This award provides partial support to the national biennial conference of the Reinvention Center. The Reinvention Center was formed in 2000 to support the recommendations of the Boyer Commission in the widely read publication: "Reinventing Undergraduate Education, a Blueprint for America's Research Universities" (1995).
The overarching goal of this Reinvention Center Convention is to re-establish the Reinvention Center as a force in achieving the goals of the Boyer Commission and to connect directly with major college and university associations. The first plenary will be a panel discussion entitled" "Twenty Years after Boyer, Research Universities' Enduring Promise to Undergraduates: the Ethos of Discovery Matters."
The goals of the Boyer Commission are: 1. Make Research-Based Learning the Standard 2. Construct an Inquiry-based Freshman Year 3. Build on the Freshman Foundation 4. Remove Barriers to Interdisciplinary Education 5. Link Communication Skills and Course Work 6. Use Information Technology Creatively 7. Culminate with a Capstone Experience 8. Educate Graduate Students as Apprentice Teachers 9. Change Faculty Reward Systems 10. Cultivate a Sense of Community
This Reinvention Center conference will lay the groundwork for an evaluation of how consortia of universities can deliver on the promise that research universities provide a distinctively valuable undergraduate educational experience. The conference will launch a cluster of collaborations, each comprised of a network of faculty, staff, administrators, and other educators that will be supported on a continuing basis. Five new networks will be launched: (1) Applied Analytics; (2) Science of Learning (and Pedagogical Innovation); (3) Curricular and Co-Curricular Integration; (4) Distinguished Teaching Scholars; and (5) Student Success. Each of these will include disciplinary subgroups including STEM fields. (Already established are focused networks of (1) directors of undergraduate research programs, (2) assessment specialists and STEM educators, and (3) writing-to-learn experts. These networks have functioned effectively since their formation.]
