Abstract
Honors programs are frequently regarded as inspiring for redesigning curricula in higher education that incorporate 21st century skills. This explorative study focuses on eliciting students’ perceptions regarding their learning gains related to these skills in honors programs. Results demonstrated high learning gains. Moreover, based on students’ insights, each honors program can be characterized by its own profile regarding the type of 21st century skills. Further, in two honors programs students were asked to compare their learning gains with the perceived learning in their regular program. The majority of students emphasized that their skills were highly promoted in their honors program in comparison with their regular program. Finally, students suggested varying possibilities to incorporate honors activities in their regular program. However, from a curriculum design perspective, adjustments are needed to fit the regular groups of students.
Highlights
Are honors programs forerunners for 21st century skills? In interviews in a preceding project, ‘The Honours Experience’ (Van Eijl & Pilot, 2016), some honors students mentioned that honors programs are the future for education
For this reason a first exploration is needed to better understand the problem of what knowledge, skills and attitudes will be necessary in the 21st century curricula in higher education. The results of this exploration can provide a starting point for more detailed and quantitative studies in the different disciplines and cultural contexts. This leads to two goals: 1. to explore the degree in which honors students were stimulated to learn 21st century skills in their honors programs and to ask honors students to compare this to their regular program
2. to discover what honors students think about incorporation of honors activities into their regular program. We focused in this exploration on teachers and students of honors programs in the Netherlands, because we found many curriculum goals, activities and experiences that were linked to discussions in the literature about 21st century skills and the future of the labor market for graduates of higher education in these programs in a previous study
Summary
In interviews in a preceding project, ‘The Honours Experience’ (Van Eijl & Pilot, 2016), some honors students mentioned that honors programs are the future for education. Sometimes they have learned typical 21st century skills to a much higher degree than in their regular programs. Honors students of universities of applied sciences experience showed a relatively strong development of their leadership competencies. To get a better picture of these important skills, we started a project to explore to what degree honors students gained relatively more 21st century skills in their honors programs compared to their regular programs. Questionnaires and observations were used to explore their learning gains and ideas about these skills
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
