The six stages of Fink’s Taxonomy for Significant Learning can be found throughout the standards and goals set for academic advising outlined by the Global Community for Academic Advising (2017). Aligning the learning goals for advising alongside the profession’s core values makes it clear how advising serves the university’s mission of supporting our learners in their journey to becoming life-long learners.
Lamar University is dedicated to student success by engaging and empowering students with the skills and knowledge to thrive in their personal lives and chosen fields of endeavor. As a doctoral-granting institution, Lamar University is internationally recognized for its high quality academics, innovative curriculum, diverse student population, accessibility, student success, and leading-edge scholarly activities dedicated to transforming the communities of Southeast Texas and beyond.
Lamar University (2022). Comprehensive Catalog 2022-2023. https://www.lamar.edu/catalog/general-info/index.html
Utilizing L. Dee Fink’s Self-Directed Guide to Course Design, one can evaluate the taxonomy of significant learning to determine how creating a significant learning environment within a formalized advising course can provide a framework for the learning outcomes that apply to advising. One author has done just that.
Bruce Kelley (2008) evaluated Fink’s significant learning framework against the role of academic advising to outline the following opportunities:
Foundational knowledge: “Students must understand and remember specific information about degree programs, general educational requirements, course rotations and prerequisites, and the registration process. In a perfect world, advisees would also understand and remember plagiarism policies, add-drop procedures, petitions processes, how to figure a gradepoint average (GPA), and so forth”
Application: “Students must not only know about course requirements for graduation, they must also register for, take, and pass those courses”
Integration: “If students understand the interconnectedness of their academic programs, they can draw parallels between curricular content that may at first seem disparate”
Human Dimension: “Advisors have the opportunity to help students gain an understanding about themselves apart from parental or societal pressures to pursue certain majors and careers
Caring: “The very best advisors are able to help their advisees interact with the curriculum on a personal level, creating an energy and enthusiasm for the student’s role in determining her or his own academic destiny”
Learning How to Learn: “Understanding how to educate oneself about career and major choices can lead to an advisee becoming self-directed, more effective in future advising sessions, and better able to navigate through career changes in the future” (Kelley, 2008, p. 22).
The course outcomes identified through the planning process and the three-column table linked below will guide and facilitate the full development of innovation in advising. Advisees will experience holistic guidance beyond the transactional and informational foundational knowledge typically associated with advising as the result of this flipped advising course. The course structure will open the pathway for students to encounter the COVA approach to learning through choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning experience through their advising experience (Harapnuik et al., 2018). Through this innovation in advising, we can ensure that learners evolve and grow throughout their academic pursuits.
References
Fink, L. D. (2003). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning.
Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018). Choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning. Creative Common License.
Kelley, B. (2008). Significant learning, significant advising. NACADA journal, 28(1), 19-28.
Lamar University (2022). Comprehensive Catalog 2022-2023. https://www.lamar.edu/catalog/general-info/index.html
NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (2017). NACADA core values of academic advising. https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Pillars/CoreValues.aspx
The Advisor That Cares 