Do honors students have more potential for excellence in their professional lives?
Karin Scager
0
1
Sanne F. Akkerman
0
1
Fried Keesen
0
1
M. Tim Mainhard
0
1
Albert Pilot
0
1
Theo Wubbels
0
1
0
M. Tim Mainhard T. Wubbels Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University
, P.O. Box 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht,
The Netherlands
1
F. Keesen University College Utrecht, Utrecht University
, P.O. Box 80145, 3508 TC Utrecht,
The Netherlands
Universities in many countries increasingly value talent, and do so by developing special honors programs for their top students. The selection process for these programs often relies on the students' prior achievements in school. Research has shown, however, that school grades do not sufficiently predict academic success. According to Renzulli's (1986) three-ring model, student characteristics relating to intelligence, motivation and creativity are the most important predictors of excellent achievements in professional life. In this paper, we will investigate whether honors students differ from non-honors students in terms of these characteristics. By means of a questionnaire, more than 1,100 honors and non-honors students at Utrecht University were asked to assess themselves on six characteristics: intelligence, creative thinking, openness to experience, the desire to learn, persistence, and the drive to excel. The results showed that the honors students differed significantly from the non-honors students in terms of the combined variables as well as for the separate variables, with the exception of 'persistence'. The strongest distinguishing factors between honors and non-honors students appeared to be the desire to learn, the drive to excel and creativity, whilst there was little difference in terms of intelligence and persistence. However, the profiles of these differences varied according to the study program. While Law and Humanities honors students differed from their nonhonors peers in terms of their drive to excel, Physics honors students were primarily more eager to learn than their non-honors peers, while the LA&S honors students scored higher on creative thinking than non-honors students.
-
Universities in many countries increasingly value talent, and do so by developing special
honors programs for their top students. The objective of these programs is to provide
opportunities for students to develop their talents to the full, enabling them to make
significant contributions to science and society. Honors students are assumed to have the
potential to excel in their future professional lives. It is, however, unclear whether and to
what extent these honors students do indeed have this potential in comparison to
nonhonors students. In contrast with the huge body of research on giftedness in primary and
secondary education, empirical research on talent in higher education is surprisingly scarce
(Achterberg 2005; Clark 2000; Long and Lange 2002; Rinn and Plucker 2004). This is
remarkable given the growth of programs specifically designed for groups of students who
are assumed to be academically talented. Universities often select honors students based on
their grades in secondary education and their level of motivation. In his review of the
relationship between grades attained at school or at university and adult accomplishment,
Hoyt (1966) concluded that grades have hardly any relationship with any measure of future
achievement. Twenty years later, Cohen (1984) found similar results in his meta-analysis,
indicating that the predictive value of grades for professional success is small. Taylor et al.
(1985) came to the same conclusion, demonstrating that grades and standardized tests can
predict future grades, but that they do not predict professional excellence. High school
grade point averages (GPAs) are used as predictors, as well as scores on scholastic aptitude
tests (SATs) and letters of recommendation (Rinn and Plucker 2004). The area of the
selection process, which is based on motivation, can be either active, by means of letters
and interviews, or passive, relying on the self-selection of the students.
However, it is questionable whether it is safe to trust these selection methods. We do not
know whether these selection methods supply honors programs with students who are
significantly more motivated than non-honors students are. Furthermore, not all of the
students who are qualified apply for the honors program or college, and a number of them
end up in regular programs. Thus, even if application forms, letters, and interviews are
used as evidence of motivation, we cannot know whether honors students are more
motivated than their non-honors peers.
This study investigates whether honors students differ from non-honors students with
respect to qualities that have been found to be essential for exceptional accomplishments in
professional life. Further, we examine which of these qualities primarily differentiate
between honors and non-honors students.
Empirical evidence regarding the specific qualities of honors students is needed i (...truncated)