Leaders of the Elon College Fellows program say they are helping students learn how to ask good questions. The program was featured in a session of the ANAC Summer Institute. Details…
Directors and administrators of the Elon College Fellows program discussed the mission and structure of their program at the Associated New American Colleges (ANAC) Summer Institute.
The Elon College Fellows program is a four-year program designed to build on the curiosity of students. They study the qualities of good, scholarly questions and then formulate interesting questions of their own. Students are guided through the process during their four years at Elon, culminating in a research-expression project. Each student works with a faculty member in his or her discipline for guidance through the process.
Steven House, dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, says a balance must be achieved between telling students enough information about a subject so they become interested, and not sharing everything, so that students will ask questions and get involved.
The structure of the ANAC conference session paralleled the hands-on format of the Elon College Fellows program. Attendees were divided into small groups and asked to formulate a good question about the thesis for the program. They also brainstormed and discussed characteristics of a scholarly question.