The article was published in the journal "Critical Questions In Education."

ATHENS, Ohio (Feb. 10, 2011)--Honors Program students Peter Brown, Laura Kay and Diana Pickett co-published a recent article in the journal “Critical Questions in Education” with Honors Program professor Dr. Craig Howley, adjunct associate professor in The Patton College.

The article, titled “Loving and Hating High School: Divided Opinion among Adults in a Rural University Town,” stemmed from a research project in a fall 2008 Honors Program course, “Ideas and Inquiry in Education.” Led by Dr. Howley, students in the course investigated perceptions of the general public about the role high school plays in a student’s life.

There has not been a lot of research in education that aims to gain perspective from ordinary adults about their views on education and how it impacted their lives. After some thought-provoking conversations sparked by class readings, the students developed a research study to delve into this uncharted territory.

The class designed the research, interviewing 195 adults ages 18 and older with varying backgrounds. . They measured respondents’ opinions regarding their own high school experiences using a one to five scale representing how much the respondent agreed with the following statement: “I loved my experience in high school.”

Once the data collection was complete and the course was over, Brown, Kay and Pickett stuck with the project and conducted a thorough analysis of the results.

Not only did the project give the students a chance to learn how to conduct proper research, but it gave them basic insights into their community, which will be invaluable to their education careers.

“The most important thing I took away from the research itself is that leadership is a social mechanism, a sorting machine—we are all leaders, or capable of leadership, and to prime any one group for that trait isn’t real teaching,” Pickett said.

For Kay, the research was especially interesting because it was such a short time ago that she and her colleagues were in high school.

“It was really cool to have just come out of high school and be able to go back and take a look at what exactly my high school might have prepared me for,” Kay said.  “It gave me a perspective on my school that I didn't have when I was actually there.”

Major findings in the study included insight that personal background is not a large influencer of whether or not a person loves school and confirmation that adults can readily judge what good school did for them. Most surprising, then, was how seldom anyone asked them to express their opinions on high school.

Dr. Howley addressed the importance of introducing students to research so early in their careers.

“The field of education is dominated by all sorts of dogma,” said Dr. Howley.  “As their careers lengthen the students will find out that these dogmas turn over and change, and so studying them, coming up with questions and asking the right questions is the important thing.”

Brown said that he never imagined he would be doing this type of research as an undergraduate, but is grateful to have had the opportunity.

“This project really made me consider the effectiveness of schools and what kind of ideas they are reinforcing,” said Brown.  “Being cognizant of these results hopefully will improve my effectiveness as a future educator.”

To read the article, visit the journal website.

Story by Ashley Showen