The primary goal of the study presented in this dissertation is to describe 11th-graders' understandings, through different representations, of: (1) the definition of function, (2) the production of a function, and (3) the interpretation of a function. In addition, this dissertation seeks to describe the relationship between 11th-graders' scores…

University honors programs emerged in the 1920s, growing to over 1,000 programs in existence today. Honors programs provide enhanced educational opportunities to students who excel academically. University honors students are experts who effectively apply metacognitive knowledge, strategies, and experiences to enhance academic behavior. Although…

This paper describes a series of laboratory exercises for upper level biology courses, independent research and/or honors programs. Students sampled fish from a local water body with the assistance of a local fish and wildlife agency. Tissue samples from collected fish were utilized to obtain estimates of the stable isotopes delta[superscript 13]C…

Technology facilitated teaching and learning can now influence the way both lecturers and students collaborate. The problem is that many of these interventions are conducted in a non-systematic ad-hoc way. There are concerns that merely adopting a traditional lecturing approach to a technology based environment provides little if any advantage to…

Self-reflective writing is one method of inquiring into one's inner experience of learning. But what aspects of self are honors students invited to reflect on when they are asked to write informally in their notebooks on what they've just heard or read? Are they asked to explore their "thoughts" and "feelings"?…

Public schools are examining their policies and instructional practices to address the achievement gap exposed by the reporting requirements of NCLB (Wenglinski, 2004). As accountability measures and stakes rise, there is a call for an improved use of scientific evidence to inform educational policymaking (Wiseman, 2010). In terms of the…

For students who have experienced higher education (HE) in the further education (FE) sector, the transfer to an HE institution (HEI) to complete an honours degree can bring many challenges. The transition for some can be difficult, as students cope with crossing both institutional and programme boundaries, whilst also negotiating a new academic…

The first Western honors program to be established in the Arab Gulf is offered in Doha, Qatar, on a small satellite campus of an American university. Doha is the capital city of Qatar, a sovereign Arab state physically located on a small peninsula bordering Saudi Arabia in the south and jutting into the Persian Gulf. With a population of only 1.7…

In "Costs and Benefits in the Economy of Honors," Richard Badenhausen identifies several pressing issues regarding the economic status of honors in the current financial climate of higher education, including the role of faculty in addressing those issues. In her response to Badenhausen's essay, Annmarie Guzy, a faculty member at the…

The Community Based Learning (CBL) Certificate and the Civic Honors Program provide unique opportunities for students to receive college credit for their civic participation. The authors describe these programs and the historical and administrative changes at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, which created an environment for their development…

The community college mission has been the subject of considerable review and commentary since its conception. Based on traditional concerns of access, a consensus has largely been reached regarding the inclusion of transfer, career, developmental, and community foci within a comprehensive community college. While concerns regarding access and…

Honors students are, almost by definition, committed to excellence. As a result, they tend to be overextended (Guzy). They also "tend to be more eager, exploratory, and experienced than their non-honors counterparts" (Achterberg 77). They typically take a full load of coursework while at the same time juggling clubs, learning…

Honours research projects in the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering at the University of Adelaide are run with small groups of students working with an academic supervisor in a chosen area for one year. The research project is mainly self-directed study, which makes it very difficult to fairly assess the contribution of…

"Building Bridges," describes the use of the "city as text" for high school students in their first experience of a college course. This article is timely, in that many of the classes and workshops that were held as part of the recent NDEO conference in New York City (June, 2009) accessed the city itself as the learning…

Student success and the "completion agenda" are important issues in higher education today (Complete College America). For honors programs and colleges, understanding and advancing these issues requires data-driven approaches tailored to the unique honors student population and broader institutional contexts. Honors faculty and…