PROGRAM
RATIONALE FOR PROSPECTIVE, TRANSFER, AND
NON-TRADITIONAL STUDENTS
HOPE COLLEGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
The Education faculty have developed a pre-professional and professional education course sequence for undergraduates which forms a coherent program enabling candidates to grow from students to entry-level teachers. A three-stage, developmental field placement program, with experiences in K-12 schools, is tied to most of the education courses and helps students see how theory and research are put into practice.
The sequence enables students to enjoy the following:
| * a unified, coherent program, with a consistent philosophy |
| * a comprehensive conceptual framework which drives all curriculum decisions |
| * a designated, developmental sequence of courses in which experiences and learnings build upon prerequisites, thus providing a strong knowledge and skills base |
| * a three-stage, developmental program of field placements integrated with course work |
| * active learning experiences which model practice |
| * faculty deliberately modeling instructional, management, and assessment strategies which graduates will be expected to use in K-12 schools |
| * on-going assessment opportunities to demonstrate student outcomes and performances for self-knowledge and improvement |
This sequence and professional content which the faculty has deliberately chosen results in some limitations. In order to moderate the demands for classroom placements in multiple courses on local schools, class size is normally capped at 25 students. This size is also important in facilitating effective active learning experiences, group work, and performance assessments. Course content and national standards place limitations on transferring education courses from other institutions. In addition, our developmental sequence limits the reality of taking multiple education courses concurrently and completing the program on a "fast track". We do not offer evening courses in our education program. Students already enrolled in pre-professional courses will have priority in taking upper level education courses.
Our faculty recognize
and appreciate the contributions, insight, and experience which transfer and
non-traditional students bring to the college classroom and the K-12 schools.
We will make a concerted effort to review transcripts and course descriptions
from other institutions to determine what requirements have already been met.
We will then propose a program sequence and timeline that reflects availability
of space in a sequence and propose a possible timeline.
return to prospectives and transfer/non-traditional students page