Faculty Perceptions of Academic Advising: Importance, Responsibility, and Competence

Little research has been done on faculty attitudes on their advising experience. The current study examined the attitudes of instructional faculty towards their role, responsibility, and competence levels regarding faculty advising in a small, urban university in the southeast United States. The purpose of this research was to investigate and contribute to current research by attempting to better understand faculty attitudes towards their role in developmental student advising. The problem addressed in this study is although effective academic advising is closely linked to students' positive college experience and retention, students continue to report dissatisfaction with the advising they receive as part of their college experience. The theoretical framework for this study lies in Fishbein's Attitude Development Theory as it differentiates among beliefs, attitude, intentions, and behaviors. A quantitative, non experimental, survey research design was used and a mixture of descriptive analyses, repeated measures analyses of variances (ANOVAs), and post-hoc analyses were implemented. This study's data supports the notion that faculty believe that academic advising is an essential part of a student's college experience and that faculty believe they should be responsible and are competent in providing most, if not all, of these advising functions. A greater understanding of faculty attitudes will open the door for discussion and action to enhance design and involvement in developmental programs for faculty advisors. Understanding faculty's attitudes regarding effective student advising will allow institutions to better serve the needs of students and therefore increase student satisfaction. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]