A Move Forward: Assessing Student Readiness and Motivation via Professional Advising

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A publication from the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition

FOR COLLEGE TRANSITIONS

Vol. 15No. 3

August 2018

CONTENTS

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1 �

A Move Forward: Assessing Student Readiness and Motivation via Professional Advising Cabrini University, a small liberal arts institution, creates an advising model to support incoming students who cannot enroll in a learning community.

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5 �

Affinity From Afar: Connecting iCharleston Students to the College of Charleston

An international bridge program helps to incorporate first-year study abroad students into the campus community back home.

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8 �

Collaborative Study Sessions Support Student Success

The University of Texas at Austin aims to help at-risk students through the evolving TIP Scholars program.

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11 �

Using Pop Music as a Springboard for Inquiry-Based Informational Literacy Instruction

At Marshall University, a first-year seminar draws on song lyrics to get students to research social issues.

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14 �

A Novel Approach: Engaging First-Year Students in a Common Book Program

A first-year seminar gets students involved in dance and theater as part of Kansas State University’s common reading.

A Move Forward: Assessing Student Readiness and Motivation via Professional Advising

Cabrini University, a Catholic liberal arts institution in Pennsylvania, offers a robust learning community (LC) program as part of its larger first-year experience. The LC program aims to connect students with campus resources to ensure their academic and social success. About 55% of students are enrolled in LC cohorts of 14-20, and enrollees must either complete an LC application or receive strategic placement based on pre-enrollment data that includes intended major, SAT/ACT scores, and high school GPA. The program connects each student with two to three faculty members from various academic disciplines who support them during their first year.

Though the program has been successful, the institution does not have financial or faculty resources to offer LCs to all incoming students. Therefore, first-year students not engaged in an LC do not enjoy the same level of support and do not use academic and social support services at the same rates. To alleviate this problem, the university’s Center for Student Success created a professional advising model in Fall 2016 to support students not enrolled in an LC and promote community, campus connectedness, and the capacity to embracetheir academic journey at the institution.

Tara McFalls

Director of Learning

Perkiomen School

Maritza DeJesus

Professional Advisor

Cabrini University

Saleem Brown

Associate Director, First- Year Experience and Student Transitions

Cabrini University

Richie Gebauer

Executive Director, First- Year Experience and Student Transitions

Cabrini University

Cabrini University pairs incoming students who are not engaged in a learning community with a team of professional advisors to help them navigate the college transition. Photo courtesy of Cabrini University

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Led by the university’s executive director of the First-Year Experience and Student Transitions, Cabrini’s three professional advisors sought to honor a foundational philosophy of forward movement, encouraging students to look inward in order to examine their strengths and weaknesses and build a success routine. This proactive approach promoted a growth mindset aimed at helping first-year students not part of an intentional LC maximize their potential and navigate the college experience.

Four-Part Model

Engaging in intentional, developmental, and holistic advising demands a comprehensive strategy. Using Hirsch’s (2001) intervention model as a guide, the professional advisors embedded four key components into the comprehensive model serving first-year advisees: (a) assessing results, (b) recognizing overt and covert student needs, (c) collaboratively designing action plans, and (d) advancing the student forward.

In their first semester, all students, regardless of LC placement, were enrolled in a section of College Success Seminar (COL101), a one-credit core requirement taught by faculty advisors that aims to help students transition to the university. In all, 188 non-LC students were deliberately placed into sections of COL101, each composed of 14-20 students. These non-LC sections included a component requiring three meetings with a professional advisor, separate from a student’s faculty advisor, during the semester. For Fall 2016, the professional advisors conducted three 45-minute meetings with each of their 60 non-LC first-year advisees. Each professional advising meeting was designed to intentionally address one or more of the aforementioned key components.

Before each meeting, students completed a short questionnaire about their motivations for attending college, their academic behavioral patterns, and the challenges they faced in and outside the classroom. Responses gave advisors salient information encompassing central themes of students’ first-year experience. These responses were central to all meetings, assessing students’ readiness and motivation to implement a collaboratively designed action plan. They also enabled extensive, open-ended follow-up questioning and, more often than not, meaningful and deeply personal dialogue.

The First Meeting

Professional advising meetings began early in the fall semester. The questionnaires revealed students’ initial perceptions about the college experience, their current and future concerns, and their perceived readiness for college-level work. With an eye toward the beginning of the developmental arc of exploration, we also asked students to identify habits or patterns of academic behavior that could potentially interfere with their college success. Some of their responses included self-doubt about college readiness and belonging, struggles with time management, unease seeking out help, and frustration because of coursework. The academic skills and habits each student

“If a student’s self-assessment and grades were incongruent, advisors altered their interview style, framing questions to help students recognize and identify patterns and inefficiencies in their behaviors. ”

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identified as weaknesses became the foundation for a personalized action plan, which contained three to five actionable goals and would serve as an objective gauge of progress at the second and third meetings with advisors.

The assessment and early recognition of students’ overt and covert needs gleaned from the first meeting transitioned to the process of further anticipating their needs. We also recognized that students often do not have the meta-awareness to recognize what they do not know. The arc of advising, in turn, moved from distributing critical information about campus resources to addressing and breaking down barriers to assistance and understanding.

Midpoint Reflection

Students’ next professional advising meeting was considered a midpoint selfassessment, with a second questionnaire asking them to reflect on academic progress in their classes. Sample questions asked about students’ number of absences and how many hours per week they studied for each class, their percentage of assignments completed, and how often they took advantage of support resources. Questions that required a narrative response involved identifying habits that support and hinder success, and describing changes needed to improve their status in a course.

The goal of this assessment was to empower students to reflect on their standing in each course and to determine whether other strategies were needed to succeed. Professional advisors could access students’ midpoint grades and determine possible congruence between their self-assessment and their actual performance. If a student’s self-assessment and grades were incongruent, advisors altered their interview style, framing questions to help students recognize and identify patterns and inefficiencies in their behaviors (e.g., teaching that procrastination is a habit that can be changed rather than a permanent attribute, showing how to use planners effectively).

Changing Habits

Students who were not flourishing academically were flagged for mandated follow-up advising and challenged to re-commit to or overhaul their original action plan. For struggling students, the overall goal of the advisee–advisor relationship was to help them assess the efficacy of specific habits or strategies and recognize the need for new methods and routines to alter their academic path. To help them build momentum toward their goals, professional advisors advocated eliminating unproductive habits, one step at a time. Action plans focused on efficient routines to optimize academic progress. Students received direct instruction on academic strategies relative to their specific courses and challenges.

In several instances, students and professional advisors collaborated on schedules to purposefully apply study strategies, eliminate distractions, and block out time to study and complete papers and projects before they were due. Armed with clearly defined goals and practical strategies to reduce distractions and optimize their work, students

“Students and professional advisors collaborated on schedules to purposefully apply study strategies, eliminate distractions, and block out time to study and complete papers and projects before they were due. ”

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could claim ownership in executing an action plan, not only for academic success but for personal fulfillment as part of a broader community of learners.

The third and final meeting allowed students to reflect on how effectively they felt they navigated their first semester. In addition to assessing their experience overall, this meeting addressed student concerns about upcoming final exams and projects. Professional advisors asked about study strategies and time management techniques that worked throughout the semester and how students planned to optimize and apply the most effective methods to finish successfully. Those students still struggling to apply their strengths in tandem with their preferred academic strategies received more direct instruction relative to specific courses. Thus, the third meeting was a culmination of the four components scaffolding the developmental trajectory of advising, as it included (a) assessment, (b) discernment of student need, (c) collaborative evaluation and implementation of action plans, and (d) reaffirmation of skill empowerment and a growth mindset in service of advancing the student forward.

Future Implications

The goal of forward movement for each student remains one of the most essential elements of the holistic advising model inspiring the professional advisors. Institutions considering revising or overhauling their advising methods must consider that forward movement is particularly unique for every student.

Students required to engage in professional advising via the COL101 course successfully completed the course at an 85% rate, and 86.1% of these students finished the fall semester in good academic standing. Because students who are placed in learning communities do not have professional advisors, Cabrini does not compare success rates of the two groups. What is most important in the scope of this advising approach, however, is that every step forward, regardless of how small, honors the charge of responding to students’ needs, supporting their growth, and encouraging resilience amid significant challenges. Acknowledging and celebrating these positive steps, as this approach recommends, can potentially lead to student success. We believe the COL101 course delivered on its goals for providing support services and ensuring student engagement, and Cabrini intends to maintain this approach.

With a strong foundational philosophy and a clear focus for each meeting with students, professional advisors at any institution can maximize the effectiveness of their sessions, thereby broadening students’ working models of self- and advance skill empowerment.

Reference

Hirsch, G. (2001). Helping college students succeed: A model for effective intervention. New York, NY: Routledge.

Contact

Richie Gebauer rdg723@cabrini.edu

Related Articles in E-Source

Congos, D. H., & Priest, D. (2007). In-college career planning curriculum helps students build careers. 5(2), 11-12, 14.

Hutson, B. L., & Bloom, J. L. (2007). The impact of appreciative advising on student success. 5(1), 4, 7.

Return to Front PageCopyright © 2018 National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina