A Study On The Development Of Collegiate Honors Program In America

Undergraduate.honor program in American university and college started with Swarthmore College.Honor program was a kind of individualized education model for gifted students especially in 1900s.And today honor programs have extended all kinds of colleges and university in America.This paper,from the view of history,takes the scientific research on honor program in American university as the research object to research the development process of colleigate honor programs in a more systematic way.The first part of the paper discusses the origin of honor program in 1920-1944.The honor program of Swarthmore College was built in 1922.Following the Swarthmore College,other universities and colleges designed honors in order to spread across the country.Honor program moved down to lower division honors from upper division curriculum,thus and the freshman would accept the honors training.During the process,honor programs lead to the questions on the academic lockstep,elite and democracy relationship and degree of specialization.The second part of the paper discusses the integration of collegiate honor programs in 1945-1965.In this part,the author introduces the foundation and operation of ICSS which was a formal information service and honor programs in liberal arts colleges and in the state universities.Honor programs in liberal arts colleges emphasize general honors and departmental honors,Usually,departmental honors reflected the unique charm of disciplines,while the general honors reflected the profound of knowledge.The state universities were the typical host institutions of honors programs,and quality of education had improved.The third part of the paper dicusses the widely perfection of collegiate honor programs in 1966-1980s.The paper introduces the foundation,mission and memebership of NCHC.During this period the expansion of honor college made the organization structure of honor program improved.The fourth part of the paper dicusses the booming of colligate honor programs in 1980s-1990s.The popularization of American higher education was the main reason of the develop of honor programs in community college.Multiplicity of honors courses was chief feature of honors education in community college.The development of collegiate honor programs in America reflacted the important role of honor programs which was a kind of innovative education model in cultivating gifted students.Honor programs extended all kinds of colleges and university in America indicated that honor programs met the need of training gifted students in universities and colleges and met the need of talents in society.With the popularization of higher education,the honor programs still have played an irreplaceable role in American universities and colleges.