Honors Course Research Articles

Using an opportunity-propensity framework to estimate individual-, classroom-, and school-level predictors of middle school science achievement

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (N=4447), this analysis employs an opportunity-propensity (O-P) framework (Byrnes, 2003; Byrnes & Miller, 2007; Byrnes & Wasik 2009) to examine the influence of multiple student, teacher, classroom, and school factors on eighth-grade science achievement. Saçkes, Trundle, Bell, and O’Connell (2011) fit an O-P structural equation model (SEM) to the same database to explain science achievement growth from Kindergarten to third grade. We extend this work by fitting an O-P SEM to this database to predict science achievement growth from fifth to eighth grade. This middle school model includes an opportunity variable – science curriculum track placement – that operates only in middle and high school. This variable and the school’s poverty rate are significant predictors of several opportunity factors. We replicate previous findings that propensity factors are the strongest determinants of science achievement, notably prior achievement. However, we find more opportunity factors than previous studies that are also significant. Other things being equal, having a state-certified teacher is the second strongest predictor of achievement within the model. Placement in a science honors course and being enrolled in a low income school are also linked to small but significant impacts on science achievement.

Rigor and Relevance: A Teacher Research Study on Using Young Adult Literature in Detracked Secondary English Language Arts Courses

This article explores how three students who would not have qualified for honors-level curriculum under a tracked model performed in detracked English Language Arts (ELA) courses. Our teacher research study was guided by the following question: How can the incorporation of young adult literature (YAL) in a detracked ELA honors course affect the experiences of students who would not have qualified for honors curriculum under a tracked model? We found that the incorporation of YAL helped students explore diverse ideas and expanded their capacity to think, read, and write critically. This study has implications for broader conversations relating to detracking policies and initiatives. Providing rigor and relevance for all students in a detracked course is an important step in ensuring success for diverse student populations.

A course for developing interprofessional skills in pre-professional honor students using humanities and media

Background and purposeTo design and implement an undergraduate honors course for pre-health professional students that develops interpersonal skills through use of a variety of humanities. Educational activity and settingA three credit hour course in an honors seminar sequence was developed by pharmacy practice faculty and with input from faculty in mass communications, philosophy, applied communication studies and history. The course utilized a variety of media such as literature, film, and podcasts to foster student discussion about a variety of health-related topics. Topics included public health, stigmatization, portrayals of health care providers, patient experiences, health care ethics, aging, and death and dying. Students were assessed using pre-class assignments and reflective writings as well as a formal written and oral presentation on a selected health-related book. A quasi-experimental design was used to assess the impact of the course on desired course outcomes. FindingsThe first course offering was to 22 undergraduate pre-health professional honors students. Pre- and post-course surveys on students’ perceptions and students’ reflective writings revealed achievement of desired course outcomes. Post-course evaluations also revealed positive perceptions about the course. DiscussionThe design of this course provided an outlet for students to read and enjoy various forms of media, while also meeting its goal of exposing students to a variety of humanities. The course allowed students to think critically about various health care issues, and to begin to develop interpersonal skills. SummaryThe course could be adapted for pharmacy by developing affective domains of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Standards.

Undergraduate Rigor Scores: Do They Predict Achievement in Veterinary School?

The relations between potential indicators of undergraduate rigor and subsequent achievement in professional school are not clear; some studies have shown that greater undergraduate selectivity is associated with greater achievement in medical science programs, while others have not. We sought to determine the extent to which indicators of undergraduate rigor were associated with achievement in veterinary school. Participants were graduates from three cohorts. The predictors were undergraduate GPA (UGPA), plus five rigor scores-degree or number of undergraduate credits, number of honors courses, number of withdrawals from or repeats of prerequisite science courses, number of part-time semesters, and ratio of community college credits to total college credits. The outcomes were the veterinary medicine cumulative GPA (CVM GPA), Qualifying Exam scores, and North American Veterinary Licensing Exam scores. Using correlations corrected for range restriction, we regressed each outcome on the five rigor scores and UGPA for each of the three graduating cohorts. In most cases, indicators of undergraduate rigor did not predict subsequent achievement in veterinary school; however, in two comparisons, number of honors courses taken as an undergraduate predicted subsequent achievement. UGPA, as expected, predicted CVM GPA. Admissions committees may want to reevaluate whether they include undergraduate rigor when considering admission to their programs, with the caveat that our findings are specific to our institution and are not generalizable.

School Tracking and Youth Self-Perceptions: Implications for Academic and Racial Identity.

School tracking creates vast differential learning and schooling opportunities that lead to different academic trajectories. Black adolescents are disproportionally placed in nonhonors tracks possibly compromising their racial and academic identity. Interviews with 20 socioeconomically diverse 12 to 13 year old Black seventh graders revealed that narratives about racial and academic identity vary by track placement. Although most adolescents held negative perceptions about students enrolled in nonhonors courses, students in nonhonors seemed to view the negative perceptions of their classmates as reflections of themselves as Black people and as students. In contrast, adolescents in honors courses viewed these negative perceptions as limited to students in nonhonors. They reported having a greater connection to academics and viewed themselves as positive representatives of Blackness.

Preparing Students for Global Citizenship: The Effects of a Dutch Undergraduate Honors Course

Using a mixed method approach, this case study investigates effects on the participating students (N = 25) of an undergraduate honors course in the Netherlands, aimed at global justice citizenship. Knowledge about effects of global citizenship courses is still limited. The Ethical Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire and the Global Citizenship Scale were used in a pre‐ and posttest design to measure possible development in the moral and civic domain among the participants of the course. In the qualitative part, deductive content analyses of students’ work and students’ written reflection on the course, utilizing the theory‐based curriculum guidelines Global Justice Citizenship Education, were performed. In addition, a follow‐up blog and interview were analyzed to learn students’ perception on the effects of the course after half a year. Quantitative results show increased ethical sensitivity as well as global civic engagement and global competence among the participants. Qualitative results point in the same direction and provide deeper insights in the content of students’ learning and the perceived impact of the course on their attitudes and behavior. Results are discussed in relation to theory on justice‐oriented global citizenship and honors pedagogies.

How Science and Math Teachers Address Different Course Levels: Advanced Placement (AP), Honors, and Regular

The purpose of this study was to examine how practices and attitudes of high school teachers vary when comparing Advanced Placement (AP) courses to regular and honors track courses. The sample included science (n = 85) and math (n = 58) teachers who taught both an AP course and either a regular or honors course. These teachers indicated their pedagogical beliefs, the emphasis placed on different learning goals, the frequency of practices, and student autonomy. Unsurprisingly, teachers reported having AP students practice for standardized tests and learn test-taking strategies significantly more often than students in regular or honors track classes. Teachers also emphasized homework more often in AP than regular courses, and they gave students assessments requiring constructed responses to AP students more often than students enrolled in their regular classes. Interestingly, science teachers indicated having significantly less control in determining goals and selecting topics in AP classes compared to regular or honors, while math teachers indicated often having significantly more control in AP than in regular courses. Greatest differences were found between AP and regular math courses. Teachers reported differing goals and practices that imply AP math courses integrate more student engagement, promote greater depth of understanding, and better prepare students for further study. Results also underscore the importance for researchers to understand which students are being considered when teachers participate in research.

Detracked — And going strong

In 2010, Evanston Township High School in suburban Chicago, Ill., dramatically changed its freshman year for incoming students. The school detracked freshman English, history, and biology courses for the vast majority of students, thus removing barriers for historically under-represented student groups and providing greater access and opportunity to all. Central to the school’s approach was increasing the critical mass of diverse students in AP and honors courses. Five years later, the results are in: On ACT and AP scores, as well as in AP attendance, the school is posting the highest numbers ever.

His Father’s Son?

The play Philoctetes, by Sophocles, and the Aeneid, Vergil’s epic, are parts of the same homeric tradition; responses to ancient poetry afforded practically divine status. This paper is primarily interested in how these authors explore their reception of this tradition through Neoptolemus’ acceptance or rejection of his inheritance; what he may choose to emulate from the person of Achilles, and what they in turn wish to take from the work of Homer. This exploration is particularly concerned with the anxieties of their own times, and a uniting desire to consider conflict and its effect on culture and populace through literary forms. This paper was originally written for the honours course Homer and his readers, taught by Dr Hau and Dr Chadha of the Classics department, and seeks to engage with the same issues of historiography, intent and intertext.

Exploring Classroom Community: A Social Network Study of Reacting to the Past

In this exploratory social network study, we examined how student relationships evolved during three month-long Reacting to the Past (RTTP) role-playing games in a lower division honors course at a large US public university. Our purpose was to explore how RTTP games—and collaborative learning approaches more generally—impact classroom community in college courses. We found that both acquaintance and friendship ties between students increased dramatically during the game, eliminating student isolation without tending to create new cliques. These added ties made acquaintance and friendship networks simultaneously denser and more inclusive than they were before the game. We conclude by advancing a hypothesis about the network effects of intensive peer interaction. Collaborative learning approaches like RTTP, we suggest, produce high-density networks with limited clustering because structured peer interactions cut across existing or naturally occurring clique boundaries.

Students Taking Numerous Honours Courses in High School Have Higher Information Literacy Levels

A Review of:
 Fabbi, J. L. (2015). Fortifying the pipeline: A quantitative exploration of high school factors impacting the information literacy of first-year college students. College & Research Libraries, 76(1), 31-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/crl.76.1.31 
 
 Abstract
 
 Objective – To assess the impact of students’ high school performances on the development of their information literacy (IL) competency.
 
 Design – Statistical analysis of test performance.
 
 Setting – A large public university in the United States of America.
 
 Subjects – 93 first-time college freshmen. Of these, 46% had been admitted on a probationary status due to GPA under the required 3.0 (“alternate admits”), and 61% had not declared a major (“exploring majors”). 39% identified as Caucasian, 25% as Hispanic, 22% as African American, and 15% as Asian. 84% declared that their best language was English only.
 
 Methods – Participants were self-selected freshmen who enrolled into programs offered by the university’s Academic Success Center. They took the iSkills test, an online evaluation of information literacy competencies developed by the Educational Testing Service, and provided background data on their high school experience. Using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, the researcher evaluated predictors of iSkills score variance among a range of high school experiences: core high school GPA, number of honours classes taken in high school, and number of research projects or assignments in high school. The analysis controlled for gender, best language, race, and admission status as either alternate admit or exploring major.
 
 Main Results – Participants’ mean iSkills scores was below the minimum passing score for the test. There was a significant positive correlation between iSkills scores and exploring major status, core high school GPA, and having taken 5 to 12 honours courses. There was a negative correlation between iSkills scores and language other than English, Asian race, alternate admission status, and having had 1 to 4 honours courses. Among the background variables, the most significant predictor of a student’s iSkills score was his or her best language, followed by race. After controlling for these variables, the most important factors were students’ high school GPAs and the number of honors courses taken.
 
 Conclusion – The researcher discovered that the number of honours courses taken in high school is a strong predictor of information literacy competency as measured by the iSkills test. This remains true when controlling for race and other background factors. This finding is consistent with the assumption that high school teachers of honours courses believe their students to be capable of learning higher-order skills and therefore adopt a constructivist pedagogy, and that such pedagogy promotes the development of information literacy skills. Yet the number of high school research projects or assignments could not be statistically correlated to information literacy competency. In subsequent focus groups, students who had taken fewer honours courses expressed test anxiety, while students who had taken numerous honours courses expressed their determination to get the correct answer. This may inform one surprising result of the study: that students who took 13 or more honours courses in high school did not score significantly better on the iSkills test than those who took 5 to 12 courses.

Can College Outreach Programs Improve College Readiness? The Case of the College Bound, St. Louis Program

In the past decade, there has been a proliferation of community- and school-based college readiness programs designed to increase the participation of students who have traditionally been underrepresented in higher education. However, few of these college readiness programs have been empirically evaluated. This study examines the impact of one such intervention, the College Bound, St. Louis (CB) program. Using propensity weighting and doubly robust modeling, we found CB participants were more likely to reach proficiency on the End of Course exams, to obtain at least a B grade in a number of foundational college courses, to take more AP or honors courses, and to attend a 4-year postsecondary institution than similarly situated non-participants. Future directions for evaluating similar college readiness programs are discussed.

Barriers and enablers of James Cook University Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery graduates pursuing a research career.

The period 2000-2011 has seen a decline in medical graduates participating in research. However, significant change has taken place in recent years at the James Cook University (JCU), with a sharp increase in medical graduates enrolling in the Honours course. Our study aims to explore the involvement of JCU medical graduates in research, including 'barriers' and 'enablers' of this involvement. Cross-sectional questionnaire to the first six cohorts of JCU medical graduates. Survey distributed online via SurveyMonkey to graduates who had previously consented to be contacted for future studies. Three hundred thirty-eight early-career doctors from PGY (postgraduate year) 4 to PGY9 (n = 185, response rate = 55%). Current research participation. Fifty-six (30%) of the responding 185 JCU medical graduates were currently undertaking research. Graduates who completed an Honours degree by research (P = 0.001) and students who received some form of research training and mentoring during their undergraduate studies(P = 0.024) were statistically more likely to be currently involved in research. Vocational training requirements were both a significant barrier and enabler to research participation. Participation in the Honours program and receiving training and mentoring during undergraduate studies predict future research involvement by JCU medical graduates. However, many postgraduate barriers for involvement in research exist. This study highlights potential areas for improving medical graduate involvement in research, including medical schools promoting student research training and mentoring in their curriculum, and specialty colleges incorporating a research component in their selection or training requirements.

Student and teacher co-navigation of a course: following the natural lines of academic enquiry

Using the mountaineering metaphor of ‘natural lines’ this article describes the co-navigation of an honours course by students and teachers. It suggests the benefits and possibilities of going beyond the confines of conventional teaching and learning wisdom (as canonised in the notion of constructive alignment) and offering just and joyful ways for students to explore disciplinary knowledge. We openly explore issues of power between students and teachers in the construction of so-called partnerships, recognising the inherent challenges in moving beyond the prevailing mainstream. We suggest that a natural lines approach enables students to act as genuine co-navigators and to experience disciplinary knowledge in authentic ways and provides rich opportunities for personal reflection and development.

Comparing Weighted and Unweighted Grade Point Averages in Predicting College Success of Diverse and Low-Income College Students

While research has shown the statistical significance of high school grade point averages (HSGPAs) in predicting future academic outcomes, the systems with which HSGPAs are calculated vary drastically across schools. Some schools employ unweighted grades that carry the same point value regardless of the course in which they are earned; other schools use weighting systems that assign greater value to grades earned in honors courses. Due to these inconsistencies, comparison of HSGPAs from different schools is difficult or impossible. We coded 710 transcripts from undergraduate students involved in the Joint Admissions Medical Program in Texas. All grades were standardized on an unweighted 4.0 scale in order to compare the effectiveness of weighted and unweighted HSGPAs. Using multiple regression and multiple logistic regression models, we were able to determine the predictive power of HSGPAs on four outcomes: college grade point average (CGPA), Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) scores, the likelihood of students taking the MCAT, and the likelihood of students graduating from medical school. Our results demonstrated that unweighted HSGPAs were better predictors of CGPA, but that neither type of HSGPA was a useful predictor for the other outcomes. We recommend discontinuation of the use of weighted HSGPAs in assessing the likelihood of student success in higher education.

Holistic Integration of Crystallography in Undergraduate Chemistry

One of the criteria for the evaluation of undergraduate instructors by their students is often "Did the instructor stimulate my interest in the subject matter of the course?" Instillation of passion in science for undergraduates can start with passionate instructors. It was with this reasoning, and the impetus of the International Year of Crystallography, that I undertook the holistic redesign of a required third year Honours course on Chemical Literature and Scientific Communication at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Waterloo, ON, Canada. The course outcomes were based on recommendations for information literacy [1], and included the analysis of complex ethical problems, understanding the organization of the library, and the demonstration of critical thinking by evaluation of information from literature, and with help from university librarians and learning services, the broad exploration of crystallography was integrated throughout. The students were then tasked to share their new skills in communication, and knowledge of crystallography, in a public poster conference, attended by 400 first year science undergraduates. This talk will highlight the impact of peer-share crystallographic education, as well as other integral activities in first year introductory and senior inorganic chemistry courses.

Creative experiences in an interdisciplinary Honors course on mathematics in music

I present six “Creative Experiences” that serve as culminating activities for each of the main units of study in an undergraduate interdisciplinary Honors course of my own design, “Mathematics in Music.” I discuss the rationale and philosophy behind the Creative Experiences, and provide a description and examples of each one. I conclude with some reflections on features that make the Creative Experiences effective learning tools. Supplemental online material for this article can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17459737.2014.936916.

Developing and Teaching an Honors Calculus Course in a Community College


 
 
 In this work, we will describe our individual educational journeys as instructors of this specific course and relate our experiences to other mathematics courses we teach as well as to honors course offerings in other disciplines at our college. Upon reflection, we hope to provide some helpful suggestions, both practical and pedagogical, to those faculty members who intend to design and offer an honors course at our college as well as other community colleges across the nation.
 
 

Learning quantum chemistry via a visual-conceptual approach: students' bidirectional textual and visual understanding

Most undergraduate chemistry courses and a few high school honors courses, which focus on physical chemistry and quantum mechanics, are highly mathematically-oriented. At the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, we developed a new module for high school students, titledChemistry – From “the Hole” to “the Whole”: From the Nanoscale to Microelectronics. The module is based on a qualitative approach to teaching quantum chemistry, emphasizing interdisciplinary real-life applications and integration of visualization. While aimed at honors high school chemistry students, the module was also partially implemented and assessed in an undergraduate chemistry course. The research objective was to investigate the effect of the module on the visual and textual understanding of quantum mechanical concepts among 122 honors and 65 volunteer undergraduate chemistry students. The research tools included students' pre- and post-questionnaires. High school honors and undergraduate students, who were exposed to the module, significantly improved their textual and visual understanding of quantum mechanical concepts and their ability to move across illustrations and explanations. Honors and undergraduate students minimized the gap that had existed between them in terms of integrating micro and quantum levels into their post-questionnaire answers. Our findings augment the current set of the four chemistry understanding levels – macro, micro, symbol and process – by adding the quantum mechanical level as a fifth level of chemistry understanding. The study contributes to teaching physical chemistry by providing a tool for learning, assessment, and research of chemistry understandingviaboth visual and textual modes.

How to persuade honors students to go the extra mile: creating a challenging learning environment

Although universities aim to challenge high-ability students to develop their talents to the full, the question of how to create such challenges remains unanswered. In this study, we examined six different honors courses to discover which factors in the learning environment specifically designed for high-ability students challenged these students and determined how such challenges were established. Perceived challenges (factors and intensity) in the different courses were identified from focus group interviews with students. The interviews were guided by a storyline method which retrospectively discussed students’ experiences of course activities. In addition, course materials and audio-recorded classes were analyzed to describe how challenge was established. Results revealed three challenge factors: autonomy, complexity, and teacher expectations, similar to the ones found in a previous, single-case study. Results showed that the greatest challenge was experienced when the three factors were simultaneously experienced in the learning environment. These three challenge factors were manifested in various and sometimes very subtle ways through course design (e.g. open structure of assignments) and class interactions (e.g. particular ways of questioning).