Using transformative learning theory to advise highrisk studentathletes

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Using transformative learning theory to advise
high-risk student-athletes

• Kathryn C. King
• Duke University
• NACADA 2007

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• How can academic coordinators build meaningful
  relationships with high-risk student-athletes
  that can facilitate a successful academic
  experience and assist in the development of an
  identity as a college student?

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High-Risk Student-Athletes

• Student-athletes who experience academic
  difficulty benefit from programming that focuses
  on reducing test taking anxiety, effective note
  taking and study strategies, as well as other
  academic success skills that can be learned in an
  appropriate setting (Gaston-Gayles, 2005).
• When the athletic identity is emphasized it leads
  to the perpetuation of stereotypes in which
  student-athletes are portrayed as academically
  unequal, unintelligent, and socially impotent
  (Watt Moore, 2001).

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Transformational Learning

• Transformation theory focuses on how we learn to
  negotiate and act on our own purposes, values,
  feelings, and meanings rather than those we have
  assimilated from others (Mezirow, 2000).
• The ultimate goal of transformative learning is
  to help learners become autonomous, socially
  responsible thinkers who negotiate their own
  values, meanings, and purposes rather than act on
  those of others (Grabove, 1997).

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Transformational Learning

• Disorienting Dilemma begins the process of
  transformation
• The middle phases of the process
• Fostering a supportive and appropriate learning
  environment
• Self-examination, critical assessment of
  assumptions, and the exploration of options for
  new roles, relationships, and actions
• Lastly, transformation should result in building
  competence and self-confidence in the new role,
  in this case, the role as a learner and college
  student.

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Disorienting Dilemma

• The transformation begins with some sort of
  disorienting dilemma. A challenge could come from
  the questions of another person, from an event or
  new experience, or from a change in context
  (Cranton, 1994).

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Example Disorienting Dilemma

• In the case of the high-risk student-athlete,
  this dilemma could be the act of attending
  college. This is a place where the high-risk
  student-athlete may not see themselves as fitting
  into their own idea of what it means to be a
  college student, then they arrive on campus and
  the demands of their athletic and academic lives
  begin. The student-athlete struggles to balance
  two very complex parts of their identity and may
  struggle to see themselves as more than just an
  athlete, but as a student too. This is a place
  where the academic advisor can be very helpful in
  moving the student through this transformation
  into seeing themselves a college student and as
  having an academic identity.

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Middle Phases of Transformational Learning

• The middle phases of the process involve planning
  a course of action, acquiring skills and
  knowledge for implementing the plan, and trying
  of new roles (Mezirow, 2000).
• The partnership between the advisor and student
  goes beyond basic course scheduling to planning a
  relationship that fosters personal development
  and growth (Bland, 2004).
• These steps can be further assisted through the
  advising relationship by fostering a supportive
  environment.

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Fostering a Learning Environment

• The relationship built between the advisor and
  advisee needs to be based on trust and developed
  over time.
• It is important that an atmosphere of trust
  exists in a discussion of transformation and that
  the two people have worked together for a
  substantial amount of time (Cranton, 1994).

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Fostering a Learning Environment

• Daloz (2000) encourages educators to create
  settings that value mutual respect, safe
  disclosure, careful listening, and willingness to
  look at difference.
• Creating the appropriate environment for
  student-athletes to develop an academic identity
  is also related to the importance in Mezirow of
  the ideal speech situation in fostering
  transformative learning.

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Advisor Role

• The research conducted by Pizzolato (2006)
  suggests that advisors may need to explain not
  only the elements of success but also provide
  tips on avoiding failure.
• These students often lack the experience of
  academic success in their own lives that
  contributes to the lack in development of an
  identity as a college student.

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Advisor Role

• Lack of effort, ineffective studying, and test
  anxiety can be discussed with students who
  experience academic failure to avoid reliance on
  self-disabling excuses and the continued
  development of poor academic identity
  (Gaston-Gayles, 2005).
• Advisors can help students learn the
  communication, interpersonal, and study skills
  necessary for success, but they must also help
  students identify potential challenges to their
  successes (Pizzolato, 2006).

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Advisor Role

• A coordinator (or any educator) cannot tell
  students how to become self-authored (or how to
  move through a transformative experience) in
  their learning but can provide learning
  experiences that provide incrementally structured
  supervised practice in moving toward generating
  ones own ideas and theories about their academic
  endeavors (Ignelzi, 2000).  
• The goal of this type of advising session is to
  create more positive ways for student-athletes to
  think about academics and view their own academic
  abilities.

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Developing an Academic Identity

• The relationship with an academic coordinator
  provides an avenue to assist high-risk
  student-athletes in developing their academic
  identity and transition to the college setting.
• Using transformative learning theory, advisors
  are in a position to help high-risk student
  athletes develop an academic identity and
  contribute to their success in school.

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Contact Information

• Kacy King
• king_at_duaa.duke.edu