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.
DOCUMENT
Students differ in their learning preferences. When students are more intrinsically motivated this improves their well-being and involvement (Levesque, Zuehlke, Stanek, & Ryan, 2004). Teaching highly motivated honors students places different demands on teachers (Wolfensberger, 2012). High motivated students prefer teachers who offer them autonomy and who supports their need for autonomy by offering structure by an autonomy supportive teaching strategy (Reeve, 2009; Vansteenkiste et al., 2012) . Honors teachers indicate that they struggle with finding the right balance between providing autonomy and structure, which is different for every student. In our research we focus on how higher education teachers tailor their teaching strategies towards the perceived learning preferences regarding autonomy and structure of both honors and regular students. We conducted semi-structured interviews with help of a topic list with 16 teachers of 4 institutions and used a grounded theory approach to analysize the data. Because the subjects in this study teach both in honors and regular educational programmes, we gained insights in the underlying beliefs about and strategies used in these two different contexts. In this talk we share our findings and explore how the results can be used in daily practice.
DOCUMENT
How can undergraduate students be prepared for global citizenship? This question was investigated in a mixed-methods case study of an international, blended one-semester course. Undergraduate honors students (N = 22) from the USA and the Netherlands collaborated to explore what it means to be a member of the global community. Curriculum guidelines from the social justice oriented education for global citizenship were used to analyze the course’s program and focus the case study. The research questions were as follows: 1. How did the course relate to the curriculum guidelines? 2. What and how did students learn from the course? Analyses of the program showed that the course partly reflects the social justice oriented global citizenship education, in particular by addressing intercultural sensitivity and experiential learning. Quantitative measures in a pre-post design with control groups (N = 40) showed some growth in ethical sensitivity and social awareness. Qualitative measures indicated that participants developed a broader view on society and demonstrated a more open and active attitude towards others after the course. Experiential learning was considered a powerful aspect of the pedagogical approach. The results are discussed in relation to a developmental process whereby students gain awareness of global justice issues. © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
MULTIFILE
Paper presentatie tijdens de EARLI Conference 2015, Limassol, Cypres, 28 augustus. In this line of research we take a social psychological approach to understanding how honors students position themselves when collaborating with regular students. More specifically, we explore whether stereotypes about honors students as well as inclusion goals affect the extent to which honors students adapt to group norms in terms of ambition, motivation and excellence or take a more leading role when working with regular students. Results of a small more qualitative pilot study (N = 14) show that honors students indeed tend to behave differently by either adapting to the group of regular students or by taking the lead/control. Further the main reasons provided for this are preventing disharmony and delivering high quality work. Results of a larger survey study show that honors students (N = 106) are more likely to take a leading role when they feel valued by the group in terms of competence and inclusion. Further, regular students’ (N = 729) attitude to such a role is particularly negative when they do not want to include honors students and sense that honors students do not want to be included. Results are discussed in terms of its effects on creating a culture of excellence via honors programs within higher education and provide insights in how to improve the interaction between honors and regular students.
DOCUMENT
This brochure is one of the results of the research project Honors in Europe at the Research Centre forTalent Development in Higher Education and Society at Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen inthe Netherlands. It is based on the book Talent Development in European Higher Education – Honors programs in the Benelux, Nordic and German-speaking countries by Marca Wolfensberger, published in openaccess in 2015 at Springer Open. The book can be downloaded freely through www.honorsineurope.com.The brochure was prepared in cooperation with the European Honors Council (www.honorscouncil.eu).
DOCUMENT
Diese Broschüre ist das Resultat des Forschungsprojektes ‘Honors in Europe’ des Forschungszentrum fürTalententwicklung in der höheren Bildung und Gesellschaft der Hanze Universität angewandter Wissenschaften Groningen. Sie basiert auf dem Buch ‘Talent Development in European Higher Education – Honors programs in the Benelux, Nordic and German-speaking countries’ von Marca Wolfensberger, welches als open access beim Springer Verlag erschienen ist. Das Buch kann gratis heruntergeladen werden unterwww.honorsineurope.com Die Broschüre wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit dem European Honors Councilerstellt (www.honorscouncil.eu)
DOCUMENT
This book examines the much-debated question of how to unleash the potential of young people with promising intellectual abilities and motivation. It looks at the increasingly important topic of excellence in education, and the shift in focus towards the provision of programs to support talented students in higher education. It provides a systematic overview of programs for talented students at northern European higher education institutions (HEIs). Starting in the Netherlands, where nearly all HEIs have developed honors programs over the past two decades, the book explores three clusters of countries: the Benelux, the Nordic and the German-speaking countries. For each of these countries, it discusses the local culture towards excellence, the structure of the education system, and the presence of honors programs. In total, the book reviews the special talent provisions for nearly four million students at 303 higher education institutions in eleven countries. In addition, it offers an analysis of the reasons to develop such programs, a look into the future of honors education and a practical list of suggestions for further research.The Sirius Program assigned Marca Wolfensberger to carry out this research.
LINK
In de brochure ‘Aan de slag met honors’ worden onderzoeksresultaten van het onderzoeksproject Honors in Europe hertaald naar tips voor succesvol en inspirerend honorsonderwijs. De brochure is grotendeels gebaseerd op het boek Talent Development in European Higher Education – Honors programs in the Benelux, Nordic and German-speaking countries van Marca Wolfensberger van het Lectoraat Excellentie in Hoger Onderwijs en Samenleving van de Hanzehogeschool Groningen.
DOCUMENT
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.
DOCUMENT
