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Jnchc: Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council Vol. 21, No. 2 | Fall/Winter 2020

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Contents

Call for Papers

Editorial Policy, Deadlines, and Submission Guidelines

Dedication to William “Rusty” Rushton

Editor’s Introduction • Ada Long

Forum essays on “big hearts, big minds”

Teaching from the Heart • Suketu P. Bhavsar

Teaching as a Whole • Mollie Hartup

On the Value of Being in the Moment in Honors Education • Lisa L. Coleman and Anne Dotter

Putting the “Human” into the Humanities • Annmarie Guzy

Infusing Critically Reflexive Service Learning into Honors • Lauren Collins and Michaela Niva

Into the Storm • Robert Gill

The Danger Room • Laura Dickinson

Research essays

Claiming Debate’s Value for …

Infusing Critically Reflexive Service Learning Into Honors, Lauren Collins, Michaela Niva

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This essay describes a service-learning course designed with heart-centered pedagogy. Authors examine the relationship between individual and society in service learning and discuss the rationale and processes involved in curricular design to suggest an alternative approach to community engagement. Understanding service learning as going beyond merely the attainment of hours requisite for course completion, students are asked to develop critical reflexivity by first considering the focus, identity, and needs of community partners. Authors suggest that this curriculum provides practical opportunities for engaging students intellectually and emotionally in order to strengthen self-concept and cultural awareness of a vulnerable population.

Dedication: A Love Song For W. Rusty Rushton

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

On the model of T.S. Eliot's "Prufrock"

The Danger Room, Laura Dickinson

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

is essay describes how an honors classroom introduces public speaking and active listening to encourage heroism and social justice among students. Asserting that people often look for a hero in times of crises, the author suggests that honors programs can become safe places where students learn the skills necessary to advocate for those in need and demonstrably help their communities. By cultivating essential skills in rhetoric and oral presentation, honors students identify with heroic, altruistic aspects of themselves and others.

About The Authors; About The Nchc Monograph Series; Nchc Monographs & Journals; Nchc Publications Order Form

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

No abstract provided.

Into The Storm, Robert Gill

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Many colleges profess a deep commitment to teaching the values of social justice by simply following laws and then using compliance as evidence of building inclusive community. This essay considers practical outcomes for the authentic and compassionate teaching of social justice issues by presenting two (2018 and 2019) seven-week honors offerings that examine minimally stipulated laws and the ways they are enacted by encouraging students to engage in contemporary and historical discourses on the subject. Challenging honors educators to reexamine legal philosophies, historical precedence, and their role in the academy, the author argues for the moral obligation of honors to …

Teaching From The Heart, Suketu P. Bhavsar

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This essay is an invitation to consider a paradigm shift in the academy, one that allows and encourages us to bring our whole selves into our teaching and professional lives. I describe a set of values that permits and encourages the expression of a rigorously examined inner self in harmony with the traditional expression of our scholarly selves in our curricula and classrooms. Drawing from lessons that have defined my aspirations as a teacher, I challenge honors educators to lead the way in courageously examining our pedagogical approaches and to teach from our hearts.

Putting The “Human” Into The Humanities, Annmarie Guzy

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

A recent (2020) report by the Modern Language Association addresses the ethical treatment of graduate students in the humanities, and the author considers this in the context of honors students and faculty. Lamenting missed opportunities for in-person group presentations, student-led Socratic circles, and final individual presentations during the coronavirus pandemic, the author reflects on ways of experiencing joy and practicing compassion in teaching. Students and faculty mutually benefit from exploring and honoring each other’s humanity.

On The Value Of Being In The Moment In Honors Education, Lisa L. Coleman, Anne Dotter

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Recent scholarship demonstrates a direct correlation between the body and brain in academic performance and general wellbeing. This essay considers mindfulness practice as an integrative discipline in honors education. While exercise offers many benefits to college students, the authors maintain that the mindfulness practices of yoga, qi gong, and meditation are uniquely suited to mediate stresses on mental health and improve focus, presence, and cognitive ability. Honors practitioners are encouraged to incorporate mindfulness practice into curricula and classrooms. A review of literature in mindful awareness and meditation practice is presented.

Editor’S Introduction, Ada Long

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

In 2019, plans were well underway for the 2020 NCHC conference with the theme “Big Hearts, Big Minds.” Then came January of 2020 and the Corona virus with its vocabulary of social distancing, remote learning, the dangers of personal contact, and the importance of isolation. In addition to upending and redirecting all the conference plans that had been so carefully developed under the leadership of Suketu P. Bhavsar, the new language of COVID-19 was an assault on the very intimacy, connectedness, and close personal relationships in honors that were the theme of the conference. The virus has been an obstruction …

Student Perception And Affinity: Establishment Of An Institutional Framework For The Examination Of Underrepresented Programs Such As Agriculture In Honors, Kayla L. Kutzke, Rosemarie A. Nold, Michael G. Gonda, Alecia M. Hansen, Rebecca C. Bott

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This (2019) study assesses student perceptions of an honors college relative to other colleges in an institutional framework. Disproportionately low enrollments in honors from specific majors (particularly those in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences) prompt researchers to investigate the culture of honors, perceived curricular demands, and the relationship of honors to other colleges and the students they serve. Researchers survey honors and non-honors students (n = 259) across disciplines (n = 59) representing all academic colleges across campus. Data suggest that while a majority of students affirm their abilities to complete the honors curriculum and perceive honors …

Using Possible Selves And Intersectionality Theory To Understand Why Students Of Color Opt Out Of Honors, Cindy S. Ticknor, Andrea Dawn Frazier, Johniqua Williams, Maryah Thompson

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Honors education values diversity, not simply to enrich our classrooms but for equity and social justice. At Columbus State University, students of color were underrepresented in honors education, and we sought to determine if institutional structures hindered them from being able to access educational programming that was commensurate with their ability. We used focus group interviews with students of color who were academically eligible to enroll in honors education yet never participated. We combined focus group interviews with an analysis of our recruiting practices. Using a theoretical framework based on intersectionality and possible selves theory, we found that our participants …

Teaching As A Whole, Mollie Hartup

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Deeply ingrained in honors culture and curricula is the value of connecting with and supporting students as whole persons. This essay offers personal experiences from the perspective of a compassionate educator who invests in the whole student, exploring how authentic teaching leads to rapport and belonging in the honors community and beyond. The author suggests that honors can serve the academy as an example of how investing in the complete person is mutually beneficial.

Beyond Bookkeeping: Developing Intellectual Skills In Honors Accounting Courses, L. Benjamin Boyar

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Critical thinking skills are sharpened in an introductory accounting course requiring students to think and write about contemporary issues connected to their discipline. Students are tasked to explicate opinions involving shareholders and stakeholders as expressed in a New York Times editorial by U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer and to present an argumentative essay that demonstrates practical disciplinary competencies and understanding of procedural knowledge. The challenges and rewards of teaching writing in technical disciplines are discussed.

Teaching Critical University Studies: A First-Year Seminar To Cultivate Intentional Learners, Elizabeth Bleicher

Honors in Practice Online Archive

The first-year seminar Why Are We Here? Student Culture and the Problem of College (WAWH) helps high-achieving students become motivated agents in their education by changing attitudes toward themselves, college, and their roles as students. The author presents the intentional design, execution, analysis, and results of the WAWH seminar, a curriculum that combines content and methods from the discipline of Critical University Studies, layered high-impact practices, studentcurated and student-led discussions, and explicit instruction on metacognition in teaching and learning. The decennial study (2008–2018) involves eighteen sections and over 300 students, all with similar written assignments, reflections, and final course evaluations. …

Breaking The Rules: Bringing Calculus Into The Humanities Classroom, Brent M. Blackwell

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Calculus in an honors humanities course offers students of different learning styles, interests, and aptitudes an opportunity to understand and appreciate the full range of the humanities, including natural science and mathematics. Students investigate the intellectual history and development of the calculus by reading work by and about Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz and Sir Isaac Newton. Without having to understand any of the mathematics, students explore the rich intellectual debates that characterize the late seventeenth century and in so doing help bridge the traditional STEM-non-STEM divide that exists today.

National Security Council Role-Playing Simulation, Steve Elliott-Gower

Honors in Practice Online Archive

The first-year seminar Global Challenges fosters critical thinking by tasking honors students (n = 16) with role-playing in the Council on Foreign Relations’ Model Diplomacy program. Curricular objectives and assignments are presented.

Emphasizing Co-Curricular Experiences To Address Increasing Honors Enrollment And Diminishing Resources, Jason T. Hilton

Honors in Practice Online Archive

A program giving equal emphasis to honors coursework and targeted co-curricular experience provides one solution for a public university facing both increases in enrollment and decreases in financial resources. Undergraduate research, study abroad, and campus leadership provide high-impact experiences to students for honors credit. Measurable outcomes are presented.

On Being An Honors Dean, Andrew Martino

Honors in Practice Online Archive

The author reflects on the challenges of transitioning from faculty to firsttime dean of an honors college.

Office Hours: An Honors First-Year Experience Assignment, Cathlena Martin

Honors in Practice Online Archive

An assignment tasks students with scheduling, preparing for, and reflecting on the experience of meeting with a professor during office hours. Student expectations and experiences are presented.

The Commonplace Book Project, Kate Krueger

Honors in Practice Online Archive

A writing requirement for first-year honors students (n ≈ 250) provides a flexible format that combines primary texts, analytical skills, and personal reflection.

Brave New Worlds: Transcending The Humanities/Stem Divide Through Creative Writing, Adam Watkins, Zahra Tehrani

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Creative writing offers a critical and innovative form of inquiry promoting integrative learning that transcends disciplinary barriers. Authors first provide an overview of the scholarship on creative writing pedagogy, its unique capacity to engage a range of knowledge domains, and its significance for honors education. They then offer primary examples of incorporating creative writing projects into two honors classes that bridge STEM fields and the humanities. Analyses of student reflections (n = 35) in relation to learning outcomes strongly suggest that creative writing helps students explore course concepts through several ways of knowing—critical, situational, and affective—while fostering new perspectives on …

A Meaningful And Useful Twofer: Enhancing Honors Students’ Research Experiences While Gathering Assessment Data, Mary Scheuer Senter

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Engaging students in assessment practice benefits honors students, faculty, and administrators. Students gain meaningful research experience while honors programs receive data to help assess student learning and prepare for program review. A one-semester course, Program Evaluation Experiences, tasks students (n = 10) with collecting and analyzing data from peers and faculty and then articulating its value for their personal academic development. Qualitative and quantitative instruments and measures include an online survey (Qualtrics), personal interviews (Rev), and focus groups (rev, n = 30). Students complete various analyses of data using SPSS and NVivo. Results indicate that students’ active participation in applied …

Statistics: A Cautionary Tale, Len Zane

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Many of the numbers used to assess students are statistical in nature. The theoretical context underlying the production of a typical number or statistic used in student assessment is presented. The author urges readers to recognize objective data as subjective information and to carefully consider the numbers that often determine admission, retention, and scholarship distribution in honors.

My Life Long Dream: My Teaching And Educational Journey, Karla Torres Hernandez

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This ethnography follows my journey teaching kindergarten in the Ontario/Montclair neighborhood in San Bernardino. Its purpose is to understand the macro and micro levels of the community to inform my teaching practices and support my students and families. On a micro-level, I conducted case studies on three specific students. Data analysis of in-home interviews, personal interactions, and assessments allowed me to create action plans to best support these students’ academic, social, and emotional needs. On a macro level, I studied my students’ environments: community, school, and classroom. By analyzing whole class and individual student data and reflecting on my own …

Pandemic & Education: A Conversation Between Teacher Candidates, Jake Carlsen, Eric Jensen, Anna Krytenberg

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

When Oregon public schools closed in March 2020 due to COVID-19, Jake, Eric, and Anna were headed into the full-time student teaching segment of their year-long teacher preparation practicum experience. While everyone has faced uncertainty during the pandemic, these beginning teachers also shared unique challenges. In April they came together for a conversation with a NWJTE editor to talk about their experiences, the obstacles and opportunities facing schools right now, and their hopes for their students and themselves. All three envision a 2020-2021 school year focused on equity, inclusivity, and the importance of access for all children.

Reconceptualizing College Impact Studies Through A Fractal Assemblage Theory, Laura Elizabeth Smithers

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

College impact studies have formed the common sense of understanding institutional relationships to student growth and change for decades. In this time, they have become entangled with the production of the neoliberal university. This paper¹ presents an alternative theorization of student change on campus, a fractal assemblage theory. Assemblage theory is discussed through a single common language of major assemblage theory concepts across four authors. After exploring these concepts in depth, this paper returns to the stakes of assemblage theory: higher education research not to channel student to predetermined outcomes, but to create student futures in excess of our …

Draft: Purposeful, Intentional, And Integrative Organization For Liberal Studies And Liberal Arts Eportfolios So As To Maintain High Impact Practice Effectiveness, Kelly L. Straight

Workshops & Institutes

Draft for the purposeful, intentional, and integrative organization and use of ePortfolios within Liberal Studies and Liberal Arts so as to serve as an interdisciplinary space for Lifelong Learning and Reflection whereby a student engages in common intellectual experiences (HIP) within a learning community (HIP) across the curriculum so as to identify and position the self as a scholar, advocate, and (where appropriate) as an educator (i.e. Liberal Studies/Arts as an Intellectual Identity: what is means and why it matters).

The Grizzly, December 5, 2019, Kevin Leon, Kim Corona, Madison Rodak, Jenni Berrios, Garrett Bullock, Emma Kramer, Thomas Garlick

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Ursinus Cancels Swimming Seasons After Hazing Investigation • Students Detail Harassment on Main Street • Summer Internship Tips with CPD • Get to Know: Spring Break Service Trip • Opinion: Ursinus' Judicial System is Broken • Q&A with Senior Linebacker Jake McCain • Women's Basketball Walk-on Proves She is More Than Just a Baller

Jnchc Front & Back Matter, Vol. 20, No 2, Fall/Winter 2019

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Cover

Masthead

Contents

Call for Papers, Editorial Policy, & Submission Guidelines

Dedication -- Art L. Spisak

About the Authors

About the NCHC Monograph Series

Order form

Back cover