Developmental Advising: The Elusive Ideal

What do Students Want in Advising? A Policy Capturing Study

“…KEY WORDS: advising approaches, developmental advising, prescriptive advising, student satisfaction with advising Since Beal and Noel (1980) published their landmark report in which they found academic advising to be one of three major areas promoting student satisfaction and retention across 947 institutions of higher education, the importance of academic advising within universities has increased (Bedford & Durkee, 1989;Carstensen & Silberhorn, 1979;Pascarella & Terenzini, 1980;Steele, Kennedy, & Gordon, 1993;Tinto, 1998;Trombley & Holmes, 1981). The developmental advising approach, specifically, has gained increased credibility and has been referred to as the ideal approach for advising university students (Gordon, 1994). Authors of numerous studies have found that the developmental approach results in student satisfaction with advising (Alexitch, 1997;Broadbridge, 1996), and some have suggested that the developmental approach is preferred by students (Fielstein, 1989;Herndon, Kaiser, & Creamer, 1996;Winston & Sandor, 1984b).…”

Important Events in the Development of Academic Advising in the United States

“…81 Gordon (1994) listed the 10 reasons why developmental advising had not been implemented after many years: limited time, large advising loads that left no time for meaningful personal contact, no training, dearth of top administrative support for and funding of advising, lack of intrusive approaches, multiple advising units, unfamiliarity with diverse populations, and unclear assessment (pp. 71-74).…”

The O'Banion Model of Academic Advising: An Integrative Approach

“…Rooney (1994) observed that many colleges and universities regularly conduct training for advisors and that ACT and NACADA jointly sponsor an annual intensive training institute. Gordon (1994) and Ryan (1995) each emphasized the importance of regular training and discussed possible topics that should be covered: advising and student development theory, interpersonal communication skills, career and study sktlls techniques, and referral information. Advising has become a complex profession in which the advisor works with the student in a variety of ways, fostering self-discovery and strong problem-solving skills transferable to all aspects of the student's experience.…”