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Multidisciplinary Honours Programmes: Experiences and

Strategy for Further Improvement Tineke Kingma

Tineke Kingma

Working in Honours education as a consultant

coordinator

researcher

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Outline workshop

1. What are the characteristics of the

Windesheim Honours Programmes?

2. Critical friends

3. Scenario method

4. Critical friends

5. What can we learn from this?

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1. What is a Windesheim Honours Programme?

A multidisciplinary extra-curricular

programme for students that wish to do

more and are able to do more than is

offered within their regular programme.

One year and 16 credits

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Why offer Honours programmes?

In order to:

• Establish an ambitious study climate

• Challenge gifted students

• Make future professionals aware of

societal issues and new ways of

collaborating within different disciplines

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Vision

The students of the Windesheim

Honours Programmes are talented

students who are able to discover,

develop, use and combine their

individual talents in a

multidisciplinary context

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What are talents?

Renzulli (2005)

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Activate knowledge

What do Honours students

appreciate in Honours

programmes?

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Honours students like structured

assignments:

yes or no?

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The answer is no

Honours students dislike pre-structured

assignments. They prefer to know the goal and

end results that need to be achieved, and to be

allowed freedom as to how to attain those

criteria

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The main requirement for an

Honours student is

to be offered an academic

challenge:

yes or no?

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The answer is no

The main requirement for the Honours student

is the quality of the lecturer

Honours students like to create

their own community:

yes or no

The answer is yes

Honours students like context

driven programmes:

yes of no

No

What do Honours students appreciate in Honours

programmes? • Interaction student – lecturer

• Community building

• Practical and authentic professional tasks

• Room for initiatives

• Small-scale organisation

• Mutual choice for participation

• Interest in other subjects than the regular degree programme

• A basic requirement is the quality of the lecturer

Eijl, P.J. van, Pilot, A. & Wolfensberger, M.V.C. (2010)

Using teaching for excellence

• Bounded freedom

• Creating community

• Enhancing academic competence

Wolfensberger, 2012

How can students apply?

• Pass their propedeuse within one year,

average grade 7.2 or higher

• Motivation letter, CV, two letters of

recommendation

• Selection interview

How to work in a multidisciplinary setting?

20 different degree programmes

Participants carrying different luggage

Assignments requiring different perspectives

Common theme of the programme

Semester 1: becoming familiar with new

domains

• Workshops around three themes, organized

by teacher

• Development of an individual product or

service

• Completion:

Poster presentation

Workshop organized by the students for a

broader audience

• Assignments aimed at collaboration between

different disciplines

• Formative feedback

Second semester: future question of a company

1. Complex issue

2. Combination of three perspectives:

Social

Economic

Technological

3. Development of future scenarios

Main question

How to develop a future-proof Honours

programme to meet the needs of

intrinsically motivated Honours students

who are able to collaborate within

different disciplines?

What are the main questions?

Work in pairs

Share your questions and decide on one

question

Work in a group of four

Which solutions do you propose for the

questions?

2. Scenario method

• Trend analysis

• Finding the driving forces

• Development of scenarios

Trend analysis: DESTEP

• Demographic

• Economic

• Societal

• Technological

• Ecological

• Political

How to find trends?

- Data collection - Newspapers, social media

- Expert interviews

- Research

- Websites (trend watchers, research agency, governmental organisations)

- Review - Eg. Delphi methode

- Determine

- Interprete

Switch to scenarios

Tomorrow a Garden Party

Weather

Sun

Rain

Atte

nd

an

ce

Everybody will attend

Half of the people won’t attend Bron: Nekkers, Future Consult

What are the two most important trends that

will need to be taken into account in Higher

Education?

How to develop scenarios?

Describe the two most important developments or trends for Higher Education?

Which developments are uncertain?

Which developments will have the most impact?

Determine the driving forces

• High impact, high uncertainty Potential driver

- High impact, high certainty Driver

- Little impact, high uncertainty Not relevant

- Little impact, high certainty Background

- “Wild Cards”: huge impact, very unlikely

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Key-dilemmas

Trends

Impact

Uncertainty

Determine the driving forces

• High Impact, high uncertainty Potential driver

- High impact, high certainty Driver

- Little impact, high uncertainty Not relevant

- Little impact, high certainty Background

- “Wild Cards”: huge impact, very unlikely

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Key-dilemmas

Trends

Impact

Uncertainty

….

….

….

….

Scenarios

….

….

….

….

Bron: Nekkers, Future Consult

3. Critical friends:

Develop four scenarios in four groups

Describe the scenario, what are important

characteristics

….

….

….

….

Scenarios

….

….

….

….

Bron: Nekkers, Future Consult

5. Results

7. What can we learn?

What do you take home?

Stay connected

Tineke Kingma: t.kingma@windesheim.nl

Coordinator of the Honours programmes at

Windesheim University of Applied Sciences

(www.windesheimhonourscollege.nl)

and member of the Research Group ‘Talent

Development in Higher Education and Society’,

Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen

(http://www.hanze.nl/home/Onderzoek/Kennisport

al/Kenniscentra/lectoraat-excellentie/ )

References

• Eijl, P.J. van, Koetshuis, E., Van den Berg, E., Spil, S.

Kingma, T., Coppoolse, R. & Pilot, A. (2013). Latent

talent ontdekken en betrekken bij honours onderwijs.

In: R. Coppoolse, P.J. van Eijl & Pilot , A. (Eds.).

Hoogvliegers, ontwikkeling naar professionele

excellentie. Rotterdam: University Press. (In press).

• Kingma, T. & Visser, G. (2013). Windesheim Honours

Programme Intergenerational Collaboration: student

manual. Zwolle: Windesheim University of Applied

Sciences.

• Renzulli, J.S. (2005).The Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness. A Developmental Model for Promoting Creative Productivity. In: R.J. Sternberg & J.E.Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of Giftedness (246-279). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Roodhart, H, Pol, W. van der & Pol. W. van der (2001). Van trends naar brands. Kluwer: Deventer.

• Woltman Elpers, J.L.C.M. (2013). Activity Plan 2013/2014 Windesheim Honours & Excellence Center.

• Wolfensberger, M.V.C. (2012). Teaching for Excellence. Honors Pedagogies revealed. Waxmann: Münster.

Thank you for your attention