Education Commons^™

Resilience, Reconciliation, And Redemption: An Initial Historical Sketch Of Pioneering Black Students In The Plan Ii Honors Program, Richard J. Reddick, Emily A. Johnson, Ashley Jones, Tracie A.J. Lowe, Ashley N. Stone, James Thomas

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

From the inception of the integration of predominantly White institutions in higher education marked by Sweatt v. Painter in 1950, The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) has been a battleground for educational equity. The university continues to find itself at ground zero in the battle for race and equity in higher education and embroiled in the debate over affirmative action, first in Hopwood v. Texas (1996) and then in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (2013; 2016). For these reasons, UT Austin serves as a bellwether institution for public, predominantly White institutions (PWIs) when it comes to …

Moving Beyond Gpa: Alternative Measures Of Success And Predictive Factors In Honors Programs, Tom Mould, Stephen B. Deloach

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

While studies of predictive factors for success in honors have been increasingly creative and expansive on what these factors might include, they have rarely challenged the dominant, virtually monolithic definitions of success. The majority of studies measure success either by collegiate grade point averages (GPAs) or retention rates in honors, which are often contingent on collegiate GPA. For years scholars have been calling for a more nuanced and robust definition of success, yet few have taken up the charge, presumably because such data are not readily available. GPAs and retention rates are easy to access and quantify. Tracking and quantifying …

The Strange Game Of Prestige Scholarships, John A. Knox

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As the “haunted” Rhodes finalist whom Lia Rushton accurately cited in her essay, I would like to provide some context for that reaction. I also wish to discuss some disquieting conclusions I have reached about prestige scholarships through my own experiences as a candidate, as an advisor to multiple nominees, via personal and family knowledge of nearly twenty Rhodes Scholars ranging from the Class of 1910 to the Class of 2000, and during twenty years as a faculty member at two universities.

What stood out most about my final Rhodes interview was its tone of bigotry and belligerence. I am …

Developing Citizenship Through Honors, Jacob Andrew Hester, Kari Lynn Besing

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

For decades, research has shown that higher levels of education correspond to increased interest in politics and civic engagement. Despite the vast amount of scholarly attention, why this link exists is still disputed. One theory about the connection is the civic education hypothesis, which claims that the causal link between education and civic engagement depends not only on the amount of education a person receives but also on the type of curriculum studied. For example, Hillygus argues that “some courses are more likely than others to develop the skills fundamental to political participation” (31). Similarly, Condon argues that the development …

Open Letter To Lia Rushton, Linda Frost

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

I want to write this response as a letter to you, Lia, in part because I worked with you in helping national scholarship applicants at the University of Alabama at Birmingham but also because I know you are the kind of person who fully commits herself to the conversation at hand. What you emphasized in your essay and in all your years as a national fellowships advisor was the key importance of listening. I observed firsthand that your skill as a listener made you the successful, trailblazing, and legendary scholarships advisor that you were at UAB, focusing first and last …

Lessons From Honors: National Scholarships, High-Impact Practices, And Student Success, Craig T. Cobane, Audra Jennings

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

High-impact educational practices (HIPs) have long been central to honors pedagogy. From undergraduate research to service learning, study abroad, internships, and writing-intensive courses, these practices shape the honors educational experience and influence retention successes in honors. These practices also inform the synergy between honors and national scholarships by helping students to develop the skills and experiences necessary to compete for prestigious scholarships.

Across the United States, university and college administrators expend tremendous time and energy worrying about student retention, persistence, and graduation rates. Recently, university communities have focused considerable attention on the potential of HIPs to address these issues and …

Demography Of Honors: The Census Of U.S. Honors Programs And Colleges, Richard I. Scott, Patricia J. Smith, Andrew J. Cognard-Black

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Beginning in 2013 and spanning four research articles, we have implemented an empirical analysis protocol for honors education that is rooted in demography (Scott; Scott and Smith; Smith and Scott “Growth”; Smith and Scott, “Demography”). The goal of this protocol is to describe the structure and distribution of the honors population, but instead of a focus on aggregates of students or faculty and staff, the educational institution is the unit of analysis. This organizational demography has answered many questions about the growth of honors throughout collegiate education over time (Smith and Scott, “Growth”); documenting infrastructural and programmatic differences between honors …

A Regression Model Approach To First-Year Honors Program Admissions Serving A High-Minority Population, David M. Rhea

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Many honors programs make admissions decisions based on student high school GPA and a standardized test score. However, McKay argued that standardized test scores can be a barrier to honors program participation, particularly for minority students. Minority students, particularly Hispanic and African American students, are apt to have lower standardized test scores than other ethnic groups according to the 2013 national ACT Profile Reports on “Black/African American Students” and “Hispanic/Latino Students.” Thus, honors programs that serve high-minority populations need to find new honors program solutions that will help their university community as well as encourage a high standard of academic …

Slaves, Coloni, And Status Confusion In The Late Roman Empire, Hannah Basta

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

From the dawn of the Roman Empire, slavery played a major and essential role in Roman society. While slavery never completely disappeared from ancient Roman society, its position in the Roman economy shifted at the beginning of the period called Late Antiquity (14 CE–500 CE). At this time, the slave system of the Roman world adjusted to a new category of labor. Overall, the numbers of slaves declined, an event that historian Ramsey MacMullen, drawing from legal debates and legislation of the period, attributes to the accumulation of debt and poverty among Roman citizens in the third century CE. One …

Of Groomers And Tour Guides: The Role Of Writing In The Fellowships Office, Leslie Bickford

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

When Lia Rushton asserts that “it takes a village to raise a fellowship recipient,” she accurately describes the culture of mentoring and undergraduate research at Winthrop University, where often faculty not only refer students to my office but also email or call me to make sure I plan to seek them out. In one such recent referral, a colleague used a term I’ve heard and winced at many times, suggesting I “groom” a certain student for a particular award. Coming as it did on the heels of my first reading of Rushton’s “First, Do No Harm,” this call made me …

Honors In Practice, Volume 13 (2017), Editorial Matter

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Covers (front & back)

Masthead, Editorial Board

Table of Contents

Editorial Policy statement

Submission guidelines

Dedication: James Sherman Ruebel 1945–2016

About the NCHC Monograph Series

NCHC Monographs & Journals

NCHC Publications Order Form

Honors In Practice, Volume 13, 2017 (Complete Issue)

Honors in Practice Online Archive

2016 Presidential Address
What Do We Belong to If We Belong to NCHC?
Jerry Herron

Practical Ideas about Honors

Best Practices in Two-Year to Four-Year Honors Transfers
Philip L. Frana and Stacy Rice

Leveraging a Modest Success for Curriculum Development
Kathy A. Lyon

Innovative Ideas for Honors

Encouraging Self-Reflection by Business Honors Students: Reflective Writing, Films, and Self-Assessments
Stephen A. Yoder

Interdisciplinary Teaching of Theatre and Human Rights in Honors
Maria Szasz

Critical Experiential Education in the Honors Classroom: Animals, Society, and Education
Nadine Dolby

Got Privilege? An Honors Capstone Activity on …

Creating And Managing Successful Groups, John Sangster

DBER Speaker Series

• Why is group work an essential component of our classes?

• What are the standard practices in forming groups, and what are the outcomes from this practice?

• What does the research say about forming successful groups?

• Case Study: group work in senior-level road design course

Assessing Evolutionary Reasoning Of Introductory Biology Students, Sarah Spier

DBER Speaker Series

Question: Does proficiency in natural selection knowledge predict the quality of student reasoning of reproductive potential as a component of fitness?

Hypothesis: Students with higher scores on the Concept Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS) will have more accurate descriptions of reproductive potential as a part of fitness.

Goals: Assess student ability to reason about fitness and selection in a variety of contexts. Assess student reasoning of evolutionary implications of an ecological scenario

Social And Behavioral Science Research Support At Unl, Mindy Anderson-Knott

DBER Speaker Series

Mindy Anderson-Knott provides an overview of the various research support offerings at UNL related to the social and behavior sciences. The presentation will explain how the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Consortium can help researchers with their social and behavior science needs, and will navigate participants through many of the support structures that exist on campus.

Copyright And The Use Of Images As Biodiversity Data [Forum Paper], Willi Egloff, Donat Agosti, Puneet Kishor, David J. Patterson, Jeremy A. Miller

Concepts in Animal Parasitology Textbook

Taxonomy is the discipline responsible for charting the world’s organismic diversity, understanding ancestor/descendant relationships, and organizing all species according to a unified taxonomic classification system. Taxonomists document the attributes (characters) of organisms, with emphasis on those can be used to distinguish species from each other. Character information is compiled in the scientific literature as text, tables, and images. The information is presented according to conventions that vary among taxonomic domains; such conventions facilitate comparison among similar species, even when descriptions are published by different authors.

There is considerable uncertainty within the taxonomic community as to how to re-use images that …

Knowing What Students Know: How Question Formats Differ In Their Abilities To Reveal Student Thinking, Brian Couch

DBER Speaker Series

Instructors use assessment ubiquitously throughout undergraduate STEM courses to gauge student understanding of important concepts. The utility of an assessment can be partly judged by the degree to which it can detect the presence of correct and incorrect understandings. We will discuss a series of within-subjects controlled experiments to determine how student responses differ for questions posed in multiple-choice, multiple-true-false, or free-response formats as well as implications of this research for instructional practice.

A Case Study Of The Variables For Women’S Success In Engineering And Computing, Arefeh Mohammadi

DBER Speaker Series

There is a huge shortage of skilled workforce in the engineering and computing related industries. According to the BLS data women have consistently constituted less than 10% of the workforce in the construction industry, which exemplifies the under representation of women in this field. This qualitative research aims at helping women sustain in engineering workforce, empower them in the choices they make to enter and success in the industry, and look at ways to create a safe and encouraging environment for women to survive and thrive in the workforce. This is believed to be possible through creating platform to educate …

“Thank God I’M Mexican”: Cognitive Racial Reappraisal Strategies Of Latino Engineering Students, Elvira Abrica

DBER Speaker Series

Despite the fact that Latinos pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees as often as their peers, Latino degree completion rates lag behind those of other demographic groups. In an effort to better understand Latino persistence in STEM, this qualitative study explored the non-cognitive persistence strategies of Latino men pursuing engineering degrees at two highly selective, four-year institutions. Specifically, this study explored Latino engineering students’ understanding and responses to race and racism, with attention to ways in which understanding and responses differed by immigrant generation. A total of 37 semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed. Findings indicate that immigrant …

The Potential Scientist’S Dilemma: How The Masculine Framing Of Science Shapes Friendships And Science Job Aspirations, G. Robin Gauthier, Julia Mcquillan, Patricia Wonch Hill, Amy Spiegel, Judy Diamond

DBER Speaker Series

In the United States, girls and boys have similar science achievement, yet fewer girls aspire to science careers than boys. This paradox emerges in middle school, when peers begin to play a stronger role in shaping adolescent identities. We use complete network data on a single middle school and theories of gender, identity, and social distance to explore how friendship patterns might influence this gender and science paradox. Three patterns highlight the social dimensions of gendered science persistence: 1) Boys and girls do not differ in self-perceived science potential and science career aspirations; 2) Consistent with gender-based norms, both middle …

Early Childhood Teachers’ Pedagogical Reasoning About How Children Learn During Language And Literacy Instruction, Rachel E. Schachter

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The knowledge that teachers hold about children’s learning is important to teachers’ practice. Few studies have examined how early childhood teachers use such knowledge during moment-to-moment instruction for language and literacy learning. This study employed a phenomenological approach to understand the knowledge that eight early childhood teachers used to inform their pedagogical reasoning during language and literacy activities. Stimulated recall interviews about practice were conducted with the prekindergarten teachers. Results indicated that the teachers used multiple sources of knowledge to inform their pedagogical reasoning that included: conceptions about how children learn; knowledge about specific children and the learning goals for …

Mini-Symposium: Best Practices For Reu Programs And Unl, Mark A. Griep

DBER Speaker Series

If you want to learn how to run an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) program (or to make your REU program run more smoothly), then this is your opportunity to ask questions. The presentation will begin with 5-min talks from five REU program coordinators. These coordinators run a wide range of programs and have experience ranging from 1 year to 12 years. They will mention things such as how many applicants their program receives, how they review those files, an outline of the non-research portion of their summer program, and what sorts of outcomes they collect so they can report …

Self-Regulated Learning In Engineering Labs, Presentacion Rivera

DBER Speaker Series

Students’ task interpretation is a critical first step in the process of self-regulated learning and a key determinant in students setting their learning goals and selecting strategies to approach assigned work. Laboratory activities improve students’ conceptual understanding because of the cognitive demand when students integrate laboratory activities and theory. The purpose of this study is to investigate how students’ interpretation of the task assigned during laboratory work may change during the task process, and how it is related to their conceptual understanding. One-hundred and forty-three students enrolled in the course of Electronics participated in this study. Instruments used to measure …

Applying Encoding And Retrieval Techniques To Chinese Rhyme Reading In Advanced Placement Chinese Instruction, Nan Wang

The Nebraska Educator: A Student-Led Journal

Learning Chinese as a foreign language is increasingly prevalent in public school districts in the U.S. As ACTFL (2011) reported, an increasing number of enrollments of Advanced Placement Chinese courses indicate a growing demand for Chinese language courses in U.S. public school districts (ACTFL, 2011; ACTFL, 2017). AP foreign language exams indicate that students from the mainstream culture in the U.S. do not perform as well as racial minority test takers (Brown & Thompson, 2016). Therefore, implementing appropriate teaching strategies in a student-centered foreign language environment is a desperate need. This is a pragmatic instructional design proposal, which emphasizes the …

Where Science Intersects Pop Culture: An Informal Science Education Outreach Program, Raychelle Burks, Kiyomi D. Deards, Erica Defrain

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Attracting a general audience to STEM topics can be a challenge, and developing engaging and interactive instruction is important for educators in all fields. While many chemical educators have successfully used pop-culture themes to introduce their students to scientific concepts, these encounters are largely limited to formal classroom environments. Inspired by the successes of community science programs such as Science Café and Nerd Nite, science educators from two Nebraska campuses sought to broaden the exposure of their pop-culture themed class lectures, and created the SciPop Talks! program. Now entering its fifth year, this informal educational outreach program has become a …

Black Excellence: Fostering Intellectual Curiosity In Minority Honors Students At A Predominantly White Research Institution, Stephen C. Scott

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As a recent alumnus of the West Virginia University Honors College, I recognize my honors experience as a multi-faceted, intellectual journey that pushed me academically, professionally, and personally to become the lifelong learner that I am today. As the only Black honors student in my graduating class, I was aware of my tokenism, especially in my honors courses, in the honors college office, in the honors learning center (testWELL Learning Center), and in university and honors college committee meetings, but I never let it bother me much. My peers misperceived me as an “Oreo”; my physical appearance was Black, yet …

Authors & Endmatter (Jnchc 18-1)

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

About the Authors

About the NCHC Monograph Series

NCHC Monographs & Journals

NCHC Publications Order Form

In This Issue (Back cover)

Educating The Outsiders: The Importance Of Social Support In The Success Of Latino Undocumented Students, Emily Adkins

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity

It takes a village to raise a child. This traditional proverb points to the importance of community and cooperation in ensuring children’s needs are met and exposing them to a wide variety of resources that could provide assistance if necessary. This concept of community support is widely heralded, and for many students in the United States, this saying is vital. Their villages are complete with parents, teachers, and administrators that support them and believe in their potential for success. But who forms the support system for children who are on America’s social fringes? For students who seem to be outsiders, …

Cage's Dungeon, Gage Bradley, Brett Hall, Sam Troncin

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity

Cage’s Dungeon specifically refers to the work of the influential composer, performer, writer, and philosopher, John Cage. More precisely, his later compositional style which emphasized the use of chance operations within a musical composition. Cage was highly influenced by eastern philosophy, Zen Buddhism in particular, and he was fascinated by the chance operations found in the ancient I Ching text. As a result, Cage wrote many works that were nothing more than a set of simple guidelines for the performer to follow, with the outcome of the process creating the piece. These indeterminate compositions are not so much about the …

"My Paintings Would Be No Different Than A Picture In A Biology Textbook", Andi Kur

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity

I find that there are innate balances in life, universal dichotomies that permeate our understanding of the world. My paintings are about a duality such as this that exists between art and science. We are told from youth that these subjects are poles in constant strain, as miscible as oil in water. I spent thirteen years in school believing that I must choose between the two, that it is unnecessary to carry both with me. Drawn between a distinct love of each, I realized how vehemently I disagreed. Everything: every rock to every tree to every person is suspended between …