The Center’s faculty is actively involved in providing a variety of learning opportunities and experiences in an effort to expand the horizons of the individuals and groups in the communities we serve.

In order to serve the needs of the local community, The Center, in collaboration with other departments at the university, will offer workshops, seminars, Continuing Education credit and professional development courses.

Some recent examples of training and educational opportunities offered by The Center include:

Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum (with David Klooster, Hope College), Monrovia, Liberia, (August, 2007).

This workshop, supported by the Open Society Institute, was the first in a series aimed at supporting the rebuilding of capacity in higher education across Liberia following 15 years of civil war. The focus was on moving beyond a direct instructional model towards a model of instruction in which student engagement and critical thinking were encouraged.

Confidentiality, Assessment, and Competence: Ethical issues in clinical and organizational settings (October, 2007).

This workshop discussed how the ethics codes of the American Psychological Association and other groups (Society for Human Resource Management and the American Counseling Association) can guide decision-making and communication in human resource management and mental health service delivery settings. The codes can function as both “sword and shield” in protecting the rights of clients and defending the actions of the practitioner.

Developing Standards and Rubrics for Assessment of Literacy and Readership Programs (with Charles Temple, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Alan Crawford, California State University, Los Angeles), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (November, 2007). 

This workshop, supported by Canadian Overseas Development through Education (CODE), focused on developing standards and rubrics for assessment of literacy and readership programs representing five countries on the African Continent and one country in South America.