STUDENTS EXPERIENCES WITH ACADEMIC CONSULTATION.

The student is the centre in the teaching-learning process. The ultimate goal in teaching is to unfold the best in the student and to develop his total being. But there are students who cannot make it until the end due to valid reasons. Thus, academic consultation program is conceptualized to assist students who have difficulties in their college life. Using the Charmaz (1990) constructivist research method, this study employed interview and focus group discussion to describe the experiences of 32 graduating students in academic consultation. The data revealed seven (7) categories that emerged in the analysis namely: self-examination, trust, emotional attachment, self-consciousness, encouragement, facilitating skills of teachers, reflection. Academic consultation shapes the bond between the teacher and student. The bond is the emotional attachment. The teacher?s facilitating skills allow the student to share and unfold his experiences through reflection. Reflection allows the student to examine himself and be conscious on his strengths and weaknesses. Assured of the teacher?s encouragement, the student learned to trust his teacher. The trust is the stepping stone to student?s emotional attachment to the teacher. Students who are emotionally attached to their teachers tend to be open-minded and accept their strengths and weaknesses. These categories intertwined with emotional attachment as the core category. Recommendations include the evaluation of the structure of the university?s academic consultation, further studies on how academic consultation influences the performance of students in class, and another study will be undertaken to verify the theory on emotional attachment versus other variables.