Zoekresultaten

Setting them free

One of the factors that differentiate honors from regular teaching at the Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, is the freedom that honors students enjoy, a freedom that evokes excellence because it is focused and targeted. This targeted freedom takes three different shapes in our honors program and comes with specific challenges for both students and teachers. While the attractions and advantages of such freedom are both theoretically and practically significant, our experience has also demonstrated drawbacks that need to be addressed and resolved in creating effective honors education.The challenges and struggles as well as the rewards that we have experienced might be familiar to honors educators around the world, but they are also shaped by the particular contexts of our program within the Faculty of Geosciences, within Utrecht University, and within the Netherlands, contexts that we will now introduce.

"Creating community” as a teaching strategy for honors students.

Implementing theory in the design of a professional development course for honors teachers: a teacher’s road to excellence

Teacher development courses should be based on both research and literature to promote their success and impact in practice. In this article, we translate the findings of research studies and theories into evidence-based design principles for a professional development course for honors teachers. This course was evaluated on the level of teacher reaction, teacher learning, outcomes, and organizational response. Nine design principles were formulated and translated into concrete actions, resulting in a one-year course (study load of 140 hours), ‘A Teacher’s Road to Excellence.’  We evaluated the impact of the course with a questionnaire filled in by participants (N=10) who finished the course one year ago. The design principles showed to be helpful in developing this course for honors teachers. The course, ‘A Teacher’s Road to Excellence,’ seems to be instructive for honors teachers and impact on student learning outcomes is seen. More research is needed to improve its impact further, on organizational level.

"Offering freedom" as teaching strategy for honors students

Learning as salon

In May 2011, Dutch students from the honors program in geosciences of Utrecht University, led by Professor Marca Wolfensberger, engaged in an experimental-learning project in Paris, France, with a group of American students from the honors program of Columbia College, South Carolina, led by Professors Christine Hait, Corinne Mann, and John Zubizarreta. Literally and figuratively, the city of Paris served as a salon for the project: a place where rational discussion, cross-cultural dialog, collaborative learning, and culminating critical reflection about the uniqueness and value of the learning process itself were stimulated by the informal setting of a vibrant international city that provided the context for the two groups of students to explore the topics of expatriate artist culture and film history in Paris, especially during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Building Community Online in Honors Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract: Face-to-face contact in higher education was greatly reduced during theglobal health pandemic. This study examines how honors educators experiencedcommunity building with both students and colleagues during the period of emergency remote teaching. A questionnaire was developed to assess both the quality and importance of contact with students and colleagues as experienced by teachers, as well as changes therein due to the pandemic. Thirty-seven honors educators from various disciplines at a single institution participated in the study. Quantitative analysis indicates that teachers found the contact with both their students and colleagues to be of good quality overall and that they did not experience much change in the quality of communication as a result of the pandemic despite the lack of inperson interaction. Authors consider the large variation underlying their results, observing that while some teachers experienced a great deal of improvement, others perceived a significant decrease in the quality of contact. Results indicate that honors educators feel that too little attention was paid to their needs during the pandemic, especially regarding their need for community building with colleagues. Authors argue that educational leaders must ensure that teachers’ contact with both students and colleagues is sufficiently supported, emphasizing that both are important for fostering a sense of community. Authors conclude that honors educators might especially benefit from a strong sense of community in the upcoming transition to more blended educational models, as it can stimulate their professional development and promote adaptive ways of effectively dealing with change.