Critical Questions in Advising
Developed at the NACADA Annual Conference, Denver, CO
October 4, 2011
Kezar (2000) suggests that practitioners are uniquely positioned to describe complex scenarios
in education that would benefit from systematic examination and analysis. This highly interactive
session engaged participants in a brainstorming and consensus-building activity to generate a
list of "critical questions" in advising that leads to meaningful research. The resulting document
will be useful to staff and faculty who desire to engage in research that will inform advising
practice.
The list that follows represents the results of the brainstorming session. Some items are
presented in the form of a question, some are statements that represent areas of interest or are
simply position statements. The next step might be to identify and clarify those items that would
lead to systematic inquiry, based on the priorities of NACADA.
“Areas of inquiry” submitted by the NACADA Research Committee
NACADA supports research to advance knowledge about academic advising. Rigorous
inquiry that investigates academic advising’s impact, context, or theoretical basis is
particularly needed. The Research Committee has identified a research agenda of critical
areas for research within these areas.
I.
The impact of academic advising on students and institutions, such as
measurement of advising’s impact on particular student populations or on
institutional goals (such as retention or program implementation) or analysis of
the impact of particular advising practices, models, or organizational structures
on student learning and development.
Critical areas: International students; Students from underrepresented
populations; Impact of advising on retention; Impact of advising on student
decision-making; Comparative studies of advising models; Measurement of
student learning from advising
Results of brainstorming session:
Student-oriented Issues

What is the impact of advising (and specific advising models/approaches) on student
sub-groups? Such as:
o Students on probation
o GED transition students
o International students
o First generation students
o First-year students
o Nontraditional students
o Student-athletes
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
How do adult learners move through the academic program (track career-change
decisions through post-graduation)? Consider other variables, such as employment
levels and location changes.

Veterans: compare effectiveness of various contact/meeting methods by tracking
and meeting GPAs and times to degree (sorted by type of advising field)
o Data challenge: How to keep track of how they were advised

How often should undeclared/undecided students meet with an advisor? Should this
be intrusive advising?
o Apply this to students on probation: What impact does more frequent advising
contacts have on students on probation?

What strategies best connect ADA students to successful academic advising?

Do students truly take the advice of the academic advisors? What is the academic
impact on students when they don’t get (or take) academic advice?

Is there a difference in the effect of academic advising between 1st year traditional
students and nontraditional students?

What is the impact of “mandated advising holds” on new students?

Are students satisfied with amount of contact and quality of interaction?
o To what end? Are they meeting their goals? What impact do these two
variables have on student goal attainment (short-term and long-term)?
Faculty Advising

The effect of professional development on faculty advisors in areas such as:
o Adoption of more “modern” advising techniques

The role of advising in tenure/promotion (including recognition and rewards)
Graduation/Post-Graduation

Quantifying post-graduation professional school achievement/performance as a
means of evaluating the effectiveness of an advising approach

Tracking 4/5/6-year graduation rates of international students compared to domestic
students as a way of assessing service quality at an advising office

How does advising affect student success in applying to (and acceptance in)
graduate/professional school?

Are students able to graduate in expected time frame?
o Does the advising program affect time to completion?
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Advising Models

Impact of advising model on student success
o Groups, technology, video, workshops

Impact of peer advising in areas such as:
o Implementation to address large case loads
o Overall perception of the success/effectiveness of peer advising

How might shared/collaborative advising models have an impact on student
experience on a campus which utilizes a predominantly faculty-based model?
o Faculty-based model vs. various methods used by individual advisors-what
“works” best

Does the use of a split-model advisement center and facility “ownership” change how
students perceive advisement?

Effective transition from developmental or freshman advisors to the major advisors

What happens to the quality of advising when the case load of advisor to advisee is
high (ie 1:2000+)
Other

Evaluation of student retention systems/early alert, etc., in building efficiency,
additional capacity in advising/counseling offices

How does advising during admissions process influence/impact students ability to
make appropriate major choices?

What is the impact of attendance at the NACADA conference on behavior change
when advisors go back to their campus

What impact does the relationship with an academic advisor have on civic
engagement?

What is the role of academic advising on student development?

Effectiveness of an advisor training program on….?

What effect does a transfer seminar course have on first-semester students?
o Must transfer seminar be mandatory for all transfer students? How would
effectiveness be measured?

What is the impact of academic advising on the career development of students?
o What is the impact of appreciative advising on the career decision-making of
students?
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
Transition issues from 2-year to 4-year institutions, such as:
o What is the impact of advisors on the academic success of students
transitioning from 2-year to 4-year institutions?
o Evaluation of transfer agreements between 2 and 4 yr institutions.
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II. The context of academic advising, which may include examination of institutional
and cultural conditions that have an impact on student academic decisionmaking, institutional support, or reward and recognition of advising
Critical areas: Faculty roles in academic advising; Use of technologies in
engaging students in advising; Historic studies of the development of advising;
Advising models in settings outside the United States
Faculty Advising

Faculty advising
o What is the role of faculty advisors?
o Professional development issues:
 types of training needed (frequency and content)
 types of training currently provided
o Role of administration to support the role of faculty advising (financial, campus,
culture)

What are the roles and function of faculty advisors in relation to professional
advisors?
o What is the effect of intentional collaborative advising efforts on the relationship
between faculty advisors and professional advisors?
o
[Comment from one participant: “The term ‘professional advisor’ implies faculty
are amateurs - language matters in building relationships and collaboration.”]
Technology

What kinds of technology are used effectively in academic advising?

Use of technologies for commuter campus in engaging nontraditional studentsonline advising:
o How do advisors set effective expectations about use of technology for
communication in a world where students do not respond to email?

How can the effectiveness of online academic advising be measured?

What aspects of contexts (size, population) need to be considered when choosing an
advising software?

Do certain technological tools promote higher levels of student engagement?
o Social networking, blogging, informational channels, live tools (chat, skype,
Adobe Connect);
o

If technology takes on a larger role how does this affect time management per
student
What is the influence of “place” on academic advising:
o Online, phone, in person? Is online advising truly academic advising?
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
How can technology (websites/social media) be used to most effectively enhance
delivery of academic information?
Advising Models

How can various advising models be delivered to students in the Caribbean?

What is the effectiveness of group advising on students?
o How many students? How often?

What are predominant models of advising used in various countries?
o In what ways do these relate to our own institutions?

How does the advising model affect student success and degree completion
o All faculty, all professional advisors or combination

How does the delivery of advising (group vs individual; face to face vs online) affect
student learning and use of campus resources and engagement?
Institutional Context

How to bridge the gap with cultural conditions across the institution

How to create a “buy-in” from the senior administration to mandate faculty advising

How do academic advisors and career counselors communicate with each other to
better serve students? (joint departments/programming?)

How to maintain effectiveness of advising with limited resources (staff & budgetary)

Research on advising by: size of institution; type of institution culture; institutional
support

Resource rich vs. resource poor climates (or perception thereof): How does advisor
perception/context affect type/quality of advising?

Upper administration advocacy--impact of climate (supportive/not supportive) on:
o advising morale
o student interest in using services (utilization depends on favoritism)

How does the stress level of students in 2nd tier admissions programs (pre-majors)
differ from other majors? How can advisors help these students?
Advising Career Issues

What are the factors that lead to an advisors decision to remain in the profession?
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o
o
o

What factors lead to the perception of advisors advising about the career?
What is the impact of advisor turnover on students?
What is the impact of long term advisors on students’ success?
When a school does not have a recognition or reward system for academic advising
how does an advisor place value on his/her job?
Other

What are the purposes of higher education and how does advising fit
into/support/contribute to that purpose?

How does academic advising help high school transition from the “culture” of high
school to college culture?

Demographics, socioeconomics issues

How can involvement of parents/families contribute to student learning initiatives
(especially in predominately Latina, Hispanic populations)
o Or detract from/inhibit…
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III. The theoretical basis of academic advising development and practice, including
evaluation or analysis of advising-based theory from philosophical/theoretical
perspectives informed by a variety of disciplines
Critical areas: Theory-building from humanities disciplines and other disciplinary
areas underrepresented in college student literature; Connections between
academic advising and higher education’s broader learning mission

Motivation, self efficacy:
o What are the intrinsic motivators and time allotted with students in these areas?

Develop an article to cover all the disciplines that underpin advising- career theory,
student development, counseling theory
o
[Note from participants: “There were questions at the table about if there are
actual theoretical underpinnings to the profession.”]

How do advisors use (or not use) theory in their practice?
o How can advisors be educated or empowered to connect theory to everyday
activity

How can a religious studies perspective/theoretical basis contribute to an
understanding of the historical context of advising strategy?

Appreciate advising and graduate school: parallels between AA model and graduate
career milestones

Developmental vs. prescriptive advising models

Humanities as paradigm for advising . . . questioning foundation . . . ??

Advising as narrative- getting more people . . . ??

Chickering and Erikson models of identity development- two theories exist, our
levels:
o How does advising reach students at various vectors/stages/levels of
development

Who is college for? What is college for?
o How to increase access to education without lowering expectations.

How to develop a theoretical framework that the faculty will buy into and utilize in
advising

How might the use of intrusive advising models infringe upon the efforts to promote
student empowerment? And how it can work to discourage dualist thinking?

Does academic advising support student success?

How can advisors support liberal arts majors post-college?
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
Are there (should there be) different advising approaches for different academic
departments?

How to bring together mainstream student development theories (i.e Chickering) and
critical paradigms (ie feminist understandings of intersectionality) to inform a theory
of academic advising

What is the evaluation process of academic advising? (from student perspectivefrom faculty perspective)
o What best practices of evaluation exist?

How can culture shock theory be utilized to help transition over 1st semester
freshmen?

What assessment tools can be used to evaluate the advising base theory from
philosophical/theoretical perspectives from one discipline to another?

Can the synergy model of nsg (needs of pt= skills of nurse) be applied to advising
setting? Can this be connected to a first year experience course?

How does sense of belonging affect a student’s perspective in a pre-professional
major?

Is there a difference in the graduation rates between students who receive intrusive
(hands-on) advising vs. developmental advising?
o Is graduation rate a good indicator of this difference (which one is successful) or
is an indicator of student learning more appropriate?

What type of advising model would encourage self-discovery, development, intrinsic
curiosity rather than checking boxes?

Appreciative based advising: impact on probation students

What are the connections of a student’s story (i.e., plot, crisis, resolve) and the role
of professional advising?

From perspective of nursing programs: how to move 1st and 2nd year students from
theory about course material as something to memorize to theory to apply to practice

What are the historical theories that have influenced advising to date? Where are the
gaps in the literature?

How can theory influence training and development for academic advisors?
o Which theory? That type of training?

How might theory be redefined to reflect multicultural advisors and students?
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