I finally finished reading “Learning is Not a Sprint” edited by Darby Roberts and Kathy Collins. The books’ great overall but I feel two of the chapters are particularly important for student affairs professionals to read.

In chapter five Katy King explains the responsibility student advisors and student employee supervisors have for helping students learn. Based on the DEEP (Documenting Effective Educational Practice) project conducted by higher education scholars in 2005, she identifies 10 strategies to promoting learning in advising and supervising roles. I won’t dive into the ten practices, as you could buy the book and it would make this blog too long, but King argues that all we do should focus on learning. Period. She writes that filling the roles of mentor, teacher, supervisor, leader and follower can help students learn from those who advise and supervise them. King does well to apply several concepts and frameworks to basic advising strategies. She ends with the resolution that this is a shared journey between advisor and student and it is one that each person will be all the better for as a result of experiencing.

In chapter six Krista Jorge Bailey brings forth the concept of the “student learning focused” advisor/supervisor. She explains that student affairs professionals have an obligation to develop the skills needed to teach the students with whom they work. She acknowledges that this may be a difficult process, as it’s a paradigm shift for many. She explains John Kotter’s Leading Change model, which has been applied in so many different contexts including higher education. Through providing tactics for each of the eight steps of the change process, Bailey helps us to see how we can better integrate learning.

I’d recommend reading “Learning is not a Sprint” for these two chapters alone – both can aid in increasing your competence and confidence to enact the ACPA/NASPA Core Competencies of Student Learning and Development and Assessment, Evaluation and Research. I believe these chapters by King and Bailey bring forth great ideas to integrate learning approaches into our work.

Have you read “Learning is not a Sprint”? What are your thoughts about key takeaways?