From honors education to regular education: learning from the content of innovations

Authors

  • Pierre van Eijl
  • Albert Pilot Utrecht University, The Netherlands
  • Ron Weerheijm University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31378/jehc.167

Keywords:

honors programs, transfer of innovation, higher education, structural honors characteristics

Abstract

At the introduction of honors programs in Dutch higher education, stakeholders assumed that honors education could stimulate innovation in regular education. Whether this assumption holds was researched in the ‘Transfer of honors education to regular education’ project. This article focuses on the question of whether teachers’ experiences with honors education stimulated innovations in regular education and about structural characteristics in relation to the content, teaching formats, and pedagogics of the innovations. Interviews were conducted with teachers from four universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands. The results show that teachers in regular education found honors programs to provide them an opportunity to work with content, teaching formats, and pedagogics that they were unfamiliar with. Through these teachers, the honors approach inspired innovation in regular programs. Strikingly, these innovations contain to some degree all 14 structural characteristics of honors education distinguished in this study. The findings indicate the great innovative potential of honors education for regular education.

Author Biographies

Albert Pilot, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

At the introduction of honors programs in Dutch Higher Education, one of the thoughts behind that introduction was that this could stimulate innovation in regular education. This was the reason for the research ‘Transfer of honors education to regular education ' which is the subject of this and a next article. This research focuses on the question whether and how teachers' experiences with honors education have stimulated innovations in regular education. The focus of this article is on the question: What content do the innovations have? A subsequent article addresses the question, "How do innovation processes occur? (Authors, in preparation) In this study, teachers from four universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands were interviewed who had experience with this type of innovation process. Interviews were conducted with them in 2019 and 2020 which yielded 11 cases of innovation in the regular program inspired by experiences with honors education. Based on an analysis of the interview data, the results were summarized and illustrated with quotes from the interviews. An important conclusion is that honors programs offer an opportunity for teachers to work with content, teaching format and pedagogics in a way that is different for them. The experiences gained on all these aspects can then filter through to the regular program through these teachers and lead to innovations there. They can relate to many different educational aspects and the innovations can take place at the level of an individual course (both in the bachelor's and master's program), minor or graduate program, but also at the level of an entire bachelor's program. And all in a multitude of subject areas. What is striking about these innovations is that fourteen structure characteristics of honors education distinguished in this study, are all applied to a greater or lesser extent in the renewed regular education. These are often a group of interrelated characteristics of honors education that carry over into regular education rather than the carry-over of just one feature. The adoption of the honors characteristics and their coherence show a development in teachers’ vision of education. That vision shifts from emphasis on structured knowledge transfer to more room for student’s self-direction, professional and personal development, promotion of an inquisitive attitude and experiential learning. The analysis of the eleven cases studied thus reveals a great innovative potential of honors programs for regular education.

Ron Weerheijm, University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam

At the introduction of honors programs in Dutch Higher Education, one of the thoughts behind that introduction was that this could stimulate innovation in regular education. This was the reason for the research ‘Transfer of honors education to regular education ' which is the subject of this and a next article. This research focuses on the question whether and how teachers' experiences with honors education have stimulated innovations in regular education. The focus of this article is on the question: What content do the innovations have? A subsequent article addresses the question, "How do innovation processes occur? (Authors, in preparation) In this study, teachers from four universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands were interviewed who had experience with this type of innovation process. Interviews were conducted with them in 2019 and 2020 which yielded 11 cases of innovation in the regular program inspired by experiences with honors education. Based on an analysis of the interview data, the results were summarized and illustrated with quotes from the interviews. An important conclusion is that honors programs offer an opportunity for teachers to work with content, teaching format and pedagogics in a way that is different for them. The experiences gained on all these aspects can then filter through to the regular program through these teachers and lead to innovations there. They can relate to many different educational aspects and the innovations can take place at the level of an individual course (both in the bachelor's and master's program), minor or graduate program, but also at the level of an entire bachelor's program. And all in a multitude of subject areas. What is striking about these innovations is that fourteen structure characteristics of honors education distinguished in this study, are all applied to a greater or lesser extent in the renewed regular education. These are often a group of interrelated characteristics of honors education that carry over into regular education rather than the carry-over of just one feature. The adoption of the honors characteristics and their coherence show a development in teachers’ vision of education. That vision shifts from emphasis on structured knowledge transfer to more room for student’s self-direction, professional and personal development, promotion of an inquisitive attitude and experiential learning. The analysis of the eleven cases studied thus reveals a great innovative potential of honors programs for regular education.

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Published

2023-07-10

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2022)

Section

Papers

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Pierre van Eijl, Albert Pilot, Ron Weerheijm

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.