Faculty Profile
Noreen Lape
Professor of Educational Studies (2009)
Contact Information
on sabbatical 2025-26
57 S College St
717-245-1904
https://www.dickinson.edu/homepage/120/writing_program
Bio
Since 2009, I have served as Director of the Writing Program/Norman M. Eberly Multilingual Writing Center, which offers writing tutoring in eleven languages. As Director, I have developed a Writing Associates (Fellows) Program, transformed a well-established English writing center into a Multilingual Writing Center, administered a three-tiered writing requirement, coordinated a writing-focused faculty development program, and organized the Writing Assessment Project. In 2014, and in collaboration with faculty from across the disciplines, I developed a Quantitative Reasoning Center. My teaching experience includes first-year writing, research writing, writing & wellness, and American literature courses as well as tutor training and composition theory at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. My most recent publications have focused on training tutors in emotional intelligence, developing a Multilingual Writing Center, and adapting writing pedagogy to mathematics courses. In spring 2020, I published as part of Parlor Press's Second Language Writing Series a book entitled Internationalizing the Writing Center: Developing a Multilingual Writing Center that offers a rationale, administrative plan, and tutor training strategy for a Multilingual Writing Center.
Education
- B.A., The College of St. Elizabeth, 1988
- M.A., Temple University, 1991
- Ph.D., 1996
2026-2027 Academic Year
Fall 2026
FYSM 100 First-Year Seminar
The First-Year Seminar (FYS) introduces students to Dickinson as a "community of inquiry" by developing habits of mind essential to liberal learning. Through the study of a compelling issue or broad topic chosen by their faculty member, students will:
- Critically analyze information and ideas
- Examine issues from multiple perspectives
- Discuss, debate and defend ideas, including one's own views, with clarity and reason
- Develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information, and
- Create clear academic writing
The small group seminar format of this course promotes discussion and interaction among students and their professor. In addition, the professor serves as students' initial academic advisor. This course does not duplicate in content any other course in the curriculum and may not be used to fulfill any other graduation requirement.
EDST 140 Educational Psychology
An examination of physical, cognitive, and psychological developmental theories and research as well as theories of learning. The course includes theoretical perspectives on: age-stage characteristics, exceptionality, achievement versus aptitude, as well as how developmental, sociocultural, and motivational factors influence student learning in classroom contexts.
Spring 2027
EDST 140 Educational Psychology
An examination of physical, cognitive, and psychological developmental theories and research as well as theories of learning. The course includes theoretical perspectives on: age-stage characteristics, exceptionality, achievement versus aptitude, as well as how developmental, sociocultural, and motivational factors influence student learning in classroom contexts.
EDST 250 Curriculum Theory
An examination of how the curriculum of educational institutions is shaped as well as how curriculum serves as a shaping force for educational institutions. This includes an examination of various conceptions of curriculum and of knowledge as well as curriculum ideologies and structures. Finally, the course examines how diverse student populations may experience the curriculum.Prerequisites: 120 or 130, and 140.
EDST 391 Democratic Education
The role of schools, colleges, and universities in educating students to participate in democratic life has been infringed upon in recent years. First, we will examine the broader conversation around democratic education, how different stakeholders conceptualize it, and examples of the challenges to it in both K-12 and higher education contexts. Second, we will consider the cultural forces that threaten students’ full participation in classroom discourse – namely, polarization, echo chambers, canceling, self-censorship, and misinformation. Third, we will explore different modes of public conversation: debate, dialogue, deliberation, discussion, and demonstration. We will co-construct a democratically engaged space and learn the skills needed to interact effectively with each other – community building, active listening, productive questioning, emotional regulation, effective group work, productive disagreement, among others. Together we will practice the skills that inform purposive communication across differences in classrooms, on campuses, and in communities.