SUMMARY YEAR 1 AND RESULTS OF NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Updates Year 1

• Problem of Practice Statement
• Key theoretical perspectives
• Key highlights of Synthesis of the Literature
• Findings of Needs Assessment
• Moving on: Year 2.
• References

Problem of practice

High schools are fast-paced environments (Cawelti, 1989), where students feel out of place and lacking meaningful connections with peers and teachers (Brown, 2001). As a response to the call to restructure high schools (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1995; Hamilton & Mackinnon, 2013), advisory programs that were in existence since the 1800s providing students vocational guidance (Galassi at al., 1997) are now adopted by many school districts. Students exposed to increased amount of stress in high school due to high academic expectations, extracurricular commitments and making decisions about their future are in need of teacher support, which has a negative correlation between it and physical and mental illnesses (Conner, Miles, & Pope, 2014).

Instituting advisor-advisee relationships establishes teacher support, fosters a sense of community (Shulking & Foote, 2009), creates an advocate for that student (Anfara, 2006), and increases levels of personalization (McClure et al., 2010). The current advisory program at The International School of Kenya is not fulfilling its primary objective, which is to address personal and social concerns of students as well as providing that close guidance relationship between advisor and advisee (International School of Kenya, 2016). Rather, administrative activities that interfere with group cohesion and the advisor-advisee bond take place during this program.

Key Theoretical Perspectives

• Bandura's (1986) Social cognitive theory: Self-efficacy and Reciprocal Determinism
• Ainsworth's (1989) Attachment theory

Key Findings in the literature

• As times change, schools need to change and offer a personalized experience connecting with students and parents (Rutledge, Cohen-Vogel, Osborne-Lampkin, and Roberts, 2015)
• With this change, the teacher role and responsibilities are expanded (Phillippo & Stone 2013) with the idea of teacher becoming advisors (Galassi, Gulledge, & Cox, 1997) and advocate of students (Anfara, 2006).

Key Findings IN THE LITERATURE

• Teachers need training to promote self-efficacy so they can confidently establish relationships (Phillippo, 2010), if they do not, there will be no buy-in and the program will fail (Cole, 1994).
• Teachers stress is related to low levels of self-efficacy can hinder their ability to deal with challenging situations (Yoon, 2002).

Key Findings IN THE LITERATURE

• Culturally relevant atmospheres providing culturally relevant care leads to an increase in trust, openness, warm demands and humanizing moments, allowing for a sense of community (Watson, Sealey-Ruiz, & Jackson, 2014).
• Higher significant negative correlation between perceiving support from more than one teacher and academic worry, internalizing symptoms and physical health problems (Conner et al., 2014).

Needs Assessment @ ISK

• 54 students surveyed (16% of HS student population)
• 12 teachers surveyed (35% of HS teacher population)
• Two surveys, all consented.
• Most measures were reliable.

Student Survey: Research Questions

• What is the transition experience of students?,
• What is the perceived social support and academic press students feel from their advisors?
• Do students consider their advisors as part of their attachment network?
• Do students perceive an influence from their advisors inside and outside of the school setting?

Student Survey: What was found?

• 89% has lived in more than one country; 96% will leave Kenya after graduation.
• Male students report a higher relative closeness than females. However both are on the negative side of the scale, indicating lack of closeness.
• All respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that their advisor is pressing them academically.
• Males reported higher values of perceived advisor support.

Student Survey: What was found?

• No more than 3.7% of students reported their advisor as an attachment figure.
• Males recognized a little more influence than females from their advisors. Both genders can be found in the negative side of the scale closer to the “disagree a little” and “strongly disagree” options in regard to advisor influence over their life.

teacher Survey: Research Questions

• How effective do teachers feel in their role as advisors?
• What is the teacher advisor’s knowledge and perspective on the supportive and transition activities of the program
• What are teacher preferences in regard to the advisory program’s organization?

teacher Survey: Research Questions

• The higher the grade level, the higher the reported teacher self-efficacy, there is a 1.13 point difference between ninth grade teacher advisor and twelfth grade advisors.
• 92% of respondents want to be able to personalize advisory sessions depending on their group's needs.
• No teacher respondent considered the program to be an excellent ideal match to the program they would like to see.

Moving on: Year 2

• A clear mission and role expectations are needed (Phillippo & Stone, 2013) for advisors to create a culturally relevant atmosphere that increases trust and openness (Watson et al., 2014) and perceived teacher support.
• A need of a support system formed by the entire staff that is committed to provide holistic support for academic, social and emotional needs as they arise (Shockley, Schumacher, & Smith, 1984, p. 70).

Moving on: Year 2

• Look into intervention literature: What has been done and tested empirically both in high schools and beyond?
• What are other international high schools in the world doing? Focus group potential.
• Possibility of collecting data from a comparable school in Nairobi.
• Potential intervention with 11th and 12th grade advisories.