Academic Advising

Academic advising has become an important component in higher education. National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) summarizes the definition of academic advising from a series of resources. Given its broad scope, the academic advising has following characteristics:

• For the purpose to promote students’ success (educational, career, and personal goals), and enhance students’ self-awareness and fulfillment
• Can be in the forms of informing, suggesting, counselling, disciplining, coaching, mentoring or even teaching
• Through interactive partnerships – advisors as facilitators, coordinators, and progress reviewers; students execute activities (student-centered)  
• Focus on building skills such as cognitive (metacognitive) skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving skills, decision-making skills, and critical thinking skills
• As a developmental process – ongoing, multifaceted, adaptive (communication/planning à analysis à design/development à testing/deployment à communication/planning) to ensure meaningful educational planning and execution for students’ holistic development
• Help students fully use the educational institution’s resources and get the most out of the educational program

Students come to school for learning. Often the central component of student’s learning is a particular set of knowledge represented as their major. Traditionally, schools do not intentionally teach students how to learn those knowledge, i.e. teach learning skills. Students come to the classroom to listen to lectures and take exams. However, learning is a willful, intentional, active, conscious, constructive and socially mediated practice. As humans, to make us learn something, the intended content has to have connections with our values, beliefs and/or experience. Coming to school, it is not only for learning some content, but it is more critical for the personal and career development and being functioning in the society. I think academic advising is a supportive practice in higher education to address “how to learn” issues and help students to be successful in their learning.

What is difference among advising, mentoring and coaching?

Besides advising, mentoring and coaching are also common supportive practices in schools and workplaces. These practices may overlap in some extent. It is worth to identify the differences among them. Below is a comparison. 

Academic Advising Strategies 

Learning in Advising 

Students who seek advising want to gain resources and methodology (how to do things) for doing well in their interested fields or subjects. What students learn from advising is different from what they learn from classrooms that teach content/knowledge. Moreover, in advising, advisors don’t only hand the resources and methodologies to advisees; rather, advisors want advisees to use the resources, master methodologies, and do well in their field of study. When the focus is resource and methodology, practice is the best approach to master those.  Therefore, the students’ learning in advising is experiential and transformative. As for being experiential, learning in advising starts with the awareness through experiencing, followed by reflection (thinking) and conceptualization, and finally leads to action execution. As for being transformative, learning in advising emphasizes a change to occur, i.e. from an uncomfortable, unfamiliar, or novice situation to becoming familiar with and mastering. Below is a scheme to overlay the phases in transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1997) and stages in the experiential learning cycle (Kolb, 1984).    

Both experiential learning theory and transformative learning theory are theories that focus on process by laying out stages or phases. Processes emphasize actions. Advising must promote actions in order to deliver intended outcomes. In advising, students may resist or have doubts. Advisors need to identify the best practices, effective methodology and trustworthy resources, and facilitate advisees to explore. 

Resources

Mezirow, J. (1997), Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 1997: 5-12. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.7401  

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Advising Models and Practices

Advising is to provide resources and methodology and promote advisees’ action for better performance. To ensure the effectiveness, the process of advising should be,

• Positive: Positivity is more correlated to happiness, good health, productivity, and success. Positivity helps in coping with stress and overcoming hardship. Positive thinking is contagious, i.e. positivity encourages better relationship with others and stimulate communication, collaboration and teamwork. Besides positive thinking and language, use positive body language, such as eye contacts, nodding and open/relaxed body posture.      
• Encouraging: Encouragement can help us to be motivated and feeling confident in ourselves for what we do. Encouragement lets people know they are on the right track, and they have what it takes to achieve. Encouragement is to build others up and to be a support. Encouraging is like giving courage; we need courage to step up and to proceed.     
• Empathetic: Empathy is an ability to understand or feel what another person is experiencing. There is no judgement in advising. The goal is to understand the situation from students’ perspectives and assist with resources and methodology for their learning journey. Be kind and compassionate.   
• Active to listen: Before providing any advises, we need to know the situation. Ask open-end questions to encourage students to present their thoughts and share their feelings. Try to paraphrase and ensure precise understanding and show that they have my full attention.  
• Slow to advise: Have a good pace with listening/learning the situation, communicating understanding, and providing resources and methodologies. It is better that the advice is evidence-based, convincing and practical for students to adapt.  

Reflection in Advising