1. Advising as Teaching and Learning
Maura Reynolds
Hope College
With thanks (again!) to Nancy King

2. Advising is NOT:
Primarily an administrative function or paper relationship
Obtaining a signature or a PIN number to schedule classes
A conference held once a year -- “The 1,000 mile check-up”

3. A judgmental process or a dictatorship
Personal counseling
Supplementary to the educational mission of the institution
Something anyone can or should do without some specific training

4. Goals of Academic Advising
Helping students clarify their values and goals
Leading students to better understand the nature and purpose of higher education
Providing accurate information about educational options, requirements, policies, procedures

5. Planning an educational program consistent with a student’s interests and abilities
Assisting students in a continual monitoring and evaluation of their educational progress
Integrating the many resources of the institution to meet the student’s special educational needs and aspirations

6. Advising as Teaching and Learning Focuses on Student Growth
In the ability to identify realistic academic and career goals as well as a program to achieve them
In the ability to make connections among courses in the curriculum and to integrate learning
In the self-awareness of the relationship between one’s education and one’s life

7. Advisor-as-Teacher Facilitator of communication
Coordinator of learning experiences
Referral agent who connects students with an institution’s resources and co-curricular opportunities that can help them be successful

8. Advisors Teach Students
To value the learning process
To apply decision-making strategies
To put the college experience into perspective
To set priorities and evaluate events
To develop thinking and learning skills
To make informed choices
Core Values, NACADA

9. We’re working toward the same goal: an academic experience that promotes the intellectual and personal development of all students. How might advising contribute to the intellectual and personal development of our students?

10. BECAUSE of academic advising?
Learning Outcomes
What should students LEARN through academic advising?
What information should they be able to understand…
What skills should they be able to demonstrate…
What should they value…
BECAUSE of academic advising?

11. The purposes of learning objectives
Help us understand what we want to accomplish in our advising meetings
Help us see more clearly the techniques we might use to accomplish our objectives
Help students understand what advising is and its value
Help students realize their role in advising
Make assessment reasonable.

12. What do we know about how people learn?

13. Despite the wide-spread interest in learning in higher education, few resources have been “translated” into concrete practices that we can use in advising.

14. Some assume that learning is automatic, the natural product of good teaching or good advising. Their focus may be on developing their teaching or advising skills and techniques, the how-to of advising and teaching…..

15. Being learning-centered
focuses attention on
what the student is learning
how the student is learning
whether the student is applying the learning
how current learning positions the student for future learning.

16. Let’s work together to develop learning objectives for advising, explore techniques we might use to achieve them, and consider how they might be assessed.
Think about the students you work with and their needs
Consider how learning objectives might change as they move through your institution
Focus on learning.