Tier 2 Honors Experiences

Tier 2 Honors Experiences are designed for students in their second, third or fourth year of college. They encourage students to practice and understand research and other professional methods of inquiry, work diligently in groups, and begin to identify their own beliefs and ways of understanding the discipline or topic of study.

Although all students vary in terms of their qualities and development, students in these years often exhibit these traits:

• Becoming aware of knowledge as uncertain and the benefit of multiple perspectives
• Gaining a sense of their own values and beliefs as distinct from others
• Recognizing the limitations of dependent relationships.

To assist students in gaining a more complex understanding of knowledge, themselves and their belief system, educators proposing Tier 2 Honors Experiences should foster opportunities for students to meet the following learning outcomes:

1. Gain mastery over disciplinary or professional genres of writing or communication;
2. Practice a method of research or inquiry, and explore the benefits and limits of that approach;
3. Compare and contrast key perspectives (disciplines, theories, epistemologies, cultures);
4. Work intensively with other students to complete tasks or a major project and to learn how to handle conflicting views;
5. Evaluate their own views and how they relate to or differ from those of other authorities and experts.

Tier Two Honors Experiences can follow any of these formats:

• A newly designed honors-only seminar or intensive co-curricular programs that exclusively enroll honors students and that are typically capped at 24 students;
• An honors-only version of an existing course that enrolls only (typically 24) honors students and has been modified to suit the needs of honors students;