What a dedicated Honors room can do

The video shows a typical honors room where honors students and teachers work closely together. 

 

You can enable subtitles by pressing the CC icon on the video

In this video, the importance of a dedicated honors room for students is emphasized. An honors room offers students a place to collaborate, to co-create and to share values. These are the ingredients to form a community together with teachers within which students can develop their talents. 

The video is relevant to make teachers, but also policy makers, aware of the importance of offering honors students a room for themselves. It is a place where honors students can meet each other to work together on complex projects or questions and share their ideas, usually in an interdisciplinary setting. It is a place to co-create, but also to reflect. The participation of teachers in the honors room is important for the creation of an honors community where students can learn from their teachers and teachers from their students. 

An honors room is not like a typical classroom. Students help design the room themselves. They can bring in their own ideas about how to work in the room and which furniture is needed. The room is available during the week and you can walk in and out. It is like a living room where students feel comfortable and can stimulate each other to get the best out of themselves.

Questions for reflection

1. Why don’t you have a specific room where talented students can meet each other? 

2. How do you create a community for your students?

3. Which environment stimulates the creativity of your students? 

Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, the Netherlands

Henk Jager – Honors teacher International Business School

Inge Wijkamp – Honors teacher, Health Care studies

Pieter Veenstra –  Teammanager, Hanze Honours College 

Related videos