Strengths-based advising is proposed as a new lens for higher education, one that enables advisors to see diverse groups of students fulfill their potential and achieve excellence. Based on research from social work, positive psychology, and the business world, this approach enables advisors to identify and build on the inherent talents students…

The field of philosophy has much to contribute to academic advising, both because of the kinds of training philosophers typically receive and because of the sorts of projects on which they work. Because of these factors, philosophers have the potential to make excellent academic advisors, and they can broaden and enrich the theoretical…

Nussbaum (1998) proposed that Socratic activity is a worthwhile pursuit with regard to academic advising relationships. While it offers the promise of certain benefits, such as the development of critical thinking skills, Socratic activity arguably cannot be universally applied to all advising relationships. In presenting and analyzing issues…

Since the mid-1990s, social norms theory has become prevalent in student development literature and research. Subsequently, social norms interventions to change student behavior have spread across campuses nationwide through marketing campaigns. Theorists and practitioners have applied the social norms approach to primarily health-related student…

On a daily basis, advisors encounter various types of interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict. Through this article, the reader will better understand conflict, its positive and negative impacts and the approaches of the actors experiencing conflict, and the means whereby conflicts arise, escalate, and come to resolution in advising situations.…

A philosophy of advising referred to as the learning-centered paradigm is described and compared to the dominant developmental paradigm. Through the learning-centered paradigm, one can explain, better than through the developmental theory, how advising is, or can be, similar to teaching. Under the learning-centered approach, the excellent advisor…

A learning paradigm can transform the field of academic advising. Ten organizing principles answer the two core questions raised by a focus on learning. What should the student learn through advising? How might the learning take place? The first three organizing principles define a curriculum for academic advising and are based on the premise that…

A shared perspective on the extant and ideal organizing principles for an institution's advising system is important to the overall effectiveness of advising. In this essay, I develop a vision of advising as educating, and from that vision, derive some higher order principles for an institutional advising system that will accommodate the wide…

By asking assessment questions that have direct policy implications, a committee of Harvard advisors, faculty members, and administrators was able to implement specific and concrete on-campus advising initiatives. Only modest amounts of data were collected to effect meaningful changes in student behavior, course design, and assignments. Interviews…

The 130-year history of academic advising at a large land-grant university is explored. The story of how advising structures, procedures, and programs were created to meet growing numbers of students, the increasing complexity of the curricula, and the expanding advising needs of a diverse student body emerges in the descriptions related.

The results of a fall 2002 national survey conducted by the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) in cooperation with the NACADA Technology in Advising Commission concerning the uses of technology in academic advising are discussed. Summaries of the multiple choice responses and open-ended questions as well as recommendations for the…

The effect of national or local standards and guidelines on job satisfaction among professional and faculty academic advisors was studied using an on-line survey, focus group, and individual interviews. Findings support the proposition that the more connected advisors are to standards of practice, the greater their job satisfaction. Findings also…

A policy capturing approach was used to examine the advising variables that contribute to student satisfaction. Students (N = 468) rated 48 scenarios in which advising approach, relationship, advisor gender, emotional nature of the relationship, and type of advisor were manipulated. Results show that being known to the advisor, having a…

At the mid-western land-grant university under study, undergraduate academic advising is part of the teaching mission and under the purview of the academic deans. In the decentralized system used, academic advising is delivered via full-time professional advisors in advising centers serving entire colleges or multiple curricula, full-time…

Findings from a study of undergraduate honors education introduce a new perspective into the debate over approaches to academic advising. Learner-centered advising emerged as a key attribute of high-quality honors programs. The learner-centered approach is consistent with a range of advising approaches and styles because through it advisors retain…