Date of Award

2024

Degree Name

Leadership Studies

College

College of Education and Professional Development

Type of Degree

Ed.D.

Document Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

Dr. Ronald Childress, Committee Chairperson

Second Advisor

Dr. Chris Sochor

Third Advisor

Dr. Yvonne Skoretz

Abstract

This study investigated the impact that co-curricular programming delivered by the University Honors Program (UHP) at North Carolina State University through the Honors Forum course had on first-year students’ self-reported knowledge of civil discourse, their assessment of its importance and impact, and their evaluation of their commitment to the skills and values related to it. The Honors Forum is designed to help students develop a broad worldview by exposing them to lectures by scholars and public figures, panel discussions about contemporary societal debates, peer-facilitated discussions about books, films, and current events, and conversations with faculty and UHP graduates. This project randomly assigned incoming students to one of two groups. The control group experienced the Honors Forum as it has traditionally been offered. The treatment group completed a modified version of the course that included a program called How We Argue. The program taught argument mapping and systematic empathy to help students develop the skills to analyze arguments and discuss challenging issues constructively.

Students in both sections of the course completed pretest and posttest surveys. The instruments included demographic questions and statements across five categories: Knowledge, Importance, Skills, Values, and Impact. The category scores were summed to produce a Total score. Statistical tests conducted at the end of the semester focused on assessing how participation in the Honors Forum affected student perceptions of civil discourse and determining if there were differences between the treatment and control groups. The analysis of the treatment group detected higher scores and statistically significant differences between the pretest and posttest scores for all categories and the Total score. For the control group, the posttest scores were higher for the Total score and all categories. In addition, statistically significant differences were detected for the Total score and all categories except the Impact category. Comparisons of the posttest scores for the treatment group and control group detected higher scores for the treatment group in all categories and for the Total score. Statistically significant differences were detected for the Total score, Knowledge category, and Impact category. Analysis of the mean difference scores detected higher scores for the treatment group for the Total score and in all categories except for the Importance category. Statistically significant differences were detected for the Total score, Knowledge category, and Skills category. The project results suggest that the standard version of the Honors Forum and the treatment version of the course positively affect student perceptions of civil discourse. The results also suggest that the treatment version of the course is more impactful than the standard version.

Subject(s)

Empathy -- Social Aspects.

Discourse analysis.

Discourse approaches to politics, society, and culture.

Student Forum.

College freshmen -- Attitudes.

North Carolina State University.

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