Honors Thesis Preparation: Evidence of the Benefits of Structured Curricula

A recent study of honors curricula across the nation indicates that 75.6% of honors programs and colleges at four-year institutions have thesis or capstone requirements (Savage and Cognard-Black). In addition to institutions with thesis requirements, many more also have the option for students to complete theses. For example, an earlier study found that 94.3% of honors colleges offered the opportunity to complete an honors thesis (Sederberg). As Anderson, Lyons, and Weiner indicate, the origins of the honors movement in the United States included an emphasis on the completion of an honors thesis. While discipline-based modes of research and creative scholarship are the most common, alternatives to the traditional thesis rooted in experiential education have also been encouraged (Gustafson and Cureton). In short, the honors thesis in its several forms is an established element of honors education. Despite the centrality and prevalence of the honors thesis requirement, however, little research has been conducted to understand the preparation that students should have in order to write a thesis. Expectations for honors theses are generally high and often approximate the level of rigor one expects from masters-level students. Unfortunately, many students complete these projects without specific coursework to prepare them for projects at this level of rigor. A growing number of scholars have advocated for courses and curricula to provide students support as they develop honors theses (Anderson, Lyons, and Weiner; Coey and Haynes; Levinson and Mandel). While the arguments for these courses are strong and some report positive evaluations of these courses, there is scant empirical evidence for the success of such courses. This study draws on data from nearly four hundred students over a six-year period to demonstrate the effectiveness of curricular models in supporting students' completion of honors theses. CONTEXT Starting in 2007, the Georgia Southern University Honors Program began developing seminars for students in their final semesters to provide them support as they developed their thesis projects. All honors students must complete a thesis project that includes a written component. The course content has been designed to help students through steps such as developing a topic, identifying a mentor, understanding previous research, identifying an appropriate methodology, collecting data, and presenting findings in both a written thesis and an oral presentation. The content in these courses is similar to that covered in other thesis courses discussed in the literature (Anderson, Lyons, and Weiner; Coey and Haynes; Levinson and Mandel). Unlike some institutions, however, GSU has designed courses rooted in departments or colleges. In other words, they are not generic preparations for the thesis but are instead taught by professors in the students' major disciplines, thus allowing for more specificity in the course content and more discipline-specific guidance in building a substantial research project. Because these seminars were designed to be discipline-specific (or at least specific to a cluster of majors within a college), a question arose whether it would be desirable and feasible to develop such courses for all majors, and some disciplines opted out. In the natural sciences, for instance, engaging undergraduate students in substantial research projects has been a standard practice for some time, typically involving a research mentor who guides the student through the steps of carrying out and presenting research. This norm renders a fair amount of the content of thesis seminars redundant. Consequently, the decision was made not to develop the seminar sequences in the natural sciences, except for one department that developed a pre-research methodology sequence in which students earned directed research credits for the work they did with their mentors During the timeframe for this study, the majority of honors students completed theses in in the natural sciences or in disciplines where seminars were developed. …