 |
| "The Usual Suspects" (1995) |
79. Kahneman comes up with a handful of traits that he expects will correlate with an Israeli recruit's fitness for combat service (78-79).
If you were asked to come up with five traits that you expect would correlate with an ECU student's fitness for graduating from our Honors Program, what five traits would you include on this list?
Would there be any way to measure those traits before someone comes to ECU? Would interviews, an essay question, an ACT score, a grade point average be enough?
Five traits that I would expect to see in an Honors Student at ECU would be efficient time management skills, the ability to multitask, open-mindedness, a goal-oriented attitude, and the willingness to be a team player. An interview might be useful in determining if an individual possesses these traits, if the questions are designed to test how the individual behaves rather than how they perceive themselves, as stated on page 80, but one’s ACT score, essay response, or grade point average is unlikely to show these qualities. I believe a more efficient way to bring these qualities to light is by conducting a group task that incorporates the test of all 5 of these traits.
ReplyDeleteRachel Wallis
The five traits I would choose is similar to the ones that Danny labeled when he was looking for recruits for the Israeli army: punctuality, capacity for independent thought, sense of duty, optimistic attitude, and a hard working drive. Agreeing with what Rachel said above, I think an interview similar to the one conducted in the book would be beneficial to tell who has these qualities. Another way would be to possibly track how well the students demonstrate these qualities through their first couple semesters in the program.
ReplyDeleteFive traits I believe that would correlate with an students’ ability to be successful in the honors program would be: open-mindedness, punctuality, confidence, self-reliance, and most importantly, drive.
ReplyDeleteI don’t believe there is any way to accurately measure those traits in the short time required to choose if a student fits in our program. Nor do I believe that interviews, essays, test scores, or grade point average, are enough to measure the ability of a student to be successful in this program.
I came into the honors program, very closed-minded, I shut out the opinions of others, and believed strongly that what I was taught and believed, were the whole truth, when in reality that wasn’t true. I also didn’t possess the confidence needed to flourish in not only this program, but in college in general. As time went on, and I made new friends, I changed completely. My lack of confidence and open-mindedness did not show in my interview, essay, or test scores, however, they did show up in my first semester at ECU. I believe the only way to accurately measure these traits is with time and personal interaction, as they will likely change in the transition from home and high school, to the real world, where our beliefs are strongly challenged, and confidence is needed for basic survival survival, let alone success.
I really like how you talked about what you had learned throughout the Honors Program. I was having a hard time trying to answer this question, because I have not even had my first semester of college, but seeing what you had learned has helped me to understand what is needed in the Honors Program.
DeleteMorgan Anderson
The five traits I feel are necessary for an ECU student to graduate from the honors program are persistence, cooperation, intelligence, determination, and drive.
DeleteI agree with the person above that even though interviews and essay questions are useful, they are not always reflective of what you would see in a student once you see their performance in class. Plus, ACT Scores and grade point averages do not accurately reveal intelligence because there are some people who have anxiety and cannot focus enough to test well. Besides, a student’s grade point average may be bad in high school, but there are kids who see high school as something they are forced to take and therefore they are not interested in getting good grades. College is different because there is the freedom to choose the course of study we want and our performance significantly reflects on the outcome of getting hired for our future dream jobs.
-Olivia Watters
As an Honors Student at ECU, I would expect to see traits such as open-mindedness, responsibility, integrity, ambition, and articulation. I think that it would be pretty hard to get most of that from a simple interview with someone, but it could show some bad traits like bad punctuality or rudeness. Through an essay response, you might be able to see how someone thinks, but not necessarily their personality. With ACT scores and GPAs, it is almost impossible to gauge someone’s personality. You can be very smart, but not test well, or just not put effort into your grades. To truly get to know someone you must spend more time with them than just a few minutes. A teacher or boss would be able to see a student’s personality through the time they spend with them, but even then, most students I know act differently outside of school.
ReplyDeleteOne trait a student graduating with honors must possess is perseverance. All college students must persevere and never give up because not every class and assignment will be a breeze. Honors students must also be hard-working. From attending all classes regularly to gaining each individual engagement point, honor students must spend their time wisely and find time to finish these requirements. Another trait that honors graduates must possess is open-mindedness. Being open-minded helps students survive daily discussions where some topics might be sensitive or against your personal belief. In my experience as an honors student, encountering students with different beliefs is not unusual. Those beliefs range from favorite colors to religion to politics. Each honors student must strive to graduate, which is why they must also be motivated. Without motivation, it is easy to fall behind and lose interest in college. One of the greatest traits an honors student should possess is ambition because each student must have a desire to succeed. While these five traits would benefit most students, not every person is going to own the same traits. Each individual student comes from a different background, which results in different traits that they have acquired over time. By conducting interviews and reading essay questions, ECU would gather an idea about who the person is and who they want to be. ACT scores and GPA can measure a person's intelligence, but they do not support the character of a person. The kindest person in the world could still fail academically.
ReplyDeleteFive traits that I imagine every honors student needing to succeed in the honors program would be timeliness, orderliness, perseverance, self awareness, and confidence. Timeliness would be an important trait for an honors student to have so that they were always on top of their work, and not procrastinating. Being able to manage your time well is a good skill for any student to have, especially honors students. Orderliness is important because an organized schedule and school work can help students be successful. If your life is unorganized it is easy to forget about deadlines and assignments. Another important attribute I believe all honors students should have is perseverance. This is so important, because learning isn't always just about getting questions right. In order to learn, sometimes you have to fail. Being able to persevere through difficult classes and projects is essential to any honors student. Self awareness is also something that every student can use. Knowing when you are struggling and being willing to ask for help can be the difference between passing or failing a class. Lastly, confidence is key for any student. Being able to stand behind the work that you've done and be confident in your abilities is a great trait to have. Always questioning what you have done can keep you from reaching your full potential.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the best way to judge if a student is ready for honors would be an interview. GPA and ACT scores can be misleading, because anyone can memorize information and not retain it. Sometimes, the best students are the ones who let themselves fail, because it means that they actually tried. Getting to sit down with a potential honors student and talk to them about how they learned and what their interests would be the best way to find out what students really cared enough to be in the honors program.
-Reia Storch
79. Five traits I would expect to see in an honors program graduate are time management, dedication, trustworthiness, planning skills, and executing on goals. Incorporating these five traits would be an indication of work ethic and personality. One way I see to test a person of these five traits before coming to ECU is to see a combination of GPA, ACT scores, and an interview. Using these three measurements in consideration is the key to assessing a candidate for the five traits.
ReplyDeleteBased on the one year of being an Honors Student, I would say five traits that will lead to the success of graduating from the Honors Program would be open mindedness, time management, drive, responsibility, and curiosity. In the classes we go over various topics that can result in different opinions. Having an open mind can help you understand the reason for another student's opinion. As for time management, you will have some assignments that require you to set aside some time to complete, as well as planning to go to events for engagement points and for community service. Do not wait until the last minute to earn engagement points or community service hours. The Honors Program can be a lot of work at times. You need that drive to keep pushing through. Responsibility can aid in this also. Keeping up with tasks can make certain aspects of the program less daunting. Most importantly, I have found that curiosity leads to these traits. This gets you asking questions and wanting to know more. Curiosity is how you start expanding your knowledge. This also sparks an interest, which can draw you in more. As for trying to find these traits in a student beforehand, this would be somewhat possible with an interview. Giving scenarios and analyzing how they respond could be telling of if they possess these traits or not. While an interview cannot fully reveal a student's personality, it can be kind of telling on these traits.
ReplyDeleteThe five traits I would correlate with an ECU student's fitness to graduate from the Honors Program are kindness, a conversationalist, well-spoken, prepared, and truthful.
ReplyDeleteKindness is overall a great trait to have. It helps with the community service we participate in as Honors students and when you are simply having a conversation with another human being.
Being a good conversationalist comes in handy with all the Honors Lunches we have. This trait will also help you in discussion-based classes and when getting to know people throughout your whole life.
Being well-spoken makes you seem professional and helps you keep the attention of those around you. It is more than just knowing fancy words; you must also know how to use them in a kind manner.
To be prepared is to live your best life. It causes less stress and makes you seem more professional than those who are struggling with last-minute details.
Being truthful is key to getting people to trust you, and if you want to get very far in life, you will need people and those in positions of power to trust you.
There is no way to truly tell if someone has these traits through just testing, a 30-minute interview, and essays. To really tell if they have these traits you must spend time with that individual.
-Adeline Daniel
When it comes to a fitness test, there are several requirements someone would deem necessary for “combat”, or graduation in the case of ECU honors. The first trait I think is essential to graduate from the honors program is the ability to have an open mind. If a student goes through their four years in the honors program at East Central and doesn’t allow themselves to look at things from all sorts of different viewpoints, not only will it be a miserable experience, but they will have deprived themselves of fully developing who they are as a person. In no way does the honors program try to sway its members beliefs but allows each student to see all sides of the argument so that they can make the decision on where they stand in their beliefs.
ReplyDeleteOther traits it would be vital for honors students to exhibit would be curiosity, motivation to dive deeper, kindness, and excellent character. There is no one way to measure all these traits, but a good estimate of a student could be made through several interviews, grades of course, and possibly group activities. A lot can be learned about a person when you see how they interact with a group.
Five traits that I believe ECU honors students would possess or need to posses would be trustworthiness, an open mind, resilience, communication skills, and patience. These kind of seem like lesser important traits but let me explain. Honors students have to be trustworthy. Dr Benton operates based of the honors system. When we do engagement points or community service he is not watching over our shoulders. He expects us to be honest and to do the right thing. That is kind of what honor is based off, doing the right thing. So I think that is number one on my list. Next is having an open mind. This one is super important for the classroom side of honors. Being a discussion based class, we all sit and talk through class. We discuss our point of views and our takeaway from whatever situation or discussion item we have. No one wants to talk to a brick wall, so when you are set in stone with your opinions you wont be a good partner to have discussions with. You have to have an open mind to be able to get anything out of honors. We all try to persuade you to see how point of view on things. Many of us will switch beliefs or how we feel about a specific thing at least once. We all help each other grow for the better. So an open mind is crucial. Next up would be resilience. This is important not necessarily for honors but just for college in general. If you cant stay and fight the long fight of college, then being accepted into honors isn't going to do you much good. ECU Students need the ability to fight through the hard spots in order to get one is necessary out of it. Then we have communication skills, a must have in my opinion. Honors is discussion based, so you need to know how to communicate efficiently and respectfully to people. Just because you think Timmy in the corner is wrong doesn't mean you get to just say that. You have to be able to express your point of view and why you feel that way. You then use your knowledge and experience to explain to Timmy why you feel the way you do. Otherwise things may get heated and Dr. Benton has to break out his karate moves. Last but not least is patience. This is crucial for the sake of peace in the classroom. You have to be able to sit through someones conversation without being rude. You also need to be able to be patient with people so you do not come off hostile. Its also important that the entire class is involved with discussions. So one must sit and wait their turn to speak. Otherwise the volume and conversations do get out of hand.
ReplyDeleteI think that the interview Dr. Benton has before he accepts any students into the program will be the most efficient way of gauging ones fit into the honors program. Dr. Benton has been doing this for long enough that he can pretty much pinpoint ones character just by being around them. He knows what he is looking for and knows who are the promising souls.
-Mary