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Academic advisers can play a special role in students' lives, as they are in positions to brainstorm possible futures with their advisees and map out paths to get there. In partnership with other faculty and staff, they can use this opportunity to promote students' self-authorship, the capacity to internally generate beliefs, values, identity, and social relations (Baxter Magolda 2001; Kegan 1994). Jane Pizzolato writes that "if students were self-authored, they would be more likely to choose majors that were appropriate and interesting to them, engage in critical thinking about their choices, and develop healthy relationships with diverse others" (2008,19). Becoming self-authored requires transformational learning that helps students "learn to negotiate and act on [their] own purposes, values, feelings, and meanings rather than those [they] have uncritically assimilated from others" (Mezirow 2000, 8). Unfortunately, most traditional-age college students have not yet developed these capacities, both because many enter college having been socialized to uncritically accept knowledge from authorities (including well-intentioned advice), and because many influential people in students' lives are inclined to simply offer such knowledge. Academic advising is a key venue through which educators can assist students through this transformation.
This transformation extends beyond developing cognitive skills. The interplay of one's view of knowledge (epistemological development), view of self (intrapersonal development), and view of social relations (interpersonal development) are clearly articulated in research recounting young adults' transformation from external definition to self-authorship (Baxter Magolda 2001; Kegan 1994). Late adolescents typically view knowledge as certain and possessed by authority figures. They do not see themselves as active agents in constructing knowledge, and their interest in acquiring others' approval often restricts their ability to engage in debating multiple perspectives. For example, a student in a course where the instructor modeled knowledge construction offered this reaction:
I understand what he was trying to do. He was trying to give examples to show what happened. But if he had just said cryoprotectants whatever, just said the point, I would believe him because he is the teacher. I don't need the proof, it's not like I'm going to argue with him about it. (Baxter Magolda 1999, 3)
Her assumptions about knowledge precluded her from seeing that her instructor was modeling knowledge construction. Instead, she interpreted his approach as trying to...