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Catch My Drift?:

Catch My Drift?:. Academically Adrift and the Role of Advising in Higher Education. Three main p oints:. Public ambivalence about the nature, purpose, and cost of higher education. Role played in this context by Arum and Roksa’s Academically Adrift (January 2011).

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Catch My Drift?:

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  1. Catch My Drift?: Academically Adrift and the Role of Advising in Higher Education

  2. Three main points: • Public ambivalence about the nature, purpose, and cost of higher education. • Role played in this context by Arum and Roksa’sAcademically Adrift (January 2011). • Developmental advising as a unique, pedagogical opportunity for intervention.

  3. Public ambivalence about higher education (Pew Research, 2011): • 47%: teach work-related skills/knowledge. • 39%: help students grow personally and intellectually. • 14%: both equally important. • 57%: fails to provide good value for money spent. • 75%: too expensive to afford (!). • But: 86% of graduates say: good investment.

  4. So…: • Uncertainty as to what students/parents should be getting for their money. • Corresponding uncertainty as to whether this mysterious “something” is worth what’s being spent (especially since costs have tripled since the ‘80s).

  5. Role played by Academically Adrift in this context: • 45% of students w/ no improvement in learning over first two years. • 36% with none over four years. • If improvements shown, then: modest. • Main culprits (according to Arum and Roksa): • Too much emphasis on engagement and retention. • Not enough on “rigor” (especially in terms of lengthier reading/writing).

  6. So...: to a public already ambivalent about education: • Academically Adrift—a serious, social-science-based investigation—appears to confirm the public’s worst suspicions. • Produces a number of responses in both mass and academic press: • Agreement/mea culpas. • Some outright dismissals. • A number of “Yes, buts”…

  7. Three main “Yes, but”s… • Yes, but: there are significant structural obstacles to improving. • Yes, but: there are significant student-expectation obstacles to improving. • And, yes, but: there are limitations to Arum and Roksa’s primary assessment tool (the “Collegiate Learning Assessment” [CLA]).

  8. A brief moment to look at the handout.

  9. Developmental advising: two opportunities for intervention

  10. Unique opportunity for intervention (I): • Shaping (and/or reshaping) student expectations—especially re: work and rigor. • Can be both more explicit and “lower stakes” than in classroom (at least in my experience).

  11. Example 1: Liberal Education • Advisees expressing incomprehension of, or dissatisfaction with, the College’s Liberal Education requirements. • Pursue question of value. • Usefulness in both personal and professional terms (AAC&U data on “what employers want”, etc.). • Perceived “weakness” becomes strength, etc.

  12. Example 2: “teaching style”. • Advisees expressing dissatisfaction with faculty member’s teaching style (“it just doesn’t work for me”). • Pursue the question. • Advantages (student flexibility; preparation for what later life holds, etc.). • Again: perceived “weakness” becomes strength.

  13. Example 3: “Hard” classes. • Student dissatisfaction (for obvious reasons). • Professional importance of such classes. • Personal importance (for a host of reasons). • The joys of difficulty (coach/trainer—and other—metaphors).

  14. Developmental Advising: unique opportunity for intervention (II): • Critical thinking broadly understood (Sternberg). • Awareness of assumptions (and practice weighing consequences). • Acceptance of responsibility (and: ownership). • Advising as pedagogical. • Retention value. • Wittgensteinian image: we’re the ladder they finally kick away. (We’re successful when they no longer need us).

  15. Conclusion: • Ideally: advising as a reflective moment on, precisely, the nature, meaning, and value of one’s own “higher education”, that results in a critically informed, personally grounded sense of educational ownership, autonomy, and responsibility. • Built-in moments for stopping and considering what’s working, what’s not, and why. • Students will get the drift. 

  16. Postscript: “Who has time for all this?!” • See: Sue Ohrablo’s “Developmental Advising in an On-Demand World” (2010): http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/dev-on-demand.htm • Information-gathering. • Advance assessment of student’s probable needs. • Exploring options (helping students think through. • Moving student forward.

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