Journal of the European Honors Council

A Tale of Two Islands: Nurturing Talent through Bridging, Connecting, and Transforming

Siobhán Ní Dhonacha Same — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100

This paper will describe how grounding Honors Program interdisciplinary curriculum in powerful perspectives of Irish and Hawaiian cultural worldviews through a “two island cultures lens,” via an online pedagogy facilitated Honors student bridging, connection, and transformation. This is a much needed paradigm for students across the globe who are living in a world roiled by existential issues such as climate survival, social separation and stratification, and an uncertain jobs future further impacted by technology and Artificial Intelligence. As an Honors Faculty who was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and lives and works in Hawai‘i at the University of Hawai‘i in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, the author is uniquely placed to assimilate these worldviews to promote and support Honors student success.

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

Helle Mathar, Nina Troelsgaard Jensen, Niels Sandholm Larsen — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

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.

The TRAIL map

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0100

Human development has spurred hypercomplex issues like pandemics and climate change, unmanageable through STEM-alone approaches. Addressing these demands collaboration across academic (including non-STEM disciplines) and non-academic fields, necessitating a transdisciplinary approach. Higher education should cultivate 21st-century skills, like those in TRAnsdisciplinary Innovation Labs (TRAIL), enabling adept collaboration on multifaceted problems within diverse groups.

The Erasmus+ funded STEAM+ project birthed the TRAIL map, aiding teachers, students, institutes, and policymakers in designing TRAILs via talent program experimentation. This article details the TRAIL map's genesis, drawing from existing TRAILs and constructing three. Addressing stakeholder needs for closer collaborations, clearer examples, and actionable steps, the map serves as a repository of STEAM+ project insights, guiding universities across Europe in initiating their TRAILs and offering structured knowledge and experiences.

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

Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

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.

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

Pierre van Eijl, Ron Weerheijm, Albert Pilot — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100

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.

Design principles for interventions to develop higher education honors students’ well-being

Sun, 08 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Students who experience high wellbeing are better able to develop and perform. Personal resources can contribute to experiencing wellbeing and interventions can be used to develop them. However, it is not yet sufficiently clear what such interventions should look like to be effective. Therefore, this study focuses on formulating design principles for interventions aimed at developing four personal resources of honors students: self-efficacy, optimism, inquiry mindedness, and self-regulation. Data were collected in focus groups. Data showed that design principles for interventions to develop those four personal resources differ somewhat, but in common they combine group and individual activities, students are taught basic skills to help them directing their own development, they have an ongoing character and consist of recurring activities. The design principles can be used to design interventions to enhance honors students’ personal resources. Further research is needed into the design and effects of these interventions and possible generalisation.

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

Marcus Kohnen, Inga Kallweit, Erich Gulbins — Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

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.