Advisor
Training
Below
are examples of what other colleges are doing about advisor training:
OSU: Objective
4.1: Support activities to maintain a high
retention rate, promote the achievement of student career goals, obtain a high
graduation rate, and obtain a high job placement rate.
Strategies: Sponsor
an academic advisor training session for all faculty advisors.
FSU: Recognizing the importance of quality advising to
student satisfaction and success,
the team urged the University to implement the recommendation on academic
advising
appearing in the institution’s self-study (Visitation Team
Recommendation Three).
The self-study recommendation calls upon the institution
to improve academic
advising by: 1) implementing a student evaluation of the advising
system; 2) putting
greater emphasis on advising within the faculty evaluation system
and rewarding faculty
commitment to academic advising; and (3) assessing the needs of
advisors so that a
training program can be fashioned to meet both their needs and
those of special student
populations.
http://www.frostburg.edu/events/pdf/prreport.pdf
Cuseo: National
reports calling for improvement in the quality of undergraduate education have
repeatedly emphasized the need for instructional development of faculty … The
very same case could be made for college advising, because faculty are the most
prevalent advisors at all types of colleges and universities (Lareau, 1996), yet the importance of professional
development for academic advisors has been given short shrift by national
reports calling for higher educational reform. In fact, it is probably safe to
say that advising is the professional role for which faculty are least
prepared to perform. Undoubtedly, faculty receive even
less preparation for academic advising during their graduate school experience
than they do for undergraduate teaching.
Faculty are, for the most part, powerless to implement developmental
advising without adequate training. To be an effective developmental advisor
requires sills,
competencies, and knowledge beyond any given academic
discipline. Improving
communication, building relationships, setting goals,
and enhancing knowledge of
campus and community resources are but a few examples
of training areas to which
faculty and other advisor need exposure (p.
106).
http://www.brevard.edu/fyc/listserv/remarks/cuseorentation.htm
Cuseo: Redressing the underpreparedness of faculty advisors requires systematic
design and delivery of intensive and extensive professional development
programs, which should be more substantive than the common practice of reducing
advisor development to an advising “training” program that begins and ends with
a one-shot, immersion orientation session for new advisors.
http://www.oocities.org/jccadjunct/advcont.html
Cuseo: Substantive
orientation, training, and development of academic advisors.
Only about one-third of college campuses provide training for faculty advisors;
less than one-quarter require faculty training; and the vast majority of
institutions offering training programs focus solely on dissemination of
factual information, without devoting significant attention to the
identification of the goals or objectives of advising, and the development of
effective advising strategies or relationship skills (Habley,
1988).
The upshot of the foregoing findings is encapsulated in the following
conclusion reached by Habley (2000), based on his
review of findings from five national surveys of academic advising: “A
recurrent theme, found in all five ACT surveys, is that training, evaluation,
and recognition and reward have been, and continue to be, the weakest links in
academic advising throughout the nation. These important
institutional practices in support of quality advising are at best unsystematic
and at worst nonexistent” (p. 40).
http://www.oocities.org/jccadjunct/advising.html
Strategies:
3.1 During 2003-2004, implement a comprehensive academic
advisor
training module for professional development credit and develop a
process to identify and train faculty, staff, administrators, and
students to
assist advisors and counselors.
3.2 During 2003-2004, develop a process to expand the core
of trained staff
to
reduce the ratio of advisors to students.
3.4 By the end of winter 2003-2004, identify funding needs
and outside
revenue sources (Title III and other grants) for training,
technological
support, enhancing the creation of a new collegewide
advisement
training manual, and incentives for faculty and staff to participate
in the
advisement process on all campuses.
a) Development of internal marketing efforts to improve the
understanding of academic advising at BCC;
b) Development, coordination and implementation of an
evaluation for
the
advising initiative;
c) Development of benchmarks for credentials for academic
advising
positions/roles.
http://www.broward.edu/faculty-staff/strategicplan/StrategicPlanInitiativeModel.pdf
NSU: Each degree granting academic
department has a departmental academic advising representative, who is
appointed by the department head. The responsibility of the departmental
advising representative is to attend all ACCESS sponsored academic advisor
training sessions so that they can share information from the training sessions
to the faculty advisors in their respective departments. Training session topics:
· Effective Use of the Student Information System
· Intrusive Academic Advising
· Advising Students on Academic Probation
· Institutional Policies for Early, Regular, Transfer and New
Students, Registration
· Effective Use of Student Referrals for Early Academic
Intervention Measures via the AIM Form
· Keys to Motivating Students to Persist and Achieve in
College
· Ongoing Advisement for Students on Academic Probation
· Academic Advising Updates
· Advising Transfer Students, Athletes, Honor Students, First
Year Students,
· Undeclared Students, High Drop-out Prone Students
http://www.nsu.edu/access/advisor_training.html
SMSU: The Master Advisor Program provides academic advisor
training, evaluation, and recognition. Ideally, new advisors would first
participate in a four-hour Advising Basics workshop (offered each September and
February) and follow that experience with the twelve-hour Master Advisor
Workshop (offered each January, May and August.)
http://www.smsu.edu/acadaff/FacultyResources/resources%20for%20faculty.pdf
MTSU: Advising policies and
processes (e.g., mandatory advising for first-year students; early assignment
of advisor. First-year students have access
to classes taught by full professors during their initial semesters. New
faculty training programs within each college provide information about
effective academic advising and teaching during the first-year. A comprehensive
and continuing training program prepares faculty to teach the first-year
seminar course.
http://www.mtsu.edu/~stuaff/foundations/frt.doc
SC: “Research indicates that one of the most powerful
influences on student persistence in college is individual attention from
faculty members. This research shows that students frequently judge the worth
of their academic experience from their interactions with faculty members.
College presidents often rank academic advising as a leading factor in student retention, and improving academic advising has been one of
the most frequently cited strategies to increase student retention in the past
decade. Academic advising can positively influence the education and personal
development of students.” –
BELOW ARE SOME RELATIVE INFORMATION ON THE ETHICS OF ADVISNG
(another reason that advisor training is so important):
What is Ethical Behavior for
an Academic Adviser?
Joyce Buck, John Moore, Marion Schwartz, and Stan Supon,
Penn State University
Editor's note: This is an excerpt from the second edition of The
Penn State Adviser, published this month.
“There is a moral contract that each of us subscribes to when we become
academic advisers. We are in a position of responsibility to students and to
the institution; therefore, we are obliged to behave morally. Moreover, there
is no way we can ignore this responsibility, for there is no ethically neutral
place from which to advise. So how do we fulfill the contract to which we have
subscribed? There is no list of moral principles that can cover all situations
in a foolproof way. Instead, we offer the following discussion of areas or of
ideas where the issue of right conduct is especially crucial or pertinent.”
Legal responsibilities/moral
responsibilities
http://www.psu.edu/dus/mentor/010109jb.htm
Univ of
http://www.uta.edu/advisorhandbook/ethics.htm
Northern
http://www.northern.edu/advisement/philosophy.html#ETHICS
Do the Right Thing: Ethics in
Advising
http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/NationalConf/2002/Uploads/C94.ppt#6
Excerpted
from National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Standards and Guidelines
For Academic Advising posted via electronic media on February 21,1994
http://advising.wichita.edu/lasac/pubs/aah/ethics.htm
Minimum Standards of Professional
Conduct
Know the information that you need in order to give useful
advice. You have an ethical
obligation to be well informed about the details of the policies and
requirements that
apply to your students. Ignorance or impatience with the details is
irresponsible.
http://www.stthom.edu/advising/pdf/Student%20Responsibilities%20in%20Advising.pdf
http://www.uta.edu/advisorhandbook/ethics.htm
Association of International
Advisors
http://www.ukcosa.org.uk/aisa/aisaimages/ethics.pdf
Ethics in Advising Resources
http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/Advising_Issues/Ethics.htm