Appreciative Advising from the Academic Advisor\u27s Viewpoint: A Qualitative Study

Appreciative Advising represents a revolutionary new approach to the field of academic advising. Based on Appreciative Inquiry, which was developed by David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve University in the 1980’s, Appreciative Advising is also influenced by positive psychology, reality therapy, and strengths based advising. The Appreciative Advising model makes use of positive, open-ended questions and a the development of a reciprocal relationship between student and advisor to help students achieve their academic and career goals. Pioneered by Bloom, Hutson, and He, Appreciative Advising is fully student centered and shows great promise in helping students from a wide variety of backgrounds achieve academic success. Bloom, Hunter, and He expanded on the 4-D model of Appreciative Inquiry to develop the six phases of Appreciative Advising – Disarm, Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver, and Don’t Settle. This study explored the perceptions of nine academic advisors using the Appreciative Advising approach in three different institutions of higher education to identify ways and to what extent using Appreciative Advising impacted their advising practice and their job satisfaction. The majority of the academic advisors interviewed believed that Appreciative Advising had positively impacted them in four ways: a) Appreciative Advising had enabled them to better utilize their strengths, skills, and talents; b) Appreciative Advising had provided a framework that enabled them to be more effective academic advisors; c) Appreciative Advising had enabled a stronger advisor/student relationship, resulting in greater job satisfaction; and d) Appreciative Advising had positively impacted relationships outside of the advisor/student relationship with co-workers, family, friends, and others. Advisor: Larry L. Dlugos