Student Profile - Assessments, Interests Survey

Student Profile - Assessments, Interests Survey In the Biography Banners, under Self Assessment, there is a survey titled, Interests.

Student Profile - Assessments, Interests Survey

In the Student Profile, under Self Assessment, there are 3 surveys

One is titled Interests.

This article reflects on those questions

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Self Assessments

 

Self Assessments can be turned on for any student from within the Student profile. When the assessment box is checked, the self assessment form will appear to the student as they enter their student portal for the first time.

 

Self assessments can also be found again later, in the student portal, located by clicking the graduation cap to the left of the student's name. The screen will slide down revealing the Student profile and the Self Assessment banner.  

 

One of the three assessments is titled: Interests

 

Below are things to potentially consider when interpreting student responses to this survey. None of these questions or answers are meant to provoke a specific response. There are no correct answers. The answers are meant to be the starting points to conversations that enable the counselor to know their student's motivations and priorities better.

 

Most often, a person will attempt to answer a question "correctly". The counselor is not looking for the correct answer, instead the counselor is more often listening to what is not being said. For this reason the questions below are not meant to provoke specific answers. The open interpretation of each question is to grant the widest possible spectrum of answer. 

 

1. What was something you overheard in another persona's conversation that caused you to eavesdrop?

• The response to this question may tell the counselor a topic the student is curious about. It also has the potential to hint at the person's general engagement with the passive world happening around them. This is helpful when considering college cafeteria environment.

The answer can shed light on knowing if the student is more or less likely to engage in public settings. This understanding may be reflected in the choice of campus culture.

Consider possibilities and how they may play-out: quiet but passively engaged, eavesdropping on a conversation, or overtly self-absorbed, not paying any attention to what is happening around them.

 

2. Name a current event you are aware of: 

• The response to this question may tell the counselor a topic the student is curious about. It also has the potential to hint at the person's lack of awareness or desire to be further engaged in today's events. Why? Is always a good follow up question.

 

3. What card games are you good at? 

• Card games require strategy, patience, good sportsmanship, interpersonal dynamics and to put the phone down. The answer to this question may tell the counselor much more than the answer would suggest.

Card games are usually first learned at home. Asking more may introduce new understanding of family dynamics.

This question contains a qualifier. It asks the person to make a self-judgement on their card playing. 

 

4. Do you play sports?    

Frequently   -   Occasionally   -   Rarely

 

5. Do you like playing sports?    

Very much   -   It's a pastime   -   It's ok

 

6. Do you enjoy pep rallies / neighborly support for teams?    

Very much   -   It's a pastime   -   It's ok

 

• These questions can hint at a student's desire to play sports in college. It could demonstrate the sport-participant as much as the sport-spectator. 

Some people view sports as inseparable from pep rallies, team-spirit and large state universities. An opportunity may be presented for the counselor to explain the idea of 'college' is often different than the reality.

There is much apprehension in the teenage mind when their internal debate loops in an effort to near closer to peer acceptance. The counselor may find an opportunity to know the current weight of the scales between their personal desire in/out of balance with peer approval.

The question also hints at pastime, opening the conversation to the concept that if not sports as a pastime, what is?

 

7. Do you enjoy game strategy?   

Very much   -   It's a pastime   -   It's ok

 

• This question pokes at the student's choice of major, areas of study or career paths. A person who likes games, usually enjoys strategy. A counselor may find an opportunity to gauge the student's entertainment-thoughts. That is what tools a person uses while in a stream of consciousness. It may be entertaining for this person to strategize when waiting at a red light or reading a restaurant menu... Broadening the conversation, the counselor may find further light shed on areas of study.

 

8. Do you like your teammates?    

Very much   -   It's a pastime   -   It's ok

• The response to this question may tell the counselor if 'the team' was a 'job' or a dedication. Knowing a student's attachment to a group has the potential to hint at the person's perceived responsibility to others. The counselor may find an opportunity to know more about who the student believes deserves their time and/or how they would like to spend their surplus time, in place of teammates.

 

9. When someone says "Thank you" to you:

You feel good - You think, "There's no need to thank me"  - You think, "They could have done it"

• This question pokes at the student's contribution, selflessness, social responsibility, self-worth as well as self-agency.
  
  
  

10. If you heard someone yell HELP! you would:

Jump up   -   Reach for the phone   -   You say, "Did you hear that?"

• This questions is about attempting to gauge a student's level of potential engagement in their future campus environment. This question is also meant to take a direct measurement of professional calling.

Some people hear a 'calling' to a specific occupation. Some people choose professions called 'first responders'. Some dream of occupations where they will make life and death decisions. These people often express a sense of urgency about their future plans. They can also present themselves as 'ever-ready' and hint at that within their answers to this question.

 

11. To be a trusted person is to be:    

Predictable   -   A True Friend   -   A Respected Person

 

This question is an attempt to take wide angle on ethics. To be trusted a person must be predictable, true and respected among other things. However, to be one of these is to be less of the other two. When a person inadvertently chooses one they create a rank-order of quality.

Probe further to this question, asking the student to give definitions for each.  

 

12. Choose One:  

Everyone has bad days.     Everyone has good days.      Everyone can make better days Complete these sentences:

 

This question taps on a person's self-knowledge of wellbeing, mental health, mood and resiliency. As a precursor to college choice, knowing if a person can persevere through terrible roommates and poor courses choices is important.

Does the student believe bad days are acute or chronic? Does the student believe they have no control or some control over circumstances?

 

13. Not necessarily me, but someone should do something about ...

• The teen mind is eager for peer acceptance. However, when self-risk is removed from the scenario, what would the student wish to see changed?

 

14. My family wants me to grow up and be ...

• Charles Bukowski, American poet, said "Having nothing to struggle against, they have nothing to snuggle for."

 

15. A person who makes good money, not great, but good money, makes a salary of $ _____ a year

• Most young people do not pay the household bills, balance monthly budgets, grocery shop and so on. Without experience and clear definitions, a young person is less likely to understand how much money is necessary for the lifestyle they imagine in their future.