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Peer Advisor TrainingRITA LOGRASSO, JOSIE MARGIOTTA , ALEXIS QUINTAL, SANDRA STRONG, PETER TOEUNG

2Peer Advisor Day Long Training

Today’s Agenda

8:30-9:00 Light breakfast served prior to training

9:00-9:30 Introductions and ice breaker activity

9:30-10:30 Overview of job description and expectations

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-11:45 Advising

11:45-12:45 Communication

12:45-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:30 Multiculturalism

2:30-2:45 Break

2:45-3:45 Ethical Dilemmas

3:45-4:00 Wrap up and evaluations

3Introductions

Professional staff

Student staff

Name

Academic year (Soph, Jun, Snr)

Major(s)

Hobby

4Ice Breaker Activity

5Overview of Job Description

Peer advisors are upper-class students who are charged with two main roles; mentoring and tutoring. They are available to assist all student but maintain a focus on first year and transfer students as they adjust to the campus community through academic and social programming. They are a resource for questions and concerns.

6Overview of Responsibilities

Provide leadership and foster a network of peer support.

Serve as role models and provide information on academic and social opportunities at the University.

Inform students of resources on campus that pertain to their needs or interests.

Assist in the registration process to students in preparation for scheduling classes.

Provide tutoring services to enrolled students in specific content areas.

Support the Advising office staff and faculty advisors.

Other responsibilities as assigned by supervisor or Advising office staff.

7Overview of Expectations

Advisors typically work 5-10 hours a week (depending on schedule and availability) and are paid an hourly rate of $9.50 per hour.

Advisors will serve as student role models and will professionally represent the Advising office.

Advisors will meet with students for advising times during registration according to their schedule.

Advisor will tutor students according to their academic need in the advisors main content area (will be determined during Advisor interview)

8Expectations Continued

Advisor will uphold the University’s Code of Student Conduct and will maintain a positive image in and outside the office. This pertains to the use of appropriate language, dress attire, social media presence and general conduct.

Advisors should be familiar with the advising office and general campus resources and initiatives.

Advisors will show up for work on time and will contact their supervisor, if they will be late or absent from work.

Advisors will log the hours worked each day by signing the Time Sheet located in the Advisor Communications Binder.

Advisors will adhere to the signed confidentiality agreement and will not disclose information they hear or are aware of when working (related to students, faculty, or staff).

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10Advising

How would you define advising?

How would you define your role as an advisor?

11Assessing Students Needs

Each student you meet with has unique needs.

Assessment resources: mindtools.com, Myers Briggs exam, advising questionnaire

12Advising Styles

Four advising styles:

1. Directing: Giving specific instructions.

2. Coaching: Directing and supervising accomplishments, but also explaining decisions and supporting progress.

3. Supporting: Facilitate and support efforts and shared responsibilities for decision making.

4. Delegating: Empowering students to conduct their own decision making, problem solving and delegating.

Source: https://www4.uwm.edu/sao/organization_advising/downloads/Advising%20Styles%20and%20Skills.pdf

13Advising Skills

Three advising skills:

1. Flexibility: Move from one style to another in order to meet the needs of the student.

2. Diagnosis: Learn how to diagnose the needs of students you advise.

3. Contracting: Learn how to come to agreement with your advisees and work together to figure out which style they seek from you.

Source: https://www4.uwm.edu/sao/organization_advising/downloads/Advising%20Styles%20and%20Skills.pdf

14Advising Activity

Role Play!

15Communication

Effective Communication

Senseless Communication (Team Builder)

Effective Listening (Video)

Louder than words “non verbal” (slides)

Misunderstandings (Discussions in small groups)

16Senseless Communication

Team Builder

17Pause, Question and

Paraphrase

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5hMN_XkPQA

18Louder than Words

Non-Verbal Communication Body Language

Posture

Eye Contact

Gestures with hands and arms

Facial Expression

Tone of voice

19Body Language

We depend heavily on nonverbal communication, or body language, in our daily lives. Research shows that we typically spend about 70% of our waking time in the presence of others but communicate verbally for only a fraction of that time (individuals speak for only 10 to 11 minutes a day, each utterance taking about 2.5 seconds). This underscores the reliance we place on nonverbal communication to express ourselves and to interpret the unspoken cues of others.

Source: Knapp & Hall (2006)

20Body Language

Keep in mind that body language can be interpreted differently.

How we interpret body language (gestures, eye contact, and proximity) depends on our context: the culture we are living in and our cultural background, the relationship we have to the person, and the circumstances (e.g. the physical and social environment where the communication takes place). The best advice is to be careful about interpreting body language; be cautious until you know the person well enough to understand their preferences and needs.

Source: Knapp & Hall (2006)

21Story Time

Break into small groups of 4 to 5 individuals

Share with one another a time when you were misunderstood or you misunderstood someone else.

22Communications Wrap-Up

Effective Communications skills among staff is important to the success of the program and the students you will work with.

There will be times that you are frustrated because of miscommunication, or times where you will find it funny in hindsight

The better the grasp of your own communication skills the more effective you can be as a peer mentor/tutor.

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24Multiculturalism

7 Multicultural Competencies suggested by Reynolds, Pope and Meuller

1. Self-awareness

2. Knowledge and understanding of cultural groups

3. Knowledge of cultural concepts

4. Culturally responsive interventions

5. Dynamics of a multicultural dyad

6. Cultural assumptions underlying the helping profession

7. Advocacy skills

Source: Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs, R.L. Pose, A.L. Reynolds and J.A. Mueller (2004)

25Principles for Cultural

Proficiency

Principles for Cultural Proficiency:

Principle 1: All of your assumptions are cultural and may or may not align with the assumptions and understandings of others.

Principle 2: When exploring the cultures of others, it is necessary to suspend judgment temporarily.

Principle 3: Both context and content are important.

Principle 4: Becoming comfortable with discomfort is possible and necessary to the development of cultural proficiency.

Principle 5: Curiosity and deliberate inquisitiveness provide a richer, more accurate context for interaction.

Source: Students Helping Students,

A Guide to Peer Educators on College Campuses

26Obstacles to Cultural

Proficiency

Many feelings, beliefs, and actions can get in the way of individual and institutional cultural proficiency. Here are three that are commonly observed:

Lack of Knowledge

Unaware of Majority Privilege

Believing Things Should Remain as They Are

Source; Robins, Lindsey, Lindsey, & Terrell, 2006

27Advising with Cultural

Competence

Advising with Cultural Competence

Tools for Advising Students

Listen

Limit

Check for Understanding

Consider Bureaucracy

Middle Ground

Names

Be Curious

Don’t Generalize

Source: http://www.bu.edu/provost/files/2014/01/Advising-with-Cultural-Competence-Presentation-Notes.pdf

28Tutoring a Multicultural

Student Group

TUTOR’S COMPETENCES

The core competences needed in multicultural tutoring are knowledge, attitudes and skills that all tutors require regardless of their job setting. The tutor gives information, supports and motivates students, helps create an encouraging learning environment and above all, promotes students’ self-directive learning to achieve their individual learning goals.

The core competencies are connected to

Communication skills

Counselling skills

Being familiar with the learning process, the contents of the curriculum and the learning environment.

Source; http://www3.hamk.fi/esr-kevat/verkkojulkaisut/Tutorsguide.pdf

29Strengthening Your Cultural

Awareness As A Tutor

Knowing your own cultural background

There is a link between our culture and our behavior: – Our perceptions of the world are culturally learned and culturally mediated. Focus questions to consider:

How much thought have you given to your own cultural background and the assumptions that you have developed?

To what degree are you open to expanding your vision of reality?

What problems and pitfalls are associated with multicultural perspective?

What values do you hold that could make it difficult for you to work with students who

have different worldview or a different cultural background?

For example, if you value self-determination and this is not a central value in your student’s culture, could this cause problems?

Source; http://www3.hamk.fi/esr-kevat/verkkojulkaisut/Tutorsguide.pdf

30Strengthening Your Cultural

Awareness As A Tutor

Small Group Activity

ASSUMPTIONS

In small groups of 3-4, choose two assumptions and discuss. Develop a list for each assumption of what these may include, what the assumptions suppose, how your assumptions may differ from those of other cultures.

Assumptions about time:

Assumption about self-disclosure:

Assumption about family values:

Assumptions about trusting relationships

Assumptions about self-actualization

Assumptions about directness:

Assumptions about assertiveness:

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Strengthening Your Cultural Awareness As A Tutor

Culturally Appropriate Communication Styles

Tutoring is based on communication. For effective tutoring to occur, both the tutor and the student must be able to send and receive both verbal (content of what is said) and non-verbal (how something is said) messages accurately and appropriately.

There are no universal meanings of non-verbal behavior! Here are some hints:

Kinesics: refers to bodily movements. It includes facial expression, posture, characteristics of movements, gestures and eye contact.

Proxemics: refers to personal space: perception and use of personal and interpersonal space.

Source; http://www3.hamk.fi/esr-kevat/verkkojulkaisut/Tutorsguide.pdf

32Possible Sources of Conflict

and Misinterpretation

Possible sources of conflict and misinterpretation

Focus on the Individual vs. Collectivism

Self-disclosure (Openness and Intimacy)

Verbal, emotional, behavioral expressiveness

Patterns of communication

High versus low uncertainty avoidance

Source; http://www3.hamk.fi/esr-kevat/verkkojulkaisut/Tutorsguide.pdf

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34Ethical Dilemmas

What is Ethics?

Right/Wrong or Good/Bad

How people “should” act

35Personal Ethics & University

Code of Ethics

It is important to:

Understand your personal ethics and why they exist

Comprehend the University’s code of ethics and why it is a legal responsibility

36CAS

Autonomy

Non-Malfeasance

Beneficence

Justice

Fidelity

Veracity

Affiliation

37What would you say or do?

If a student invites you to a party?

If a student offers you to have an alcoholic beverage on campus?

If a student asks if you can do his/her assignments?

If a student discloses personal information that could be harmful to him/herself or others?

If a student’s parent calls concerning a grade?

38FERPA

http://www.salemstate.edu/ext/ferpa/

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

Confidentiality

Do not release any student information to parents or others

39Case Study

Confidentiality/ Transparency

http://studentgovernmentethics.com/ethics-cases/confidentiality-and-transparency/

What is the ethical issue?

Whose responsibility is this?

How should this be handled?

40Wrap- Up

Questions?

Evaluations