John Maynes, Utah State University
Elementary Education
Research on gifted education has shown that expertise development requires learning very basic skills to a high level (Bloom 1986). As a university education is meant to provide students with opportunities to develop expertise in a given field, it is imperative that universities provide learners with opportunities to learn very basic skills to a high level. However, do students receive adequate opportunities to learn the skills necessary to develop expertise? Do some students receive more opportunities than others? This study seeks to answer these questions by surveying honors and non-honors students to determine their perceptions respectively of opportunities to develop expertise in their chosen field of study. By matching each honors student with a non-honors student in the same class, the survey aims to evaluate the difference between the perceptions of honors students and non-honors students in the same class. Scager, et al indicate that honors students are more likely to develop expertise than non-honors students at a university (2011). Thus the hypothesis of this study is honors students receive more opportunities for expertise development than non-honors students.