Building a Vibrant Honors Community among Commuter Students

Autor/inn/en	van Ginkel, Stan; van Eijl, Pierre; Pilot, Albert; Zubizarreta, John
Titel	Building a Vibrant Honors Community among Commuter Students
Quelle	In: Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, 13 (2012) 2, S.197-218 (22 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1559-0151
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Honors Curriculum; Commuting Students; College Students; Discovery Processes; Mixed Methods Research; Interviews; Case Studies; Interdisciplinary Approach; Social Networks; Student Motivation; Sense of Community; Educational Attitudes; Interpersonal Relationship; Communities of Practice; Program Implementation; Netherlands; United States + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Pendler; Collegestudent; Interviewing; Interviewtechnik; Case study; Fallstudie; Case Study; Fächerübergreifender Unterricht; Fächerverbindender Unterricht; Interdisziplinarität; Social network; Soziales Netzwerk; Schulische Motivation; Educational attitude; Bildungsverhalten; Erziehungseinstellung; Interpersonal relation; Interpersonal relations; Interpersonelle Beziehung; Zwischenmenschliche Beziehung; Community; Niederlande; USA
Abstract	Research has shown that honors programs often provide active networks of students that contribute to the development of the students' talents (De Boer & van Eijl; van Eijl, Pilot & Wolfensberger). These contact networks are also described as "learning communities" (Wilson et al.) and "honors communities" (van Eijl, Pilot & Wolfensberger). Such communities foster productive interaction among students, teachers, and other professionals during their affiliation with the program and beyond. As a result of such connections, students discover new learning opportunities and gain experience in organizational and leadership skills. In honors programs, in particular, these contacts are an essential component of what defines and separates honors activities as special enhancements of a student's overall educational experience (van Eijl, Wolfensberger & Pilot). Our study focuses on design principles, key characteristics, strategies, and successful examples that characterize the development of honors communities. We focus particularly on commuter students because they comprise the majority of honors students in the Netherlands. Nearly all universities in the Netherlands are city universities, where students either rent rooms in the neighborhood or live at home. One of the challenges for an honors director is to create a vibrant honors community within this specific context. We make the assumption that for commuter students a more careful and intentional implementation of an honors community is necessary because most students leave campus when classes are finished (Jacoby). And, as Kuh, Gonyea and Palmer found in their research, commuter students are overall less engaged than students who live on campus. Extra activities have to be organized and strategically timed to suit these students, and the challenge is complicated by competition with numerous other events taking place in the city. Our study analyzes five different honors communities of commuter students in order to suggest some best practices for creating maximum benefits for students. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	National Collegiate Honors Council. 1100 Neihardt Residence Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 540 North 16th Street, Lincoln, NE 68588. Tel: 402-472-9150; Fax: 402-472-9152; e-mail: nchc@unl.edu; Web site: http://nchchonors.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01