Journal of the European Honors Council

From honors education to regular education: the motivation and role of honors teachers as linking pins in innovations

Pierre van Eijl — 2024-11-10

This exploratory study is about the question of how teachers perceived how their experience with honors education have promoted innovations in their regular education. In this study, we interviewed teachers from four universities of applied sciences about this question. Interviews were conducted in 2019 and 2020, which resulted in 11 cases of innovation in regular programs inspired by experiences with honors education. A first part of this study showed how structural honors characteristics were important in this transfer structural characteristics (Van Eijl, Weerheijm & Pilot, 2023). The research question of the second part focusses on the role of the honors teacher in the innovations. The method of cross-case analysis was chosen. Based on an analysis of the interview data, the results were summarized and illustrated with quotes from the interviews. These innovations are at the level of a single module but also at the level of an entire undergraduate program. Experiences with honors education are frequently mentioned by the teachers as a motivation to work on the innovation of their regular education. These teachers rated the positive effect of honors education for their innovations in regular education as (very) stimulating. In these innovation, the teachers see themselves as "linking-pin", intrinsic motivated to actively transferring experiences from honors programs to innovations in regular programs. According to these teachers honors programs have an interesting innovation potential for regular programs.

What makes honours programmes attractive in the eyes of teaching and nursing students?

Helle Mathar — 2024-07-08

Since honors programs are a novelty in the Danish educational system, knowledge is needed on what makes the honors attractive to the students. The aim of this study was to provide insight into the motivation of second year students applying for nursing and teaching honors programs. The approach draws upon the work of Vincent Tinto and Albert Bandura. A content analysis based of student applications to the programs showed that both groups find the content of the programs attractive. In their applications teaching students stressed having extraordinary skills within the cognitive domain, while nursing students emphasised having skills within the affective domain. Both groups had the expectation that an honors program would facilitate their pursuit of personal and professional goals. Becoming a part of a community of likeminded peers was an attraction. Joining honors program represents a strategy to persist and complete one’s degree, which means the programs may help to retain the group of extraordinary, ambitious students.

Similarities and differences in teaching behavior for honors and regular bachelor’s education

Tineke Kingma — 2024-05-22

Many institutions of higher education offer honors education, but research on teacher behavior in honors classes is scarce. Our aim is to gain deeper understanding of how teachers adapt their teaching practices in the honors classroom as compared with the regular classroom. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 Dutch teachers who teach in both types of classroom. Using self-determination theory as an analytical framework, we found that teachers supported the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in both settings in order to promote intrinsic motivation. However, there were differences in how and why these behaviors were enacted. Teachers had different ways of expressing basic psychological needs. In the regular classroom, the main focus of the teachers is on preparing students to become autonomous professionals, whereas in the honors classroom, the main focus is on personal development and individual learning.

The Biomedicine Project Course: Promoting Young Scientists at School and University

Marcus Kohnen — 2024-05-22

This article presents a cooperation project between science and schools, which aims to provide high-achieving students with initial research experience at university and at the same time to encourage these students to take up medical or scientific courses of study. This is linked to the university's perspective of being able to attract potentially outstanding young scientists, especially in biomedical research. Thus, the project offers a win-win effect for all parties involved from school and university (Irmer, 2012). Feedback from an online survey of participating project students illustrates that even high demands can be motivating for students if the offer meets the students' interest and leads to experiences of self-efficacy. This article is intended to encourage the search for such opportunities for cooperation between schools and universities and to focus more strongly on their importance in generating young scientists.