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Financial aid administrators administer various aspects of financial assistance programs; oversee, direct, coordinate, evaluate, and provide training for program activities and the personnel who manage office operations and supervise support staff; and ensure alignment of student and institutional needs while protecting the public interest. They have long recognized the value of professional standards in this complex field. This study uses Peterson's (2011) professionalization theory, 2010 archival data, analyses of variance, and risk estimation to examine the need for, benefits of, and level of support for certification, credentialing, and establishing basic core standards for financial aid practitioners. Among 2,756 survey respondents, 72% agreed with the need for basic core standards; 82% agreed professionalization would increase the stature of and respect for the occupation; and 79% agreed to support a process if adopted. A voluntary process, mandatory basic training, a recognized financial aid curriculum, and a phase-in period for current practitioners were the components agreed on most (ICC[subscript A] = 0.98, a[subscript 2] = 0.01). With an item reliability index of alpha = 0.91 (p = 0.001) and a margin of error of ±1.75% at the 95% confidence level, the results indicate financial aid administrators want to move forward with certification, credentialing, and setting standards.

This exercise is designed to illustrate how challenging it is to listen. Although listening is an activity that people use more than speaking, reading, or writing, it is typically not afforded the same level of instruction and focus (Adler & Rodman, 2011). In addition, humans are subject to such continual and diverse stimuli; most do not even realize that they are poor listeners and that listening is hard. Students in particular spend the majority of their time in situations where listening is the primary activity they are engaging in and is key to their success, yet talk is the skill often more privileged than listening and explicitly taught.In this activity, students will take part in a class exercise that contrasts listening for information and listening for enjoyment, yet they are not aware of it until the activity has been completed and class discussion and debriefing has taken place. They will be able to recognize their behaviors and emotions when faced with paying attention to unfamiliar material.