On My Honor: A Quasi-Experimental Analysis of Honors Students’ Perceptions of Workload and Cognitive Challenge

K. C. Culver (), Nathaniel Bray and John Braxton
Additional contact information
K. C. Culver: The University of Alabama
Nathaniel Bray: The University of Alabama
John Braxton: Vanderbilt University

Research in Higher Education, 2024, vol. 65, issue 4, No 4, 679-704

Abstract: Abstract The assumption that honors programs are more academically challenging is rarely interrogated. Using multi-institutional, longitudinal quantitative data from a larger study, we use quasi-experimental methods to examine students’ experiences of course rigor, including workload and cognitive challenge, for honors participants compared to non-participants. Honors students perceive greater workload but not cognitive challenge in their first year, especially in terms of the amount of reading and writing they are asked to do. In their fourth year, honors participants experience less cognitive challenge than non-participants. Results of subgroup analyses suggest that these differences are likely driven by students who participate in centralized honors programs rather than departmental honors as well as those attending more selective institutions, with implications for honors program instructors and administrators.

Keywords: Honors programs; Rigor; Cognitive challenge; Workload; Quantitative (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11162-024-09788-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:reihed:v:65:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s11162-024-09788-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11162

DOI: 10.1007/s11162-024-09788-5

Access Statistics for this article

Research in Higher Education is currently edited by Robert K. Toutkoushian

More articles in Research in Higher Education from Springer, Association for Institutional Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().