Assessing Student Learning in Academic Advising Using Social Cognitive Theory

Abstract

We investigated whether the social cognitive theory constructs of self-efficacy and self-regulated learning apply to academic advising for measuring student learning outcomes. Community college students (N = 120) participated in an individual academic-advising session. We assessed students' post-intervention self-efficacy in academic planning and their retrospective pre-intervention self-efficacy as well as pre and post self-regulated learning-strategy levels in academic planning. We used 2 hypotheses to verify that students experienced increased levels of self-efficacy and self-regulated learning through academic planning strategies. The 3rd hypothesis verified a positive, reciprocal relationship between self-efficacy and self-regulated learning in academic planning. We discuss results regarding the theoretical usefulness for applying social cognitive theory to assess student learning outcomes in academic advising.