In 2008, and supported by the national government, Dutch Universities started with the development and implementation of honor programs on a larger scale. The honor programs were developed with the dual aim to: a) challenge excellent and motivated students, and b) create an organizational culture of excellence to benefit all students (Sirius Expertcomissie, 2013). Honor programs were seen as a way to facilitate lecturers to develop and try out new and innovative teaching methods for the honor students, that could later on also be transferred to regular educational programs (van der Rijst & Wolfensberger, 2014). The renewing character of honor programs is in line with previous studies that show how lecturers state to provide ‘other types’ of education to honor students than regular ones (Wolfensberger, 2012). The current study aims to investigate lecturers’ choices underlying developed honor programs to find out if these lead to new or innovative teaching methods in the perception of lecturers in regular programs. Data was collected and analyzed in two steps. First, semi-structured interviews (N=14; all disciplines) were carried out to obtain insight into the honor programs developed by lecturers. Based on the interview transcripts and the literature, rich vignettes of innovative education were developed (Bodycott & Walker, 2000). Second, based on the vignettes 14 teachers who are not involved by the developed honor programs, were interviewed about the innovative character of the education developed for the honor programs. The first results show that the learning materials can vary to a large extent between the various honor programs, but that they are often shaped by the external environment, and often include networking activities. Furthermore, the didactical approach and the aimed learning processes of students is mostly similar between programs. During the next two months the second phase of the study will be carried out.
