5 Year Vision Statement

Implemented December 4, 2003

 

 

Goals of the Honors Program: The educational goals of the University Honors Program centers around the development and implementation of Critical Thinking Skills in all of our students. Courses and curricula are designed to give University Honors students higher order thinking skills. These skills will make our students more successful in their post-BGSU years. The University Honors Program houses the premier students on campus. The University Honors students engage in inquiry based learning, become leaders on campus, almost exclusively participate in in-depth undergraduate research and garner academic achievement for BGSU. It is through these premiere students and revolutionary educational methods that BGSU can transform its current status and become the Premiere Learning Community of Ohio and the Nation.

 

In order to achieve these goals, the following initiatives are being developed.

 

á       Core Required Curricula for all Freshmen. All freshmen will be required to take an introductory two semester sequence of courses. The first course (Introduction to Critical Thinking) will establish the fundamental skills and attributes of critical thinking and critical thinkers. The second course (Great Ideas) will provide students with a look at great thinkers, focusing on history, literature, philosophy, and other humanities.

 

á       Faculty-in-Residence Program. Each semester, two faculty are bought out from departmental teaching demands and are placed in the University Honors Program. While in the University Honors Program, they will teach in the Core Curricula (outlined above) and develop teaching skills and pedagogy in order to effectively teach critical thinking skills.

 

á       Development of Instructors with the Skills to Teach Critical Thinking. The University Honors Program will develop a workshop for instructors that participate in the core curricula. These workshops will be run in conjunction with the Critical Thinking Consortium.

 

á       Directors Forum. Each semester, a distinguished panel of key University personnel (both from BGSU and from other Universities) will be convened to provide intellectual discussions on key issues facing the University. This is an example of critical thinking in action and provides an area for students to see individuals engaged in higher order thinking on issues such as; free speech on campus, budgetary decisions, affirmative action, etc.

 

á       Graduating with University Honors. Currently, 25% of Honors students graduate with University Honors. This number needs to improve. Graduating with University Honors is the capstone experience where students apply their inquiry based learning and critical thinking skills to an interdisciplinary topic. Our goal is to graduate 80% of Honors students with University Honors.

 

á       Improved Honors Teaching. The University Honors Program, in cooperation with the Honors Student Association, is implementing a mid-term teaching evaluation that was developed by John Zubizarreta (Honors Director at Columbia College). In this process, highly trained student interviewers ask targeted and prepared questions of students at the mid-point of the course. This information is then quickly processed and provided to the instructor in order to modify the current course for the rest of the semester. Currently, all teaching evaluation occurs at the end of the semester and is ineffective at improving current courses.

 

á       Increased Number of Honors Seminars. Honors seminars are required for students to graduate with University Honors. In addition, Honors seminars provide the final course-related training in inquiry-based scholarship and the application of critical thinking to interdisciplinary topics. These seminars provide the opportunity for students to see connections across different disciplines.

 

á       Assessment of Higher Order Thinking and Critical Thinking Skills. In order to evaluate whether these initiatives are providing University Honors students with critical thinking skills, it is necessary to implement an assessment of the thinking skills of four groups: 1.) incoming Honors freshman, 2.) incoming non-Honors freshman, 3.) Honors seniors, and 4.) non-Honors seniors. This assessment vehicle is available through the Critical Thinking Consortium. Statistical analysis will be done by the University Honors Program.