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 This could be a treatise, but I will try to respond with a set of thumbnail reasons ...
~ Wes Habley, ACT, Inc., May 3, 2006 It is nearly fifteen minutes past the appointment hour and your advisee has not arrived yet. You're lucky in that your students are allowed thirty-minute appointments. You might be able to ask a couple of questions, but to discuss the current semester or inquire as to current dreams and aspirations is too much for so little time. You can also forget about discussing that career test that you want the student to take because it doesn't look the student is going to show up for the appointment.The preceding paragraph describes only one scenario of how advisers can slip into prescriptive advising. Once that happens, it becomes easier to advise a student who is disinterested in scholarship and only wants to earn a degree and start a career. There needs to be some prescriptive advising when informing students of requirements, but it needs to be interspersed with decision-making opportunities for the student. Unfortunately, too many institutions believe that they are acting in the student's best interest if the student is registered in a timely manner and graduates within an accepted time period. Couple that with kind-hearted advisers, and you have the ideal prescriptive advising scenario. ~ Cathi Kadow, Purdue University Calumet, May 5, 2006 I agree with both Wes's and Cathi's responses, so mine will only serve to reinforce what they have said.The prescriptive approach does have utility, as part of a continuum, but we too often get caught in time constraints that prevent us from doing much else. These constraints result from institutional deadlines, student (over)commitments to other priorities, and our own harried schedules. In my own practice of advising, however, I have found that I must make a conscious effort to move (myself and my students) along the continuum. Some strategies I try to use are: remind them to come prepared with their own answers to the informational items; follow up with discussion if I happen to see them elsewhere on campus; ask many questions; make appropriate referrals; advise in pairs or small groups when feasible; alert them via “broadcast” e-mails; and provide copies of our prescriptive discussions for their review. As Wes said, this could easily evolve into a treatise—and maybe it should, in some other venue. I do believe that periodic training efforts can be used to facilitate movement (again, for both advisers and students) along the continuum. Many advisers (staff and faculty) have good advising and teaching strategies that can achieve what we all desire in the advising process, and these should be shared. My last point—our literature has long suggested the informational, relational, and conceptual aspects of the advising process; this (IMHO) validates the use of the prescriptive approach. Let's not forget the other two, especially the conceptual. ~ Tom Grites, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, May 10, 2006 The prior comments are quite correct in their conception of prescriptive advising. While it is denigrated in much of the literature, prescriptive advising should play some role, even if a minor one, in advising sessions. Prescriptive advising can serve more as a jumping off point to discussions of interests, majors, and general issues of college life. Personally, I use prescriptive advising in most of my appointments and typically at the beginning. Many students have this unfortunate stereotype that all advising entails is an enumeration of completed and remaining requirements. By starting with prescriptive advising and then progressing on to discussing larger issues, an opportunity is presented. Once the prescriptive advising element is completed, the student realizes the true benefit of advising, and the adviser benefits as well. Personally, I always enjoy talking courses, majors, and the like, much more than general education requirements, but requirements are a necessary component.While the approach to prescriptive advising as a jumping off point is valid, there is a danger of overtheorizing advising. This is not to suggest that theoretical approaches are irrelevant in advising, but the lack of balance is dangerous. Some advisers have a predilection to get carried away with theoretical approaches and end up neglecting the basics. All sessions should contain an element of prescriptive advising. This element can ground advising sessions and prevent the sessions from getting too carried away in the abstract and theoretical. Summarily, prescriptive advising is a useful tool, but only in moderation and if used properly. ~ Matthew Church, University of Louisville, May 12, 2006 I think the responses already posted serve well to answer the question, but since I was quoted in the posing of the topic, I thought I should chime in. So-called prescriptive advising is not a bad thing, it just fails to capture the highest potential that advising is capable of achieving, and for that reason it shouldn't be seen as the paradigm of advising. But there are times when it is exactly what the adviser should provide.People who've read the article of mine that the quote comes from know that I think the same thing is true of developmental advising, but that's a topic for another time. ~ Marc Lowenstein, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, May 16, 2006 The Mentor is published by Penn State's Division of Undergraduate Studies Available online at www.psu.edu/dus/mentor/ Privacy and Legal Statements | Copyright | © The Pennsylvania State University | All rights reserved | |
