Student Affairs’ Role in Increasing Student Self-Efficacy

I’ve been spending some time exploring the concept of self-efficacy, particularly as it relates to the role of student affairs professionals. Self-efficacy can be defined as  “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations. In other words, self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation” (http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/self_efficacy.htm).

It appears increasing self-efficacy may also be a tactic to helping students along other developmental processes such as identity development, self-authorship, and moral development. Basically, if we can help students develop self-efficacy, then we can help them:

1. Do well academically.

2. Develop a sense of confidence to succeed in a diverse college environment (sometimes in spite of hurdles they have overcome).

3. Become sound and ethically grounded leaders

4. Intervene when there is a problem.

The University of Memphis Division of Student Affairs has adopted self-efficacy as one of its learning objectives, which we call the Vision for Students. Self-efficacy can be mapped back to any of the six CAS Learning Domains, particularly cognitive complexity and its dimension of critical thinking. We can also find that self-efficacy is implicit as we seek to develop the Student Learning and Development core competency in the ACPA/NASPA Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Practice.

I’m fortunate to have a great supervisor who studied self-efficacy of women in STEM programs. I recently interviewed her to learn more about self-efficacy and the recording of this 14 minute interview can be found here.

What do you do to influence students’ self-efficacy? How can we be more intentional about prioritizing self-efficacy as a desired student affairs goal?

We’re Losing Our Minds! Learning as Primary vs. Hopeful Byproduct

Keeling and Hersh (2012) explain as colleges and universities move toward a focus on increased graduation rates and meeting students’ expectation to “get me a job”, we forget what should be primary to our existence and purpose in society: helping students learn. While graduation rates and job placement numbers matter, are we satisfied that students enter society without some of the basic skills they should have learned under our guidance? Many of our graduates lack essential skills. Does college/university really accomplish what the world needs it to?

Student affairs needs to ask the same question: if we cannot prove that students learned as a result of our programs, what value do we have?

We are at a point when all we do should be about learning. We should not just hope it occurs. Keeling and Hersh (2012) tell us this. Guiding documents of student affairs tells us this – in fact, in a recent essay, Jim Barber and I explain that while not always first on our mind, learning has always been a byproduct of good work in student affairs. In the ACPA/NASPA Student Learning and Development competency, at the basic level, we are expected to “Identify and construct learning outcomes for both daily practice as well as teaching and training activities”.

What else do we need to hear before we’re just being negligent about our work in student affairs? Why are people still not prioritizing learning? Why don’t we use language that more meaningfully connects what we do to learning? Why don’t we view our role as educators? Really, why has this been so hard?

It’s hard because we can’t see or feel learning as much as we can see a student happy with her residence hall experience or relieved after we’ve provided her with counseling services for stress management. Student affairs folks like happy – that’s not a bad thing – but when we see her happy we can also meet our other obligation by asking her (in some way) what it was she learned as a result.

What will it take for you to prioritize learning? If you already do, what are the strategies you use to infuse learning more strongly into your work?

 

Helping a Division of Student Affairs Focus on Professional Development

When I was hired for my position as Director, Student Affairs Learning and Assessment, I was tasked with divisional professional development. You can imagine that it was a task that I was really excited about but also a bit anxious – how does one exactly help to meet the needs of diverse student affairs professionals at a school such as the University of Memphis?

Within the first six months, a task force was appointed to examine how we might be more intentional in helping our colleagues. As a result of that task force, a series of recommendations were made. We’ve used the ACPA/NASPA Core Competencies and CAS as frameworks that inform our approach. We’ve focused on increasing competence and confidence to help us work toward divisional goals. You can find our report here.

One of the things we’ve tried to do is be intentional about getting resources into the hands of our staff. It then becomes up to them to accept the individual responsibility to develop the plan they need to focus time and energy on developing the competencies relevant to their current and desired future roles. I am really excited about the energy that has come from a monthly professional development newsletter. You can see October’s issue as well as past issues here. We’re highlighting staff who are engaged in their work and value professional development. It’s a fun way to acknowledge people and also to use podcasts.

What things are you doing in your division of student affairs to engage colleagues in conversations about professional development?

Having Conversations to Help Students Hold Up The Sky

I’ve become familiar with the “Half the Sky” thanks to my familiarity with the Circle of Sisterhood initiative. I love the initiative but hadn’t read the book or watched the movie until this week.

What I watched has affected me. Stories of sex trafficking, rape, and depriving education for girls and women across the world. I felt helpless.

And not to mention all the crap that we’re dealing with in our own country. I want to help, but where do I start? It’s more than me helping with money – it’s about me helping others to care for the cause. Part of my responsibility is to get better at having those conversations, particularly with the students with whom I work.

But am I really ready?

25 year old entering student affairs Dan could have told a student the value of the cause – almost asking them to adopt my passion. But could he have helped the student understand how they can work to put her/his own interests to the side in order to prioritize others over self? That would have required much more intentional conversations than I typically had.

40 year old, 15 years in student affairs, Dan still struggles with this. Why do I feel so unprepared?

It’s even harder when young adult development basically tells us that our college students aren’t necessarily prepared to place their own (immediate) interests above themselves. Also, there are social structures that can inhibit the kind of development we need and the environment in which it needs to happen. A lot of things are working against me.

For example, I find it problematic that sorority women on college campuses often place the interests of their male counterparts ahead of their own. But it’s my job to have the conversations to help them move closer to owning their space, standing up for their rights, and then standing up for the rights of women everywhere. Not to mention that some of the things which with they are preoccupied matter little when they are possibly the students with the most resources to do something more than just be a stereotype. I also need to help men understand why they should care about issues that have been historically viewed as women’s issues.

I know I have to get better at this, because I want the world to get better. What kinds of things are you doing to increase your competence to have conversations with students about these topics? What kinds of things do you do to move students along the developmental and social goals that student affairs educators should be working toward?