg is active in NACADA, serving as chair of the NACADA Research Committee and as an active member of the NACADA Theory and Philosophy of Advising Commission.

Nora A. Scobie, Assistant Director for Advisor Development at the University of Louisville (UofL), received her PhD in Education Counseling and Personnel Services from UofL; her research interests include second-year students, student persistence, and academic advising. She is adjunct faculty in the College of Education and Human Development at UofL. She has worked in higher education for more than 20 years, including positions in student affairs, student services, facilities management, and academic advising. She is an active NACADA member and has served as Chair of the Advisor Training and Development Commission and incoming Chair of the Professional Development Committee. Dr. Scobie loves to spend time with her family and three Labrador retrievers: Gus, Grr-Tee, and Grizz-lee Bear.

Janet M. Spence, MEd, is the Executive Director for Undergraduate Advising Practice at the University of Louisville. She holds 35 years of higher education experience as an academic advisor and an advising administrator. In her current role, she leads eight colleges and schools at the university in developing consistent and best practice in academic advising. Before joining Undergraduate Affairs, she held the role of Assistant Dean in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville. Ms. Spence currently serves on the NACADA Council and is the representative for the Commission and Interest Group Division. She was a member of the faculty for NACADA's Advising Administration Institute (AI) in 2010 and serves on the AI Planning Committee. Ms. Spence has presented at several national and regional conferences and is an author of a chapter in NACADA Monograph No. 22, Academic Advising Administration (Joslin & Markee, eds.).

Jennifer Varney has been working in higher education for the past 14 years: first as a classroom instructor at Hesser College and later as an academic advisor, online instructor, and currently the Assistant Dean in the School of Business at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). She has written many articles on best practices in advising at-risk students. Ms. Varney has also delivered webinars for NACADA and Academic Impressions. At SNHU, she teaches in the Organizational Leadership (OL) Department and was the subject matter expert for the most recent revision of OL 500. Ms. Varney is also working on a doctorate degree in Organizational Leadership. When not in the office, she can typically be found hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Frank Yoder has been at the Academic Advising Center at The University of Iowa since 1992. He is currently an Associate Director at the Advising Center, where he is responsible for new advisor training. In the past several years, he has been involved with NACADA by leading workshops for new advisors, copresenting a webinar on advising theory, writing monograph chapters, and presenting at sessions on training and technology and other related topics. He received his PhD in History from the University of Chicago and also serves as an adjunct professor in the History Department at The University of Iowa.

PART ONE

Foundations of Academic Advising Practice

Drawn from student development and learning theories, the chapters within part one explain and illustrate time-honored approaches to advisors’ work with students.

1

Advising Strategies to Support Student Learning Success

Linking Theory and Philosophy With Intentional Practice

Ezekiel Kimball and Susan M. Campbell

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don't much care where—” said Alice.

“Then it doesn't matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

“—so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you're sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

—Lewis Carroll,Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865

This chapter, like this book, begins from the simple premise that students' choices and behaviors in college matter to their success (Astin, 1993; Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, & Whitt, 2005; Light, 2001; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005) and that through careful attention to their own practices, advisors can help to create the conditions necessary for students to achieve success. To support student success, however, academic advisors must work in a highly intentional manner. They cannot just promise that students will get “somewhere” and send them on a path alone, as did the Cheshire Cat in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but instead they must be prepared to offer direction and assistance while undertaking the journey along with students. That is, advisors must act purposefully to achieve the important goals set for their practice and students. As stated in the NACADA Concept of Academic Advising (National Academic Advising Association [NACADA], 2006, para. 6): “Through academic advising, students learn to become members of their higher education community, to think critically about their roles and responsibilities as students, and to prepare to be educated citizens of a democratic society and a global community.” Such intentionality is particularly important because higher education institutions are being asked to focus on the development of the whole person (Joint Statement, 2004, 2006) and to be accountable for producing clear learning outcomes (Shavelson, 2010).

However, those charged with achieving the goals set for the profession face challenges. Advising is paradoxically a relatively new profession with a long history. Though NACADA did not form until the late 1970s (Beatty, 1991), academic advising has always been a part of higher education—first as the work of college faculty members, later of student affairs personnel, and finally of professional advisors. Likewise, though a scholarly advising journal did not appear until 1981, a long history of relevant scholarly work undergirds the profession—including clear connections to the important American intellectual traditions of pragmatism and symbolic interactionism. As an interdisciplinary field of study, academic advising also draws from many different disciplines as scholars attempt to capture the experiential nature of student learning and development (Hagen, 2005; Hagen & Jordan, 2008; Kuhn, 2008). Consequently, the problem for advisors may not be an absence of useful information but rather a surfeit.

To assist in thinking about this wealth of information, we begin this chapter with a consideration of academic advising as an intentional process shaped by several different ways of thinking about students. We next review key foundational literature linking academic advising to student persistence and success. This chapter and, indeed, this volume acknowledge that students are individuals and each exhibits a specific, personal, learning style. Likewise, each advisor uniquely interprets academic advising as an educational process. As a result, approaches to academic advising mirror personal values and beliefs as well as the diversity of ways students learn, grow, and develop. We celebrate that diversity.

The Philosophical and Sociological Basis of Advising

Philosophically, academic advising is rooted in pragmatism where, according to William James (1907/1969), “Truth … becomes a class-name for all sorts of definite working-values in experience” (1969, p. 54). Through one's experiences personal definitions of reality and truth emerge. Through academic advising, experiences are translated and the consequences of action, anticipated or actual, are examined, embraced, or discarded in relationship to the individual's current beliefs and future dreams. A dictionary definition of pragmatism (Merriam-Webster's, 2012) belies its complexity:

An American movement in philosophy founded by C. S. Peirce and William James and marked by the doctrines that the meaning of conceptions is to be sought in their practical bearings, that the function of thought is to guide action, and that truth is pre-eminently to be tested by the practical consequences of belief.

In a fundamental aspect, pragmatism is based on actions grounded in beliefs; in turn, these actions lead to consequences, and these consequences potentially reform beliefs, including those resistant to change. The pragmatist's world constantly changes as a result of action. Some debate, which is beyond the scope of this chapter, centers on whether or not pragmatism is a philosophy or a method of analysis. However, Reynolds (1993, p. 16) provided a summary of several key characteristics of American pragmatism:

Humans are not passive recipients of stimuli; they are creative, active agents.[Because] people inhabit a world that they … have helped shape, even as this self-made world limits and places constraints on the activities of its creators, the world is [repeatedly] subject to planned change.Subjective experience flows from behavior and does not exist prior to it. From behavior, consciousness and meaning emerge, and an object's meaning resides in the behavior directed toward it and not in the object itself (Manis & Meltzer, 1978: 3).The same basic assumptions that shore up and guide empirical science should also guide philosophical analysis.The solution of practical problems and the analysis of social issues should be the prime focus of philosophical concern (Lauer & Handel, 1977: 10).It is necessary and desirable to reconcile science with idealism.Action is the means for checking the accuracy of a hypothesis and hence the focus of reality (Weinberg, 1962).[The interest theory—that which is good satisfies an impulse or an interest—is the best theory of value.]

The first three characteristics have particular relevance to academic advising and the myriad approaches to this educational process. In sum, they suggest that human actions are shaped by one's initial interpretations of situations. In turn, the consequences of actions in those situations reinforce or change the interpretation of the initial situation.

Sociologically, academic advising draws from interactionist theory; that is, individual views are modified or reinforced through interactions with others. Furthermore, through actions and interactions, individuals influence, and are influenced by, happenings in the culture. It is a relationship-based enterprise not dominated by a single truth or reality; multiple realities coexist.

Symbolic interactionism offers a perspective with particular relevance to academic advising. Rooted in pragmatism, this perspective maintains that reality emerges from the meaning that individuals share regarding the physical, ideological, and social aspects of their environment. The crux of symbolic interactionism, with pragmatism as a guiding philosophy, lies in understanding how people interpret and experience their worlds through analyzing the ways they act.

Blumer (1986), the founder of symbolic interactionism, suggested that the essence of this sociological perspective

rests in the last analysis on three simple premises. The first premise is that human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them. … The second premise is that the meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with one's fellows. The third premise is that these meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretive process used by the person in dealing with the things he encounters. (p. 2)

Pragmatism and symbolic interactionism portray one's reality as being socially constructed based on the meaning that one gives to situations and objects. Meaning is subjective and based on one's interpretation of events. Human beings are not passive in this regard; indeed, they are active agents both influencing and being influenced by their interactions with others as well as other experiences.

Academic Advising and Meaning Making

Academic advising facilitates the development of meaning through en­gagement in experiences and interaction with others. Academic advising—done well—assists students in interpreting their values, beliefs, and experiences so, unlike Alice, they get somewhere they want to go. Because all students interpret their experiences in ways particular to them, no single approach or advising strategy will sufficiently assist everyone optimally. Advisors should understand and incorporate into advising strategy the following important lesson from philosophy and sociology: Actions or behaviors reflect meaning. To influence behavior and guide action, then, advisors must understand the meaning behind actions and acknowledge them as the drivers of behavior. Furthermore, if meaning is derived from interaction with others, then to influence meaning, advisors must encourage students to be involved in experiences and contexts that support, promote, and challenge current values and beliefs. In essence, one size does not fit all with regard to academic advising. The field needs, and indeed, requires, multiple strategies so advisors effectively respond to multiple and unique audiences. The field needs flexible, eclectic practitioners able to adapt their advising strategies in accordance with the needs of their students. Being married to a single approach to academic advising, advisors potentially disregard the diverse ways in which students learn and presume a single, linear developmental path that is clearly more idealistic than realistic.

Advising as an Intentional Process

Because of the breadth of scholarship and practice, four related thoughts about student experience and advising practice shape the field (each of which we describe in more detail): a) one's own values, beliefs, and assumptions; b) scholarly theories; c) advising approaches; and d) advising strategies. Though other contributors to this book address items related to scholarly theories and advising approaches, we discuss values, beliefs, and assumptions because they shape responses to the other ways advisors think about students and can powerfully influence advising (Bensimon, 2007; Bloland, Stamatakos, & Rogers, 1994; Parker, 1977). Thinking carefully and reflecting critically on the content and role of each of these elements, advisors develop the intentional advising practices necessary to support student success.

Pragmatism and symbolic interactionism both stress the importance of experience in shaping one's values, beliefs, and assumptions (or mental framework) as well as the importance of that framework in shaping behavior. For academic advising, these theories suggest that students should engage in experiences that allow them to test their values, beliefs, and assumptions about their present and future selves. At the same time, they also indicate that the mental frameworks employed by academic advisors matter a great deal and that advisors need to be aware of the ways these paradigms affect student success. For example, Bensimon (2007) suggested that rendering the implicit theories of student behavior held by practitioners explicit and then interrogating them through evidence helps create, in part, educational equity, and that absent this investigation they may internalize potentially problematic thinking about student experience. Likewise, Parker (1977) distinguished between formal and informal theories created by student affairs practitioners. Finally, research reveals that classroom teacher performance is largely consistent with the personal practical theories that combine personal values, beliefs, and assumptions with formal academic training (Cornett, Yeotis, & Terwilliger, 1990; Levin & He, 2008). In short, values, beliefs, and assumptions not only shape behavior directly, but they also likely influence the way that educators employ scholarly theories, advising approaches, and advising strategies.

Those in the social sciences typically regard theory as comprised of a coherent group of generalizeable conditions that have been tested and commonly held by a given community to be true and/or accurate (Jaccard & Jacoby, 2010). Once produced, theory is generally expected to influence behavior in an explanatory and often predictive manner (Godfrey-Smith, 2003); that is, theory contributes to ideas about the present as well as generates expectations about the future. The advising profession, as an interdisciplinary field, does not profess a theoretical base; instead, advising scholars borrow key theoretical insights from other disciplines to form the current knowledge base. Concerned with how students learn and develop over time, contributors to advising literature rely heavily on philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and psychology—among other disciplines—to explain the influences on the profession. In practice, effective academic advising also actively incorporates and interprets the research and scholarship on student persistence and success. At the theoretical level, some of the most important scholarship to advising comes from work on student development (e.g., Evans, Forney, & Guido-DiBrito, 1998; Evans, Forney, Guido-DiBrito, Patton, & Renn, 2010) and student experience within the campus environment (e.g., Harper & Quaye, 2009; Strange & Banning, 2001).

One's advising approach typically comes from one's philosophy of academic advising, which reflects an interpretation of relevant theories and empirical literature. Advisors further refine their approaches in conversations with colleagues and through interactions with individual students or groups of students. Thus, an advising approach emerges through a heuristic process guided by individual interpretations about how best to support the developmental needs of students. Advisors must offer intentional support, for without a clear approach or plan for purposeful action, academic advising merely consists of a series of tactics that may or may not lead to desired outcomes. Because advisors strive to facilitate student development toward a desired end, which is ultimately defined by the student in ways consistent with his or her beliefs and values, the advising approach provides the lens through which these goals might be clarified.