About Us

The Office of Academic Advising adopts a service orientation to enhance medical students’ academic and clinical learning experiences. A variety of timely and relevant learner-centered programs, services and resources are provided to allow students an opportunity to learn and implement evidence-based study strategies to realize their learning potential.

Our services draw on multidisciplinary research including key teachings in the realms of holistic education, positive psychology, cognitive neuroscience and mindfulness. We continuously strive to ensure our practices are inclusive, learner-centered and collaborative to promote self-directed learning and learner transformation.   

Principles

The philosophy and approach to our services is based on the following principles:

• The goal of coaching is to promote life-long skills in self-directed and self-regulated learning.
• Through authentic caring and appreciative inquiry methods, we can discover students’ unique funds of knowledge that are the focal point for actively constructing solutions.
• Learning is an interactional process and a product that results in change.
• We can draw on research in athletic performance science, cognitive science, and educational psychology to develop effective training solutions to ensure all learners achieve their potential.

We aim to create a climate of mutual respect and trust in which we:

• Jointly analyze recent performances and opportunity gaps
• Assess unique causes of opportunity gaps
• Identify key strengths to close opportunity gaps
• Co-design targeted exercises to enhance performance
• Dedicate time to build skills and practice strategies for peak performance 
• Monitor progress and adjust as needed