2009
Student Research Award — Doctoral Level
Research Award
Julie
Traxler, Assistant Dean and Director
of First Year Advising, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ
Research Project - "Major
Choosing Among South Asian American Women: Toward a New Theory
of Advising"
Purpose
With increasing student diversity, traditional theories that rely
on stage-based identity models undermine the mission of advising.
Advising models that are less hierarchical, more cyclical, and
more contextual of students’ lives are crucial. This study
constructed one such model of major choice.
Research
Question
What is the process by which South Asian American women choose
their college major?
Methodology
This study employed individual and focus group interviews and
document collection, and utilized a sample of fifteen novice and
ten advanced participants. Data was analyzed using grounded theory
processes to yield categories and analytical coding to identify
a core phenomenon of assessment of fit.
Findings
This study yielded a process model that identified elements that
affected choice: social context (identity and family/community
influences), suitability (individual characteristics) and access
(external influences). Activities within the institution yielded
information that was filtered through the elements to determine
fit.
Significance
of Study
This research suggested strategies and formats for advising South
Asian students and implications for advising with diverse students,
including new models and training for multicultural advising competencies.
2008
Student Research Award — Doctoral Level
Research Award
Irene
Rios,
Executive Director of Academic Affairs, Springfield College, Springfield,
MA
Research Project - "Perceptions
of Practice: An Examination of the Extent to which Faculty Advisers
Perceive Delivery of their Undergraduate Advising as Developmental
or Prescriptive"
The purpose of this
qualitative, action research case study was to examine the extent
to which selected faculty advisers, at a college that delivers
undergraduate advising through a faculty-only advising model (Habley,
1983), perceived that they practice and deliver prescriptive or
developmental advising, as defined by Crookston (1972).
Sources of data were interviews with faculty advisers, and observations
of advising sessions with upper-division and lower-division students.
The conceptual framework was drawn from Crookston’s (1972)
and O’Banion’s (1972) definitions of developmental
and prescriptive advising.
The findings emphasized that prescriptive and developmental advising
exists, and both must be delivered in complementary ways to benefit
students. Students need to know what courses are needed to graduate;
and simultaneously, they need an advocate on whom they can rely
for guidance and someone who cares about their academic goals.
Recommendations addressed how campus leaders can plan resources
and infrastructure to effectively provide both prescriptive and
developmental advising, delivered collaboratively by faculty and
administration, with the goal of providing students the best possible
engagement with faculty of the college.
A collaborative advising model was offered as a new organizational
advising structure through which a small to mid-size institution
can effectively deliver both prescriptive and developmental advising.
2007
Student Research Award — Doctoral Level
Research Award
Patricia
Hill,
Director of Academic Advising Transition, Texas A&M University-Corpus
Christi, Corpus Christi, TX
Research
Project - "First-Year Students' Adjustment To
A University: The Role of E-Mentoring"
Students
entering institutions of higher education are often apprehensive
because adjusting to college culture can be difficult. First-year
students, especially underrepresented populations, face many difficulties
that can seriously delay or halt their collegiate careers (Justiz
& Rendon, 1989; Hernandez & Lopez, 2004). Research on
adjustment to college has typically emphasized three broad categories:
1) academic, 2) social, and 3) personal-emotional (Cohorn &
Giuliano, 1999).
While the promise of
opportunity and social mobility continues to attract students
to higher education, institutions lose as much as 25% of students
during the freshman year (Carey, 2004). Researchers have identified
many predictors of student retention; however, there have been
fewer efforts to empirically document the impact of specific intervention
strategies for addressing student adjustment to the collegiate
environment (Braxton, Hirschy, & McClendon, 2004).
Early contact by university
support services might be expected to show a positive effect on
first-year students’ adjustment issues (Woosley, 2003).
However, university programs requiring extensive contact with
students can place a strain on faculty and staff because of their
full-time academic and administrative workloads. Electronically
mediated communication via e-mail (E-mentoring) contacts may provide
an avenue for establishing and maintaining the critical contact
required for first-year students.
This study is focused
on exploring the benefits of a university based E-mentoring program
designed to assist first-year students’ psychosocial adjustments,
personal developments, and academic successes in higher education.
An experimental design with pretest/posttest control group was
implemented with 112 students in the mentor (treatment) group
and 106 students in the control group. Instruments used to measure
the academic, social, and personal-emotional adjustment were Learning
and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI), College Student Expectations
Questionnaire (CSXQ), College Student Experiences Questionnaire
(CSEQ), and Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) respectively.
The data from the instruments
was subjected to a 2 (group: mentor vs. control) X 2 (Admission
Status: Regular vs. Alternative) X 2 (pretest and posttest) mixed
factor analysis of variance (MANOVA) with repeated measures on
the pretest and posttest. Initial scores were compared to scores
collected after completing the 10 e-mentoring sessions. Specific
focus comparisons were made between mentor (treatment) and control
group and regular and alternative admission status across two
pretest posttest data collection phases. In addition non-parametric
analysis on measures of dropout was used to explore the extent
to which participation in the e-mentoring component influenced
rates of continuous enrollment at the university. The results
of this study provide empirical data on the effectiveness of an
e-mentoring program on first-year students’ academic, social,
and personal-emotional adjustment at a public university. Recommendations
were made regarding future research and studies.
2005
Student Research Award — Doctoral Level Research
Award
Kathleen
Shea Smith, Coordinator of Special Programs, Florida
State University, Tallahassee, FL
Research
Project - "Preceptions of Academic Advising and Freshman
Student Retention: An Application of Tinto's Model"
The
purpose of this study was to examine student perceptions of academic
advising and determine the relationship between academic advising
and student retention. The first focus assessed students' views
on various aspects of academic advising. Comparisons were made
based on students' primary advising delivery system: faculty,
professional, or peer advisor. Directed by Tinto's theory of student
departure, the second focus examined the predictive quality of
factors previously associated with student retention. Academic
advising variables were isolated and added to the model, and their
contribution to enrollment behavior examined. A final analysis
correlated the academic advising and integration constructs to
determine an empirical relationship.
The
FSU Satisfaction Inventory was the data source for this study
and two separate data sets were utilized. The first sample consisted
of 3943 undergraduates attending Florida State University , and
the second represented a 2064 freshman subset.
Quantitative
findings revealed areas where students were most and least satisfied
with academic advising. Significant differences were observed
among the three advisor types. No significant differences were
observed between returning and departing students in regard to
academic advising or the other constructs of Tinto's model. Results
revealed three significant and positive correlations between the
academic advising and academic integration scales.
2005
Student Research Award — Master's Level
Marla
Kendrick, Academic Advisor, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville,
Fayetteville, AR
Research Project - "Strategies
for Student Transition to College: A Proactive Approach"
The
phenomenon of student attrition is an increasingly challenging
problem confronting higher education. There exists virtually no
consensus on root causes or intervention strategies. This paper
evaluates the need for additional programs to promote retention
by enhancing students' academic competence, self confidence and
the importance of a nurturing institutional environment.
2004
Student Research Award
Jane
Elizabeth Pizzolato, Doctoral Candidate, Michigan
State University, East Lansing, MI
Research
Project - Complex Partnerships: Self-Authorship and
Provocative Academic Advising Practices
The CAS Standards
emphasizes the guiding function student development theory
plays in academic advising. Recently, Baxter Magolda (2001) introduced
empirical evidence for self-authorship, an additional epistemological
orientation to traditional college student development theories.
Here self-authorship is defined as a relatively enduring way of
understanding and orienting oneself toward provocative/disequilibrizing
situations that (a) recognizes the contextual nature of knowledge,
and (b) balances this understanding with the development of one's
own internally defined goals and sense of self (Pizzolato, 2003;
see also: Baxter Magolda, 2001; Kegan, 1994). Given the nature
of self-authorship, facilitation of self-authorship via academic
advising may help students meet the individual desired outcomes
outlined in the CAS Standards, and integrate these abilities
(e.g., effective communication, clarified values, realistic self-appraisal,
career choices) into their knowing and decision-making process.
Although Baxter Magolda (2001) suggested implementation of her
Learning Partnerships Model (LPM) should give rise to self-authored
ways of knowing in students, at present there are no empirical
studies on the effect of the LPM on advising outcomes. Through
investigation of 142 student narratives about advising and their
selection of an academic major, this study examines how implementation
of LPM practices in academic advising can promote increasingly
more effective student outcomes. Specific attention will be paid
to: (a) how often students' academic major decisions provoke self-authorship?
(b) the ways academic advisors provoke or support self-authorship
around the academic major decisions, and (c) how such advising
practices were related to the LPM principles. Implications for
practice will be discussed in detail.
