NACADA Journal Volume 26 (1) Spring 2006 67 * See note on page 4. Most information advisors receive about first- year advisees pertains to students' academic achievement and high school courses. To assist students effectively with the transition to college, advisors need additional information. We describe a collaborative process used to develop a prema- triculation, academic motivation instrument that provides important information for academic advi- sors and the whole institution. The collaborators included academic advisors, institutional research personnel, and a faculty member from the School of Education, all working together to create the instrument, examine its psychometric properties, and make decisions about how to use the data. The instrument shows promise as predictor of academic success in the early college years and could poten- tially assist advisors in identifying first-year students at risk for academic difficulties. KEY WORDS: advising research, advising resource, entering student survey, instruments, motivation, predictors of academic achievement Relative emphasis:* research, theory, practice Introduction Academic advisors serve an important role in the transition to college. They are generally the first adult contact that the student makes with the insti- tution, and a positive connection with an advisor early in a student’s college experience can greatly increase the student’s likelihood of retention, sat- isfaction with the school, and overall success at the institution (Terenzini, 1993; Tinto, 1987). Human relationships take time to develop and mutually cautious give-and-take marks the bond formed between advisors and advisees. The bond-forming process is affected by individual personality traits, large caseloads for advisors, and students’ general lack of understanding about the role of academic advisors at college (Smith, 2002). Another factor involves the types and quality of information pro- vided to advisors. Although advisors are given information (SAT scores, high school transcripts, demographics) about students in admissions fold- ers, advisors usually do not know much about how a student approaches or views the purpose of higher education. Research on academic motivation and college preparedness suggests that a complex pat- tern of academic and social development accom- panies each student to college (Pintrich & Zusho, 2002). Although high school achievement is a pre- dictor of academic success, research has shown that academic motivation and social adjustments are equally (or more) important predictors of academic achievement (Cote’ & Levine, 2000; Gerdes & Mallinckrodt, 1994; Zheng, Saunders, Shelley, & Whalen, 2002). Advisors whose philosophy leans toward the developmental side of the prescriptive-develop- mental continuum desire additional perspective from students about why they have decided to go to college, what drives them to study and work hard, and how they will modify their approach to meet the unique challenges of higher education. Such inside information on individual students could help advisors prepare to interact with, encour- age, and possibly intervene for students at the beginning of their academic careers. Beyond the lack of information, another chal- lenge for academic advisors is the lack of a clear understanding of academic motivation. Theories of motivation have evolved from a dichotomy sepa- rating the motivated from the unmotivated to a con- tinuum of internal versus external motivation toward a more complex construction of distinct but related concepts such as self-esteem and self-concept as well as intrinsic, extrinsic, and domain specific motiva- tions (Breen & Lindsay, 2002). The trend toward a more complex definition of academic motivation requires that researchers and advisors reconsider how they measure academic motivation in higher education and how they intervene to promote mul- tiple aspects of student motivation to learn. One way to bridge the gap between the defini- tion of motivation and advisors’ measurement and facilitation of it involves advisors seeking out and sharing the intellectual and logistic expertise of others on campus (White, 2002). Collaboration among faculty members who study motivation and Helping First-Year Students Make the Transition to College through Advisor-Researcher Collaboration Joshua S. Smith, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis David Yun Dai, University at Albany, State University of New York Bruce P. Szelest, University at Albany, State University of New York Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/nacada-journal/article-pdf/26/1/67/2224829/0271-9517-26_1_67.pdf by guest on 14 December 2021