Honors Faculty

Teaching in the Honors College

Teaching Honors College students at Lipscomb is a grounding and invigorating experience. It reminds a professor of all the reasons they chose this vocation. Whether a dedicated honors course, a regular course with an honors contract, or a course in the Liberal Arts Heritage core, engagements with highly-motivated, strong-performing students lead to strong faculty-student relationships, productive research collaborations, and innovative learning environments.  

At Lipscomb University, courses in the Honors College are not intended to merely create more work for our brightest students, but rather to invite them into a deeper intellectual engagement. With smaller class populations, experiential learning methods, and an emphasis on mentoring relationships, Honors College students are challenged to excel beyond the status quo, to reach their full intellectual potential. Innovation is encouraged in and beyond the classroom to create learning environments that stimulate curiosity and the exploration of unique ideas. 

There is no “one size fits all” approach to honors education, particularly as different disciplinary approaches invite distinct pedagogies. However, all courses in the Honors College should meet the following criteria:

• Deeper intellectual engagement. Courses emphasize ideas that value next-level thinking that reflect the exploration of topics from diverse and varied viewpoints.
• Innovative pedagogical methods. While recognizing the value of standard lecture environments, Honors College courses may facilitate additional interactive opportunities for debate, discussion, and discourse that encourage deeper intellectual engagement.
• A “smarter, not harder” work ethic. The courses that engage Honors College students may well be more challenging than traditional courses, but not merely because they expect a greater quantity of work product. Rather, these courses encourage a higher quality of work characterized by thoughtful reflection and outside-the-box thinking.