“Welcome” to all new full-time members of the Hope College faculty and administrative staff, and “Welcome Back” to all returning faculty and staff!
The Pre-College Conference will begin on Wednesday, August 20 and will continue through Monday, August, 25. Several events are planned to enable new members of the Hope family to get acquainted with the College and its faculty and staff.
As many of us know, Hope College is one of 50 colleges and universities taking part in The Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education. As data became available during the 2007-08 academic year, information about Hope was made available to Hope faculty; and discussion began on key issues such as identifying the best ways to increase academic challenge in courses and to increase curiosity, openness, and academic motivation in students.
Discussion of the Wabash Study will continue at Hope during the 2008-09 academic year, beginning with a plenary address at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday August 21 by Charles F. Blaich, the director of the Wabash Study. Charlie knows Hope well; those of you who heard him when he spoke at Hope in April 2007 will remember his clarity, insightfulness and humor. Charlie will speak to us on the topic “Ingenuity and Hope: How to use Wabash Data to Make Hope College Better.”
Following Charlie’s talk and a very brief question-answer period, faculty will participate in breakout sessions/discussion groups. These groups will focus on two issues: how faculty can apply ingenuity, informed by data, to improve student learning, and what additional information should be garnered to inform future discussion of these issues. A designated note taker will compile a summary of each group’s discussion and give them to Charlie. Following a break, Charlie will identify themes, ideas, and concerns that show up in a significant number of summaries, and moderate the resulting conversation.
These sessions will help Hope gain maximum benefit from its participation in the Wabash National Study, a major nationwide study of the impact of liberal arts education led by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN. The study is designed and implemented in collaboration with researchers from the University of Iowa, Miami University of Ohio, the University of Michigan, and ACT Inc. This multi-year study began in 2006 and will continue at least through 2010. It explores how key educational experiences influence how students develop during their college years.
Please
access the Schedule link below for a complete
schedule of events, then complete the appropriate
online registration form.
Suggested Reading
Schedule
Registration deadline August 13
New Faculty/Staff List
Boards
& Committees 2008-09 (preliminary
list) -requires
Adobe Acrobat Reader
