我们的方法 教育哲学

作为一个文理学院, 韦斯特蒙特大学试图帮助学生成为特定类型的人, not mere repositories of information or mere possessors of professional skills. 这些信息和能力是从哪里获得的, it is to be done in an intellectual and social context that nourishes a larger spiritual vision and is integrated with it. 最重要的是, 作为一个文理学院, Westmont seeks to help inculcate those skills that contribute to leading a successful and satisfying life. For just as one must be trained in the skills that enable one to engage in a trade, so one must be trained in those skills that enable one to engage in the distinctively human activities of reasoning, 沟通, 深思熟虑地选择自己的道德和精神目标, 构建政治, 经济和精神ag娱乐官网, and entering into those "appreciative pleasures" that require knowledge, 经验, 训练有素的歧视. 这就是自由学习与生活的关系, for these are the very skills that translate into performing well one’s role as citizen of the state, 教会的仆人, 家庭成员, 文化界的工作者或专业人士和参与者.

韦斯特蒙特学院致力于对圣经权威的高度评价, 正统教义的观点, and the central importance of a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is this 基督教 faith that the college seeks to integrate fully into its life as a liberal arts institution. 为了追求博雅教育, with its emphasis on producing certain kinds of people and inculcating certain basic human skills essential for living a satisfactory life, cannot take place in isolation from one’s most basic commitments and beliefs. 对于基督徒来说, 然后, this means bringing one’s biblical and theological heritage to this educational enterprise. 事实上, to have basic values and commitments that one cannot explicitly and systematically bring to this task is to have an education that is severely truncated, 切断了, 可以说, 从一个人最重要的ag娱乐官网和价值观. 以这种方式孤立自己的世界观, 在接受教育的同时, will only result in a worldview uninformed by sustained intellectual reflection. 这种方法会产生没有受过充分教育的人, 事实上，他们根本没有受过教育. 对于基督徒来说, 因此, 高等教育必须是基督教教育, 如果是对整个人的教育. 在Westmont, 然后, 基督教 faith is to inform the academic enterprise and the academic enterprise is to inform one’s 基督教 faith and thus yield a 基督教 worldview that is biblically based and intellectually sound.

Westmont is an undergraduate college and as such directs its attention, focuses its resources and devises its pedagogical strategies to facilitate the development of students who are beginning their post-secondary education. 由此可见，韦斯特蒙的主要重点是教学. But teaching often involves helping students to acquire reSearch skills and to become themselves producers of knowledge. This can be done effectively only as faculty model reSearch skills for students, 并指导他们获得这些技能. 此外, to create a vital intellectual environment profitable for undergraduate students, Westmont must be an institution where knowledge is generated as well as transmitted. But producing such knowledge is to be largely (though not exclusively) evaluated and appreciated in terms of the benefits that accrue, 直接或间接, to those undergraduates who have come to Westmont to receive their education. For it is those students that the educational programs at Westmont are dedicated.

The educational programs of Westmont College are 住宅 in character and reflect a commitment to facilitate and exploit the ways in which education occurs within community. 事实上, 从修道院传统开始, learning has been cultivated and transmitted within 住宅 communities, enabling learning to be promoted by the joys of shared exploration and the sustenance of spiritual kinship. 此外, both the 基督教 and liberal arts traditions remind us of the integrity of human wholeness; we cannot be neatly compartmentalized into rational, 精神和情感成分. The 住宅 character allows and encourages expression of this wholeness as we live, 一起学习，一起敬拜. 进一步, the 住宅 character of the college reflects the conviction that the goal of all meaningful learning, 尤其是圣经教育, 是告知我们的生活方式吗. The 住宅 character of the college invites students to apply their studies to the daily task of creating a community in which individuals can grow and mature together. Students are able to cultivate these patterns of adulthood and redemptive living in the presence of role models and mentors who can help them in this process.

韦斯特蒙将成为一所关注全球的大学. 因为地和地上的居民都是神美好的创造. 因此，他们必须得到适当的重视和尊重. 我们在圣经中被称为地球的管家, 成为物质世界的忠实守护者. 我们是 also called to appreciate the rich diversity of human cultures – cultures shaped by people who bear the mark of God’s image in creation. 我们是, 然后 to be a community informed and enriched by thoughtful and intentional study of and interaction with cultures other than our own. 我们的国家是, 然而, 堕落的世界, 而地球, 它的人民, 他们的机构需要救赎, 调和福音的话语. 我们被召唤, 因此, not only to appreciate and preserve the creation and human cultures, but also to participate in the work of the Kingdom in response to the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations – to bring all creation and human institutions under the Lordship of Christ. This task involves grappling with the full range of ways in which the fall has introduced blindness, 解体, 冲突, 和不公进入世界. 最后, the emphasis on the global nature of education is a recognition that our world has increasingly become interconnected and interdependent. 使人们能够聪明地工作, 在一个全球政治的世界里，有效而有益, 全球经济, and global communications must be one of the aims of a Westmont education.