The quality of an honors seminar reflects more than the course content and the instructor's preferred style. It is largely a function of the extent to which the instructor attends to small-group processes, and group dynamics research offers leadership ideas. (MSE)

Independent study, fieldwork, and peer teaching are particularly well suited to helping outstanding students learn, interact collaboratively, and become contributing members of the academic community. Study options, elements of a study contract, and other components are described. (MSE)

The need to expand the traditional definitions and identification processes for selecting honors students is emphasized, and a set of principles for selecting participants is suggested. (MSE)

The development of intellectually challenging and personally supportive faculty-student relationships outside of formal learning contexts is crucial to excellence in honors-level education, and can be fostered through a faculty advising and mentor program. (MSE)

Although honors education can be a key to the liberation of women and minorities, both groups continue to be underrepresented, perhaps because bright women and minority students are uncomfortable displaying their talents and adding pressure in an already stressful situation. (MSE)

The similarities and differences in college honors programs' objectives, design, administration, finance, recruiting, and public recognition are discussed as a starting point for comparing programs and determining what kind of college program works best. (MSE)

Honors programs are reviewed that use diversity in presentation, approach, and educational context to foster intellectual development. They individualize instruction and encourage students both to form partnerships in learning and to develop their own strategies for integrating information. (MSE)

An examination of the different ways in which the honors concept has been adapted from its elitist British university origins and of the assumptions underlying those adaptations reveals both the virtues and the problems inherent in the Americanization of honors. (Author/MSE)

The steady emergence of small-college honors programs in the early 1970s and the subsequent rapid growth of community college honors programs after 1978 are reviewed. The many successes in these colleges to capitalize on their existing strengths have avoided the problems of larger, university programs. (Author/MSE)

The role of honors programs as models and resources for all college education is described, and a comprehensive set of 22 recommendations for fostering excellence in every higher education unit is provided. (Author)