The Role of Faculty Advising, Mentoring, and Gatekeeping as Social Support for Undergraduate Communication Sciences and Disorders Students

Purpose Social support may be provided by undergraduate students' family and friends and by other members of the campus community, including faculty. The purpose of this review article was to review the existing literature about the roles of faculty members as advisors, mentors, and gatekeepers who provide social support for undergraduate students. Social support is a buffer for stress, and current undergraduate students are more stressed than their predecessors. Method The study is a narrative review of the literature about faculty as advisors, mentors, and gatekeepers. The concept of social support and its relationship to students' stress is explored, followed by a discussion of faculty advisors' roles, knowledge, and skills and a synthesis of literature about prescriptive, developmental, praxis, and appreciative advising. A discussion of faculty as mentors who focus on students' experiences before, during, and after college and as gatekeepers who look for signs of students in distress concludes the review. Conclusions Faculty may provide social support to students inside and outside the classroom as advisors, mentors, and gatekeepers. Assuming these roles means faculty must consider students as whole people who have needs and experiences beyond academics. Students' stress was clear in the literature before COVID-19, and their concerns and needs are exacerbated during the pandemic. Additional research is needed to identify effective advising and mentoring programs for communication sciences and disorders undergraduate students. Increased institutional support for and recognition of the time, resources, and training faculty need to serve in this expanded role is also critical as faculty members attempt to manage their own stress.

A Strength-based Inventory for Assessing the Needs for Academic Advising of University Students in Hong Kong

This study aims to develop and validate a strength-based instrument for assessing the academic advising needs of university students in Hong Kong using the Appreciative Advising Inventory (AAI) as a blueprint. We reviewed the content validity and cultural relevance of the AAI and developed a 37-item AAI Hong Kong Version (AAI-HK). We conducted Rasch analysis and principal component analysis. The AAI-HK has four stable and reliable factors (social competence and support; positive identity and participation; positive values; and commitment to learning and study), which represent key strengths of university students. Four AAI-HK subscales demonstrate good reliability. We found significant differences in AAI-HK scores between students who are under academic probation or not and between students who are local or nonlocal.

Formative Assessment in Higher Education

This chapter describes the particularities of the appreciative intelligence of university teachers in the formative assessment. Appreciative intelligence is the ability to identify the qualities and positive aspects of a person, and to harness them. In the educational field, the appreciative intelligence of the teacher consists of essential components: appreciative inquiry (research), appreciative advising, and appreciative mindset. The chapter describes the concept of appreciative intelligence, being presented different acceptances and opinions of the researchers. The second part of the chapter highlights the problems and contradictions regarding the appreciative intelligence in the educational field and analyzes the appreciative intelligence of university teachers in the formative assessment process. This chapter proposes an evaluation and training program of the appreciative intelligence of university teachers based on its systemic context. The chapter ends with solutions and recommendations, a conclusion, and future research directions.

Adapting and Implementing Appreciative Advising Framework to Train Orientation Leaders

Expanding upon the work of Hendley (2010) who introduced the concept of adapting the six phase Appreciative Advising framework (Bloom, Hutson, & He, 2008) to orientation leader training, this article demonstrates how to construct and implement an effective training program for orientation leaders. It provides practical application of each phase of Appreciative Advising for bother orientation training facilitators and orientation leaders. In doing so, this article demonstrates how the six phases of Appreciative Advising offer a framework that incorporates and emphasizes the development of the informational, conceptual, and relational skill sets desired from orientation leaders. This development begins during training and transcends to leaders' interaction with incoming students. Appreciative approach to training has the power to positively impact the orientation leaders as well as the new students.

Engaging Families in Supporting their Students

Parents and families are a key factor in college student success. As such, it is critical that institutions develop positive relationships with the families of students, particularly during new student orientation programs. Appreciative Advising has been used as a solid model for advisors and mentors to work with students on nurturing meaningful partnerships, generating co-constructed paths to success, and providing individualized sets of tools and timelines for personal development. Appreciative Advising is an effective, proven framework for enhancing student success which can be applied to working with parents durign new student orientation. The six-phase model can be taught to parents as a way to empower them to assist their student in achieving their educational and personal goals.

Appreciative Advising Inventory

The major purpose of this study was to illustrate how the Appreciative Advising Inventory (AAI) can be used in student success programs to identify students' assets and strengths in order to promote their successful transition to college. The results of the study indicated that college students who are placed on academic probation shared internal assets related to their commitment to learning and positive values. The student success programming described in this study appeared to facilitate students' development of external assets, especially regarding boundaries and expectations, and constructive use of time. Students' positive values, positive identity, and support/connectedness were noted as indicators for their academic success in college. Implications of the study for college administrators, staff, instructors and students were also discussed.

Orientation Leader Training

Orientation directors are continually searching for a strong conceptual framework to undergird and improve their training of orientation leaders (OLs). Instead of developing a series of random, discrete training exercises, it is preferable that orientation practitioners structure and develop training using an established, proven conceptual framework. Looking beyond traditional training methods such as meetings, retreats, and employee handbooks can produce unique perspectives to revamp OL training. The purpose of this article is to advocate the use of the six phases of Appreciative Advising to enhance the training and leadership development of orientation leaders.