A Continuation of Chapter 4
and
Chapter 5
This session 3 ran way too quickly for us!! I raised the question several times that Chapter 4 both implies and directly handles:
Is an Honors class the terrain for social justice, civic engagement, and democratic undertakings—dialogics and the politics of?
Jim Knauer, the author of Chapter 4 (see session 2 for title) seems to hang his hat on this focus. Next semester, we as a group, committed ourselves to looking specifically at what constitues his “Democracy Lab.” We need more time to look at the specifics of his pedagogy.
As for Chapter 5, we began to discuss motivational issues related to the academic performance of Honors students, though Larry Clark, the author of this essay (see session 2 for title) admits that there is very sparse work on this topic on/at the post-secondary level. He notes that “motivationally gifted students”: show higher achievement, self concept, and post-secondary educational progress. Clark looks at 4 trajectories that gifted students might follow:
- intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
- developing sense of self
- personal qualities of gifted learners
- special issues—performance among females.
Different faculty members in the group were going to expound upon the core of the sections above, but time ran out. Here is where we will pick up the discussion next semester after catching up on the “Democratic Lab.”
A productive Honors Education FIG group!!
