Do honors students have more potential for excellence in their professional lives?

Abstract

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.

Identificatie van excellente studenten

“…Alhoewel schoolprestaties en intelligentie veel gebruikte voorspellers zijn voor studiesucces, zijn ze minder betrouwbaar als het gaat om de ontwikkeling van talent en als graadmeter voor toekomstig succes (Scager et al, 2012). De reden hiervoor is dat intelligentie vooral bepaalt wat iemand maximaal aankan qua niveau, terwijl andere factoren zoals motivatie of persoonlijkheid invloed hebben op wat voor prestaties en gedrag iemand daadwerkelijk zal laten zien in een onderwijssituatie.…”

“…De reden hiervoor is dat intelligentie vooral bepaalt wat iemand maximaal aankan qua niveau, terwijl andere factoren zoals motivatie of persoonlijkheid invloed hebben op wat voor prestaties en gedrag iemand daadwerkelijk zal laten zien in een onderwijssituatie. Scager et al (2012) onderzochten of honoursstudenten meer potentieel hebben voor excellentie in hun (latere) professionele leven. De resultaten laten zien dat honoursstudenten niet alleen significant verschillen van niethonoursstudenten op het vlak van de kenmerken intelligentie, het verlangen om te leren en doorzettingsvermogen, maar ook met betrekking tot creatief denken, openstaan voor ervaringen en de gedrevenheid om te excelleren.…”

Mérito académico no ensino superior e inserção laboral: Um estudo de caso

“…Apesar da dificuldade para definir alunos de mérito, de um modo geral, destacam-se pela capacidade de obter desempenhos excelentes em diversas áreas e é esperado que sejam bem sucedidos no futuro (Scaeger et al, 2012). Acterberg (2005) considera que "honors student should be: A highly motivated, academically talented, intrinsically-inspired, advanced, and curious student who has broad interests, a passion for learning, and exitement about ideas" (p.81).…”

“…Consequentemente, revela-se importante que os contextos educativos estejam atentos no reconhecimento dos alunos de excelência e lhes providenciem oportunidades de desafio e superação, facilitando não só a emergência de desempenhos superiores como também a eminência na idade adulta já que a relação entre sucesso académico e sucesso profissional não é linear (Scaeger et al, 2012 O objetivo principal desta investigação é, numa lógica de estudo de caso, identificar e analisar de forma exploratória as características e os percursos de vida de um grupo de alunos premiados por mérito no ensino superior, procurando conhecer os fatores que podem condicionar o sucesso académico e o posterior desempenho e inserção profissional.…”

X-factor for innovation : identifying future excellent professionals

“…Honors programs are characterized by small scale education, active participants and much peer interaction (Van Eijl et al, 2005). Although they are diverse in content, style and selection procedure, they all claim to select and foster a type of student that has more potential for excellence in their life (Scager et al, 2012). Because honors programs foster potential for excellence in students we expect the effect of personality on cognitive-motivational states to be …”