Helping First-Year Students Make the Transition to College through Advisor-Researcher Collaboration
Most information advisors receive about first-year advisees pertains to students' academic achievement and high school courses. To assist students effectively with the transition to college, advisors need additional information. We describe a collaborative process used to develop a prematriculation, academic motivation instrument that provides important information for academic advisors and the whole institution. The collaborators included academic advisors, institutional research personnel, and a faculty member from the School of Education, all working together to create the instrument, examine its psychometric properties, and make decisions about how to use the data. The instrument shows promise as predictor of academic success in the early college years and could potentially assist advisors in identifying first-year students at risk for academic difficulties.
Relative emphasis: * research, theory, practice
Contributor Notes
Joshua S. Smith is an assistant professor of Educational Psychology and the Associate Director of the Center for Urban and Multicultural Education in the School of Education at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. His research interests include educational transitions, motivation in education, and outcomes assessment.
David Yun Dai is an assistant professor of Educational Psychology and Methodology at University at Albany, State University of New York. His research interests include motivation in education, case-based learning and teaching, and reading comprehension.
Bruce Szelest is Assistant Vice President for Strategic Planning and Assessment at the State University of New York at Albany. His research interests are in the areas of student retention and simulation modeling in support of enrollment management.
* See note on page 4.
