Date of Award
Spring 5-2020
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department/Major
Psychology
First Advisor
Doug Peterson, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Scott Breuninger, Ph.D.
Third Advisor
Steve Ward, M.A.
Keywords
Reacting to the Past, High Impact Practices, honors program, student engagement, college retention, honors students
Subject Categories
Education | Educational Psychology | Psychology
Abstract
Reacting to the Past (RTTP) is a roleplaying pedagogy highly regarded as an innovative high-impact practice. RTTP consists of elaborate historical games informed by major texts in the history of ideas and takes place during major historical turning points. The effectiveness of this methodology, in terms of its impact on students’ intention to stay in honors, was examined using a nonequivalent groups design composed of first semester students in the Honors Program at the University of South Dakota. Students that took a RTTP course and students that took a different honors course their first semester were given the same survey at two points: after midterm but before the simulation started, and during the last week of class, after the simulation took place. Analysis of results revealed that students in the RTTP course reported a higher intention to stay in the honors program than those students who did not take RTTP. Additionally, the relationships among several measures of engagement were explored and related to student intention to stay in the honors program.
Recommended Citation
McClelland, Hannah B., "Reacting to the Past: A High Impact Practice as a Tool for Retaining Honors Students" (2020). Honors Thesis. 83.
https://red.library.usd.edu/honors-thesis/83