Honors Education

Teaching in The Honors College
Since its founding, The Honors College has sponsored courses for Honors students from faculty across the campus. Whether the courses are separate sections of preexisting courses or seminars, these courses give Honors students the opportunity to work closely with professors. Seminars are an essential part of a challenging Honors curriculum: they give students a small-class setting in which to work closely with faculty members on current research problems, introducing them to the rewards of work in different disciplines. In turn, Honors seminars provide faculty with the chance to explore new topics and to experiment with innovative teaching methods. UMBC faculty can apply to teach using the Honors College Faculty Fellows Application

Characteristics of an Honors Course

• Analysis and Exposition - The subject matter is not by itself the end but is also the means by which the faculties of analysis and exposition—the ability to think and reason, and the ability to express the results of that thinking and reasoningóare brought to the highest realization of the students' potential.
• Collaborative Teaching and Learning - Honors course instructors, sensitive to the distinction between teaching and learning, employ a collaborative pedagogy rather than the "empty vessel" approach to the classroom.
• Smaller Classes - Honors courses are limited to no more than 25 students; most Honors courses are considerably smaller.
• Dialogue - The small size of Honors courses enables the instructors to encourage students to participate in the classroom conversation in virtually all class sessions.
• Writing - Based on the assumption that writing is learning, Honors courses require a considerably greater amount of written work than do most regular courses.
• Interdisciplinarity - Honors courses frequently move across disciplinary boundaries in order to make connections among the different methods of knowing characteristic of the several disciplines.
• Individual Learning - Honors courses foster individual learning experiences through one-on-one tutorials.
• Reflection - Honors courses ask students to reflect frequently on the relevance of the individual course to their educational and professional plans.

Links to Honors Courses
Honors College Advisory Board