This monograph is an idea book for two-year institutions thinking of adding an honors program to their list of academic offerings, and as such aspires to provide a useful description of the many options available to honors education for the several audiences who, as a matter of course, may become stakeholders in the operation of a two-year college honors program. Beyond their need for initial suggestions about starting a successful honors program at their home institutions, readers may consider the author's full and various descriptions as an invitation to lift their eyes toward the horizon, to envision a full program that will truly serve the needs of the institution. This work also acquaints the audience with a selection of key examples that will aid an embryonic program in the sometimes onerous birthing process. The handbook includes several appendices that list some useful research about honors, including a sample honors retreat and model honors contracts. The following are appended: (1) Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors Program; (2) Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors College; (3) NCHC Publications, Monographs, and Resources; (4) Sample Honors Retreat by Eddie Weller, San Jacinto College, South Campus; (5) Sample Contracts (excerpted from "A 'Sampler' of Honors Contracts," edited by Roy Colquitt for the Two-Year College Committee, 1999); and (6) Bibliography.

In the past, foreign policy and security concerns have trumped any efforts to reform the North Korean economy. Today, the linkage between security and economic policies is being reconsidered as part of a larger debate in the North Korean leadership that has already transformed the country in fundamental ways. Despite renewed tensions with the United States, North Korea has begun to implement important economic reforms. Moreover, underneath the cover of the ever-present ‘military-first’ slogan in the controlled media, a debate is taking place between ‘reformers’ and ‘conservatives’ over whether Pyongyang’s bloated military industrial complex should be scaled back to help ensure the success of economic reform. Not only do these developments reflect strong political forces in the North Korean leadership that support reform, but they could also have profound implications for the future of Pyongyang’s national security policy. North Korea may decide that it will need a more favourable external security environment in order to secure greater access to international economic and financial assistance for its reform measures and, ultimately, downsizing its military. Pyongyang could launch a new policy of engagement that would include greater flexibility in the Beijing Six Party Talks. A second scenario is continued internal struggle over reform that could lead to an inability to act decisively on key security and foreign policy issues, including at the nuclear talks. Finally, progress in reform may, paradoxically, strengthen conservatives, leading to hopes in Pyongyang that it can improve the economy, while simultaneously maintaining a large powerful military. Whether Washington can do anything at this point to influence directly the emerging debate in Pyongyang is unclear, but a renewed policy of engagement on its part could enhance the chances of success for North Korean advocates of reform.

This book examines the much-debated question of how to unleash the potential of young people with promising intellectual abilities and motivation. It looks at the increasingly important topic of excellence in education, and the shift in focus towards the provision of programs to support talented students in higher education. It provides a systematic overview of programs for talented students at northern European higher education institutions (HEIs). Starting in the Netherlands, where nearly all HEIs have developed honors programs over the past two decades, the book explores three clusters of countries: the Benelux, the Nordic and the German-speaking countries. For each of these countries, it discusses the local culture towards excellence, the structure of the education system, and the presence of honors programs. In total, the book reviews the special talent provisions for nearly four million students at 303 higher education institutions in eleven countries. In addition, it offers an analysis of the reasons to develop such programs, a look into the future of honors education and a practical list of suggestions for further research. The Sirius Program assigned Marca Wolfensberger to carry out this research.

This volume contains a lot of variety, an eclectic mix of Florida literature and history by scholars from across the state representing every kind of institution of higher learning. The first section, Pedagogy, highlights essays about employing service learning, blogging, and primary archival research into the classroom, among other techniques. The Old Florida section includes essays exploring the following topics as diverse as the first black general in Florida (1791), poet Wallace Stevens, and the memoirs of colonial Florida women. The next section—Contemporary Florida—contains essays on EPCOT theme park, Florida newspapers, the rhetoric of Carl Haissen, and the stereotyped poor white Southerner. Jim Morrison’s use of Floridian imagery is the topic of the essay in Natural Florida, and the poem “Pineapple Grill” falls into the category Creative Showcase.

Structural Challenges and the Future of Honors Education is the third volume in an edited series examining the proliferation of honors programs and colleges in American higher education. While honors education has become ubiquitous in American higher education, this transformation has happened without systematic attempts to align what honors means across institutions, and absent a universally agreed upon definitions of what honors is and what it might aspire to be in the future. This generates possibility and flexibility, while also creating rather serious challenges. Many such challenges are structural: perpetual budgetary constraints, changing expectations about the role of high education and the “return” it ought to provide to the student, and the changing technological landscape of higher education and society more generally. The contributors here examine the structural challenges honors education currently faces and those forces it is likely to confront in the future, offering insights about how honors might respond creatively to these present and future challenges.

"This book is for teachers who have good days and bad -- and whose bad days bring the suffering that comes only from something one loves. It is for teachers who refuse to harden their hearts, because they love learners, learning, and the teaching life." - Parker J. Palmer [from the Introduction] Teachers choose their vocation for reasons of the heart, because they care deeply about their students and about their subject. But the demands of teaching cause too many educators to lose heart. Is it possible to take heart in teaching once more so that we can continue to do what good teachers always do -- give heart to our students? In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer takes teachers on an inner journey toward reconnecting with their vocation and their students -- and recovering their passion for one of the most difficult and important of human endeavors.

Present Successes and Future Challenges in Honors Education is the first volume in an edited series examining the proliferation of honors programs and colleges in American higher education. While honors education has become ubiquitous in American higher education, this transformation has happened without systematic attempts to align what honors means across institutions, and absent a universally agreed upon definitions of what honors is and what it might aspire to be in the future. This generates possibility and flexibility, while also creating rather serious challenges. The contributors document the decades-long structural transformations that led to the rise of honors education while also providing perspective on the present and future challenges in honors education. The chapters address such issues as ensuring equity in honors, how we ought to think about student success and frame this for external stakeholders, and how the diffusion of honors-inspired pedagogies elsewhere in the university forces us to rethink our mission and our day-to-day practice. Throughout, their investigations are grounded in the present while turning a keen and perceptive eye to the future.

This volume is constructed around several significant questions, relevant to every honors program and national perspective. These questions are: “How do various nations view honors education?”, “How do ideas about honors achievements compare internationally?”, “Who defines honors education in each nation and how similar are those definitions from place to place?”, and “What do nations consider most significant when an undergraduate is said to “graduate with honors”?” The cross-disciplinary, intersecting epistemology of honors education stands out worldwide. No matter whether it is known as “honors”, “honours” or “talent-development”, honors education is associated with a student-centric ethos of attainment-setting, and with comprehensive and often creative approaches to teaching and learning. Today, in our more globally connected world, there is good reason to closely and critically consider how an exploration of honors education worldwide can empower both educators and students to match personal and communal aspirations with educational outcomes.