Transcript Slide 1

Thinking DEEPly about Academic
Advising and Student Engagement
George D. Kuh
NACADA National
Conference
October 18, 2006
We all want the same thing—an
undergraduate experience that
results in high levels of learning
and personal development for all
students.
Overview
 What matters to student
success
 The role of engagement
 What students say about
advising
 Lessons for advisors from
high-performing institutions
Advance Organizers
To what extent do your students
engage in productive learning
activities, inside and outside the
classroom?
How do you know?
What mighty you do differently -or better -- to foster student
success?
Student Success in College
Academic achievement,
engagement in
educationally purposeful
activities, satisfaction,
acquisition of desired
knowledge, skills and
competencies,
persistence, attainment
of educational
objectives, and postcollege performance
Pre-college Characteristics
Associated with Student Success
Academic preparation
Ability and college-level skills
Family education and support
Financial wherewithal
Early College Indicators of
Persistence and Success
 Goal realization
 Psycho-social fit
 Credit hours completed
 Academic and social support
 Involvement in the “right” kinds
of activities
What Really Matters in College:
Student Engagement
Because individual effort and
involvement are the critical
determinants of impact,
institutions should focus on
the ways they can shape their
academic, interpersonal, and
extracurricular offerings to
encourage student
engagement.
Pascarella & Terenzini, How College Affects
Students, 2005, p. 602
Student Engagement Trinity
What students do -- time and energy
devoted to educationally purposeful
activities
What institutions do -- using
effective educational practices to
induce students to do the right
things
Educationally effective institutions
channel student energy toward the
right activities
Good Practices in
Undergraduate Education
(Chickering & Gamson, 1987;
Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)
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Student-faculty contact
Active learning
Prompt feedback
Time on task
High expectations
Respect for diverse learning styles
Cooperation among students
National Survey of
Student Engagement
(pronounced “nessie”)
Community College
Survey of Student
Engagement
(pronounced “cessie”)
College student surveys that assess
the extent to which students engage
in educational practices associated
with high levels of learning and
development
NSSE Survey
Student Behaviors
Institutional Actions &
Requirements
Reactions to People
& Environment
Student Background
Information
Student
Learning &
Development
In your experience at your institution
during the current school year, about how
often have you done each of the following?
1
Effective Educational Practices
Level of
Academic
Challenge
StudentFaculty
Interaction
Enriching
Educational
Experiences
Active &
Collaborative
Learning
Supportive
Campus
Environment
Grades, persistence,
student satisfaction,
and engagement go
hand in hand
Behold the compensatory
effects of engagement
Student Success Quiz
What is the best predictor of
satisfaction with the campus
climate for learning?
(a) high school rank
(b) college gpa
(c) credit hours completed
(d) quality of academic advising
(e) none of the above
d. academic advising
Satisfaction with Advising:
First-Year Students
Poor
6%
Excellent
27%
Fair
20%
Good
47%
Satisfaction with Advising:
Seniors
Poor
11%
Excellent
27%
Good
40%
Fair
22%
Satisfaction with advising by
year in school and gender
Percent 'Good' or 'Excellent'
100
Male
Female
80
60
40
20
0
First-Year
Senior
Satisfaction with advising by year in
school and race or ethnicity
Af. Amer./Black
Asian
White
Latin./Hisp.
Percent 'Good' or 'Excellent'
100
80
60
40
20
0
First-Year
Senior
Accurate and current information
from advisors
100%
80%
First-year
Seniors
81%
80%
60%
40%
20%
13%
16%
7%
3%
0%
Disagree
Agree
Not Applicable
Primary source of academic advising
60%
First-year
Seniors
48% 49%
40%
27%
19%
20%
11%
10%
11%
8% 8%
5%
0%
Advisor
Other staff
Online
Catalog/Web Friends/Family
First-Year Student Use of Campus Services
80%
Never
Sometimes
Often
Very often
60%
51%
49%
40%
46%
34%
43%
35%
32%
26%
20%
12%
11%
12%
5%
14%
7%
15%
8%
0%
Academic
advising or
planning
Career advising
or planning
Financial aid
advising
Academic
assistance
(tutoring, writing
center, etc.)
What do “engaging”
colleges look like?
And what do
advisors there do?!?
What We
Learned from
Project DEEP
Jossey-Bass
2005
DEEP Guiding Questions
What do strong-performing
institutions do to promote
student success?
What campus features -- policies,
programs, and practices – are
related to higher-than-predicted
graduation rates and student
engagement?
DEEP Selection Criteria
Controlling for student and institutional
characteristics (i.e., selectivity, diversity,
institutional type), DEEP schools have:
 Higher-than-predicted graduation
rates
 Higher-than-predicted NSSE scores
 Region, institutional
type, special mission
Research Approach
Case study method
Team of 24 researchers review
institutional documents and conduct
multiple-day site visits
Observe individuals, classes, group
meetings, activities, events
2,700+ people, 60 classes, 30 events
Discover and describe effective
practices and programs, campus
culture
Project DEEP Schools
Doctoral Extensives
University of Kansas
University of Michigan
Doctoral Intensives
George Mason University
Miami University (Ohio)
University of Texas El Paso
Liberal Arts
California State, Monterey Bay
Macalester College
Sweet Briar College
The Evergreen State College
Sewanee: University of the South
Ursinus College
Wabash College
Wheaton College (MA)
Wofford College
Baccalaureate General
Alverno College
Fayetteville State University
University of Maine at Farmington
Gonzaga University
Winston-Salem State University
Longwood University
Master’s Granting
Six Common Conditions
 “Living” Mission and “Lived”
Educational Philosophy
 Unshakeable Focus on Student
Learning
 Environments Adapted for
Educational Enrichment
 Clearly Marked Pathways to
Student Success
 Improvement-Oriented Ethos
 Shared Responsibility for
Educational Quality
Five DEEP Lessons
for Academic Advisors
We can’t leave
serendipity to chance
Points to Ponder
To what extent do these ideas
characterize your work and your
institution?
What are the implications for:
You?
For faculty members?
For academic administrators
For student affairs staff?
For others (e.g., librarians, info
tech personnel, etc.)?
1. Adopt a talent development
approach to advising
a. “Know” your students
 Who are they?
 What are they telling us?
Student Success Quiz
What percent of high school
seniors have college-level
reading skills?
(a) 51% (b) 59% (c) 68% (d) 77%
(e) none of the above
a. 51% (ACT, 2006)
Student Success Quiz
True or false:
25% of first-year first-time frosh
at two-year colleges are
required to take one or more
remedial courses in college.
False. 60%
Student Success Quiz
What percent of students who
take at least one remedial course
in reading do not earn a
certificate or degree within 8
years of first enrollment?
(a) 18% (b) 33% (c) 43%
(d) 61% (e) 70%
e. 70%
Student Success Quiz
About what percent of
community college students
return for the second year?
(a) 29% (b) 33% (c) 50%
(d) 61% (e) 77%
c. 50%
15% do not complete one academic
term
Students Today

An entitlement
mentality
Trends in High School Grades
45
40
35
30
25
A- or better
C+ or less
20
15
10
5
0
1969 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 2005
Students Today
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An entitlement
mentality
Cumulative
deficit re:
attitudes, study
habits,
academic skills
Students Today
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More diverse
than previous
cohorts
Techno-savvy
“NetGens”
Factors That Threaten Persistence and
Graduation from College
 academically underprepared for
college-level work
 gap between high school and college
 part-time enrollment
 single parent
 financially independent
 children at home
 30+ hours working per week
 first-generation college student
1. Adopt a talent development
approach to advising
a.
b.
“Know” your students
Meet students “where they are” –
academically, socially,
psychologically.
“Meet students where they are”
Fayetteville State
Faculty members “teach the
students they have, not those they
wish they had”
Center for Teaching and Learning
sponsors development activities on
diverse learning needs
Cal State Monterey Bay
“Assets” philosophy acknowledges
students’ prior knowledge
1. Adopt a talent development
approach to advising
a.
b.
c.
“Know” your students
Meet students “where they are” –
academically, socially,
psychologically.
Set high expectations – challenge,
implore, cajole and support
Beginning College Survey of
Student Engagement
Annual survey of entering first-year
students
2005-2006 pilot test at 70
institutions
Administered prior to start of
classes
Ty M. Cruce
Julie M. Williams
John V. Moore
Indiana University
It Takes a Whole Campus
to Educate a Student
2. Make advising a tag team activity
a.
b.
Share responsibility for student
success
Draw on multiple sources of
expertise and perspectives on
students
Redundant early warning systems:
“Tag Teaming”
Wheaton first-year student
advising team includes faculty,
student preceptors, librarians
and administrative staff.
At Ursinus, Miami, and Wheaton
representatives from both
academic affairs and student
affairs serve as academic
advisors.
3. Help students map out a path to
success
a. Draw a map for student
success
3. Help students map out a path to
success
a. Draw a map for student
success
b. Teach newcomers about the
campus culture
Socialization to academic
expectations
“Enter to Learn, Depart to Serve,”
Winston Salem’s motto, reflects an
educational philosophy that
emphasizes that students must repay a
societal debt for the privileges of
freedom and responsibility. Freshman
Seminar and Nursing Strategies
courses include service
responsibilities for new students.
3. Help students map out a path to
success
a. Draw a map for student
success
b. Teach newcomers about the
campus culture
c. Emphasize student initiative
d. Point students to programs,
resources and activities that
work!
Potential “High Impact” Activities
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First-year seminars and experiences
Common intellectual experiences
Learning communities
Writing-intensive courses
Collaborative assignments
“Science as science is done”
Diversity/global learning
Service learning/community service
Internships
Capstone experiences/projects
What to Do?!?
Student success requires that we
explain more things to today’s
students that we once took for
granted –
“You must buy the book, you
must read it and come to class,
you must observe deadlines or
make special arrangements when
you miss one”
Prof. Richard Turner (1998, p.4)
Lessons from National Center for
Academic Transformation
 If doing something is important,
require it (first-year students
don’t do ‘optional’)
 Assign course points to the
activity
 Monitor and intervene when
necessary
http://www.thencat.org/Newsletters/Apr06.htm#1
Intrusive advising
University of Kansas “Graduate in
Four” advising notebook:
Distributed at orientation
Describes to students how to make
the most of undergraduate study
Students required to meet with
advisor to review progress to degree
Section for each of the four
undergraduate years
“Checklist” for students to weigh
choices and monitor if they are
making progress.
4. Make every interaction meaningful
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Participate and connect before
college and during orientation
Provide accurate information
Push students to think!
Develop peer mentoring programs
Imbed advising into a first-year
course
Encourage students to experience
diversity
Who Is Most Likely to
Experience Diversity?
More
Students of color
Less
White students
Traditional-age
students
Older students
Women
Men
First-year students
Upper-division
students
Something Else That
Really Matters in College
The greatest impact appears
to stem from students’ total
level of campus engagement,
particularly when academic,
interpersonal, and
extracurricular involvements
are mutually reinforcing…
Pascarella & Terenzini, How College Affects
Students, 2005, p. 647
Linking campus and community
California State University,
Monterey Bay (CSUMB) requires
all students to complete both a
lower and upper-level service
learning experience as a means
to apply knowledge and connect
with the local community.
5. Focus on culture sooner than later
Ultimately, it’s all about the
culture…
a. Identify cultural properties that
impede advisor effectiveness
and student success
b. Expand the number of cultural
practitioners on campus
c. Instill an ethic of positive
restlessness
Positive restlessness
“We know who we are and what
we aspire to.”
Confident, responsive, but
never quite satisfied…
Self-correcting orientation
Continually question, “are we
performing as well as we can?”
Checking the Truth
 How well does our advising
system work? How do we know?
 How many students do our
efforts reach in meaningful ways
and how do we know?
 To what degree are our efforts
complementary?
What are we not doing that we
should?
Last Word
We cannot change the lineage of our
students. Campus cultures do not
change easily or willingly. But we
can do far more to shape the way
students approach college and what
they do after they arrive.
Do we have the will to more
consistently use promising policies
and practices to increase the odds
that more students “get ready,” “get
in,” and “get through?”
Questions &
Discussion