Amanda Neuber, M.S. Associate Director – Honors Program Temple University – Philadelphia, PA (Outgoing) Chair- Advising High-Achieving Students Commission

What is Hope Theory and why should we care? How can we as advisors and administrators use Hope Theory in everyday practice? Continue the discussion/defining of What IS a High-Achieving Student? On this episode…

What IS a high-achieving student?

 High-Achieving College Student A person in college with a higher than average GPA who is involved in college activities, leadership, or research and has a track record of accomplishments. Working Definition

ACADMEMIC ADVISING: Dashing Dreams Since 1979.

ACADMEMIC ADVISING: Knowing 100 Ways to Say: “You aren’t going to be a doctor.”

A students self-perception of his academic ability plays a crucial role in his academic performance. For the achieving student, the self concept of his ability might be the most decisive factor in his successes in the academic environment. Bailey (1971)

“Perhaps one of the major tasks of the counselor or educator dealing with underachieving students should be to aid these students to perceive themselves as most adequate and effective persons.“ Bailey, 1971

"The perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways." (Snyder, 1994). academic achievement across all grade levels, including college GPA and the completion of college. Hope is also related to increased grade expectancy, learning goals, goal attainment, study habits, test-taking strategies, and self-perception. The completion of college increased grade expectancy, learning goals, goal attainment, study habits, test- taking strategies, and self-perception. HOPE THEORY

GOALS anything an individual desires to experience, create, get, do, or become. significant life-long pursuit (become a doctor) mundane and brief (go to class today) PATHWAYS is the perceived ability to generate routes to achieve those goals. Cognitive routes (paths!) to goals. AGENCY is the willpower or energy to get moving toward one’s goals the thoughts that people have regarding their ability to begin and continue movement I think I can I think I can. (similar to self-efficacy) Components of Hope Theory

Snyder’s Hope Scale Demographic Information Continuing Students (2011) Sex, race, age, major GPA, Honors - Yes or No, Are you a High-Achiever and Why or Why not? Incoming Students (2012) HS GPA, SAT, major, Honors – Yes or No METHOD

T-Tests & ANOVAs to determine significant between group differences Correlations to determine potential relationships Defining High-Achieving Honors v Non Honors >3.5 GPA v <3.5 GPA (upperclassmen) / Scholarship Levels for Incoming Freshmen (mix of SAT and GPA) Yes, No, Maybe  Are you a high achiever? Analysis

N = 427 Freshmen – 315 (294 Honors) Upperclassmen – 110 (41 Honors) Not ideal sample distributions, but was controlled by using multiple random samples.

Overall, Honors Students surveyed had significantly higher average HOPE scores. Higher Agency Higher Pathways Higher Hope Incoming Honors + Current Honors vs. Incoming NonHon + Current NonHon Current Honors vs Current NonHon HONORS v NON HONORS

Incoming Freshmen (as a whole) had significantly higher Agency, Pathways, and Total average hope score than current students (as a whole) Incoming Honors had significantly higher Agency and Total Average scores than Current Honors Incoming v Current

Students surveyed with >3.5 GPA had significantly higher average PATHWAYS subscale scores. YES v NO v MAYBE (current students) YES = Higher Agency Scores YES = Higher Pathways Scores YES = Higher Average Hope Scale Scores >3.5 GPA v <3.5 GPA (current students)

Upperclassmen – GPA GPA is positively correlated with Pathways, Agency, and Total Hope HIGHER HOPE = HIGHER GPA Honors Freshmen – SAT, GPA, Scholarship (combination) No significant correlations too little variance? When in doubt, correlate…

Students who scored a “perfect” 32 – were all incoming honors freshmen. (10) 10 students scored between Non-Honors, 4 Honors – all said YES to being high-achieving. (removed Incoming Honors) “Highest” of the High.

1.HELP STUDENTS SET SEVERAL GOALS in various life domains 2.RANK IMPORTANCE OF THOSE GOALS students low in hope do not prioritize their goals; instead they impulsively want to go after any or all goals that come to their mind. 3.TEACH STUDENTS TO SET MARKERS FOR SUCH GOALS markers enable students to track progress towards the goal “get good grades” = no good "to study an hour each day in preparation for my next biology exam.“ 4.ESTABLISH APPROACH GOALS in contrast to avoidance goals, in which students try to prevent something from happening. How Can Advisors Build Hope?

Help students break down larger goals into smaller subgoals “Stepping“ take a long range goal and separate it into steps that are undertaken in a logical, one at a time sequence. Enhance pathways Thinking

Make sure they are setting goals that are important to THEM. not goals that are important to their peers, parents, teachers. Helping students set stretch goals so long as a student feel as thought they have chosen their goal, this promotes a sense of challenge that, in turn, is quite motivating. Listen to their Self-Talk “I can...” and “I'll keep at it” vs. "I wont” and “I cant" Enhance Agency Thinking

Hope can be promoted by connecting one student's goal with another student's goal. Ex: Smart Stories, Smart Ideas? "Hope can flow from one person to another's life, thereby influencing how the latter person sees the world and pursues goals.” “Hopeful thinking can empower and guide a lifetime of learning.” (Snyder, 2003)

No significant between group difference in Hope scores... What could this tell us? Incoming Honors v Incoming NonHonors

If an individual makes good progress toward goals… hopeful cognition should receive a boost; if not, they should diminish… Hope for any specific goal is adjusted on the relative success or failure in achieving that goal. Hope is iterative in nature!

Next to the peer group, faculty represent the most significant aspect of the student’s undergraduate development. Sheer amount of interaction between the student and faculty have widespread effects on student development. student faculty interaction has significant positive correlations with every academic attainment outcome: college GPA degree attainment graduating with Honors and enrollment in graduate or professional school as well as every area of intellectual and personal growth. If ADVISING is TEACHING, every advisor can fill this role. Astin, 1993

To understand institutional factors that assist high-achieving African Americans students, Freeman (1999) did a longitudinal study on 21 students throughout their college experience. They ALL attributed their academic and social success in their institution to having a mentor. “Mentoring, broadly conceived, includes the giving of advice and passing of messages, but equally important, it involves genuine feelings of goodwill for mentees and for their growth and development.” Freeman, 1999 FREEMAN 1999

Provides trust and encouragement “ I said, ‘I don’t really think I’m smart enough.’ He said, ‘its not a matter of brilliance but a matter of perseverance… no matter how difficult the task is, you can endure, whatever the struggle.’” Causes you to Think Bigger Pushing students outside of their boundaries Is Like a Second Mom or Dad A person who is easy to talk to; who makes themselves available. Nurturing and Personable. “He looked out for me. He was like a father figure.” The best of all possibilities for mentoring [high-achieving] students would be a program that began at the point of entrance; that included involving students in challenging activities; and that, at the same time, provided trust, encouragement, and nurturing. Freeman (1999) WHAT DO MENTORS DO?

“Although most faculty and administrators perceive that these tasks would be daunting and overwhelming, these students and their mentors demonstrate that sometimes all you need is a little “you can do it.” GIVE THEM HOPE. FREEMAN, 1999

“We have hypothesized that an important part of a teacher's role is to encourage students in the pursuit of classroom goals. Culver (1992) found that teacher's Hope scale scores correlated reliably (r=.49) with their scores on a measure of the degree to which they encourage their students. In this regards, our view is that teachers and students have shared roles in keeping hope alive. Whether it is happening in the theaters of students minds or in the lecture halls of our universities, hope may be a lesson worth learning.” –Snyder 2002 *ADVISING IS TEACHING* Your OWN Hope matters, too!

ACADEMIC ADVISING: KEEP HOPE ALIVE.

Astin (1993) What matters in College? Four critical years revisited. Bailey (1971) Self-Concept Differences in Low and High Achieving Students (Journal of Clinical Psychology) Feldman, Rand, and Kahle-Wrobleski (2009) – Hope and Goal Attainment: Testing a Basic Prediction of Hope Theory (Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology) Freedman (1999) - No Services Needed?: The Case for Mentoring High-Achieving African American Students. (Peabody Journal of Education) Lopez & Snyder - Oxford Dictionary of Positive Psychology Lopez – The Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology Robinson & Rose (2010) – Predictive, Construct, and Convergent Validity of General and Domain-Specific Measures of Hope for College Student Academic Achievement (Research in the Schools) Snyder, et al (2003) – Hope Theory, Measurements, and Applications to School Psychology (School Psychology Quarterly) Snyder, et al (2001) – Hope and Academic Success in College (Journal of Educational Psychology) REFERENCES