Field, S., & Parker, D. R. (2016). Becoming self-determined: creating thoughtful learners in a standards-driven, admissions-frenzied culture. Huntersville, NC: AHEAD Association on Higher Education and Disability.
Review by Ally Marringa, University of Utah, ally.marringa@csbs.utah.edu
Becoming Self-Determined: Creating Thoughtful Learners in Standards-Driven, Admissions-Frenzied Culture, edited by Sharon Field and David R. Parker, is a compilation of research, theory and strategies for how university staff, faculty and administrators can cultivate life-long learners who get more out of their college education. The book opens with a call for campus-wide commitments to develop self-determined students, and looks at the risks of our current admissions-focused culture. The introduction states: “…the college admission process, and much of what it teaches students about trying to succeed in college and life, is flat-out wrong” and poses the question: “What can colleges and universities do to help turn this around?” (Field & Parker, 2016, p. 2-3). Despite posing this question, the book does not tackle the question of how to change admissions standards or culture, but focuses instead on what other units across campus can do to cultivate self-determination in students.
The strength of this book is in its detailed research and theory-based explanations (of both self-determination, and linking it to other existing theories), role modeling case studies and providing critical questions, and creating clear models of how it would be applied. Its primary focus, the self-determination theory, aligns with NACADA’s own Core Values of Academic Advising (2017) through empowerment, as it asks staff and faculty to motivate, encourage and support students to recognize and step up to the challenge of meeting their potential. It even has a section devoted to Appreciative Advising and Academic Coaching, which are critical advising theories that outline strategies and approaches for advisors (NACADA academic advising core competencies model, 2017). The amount of evidence and many application methods make it hard to argue against self-determination theory as a way to provide students with their own tools for success.
Despite direct relations to the advising profession, the book is ambitious in its desire to apply to upper administration, faculty, staff, and parents of students too. In some sections of the book it will do a deep dive on specific roles on campus and does not articulate how it can be connected to others on campus. For instance, whole chapters are devoted to teaching and learning strategies for faculty to utilize in the classroom and usability of educational websites. Both of these examples can be adapted into approaches advisors can take with students, but it does not draw that connection for the reader and focuses solely on that unit. In contrast, other sections have too little information and examples provided, where it mentions a staff role on campus and a single action-step to help students become self-determined, but it is not clear how it relates to the theory at all (such as on page p. 33, where it asks to provide students with flexible meal and food options, and is the only time food services is mentioned) (Field & Parker, 2016).
The title and introduction of this text can be misleading of what this book is about. It admits it is not the primary focus of the book, and only briefly touches the admissions-focused culture and solutions to this issue by saying “Precious dollars that institutions of higher education could use to fund meaningful education opportunities and services for students are instead spent on glossy marketing materials to encourage more student applications, just so a larger percentage of them can be rejected…” then encourages the reader to explore an external resource if they are interested in more solutions on this topic (Field & Parker, 2016, p.4). The book does not address how this same admissions focus is often adapted by departments and majors as well, and though it tries to be widely applicable, does not mention how marketing or admissions staff can make these changes, but just leaves it to faculty, advisors, and student support staff to fix the first mistake.
Overall, Becoming Self-Determined: Creating Thoughtful Learners in Standards-Driven, Admissions-Frenzied Culture can be a helpful and insightful tool for brainstorming relational advising approaches that can be applied to one-on-one advising sessions and advising programming in order to empower students to take ownership of their goal-setting, learning and education (NACADA academic advising core competencies model, 2017). An important point of the book is that changing learning culture is a collaborative effort, and by reading this book, it can inspire advisors to collaborate with teams across campus.
References
Field, S., & Parker, D. R. (2016). Becoming self-determined: creating thoughtful learners in a standards-driven, admissions-frenzied culture. Huntersville, NC: AHEAD Association on Higher Education and Disability.
NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (2017). NACADA academic advising core competencies model. Retrieved from https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Pillars/CoreCompetencies.aspx
NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (2017). NACADA core values of academic advising. Retrieved from https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Pillars/CoreValues.aspx