Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons^™

Intellectual Humility, Honors, And Appreciative Advising: Exploring With Students That Changing Their Mind Does Not End The World, Alan Sells

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Section headings:

Honors and the foreclosure student

Major changing and intellectual humility

Intellectual humility and appreciative advising

Conclusion and final thoughts

Honors students who change majors often find themselves faced with an identity crisis. Our job as advisors is to support these students by guiding them through this difficult transition. It is easy to look at these students and to regard them as having all of their plans in order and to believe they do not need extra attention (Robinson, 1997). Nothing could be further from the truth. Honors students are, in many ways, like any other student, and they …

Honors Advising For Large Programs, Art L. Spisak, Holly B. Yoder

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This study was conducted within the Honors Program at the University of Iowa, which is the flagship public research university of the State of Iowa. Its Carnegie classification is Doctoral University with Highest Research Activity (R1), and it is a member of the Association of American Universities. Its current student population is about 21,600 undergraduates and about 9,600 graduate and professional students.

This study was conducted within the Honors Program at the University of Iowa, which is the flagship public research university of the State of Iowa. Its Carnegie classification is Doctoral University with Highest Research Activity (R1), and it …

Advising To Support Meaning Making And Purpose: Helping Honors Students Focus On Priorities And Evaluate Opportunities Through Intention Setting, Kristy Spear, Ron Cahlon, Katherine Mccall

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Section headings:

What is an intention?

The value of setting an intention

Setting an intention with honors students

Ron’s intention

Katherine’s intention

Final thoughts

The experiences provided are just two examples of how, with the guidance of an advisor, honors students might formulate and incorporate an intention into their lives. This simple yet profound technique is a useful addition to the advisor’s toolbox; it presents the opportunity to help students examine their values, who they are, who they want to be, and how they want to live their lives. This critical reflection can result in a clear focus and systematic …

Exploring The Relationship Between Mindset, Mental Health, And Academic Performance Among College Students, Eileen Makak, Douglas A. Medina, Harmony D. Osei

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

In recent years students’ mental health has been one of the most discussed topics at colleges and universities throughout the United States. Brad Wolverton (2019) notes in The New York Times that students are facing anxiety and depression at alarming rates. More than 60% are suffering from “overwhelming anxiety” and over 40% feel “so depressed they [have] difficulty functioning” (Wolverton, 2019). In this chapter, we explore how mental health impacts one’s academic performance and mindset, and vice versa. It is important to acknowledge that the first drafts of this chapter were written prior to 2020, and therefore it does not …

Oxbridge And Core Curricula: Continuing Conversations With The Past In Honors Colleges, Christopher A. Snyder

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

The American honors college, as it exists in the twenty-first century, is idiosyncratic and an amalgam of centuries old European traditions in higher education with pedagogies and practices that have emerged only since about the 1980s and are particular to America. These disparate influences coexist—sometimes uneasily—in American universities, and yet American honors colleges have continued to have conversations with the past in order to seek wisdom for dealing with contemporary issues such as the democratization of higher education, social justice and diversity, the use of instructional technology, and the controversy between vocational training and liberal learning. Because, unlike departments, an …

Should We Start An Honors College? An Administrative Playbook For Working Through The Decision, Richard Badenhausen

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

The last two decades have seen significant growth in honors colleges, though the transition to that model takes many forms. This essay lays out crucial questions for stakeholders considering such a move. While highlighting material advantages that may accrue from the transition, the chapter also notes reasons for not starting an honors college; and it explores some of the new challenges that recently founded honors colleges will face. Above all, the essay frowns upon the so-called “switch out the sign over the door” approach to institutional change in favor of deliberate, thoughtful, and strategic processes that involve many stakeholders and …

Characteristics Of The 21st-Century Honors College, Andrew J. Cognard-Black, Patricia Joanne Smith

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Today, honors education can be found in almost every corner of U.S. higher education. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, there also has been significant growth in the number of honors colleges in the United States, but there have been limited data to describe with any precision how fast that growth has been. Sederberg (2005, 2008) was among the first to document the emergence and growth of a distinct honors college organizational form and to identify unique characteristics that distinguish honors colleges from honors programs, but further growth within the organizational field of higher education necessitates an updated profile …

The Role Of The Honors College Dean In The Future Of Honors Education, Peter Parolin, Timothy J. Nichols, Donal C. Skinner, Rebecca C. Bott-Knutson

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

In this chapter, four honors deans reflect on the unique aspects of the honors dean's role. The authors argue that by being responsive to the challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities they face daily, honors deans can enable honors to deliver on its promises to students and to serve the whole university community. Attentive to changing dynamics in honors education nationwide, the authors address how deans must confront myths about honors that bear the legacy of past realities while actively tending to justice in the admissions process, to recruiting and serving diverse populations, and to supporting an honors environment that addresses the …

“It Is What You Make It”: Opportunities Arising From The Unique Roles Of Honors College Deans, Jeff Chamberlain, Thomas M. Spencer, Jefford Vahlbusch

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Grounded in the shared experiences of three current honors college deans and in comprehensive interviews with another two dozen honors deans at diverse institutions of higher education across the U.S., this chapter argues that the uniqueness of honors college dean roles and work can—and indeed should—lead to innovative and transformative change and improved student experiences, outcomes, and success, not only in honors colleges and within the scope of honors education, but across entire institutions. Ultimately the chapter contends that, while there can be manifold frustrations in running an honors college, the position of honors dean is one of the best …

Honors Colleges As Levers Of Educational Equity, Teagan Decker, Joshua Kalin Busman, Michele Fazio

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

While higher education is widely imagined as a tool for social mobility, the realities of enrollment, retention, and professional trajectories betray the conservative mechanisms through which higher education too often reproduces the status quo of inequality. Honors colleges can and should strive to act as levers of equity in this scenario of entrenchment, but the nature of this project varies depending on the institution’s own class position vis-à-vis its students. Elite, highly selective institutions may advocate for enrollment strategies that target student populations that do not typically attend those institutions, but other institutions likely already enroll such students in large …

Fostering Student Leadership In Honors Colleges, Jill Nelson Granger

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

The architecture of student leadership in honors colleges is a formative decision that affects students’ experience and development. Through a broad view of student leadership structures across U.S. honors colleges, four common modalities are identified and described: governance, programming, mentorship, and ambassadorship. Relevant models, variations, combinations, and specializations are provided. Student leadership, as a hallmark of honors education, is one way in which honors colleges distinguish themselves both within and outside the university. As intentional learning communities, honors colleges incorporate student leadership into the nature of honors education, as part of mission, and as a defining outcome of the honors …

Promoting The Inclusion Of Lgbtq+ Students: The Role Of The Honors College In Faith-Based Colleges And Universities, Paul E. Prill

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

An estimated 11 percent of students at faith-based colleges and universities, identify as sexual-minority (LGBTQ+). Many of those students come from religious backgrounds and attend universities where they have heard and continue to hear that their sexual identity is in fundamental tension with their faith identity, leading to problems with mental health and, at times, physical health. On many such campuses, sexual minority students have become more vocal, asking that the university acknowledge their presence and provide services to help them succeed and thrive in college. Some of the schools have moved in that direction. Others continue to balk at …

Who Belongs In Honors? Culturally Responsive Advising And Transformative Diversity, Elizabeth Raisanen

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Despite a rich body of scholarship that engages with university honors advising, advising to support diversity in higher education, and the overall need for better attention to diversity within honors, the literature has not fully explored the vital role that advising plays in supporting diversity and fostering belonging within honors programs and colleges. This essay brings together the too-often disparate threads of advising, honors, and diversity to advocate for a practice of culturally responsive advising within the honors environment in order to pursue truly transformative diversity. Holistic academic advising and related programming must play a central role in any honors …

Honors Colleges, Transdisciplinary Education, And Global Challenges, Paul Knox, Paul Heilker

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

The authors contend that the most significant comparative advantage of honors colleges is the combination of gifted and motivated students from every academic discipline and interdisciplinary curricula that train students to integrate diverse perspectives. The authors discuss how to harness this advantage to provide a truly transdisciplinary education through collaborative, project-based learning, both on campus and beyond. They assert that honors colleges are in a unique position to circumvent the siloed structures of academia by convening multidisciplinary groups of students guided by faculty from a wide range of disciplines. Doing so can help reimagine undergraduate education to address urgent and …

Introduction To Honors Colleges In The 21st Century, Richard Badenhausen

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This chapter introduces Honors Colleges in the 21st Century, a volume containing the work of 56 authors representing 45 different institutions, many of which are at the forefront of innovation in honors education. In addition to offering a brief overview of the nineteen chapters that make up the book, the introduction reviews the historical growth of honors colleges along with research on that trend, including Peter Sederberg’s seminal The Honors College Phenomenon (2008). The essay accounts for the recent vigorous growth in honors colleges by suggesting that they are able to address some of the most pressing needs of …

Review: Unwell Writing Centers: Searching For Wellness In Neoliberal Educational Institutions And Beyond, Aurora Matzke

English Faculty Articles and Research

“Unwell Writing Centers: Searching for Wellness in Neoliberal Educational Institutions and Beyond” blends narrative, mixed methods research, and rhetorical analysis to make a case for the possibilities inherent in homegrown wellness practices that are “communal, political, and rooted in defiance of white supremacy.”

Middle Savannah River: An A/R/Tographic Ecopedagogical Ethnography Experimenting With Rhizomatic Perspectives, Lisa Augustine-Chizmar

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This research is an experiment in perspective. Using the four commonplaces (Schwab, 1978), I practiced letting the Savannah River teach me what there is to know about the water, the land, the people, and the other entities that depend on ki through artistic, ethnographic, and ecopedagogical lenses. The ethnographic findings describe the social actors that depend on ki and give a voice to the River. The a/r/tographic findings display the River on a canvas map through two hundred years using paint, clay, photography, video, abstract acrylics, and fabric. Together, these methods contribute to a unique ecopedagogical journey. This word cloud …

Transformative Social Emotional Learning: A Call To Heal The Effects Of Racial Trauma On Identity And Self-Efficacy, Elizabeth Trostle

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Growing up I was never a child that loved school. I fell in love with learning in environments that did not look or feel like classrooms. And in 2005 I learned that I had a passion for learning about pedagogy. I entered the classroom again this time as a teacher, ready to engage students in learning. What I was offered was curriculum and learning standards that left little room for experiences. Despite my efforts, and after a decade of experience, I was still baffled by the resistance to learning.

I wanted to understand this because I saw that education—when you …

Examining Elementary Teacher Perceptions And Experiences Of Transitioning From Knowledge-Based To Inquiry-Based Social Studies Standards, Benjamin Stephen Pinnick

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Elementary educators are responsible for the earliest years of student learning in a public setting. The amount of content students are expected to master continues to grow in scope, and the methods that are utilized shift to align with educational research and social momentum. After a decade of Common Core policies, social studies education in elementary schools has become a deemphasized subject. Reading and math, as well as science, have taken a greater precedence in today’s classrooms.

Yet, expectations for the creation of knowledgeable and participatory citizens continue to serve as a goal in elementary schools. Conceptualization of citizenship form …

Moving Forward Together: Reflections Of A National Survey Of Ot/Ota Students’ Perceptions Of Culturally Aware Educational Content Delivery, Adair M. Sanchez, Iris W. Burns, Tina M. Deangelis, Maclain Capron, Abigail Mills, Taylor Kligerman

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

In June of 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd and the additional atrocities against historically marginalized people and communities across the United States, the Commission on Education (COE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) sought to act within its scope. A retrospective survey (N= 1,692) was developed, deployed, and analyzed in accordance with the COE’s standard operating procedures relating specifically to monitoring trends that impact the education of occupational therapy (OT) and occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students. This survey aimed to capture perspectives from OT/OTA students regarding the delivery of culturally aware educational content in curricula …

Advising First-Generation And Socioeconomically Diverse Honors Students, Angela D. Mead

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Honors programs and colleges increasingly consider socioeconomic status as a form of diversity by actively recruiting first-generation and low-income college students. Supporting this movement, the National Collegiate Honors Council’s “Shared Principals and Practices of Honors Education” (2022) highlights the need for inclusive excellence from across all communities. First-generation and low-income students are often high-potential students, and their inclusion into honors communities enhances the whole. The challenge, though, is retaining and graduating these students at rates similar to their more advantaged peers. Academic advising can be an effective tool in these efforts.

First-generation and socioeconomically diverse college students are a large …

Telling Your Story: Stewardship And The Honors College, Andrew Martino

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Honors administrators, particularly honors college deans, find themselves in positions not necessarily equivalent to academic deans in other disciplines. Often, honors college deans function more like provosts in that they need to attend to multiple disciplines simultaneously, while also often carrying obligations in teaching and advising. In addition, the initiation, cultivation, and stewardship of donors to the college are essential components to the honors college dean’s portfolio. This task may be particularly challenging for a dean in honors in that many potential donors are intellectually and emotionally tied to their specific major and/or school or college. And yet, fundraising, especially …

Journey “Box” Assignment Description, David Wolff

Open Educational Resources - Teaching and Learning

The Journey “Box” allows preservice teachers to explore and share their own historical narrative as they different aspects of their own family’s journey to America. The Journey “Box” first asks preservice teachers to explore themes by reading children’s literature and then positions preservice teachers as interviewers as they seek out different facets of their family’s historical narrative from members of their family. Preservice teachers then use their experience with a Journey “Box” to design an inquiry that could be used in their field experience. The Journey “Box” integrates social studies standards and best practices with ELA standards.

An Education In Democracy: Understanding And Subverting Censorship In The English Classroom, Hannah R. Woolsey

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The politicization of education has presented a challenge to offering students diverse English Language Arts instruction. Across the county, lawmakers have proposed legislation that limits discussion about race and sex or allows parents to restrict their child’s exposure to materials that violate their moral or religious beliefs. In this tug-of-war, teachers will be forced to decide between avoiding controversial topics or risking dismissal. Increasing censorship, now codified by law in many states, is rooted in our polarized political landscape, divided along cultural and geographic lines. The challenge facing educators, then, is how to create space for inclusive, social justice-oriented instruction …

Engaging Students And Teaching Life Skills Through Community Collaboration, Kim Stein

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Collaboration with the Youth First Program of Saginaw increased students' engagement in eleventh-grade English. Students bonded with community partners, their teacher, and their peers in new ways which produced an environment of mutual respect and deeper learning. Students engaged in a debate project which garnered recognition from school administrators and community members, who were influenced to enact positive changes for the school community.

Wakanda: Opening The High School Classroom To Afrofuturism, Carrie M. Mattern

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Afrofuturism has a solid place in high school classrooms thanks to the current work of Ryan Coogler, but also to those who have been in this work for decades including the Mother of Afrofuturism herself, Octavia Butler, adrienne maree brown, dream hampton, and a litany of Black poets and artists. This article leaps inside an Afrofuturistic unit curated for high school seniors with feedback and insight from their teachers and also the students who buckled up for a journey through time, space, and place.

Creative Connections: A Guidebook For Arts-Based Inquiry, Julia Marshall, Kimberley D'Adamo, Ann Ledo Lane

Kimberley D'Adamo: Art, Curriculum, Publications, and Other Scholarly Works

Art-based inquiry is an approach to art education that frames art making as a form of inquiry—a way of exploring and learning about ideas, ourselves and the world. The goals of art-based inquiry are understanding important topics, imagining possibilities, and inventing new realities. Students create art in order to meet those goals and they do it with a teacher’s guidance. For Creative Connections, art-based inquiry calls for a slight shift in perspective and change in practice. Adopting art-based inquiry does not mean throwing out everything you do. It means seeing art class diff erently and adapting it to a more …

Why Ask That? Low Stakes Questions Build Engagement, Van Whaley

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

A few low-stakes questions during the term build engagement, encourage persistence, and can improve learning outcomes.

During labs, students work together to learn Anatomy & Physiology… plus answer these Engagement Booster Questions.

The Need
/="/">Students need to meet classmates. After two years of online-only education, returning to in-person labs is a new experience many students find uncomfortable and challenging.

The Existing Resources
/="/">Students in the same lab have several similarities that include enrolling in the same lecture section, similar schedules, the same completed prerequisites, similar majors, and career aspirations.

The Goal
/="/">Building engagement between students should help …

Being And Becoming Across Difference: A Grounded Theory Study Of Exemplary White Teachers In Racially Diverse Classrooms, Jane S. Feinberg

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Of the roughly 3.5 million public school teachers in the United States, approximately 80% are White. In contrast, about 51.7% of the nation’s students are African American, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian. This mismatch is expected to grow as the number of BIPOC students in our nation’s public schools continues to increase. Studies have shown that strong positive relationships are essential for learning, but often, the relationships between White teachers and BIPOC students are strained at best, leading to poorer learning outcomes. The purpose of this Constructivist Grounded Theory study was to explore an understudied question: How do White teachers …

The Expectations, Experiences And Satisfaction Of Students Within A Nutrition And Dietetics Program Regarding Faculty Academic Advising Using A Prescriptive Or Developmental Advising Lens, Nettie Puglisi Freshour

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research study examined student’s expectation, experiences and satisfaction with faculty academic advising using a prescriptive vs. developmental lens. The intent was to explore the student’s expectations of academic advising, determine if their experiences aligned with their expectation and if this led to satisfaction of their academic advising. This study utilized the Systems theory to determine how academic advising is performed by the program and if that experience for the student is how the systems (institution, college, department, and program) are promoting the form of advising. This study utilized a qualitative case study approach, guided by three research questions. Data …