Factors Students Use When Evaluating Advisors
The current research examined student perceptions of advisors in an effort to more fully understand the dimensions that students use when evaluating advisors. Factor analysis of a 63-item structured questionnaire from a sample of 224 traditional-age college students revealed four primary factors and three secondary factors. The primary factors consisted of Socio-emotional Orientation, Meeting Dynamics, Knowledge, and global Problem dimensions. A secondary factor analysis of the Socio-emotional factor yielded three subfactors: Academic Caring, Personal Caring, and Good Person. Advisors and students who are aware of this structure can discuss these dimensions and emphasize behaviors that are closely related to advising performance. Finally, the authors suggest that this schematic structure be taken into account when developing advising assessment instruments.