Significant Learning, Significant Advising

Abstract

The acknowledgment that advisees are learners and advisors are teachers may be the most powerful philosophical change in advising in 30 years. This article builds generally on the growing momentum to view academic advising as an extension of student learning, and specifically as an expansion of “Advising as Learning” in which Hemwall and Trachte (2005) argued that “learning as an organizing paradigm has profound implications” (p. 75). I develop this idea by applying Fink's (2003) learning paradigm to advising. The synergy in this paradigm can be harnessed to create advising that causes change in the advisee. Fink's method for developing opportunities for significant learning requires forethought and careful design when applied to the academic advising process. Relative Emphasis: theory, practice, research