Academic Advising Portfolio - Division of Continuing Education ...

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(LSI‐IIA), that Adrienne can fill out and hand into the advisor should be used to provide talkingpoints
and examples of ways Adrienne can express her interests and strengths. Based on the
limited information in the case study of Adrienne’s personality, the advisor might predict that
Adrienne would be either a Converger or Assimilator due to her reserved personality and
abstract participation with the advisor. If this were true, the advisor could then design a study
plan with Adrienne that included careful, active reading of class texts and comprehensive notetaking
skills (Evans et al., 1998). Kolb’s theory can also be useful when discussing with Adrienne
potential careers that coincide with her strengths.
Career Development
Adrienne’s career maturity is undefined, and like her sense of identity, may be latent
and unexpressed. Frank Parsons’ (1909) seminal work in career theory describes three qualities
needed for making an occupational choice: (a) an understanding of the qualities of the self
(such as aptitudes, abilities, interests, resources, limitations), (b) an understanding of the
requirements and conditions of different lines of work, and (c) a reasoning on the relations of
these two groups of facts (as cited Niles & Harris‐Bowlsbey, 2002, p. 9). Because Adrienne’s
cooperation and self‐awareness is minimal, it may be more appropriate to begin with a
structured advising setting that provides clear feedback.
When viewed through the lens of Donald Super’s life span theory, Adrienne seems to
have entered the stage of Exploration due to timing and circumstance, not due to the full
maturation of her Growth stage development (Niles & Harris‐Bowlsbey, 2002). This may be due
to her rural home‐life and limited exposure with the outside world; her occupational
experience is minimal and there are not many role‐models that have assisted her in forming