ERIC Number: EJ1256333
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1559-0143
EISSN: N/A
Best Practices in Honors Pedagogy: Teaching Innovation and Community Engagement through Design Thinking
Chaney, Beth H.; Christensen, Tim W.; Crawford, Alleah; Ford, Katherine; Godwin, W. Wayne; Weckesser, Gerald; Fraley, Todd; Little, Phoenix
Honors in Practice, v16 p71-92 2020
Honors colleges aim to provide unique first-year experiences that promote life skills and emphasize process over product in an interdisciplinary setting that builds community. A two-semester, five-semester-hour course sequence with colloquia tackles these challenges by introducing an entrepreneurial mindset that pushes students toward innovative understanding and building of community. The first iteration includes an introduction to design thinking; identification of wicked problems; collection of data using immersion experiences, interviews, and literature review; and experiments (n = 35) in project-based entrepreneurial methodologies using "Lean LaunchPad." The second iteration involves assessment, applied qualitative analysis, out-of-class learning, and peer mentoring. Results provide a framework for developing innovative thinking, an entrepreneurial mindset, and community engagement among first-year students--a design that, the authors conclude, has not only developed in students specific, non-academic skills (such as resiliency and creative self-confidence) but effectively doubled the size (as mandated by the university) of the first-year class. Implications for future iterations are considered, calling for strengthening administrative support, increasing academic/community partnership, and sustaining funding beyond the first year.
Descriptors: Best Practices, Honors Curriculum, Design, Thinking Skills, College Freshmen, First Year Seminars, Entrepreneurship, Sense of Community, Problem Solving, Social Problems, Innovation, School Community Relationship, Teamwork, Skill Development, College Faculty, Research Projects, Interdisciplinary Approach
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
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: North Carolina
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A