Advising Philosophy

My primary mission as an academic advisor is to help students become independent learners and successfully manage their learning by nurturing them based on their motivation and in a way that reflects their values. My advising goal has been to help students realize their potential to control their learning. My advising strategy has been guided by the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) and self-determination theory (SDT, Ryan & Deci, 2000). NACADA provides valuable resources to understand roles and dynamics in advising. Also, SDT has helped me understand how advising can increase students’ motivation and performance. The underlying premise of SDT is that students are intrinsically motivated when they are fulfilled in all three basic psychological needs: autonomy (i.e., a sense of control in learning), competence (i.e., feeling competent in learning activities), and relatedness (i.e., feeling connected with the SRU community). Research has shown that intrinsic motivation is associated with various learning outcomes, such as retention, performance, and course satisfaction. The following section describes my strategies to facilitate an advising environment that supports each student’s autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Autonomy - Caring, helpful attitude toward advisees

I make a difference for students by promoting their autonomy using three advising strategies. First, I actively observe the student’s unique strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges. The most significant challenge as an advisor is knowing how my students are doing. Before the meeting, I ask students to take a pre-meeting survey that includes their educational needs and history in SRU. The survey saves me time so I can then hear the student’s voice during the meeting. It also lets students naturally share their needs, perspectives, and goals. To facilitate this sharing, I create an open, caring, and friendly environment. For example, I try to provide more positive feedback about students’ attitudes and improvement. Second, after listening carefully to the students’ voices, I suggest opportunities they may not have explored as they try choose appropriate courses and other educational experiences. I also provide the reasons behind the opportunity and the possible challenges for each option to help them decide. Lastly, I give students enough time to choose options that are well aligned with their values, priorities, and beliefs. If a student needs more time to think, I give them extra days to decide. In this way, students can explore their educational and career opportunities after reflecting on their current situation. This can help students become aware of how they can self-regulate the learning process and promote their decision-making and problem-solving skills.

Competence - Promotion of student progress toward academic and career goals

I use two approaches to build students’ confidence in their choices and encourage them to pursue their goals. Through these approaches, I can promote my advisee’s academic performance. First, for students who do not have a clear career plan, I demonstrate how they can explore career options using various resources. For example, students can draw a concrete picture of how they can get a job (i.e., entry-level education, licenses, and skills), what they will do (i.e., job descriptions), and the work environment (i.e., work schedule, pay) through Occupational Outlook Handbook (www.bls.gov/ooh/) and ONET (www.onetonline.org). By learning potential career pathways, students can become more confident and passionate about their future. Second, I try to remove obstacles that prohibit my students from taking advantage of learning and career opportunities. If students need technical support, such as searching for forms and having my signature on that form, I support their need by making it a top priority so they can progress to the next step. When students need a quiet space for a phone interview, I let them use my office. I also let them know that they can request a recommendation letter, even at the last minute, since students sometimes have a career opportunity that requires a recommendation letter at the last minute. Students often hesitate to request a recommendation letter from their advisor, but I want them to know I will work as hard as I can to help them fulfill their dreams. Students will improve their chances of success if I can help remove some of the obstacles that prohibit them from taking advantage of opportunities.

Relatedness - Participation in and support of advising to build strong relationships with advisees

I use two approaches to foster students’ feeling of being socially connected to the SRU community. First, I provide proactive interactions to build caring and beneficial relationships with students. Since many management students have full-time or part-time jobs and are enrolled in the online programs, I offer advising hours seven days a week and day and night options through Zoom as well as daytime in-person advising hours in my office. For students who feel more comfortable communicating with me via email, I respond to their email by providing a 15-minute recorded video file. Since the advising session is one of the formal practices where students can meet a representative of SRU, I do my best to stay connected with them and show interest in them. Second, I take steps to promote and practice diversity across a wide range of identities, including, but not limited to, religion, race, gender, and sexual orientation, to protect students. I also let the students know that I am learning their names. In the first advising session, I ask students how to say all their names correctly and write them down using pronunciation symbols. Then, I take some time to ask about the students’ interests. My efforts to respect diversity can help my students realize that they can trust me and feel that my office or online-meeting is safe spaces at SRU.

As a faculty member, I will take an active role in advising the next generation of management students by providing an open, caring, and friendly environment that can fulfill and satisfy students’ needs for autonomy - caring and helpful attitudes, competence - promotion of progress, and relatedness - building a strong relationship.

References

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.

The National Academic Advising Association (NACADA). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://nacada.ksu.edu/