Improving student success and graduating more engineers often requires us to reach a set of students who are the least prepared for college-level work, have the most complex educational experiences and lives, and the greatest need for academic intervention and support. One method of improved intervention may be to change the dominant paradigm for academic advising, moving it from a little-rewarded service activity to a reflective, well-regarded aspect of teaching. We describe a curriculum for an engineering faculty advisor professional development program, designed to help faculty become more effective in their efforts to prepare students for professional practice as technically competent, socially responsible and globally informed citizen-engineers. In addition to a deep understanding of all of the policies, practices, programs, resources and personnel available for student support on their campus, the advisor also needs some knowledge of student development theory, and can become more effective with an appreciation of students and their challenges and contexts. The exemplar faculty advisor must also reflect on their practice, and deeply understand all aspects of the baccalaureate curriculum. Advising must help the student look beyond a semester-to-semester roadmap of isolated coursework and should help the student plan his or her trajectory through the program in terms of academic work, career planning, workplace engagement, and community involvement, all of which are critical steps on the way to becoming an engineer. In this paper, the theoretical frameworks for academic advising are presented; the concept of an advising syllabus is described, and results from our own professional development program for engineering faculty advisors are discussed.
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