National Collegiate Honors Council

 

Date of this Version

2023

Document Type

Book Chapter

Citation

Chapter 3, pages 55-71

In: Advising for Today's Honors Students, Erin E. Edgington, editor

National Collegiate Honors Council, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States, 2023

Comments

Copyright 2023, National Collegiate Honors Council. Used by permission

Abstract

Section headings:

Honors advising and student motivation

Scenarios

Implications for Honors Advising

Conclusion

Equipping advisors with a motivation toolbox to be used in regular interactions with prospective and current students, including formal office visits, open houses, and sidewalk conversations, makes our advising interactions more purposeful and relevant. Introducing honors motivation in advising encounters and first-year experience courses will help students gain a better sense of who they are both individually and as a group. This approach also helps students to be curious about finding their purpose, vocation, ideas, and curricula. The EVC model allows honors advisors to understand and help students more quickly. It also promotes self-assessment, reflection, and action planning by the students.

Future directions for our work involve program-level changes that can be pursued in honors advising, curriculum planning, and assessment. By observing advising trends through the EVC framework, we can better understand common characteristics among the honors students enrolled in our universities, diagnose structural impediments in honors, and then make data-driven improvements. Advising is a prime way to navigate diffuse interests and coordinate values across program elements. We can help high-performing students develop optimal motivation while simultaneously developing maps and tools to measure learning outcomes and student success. We can help students better see the value we are providing to them today and in the future. Moreover, advising may ultimately drive grassroots efforts at program-level innovation.

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