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2004-05 Workshop on
Teaching and Learning for Pre-Tenure Theological School Faculty

Staff:

Director:
Toni Craven, Brite Divinity School
Staff:
Steve Delamarter, George Fox Evangelical Seminary
Daisy L. Machado, Brite Divinity School

Wabash Center Facilitator:
Paul O. Myhre

Participants and Project Titles:

Javier R . Alanís, Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest
"A Post-Modern Trinity: The use of Technology for Theological Teaching and Table-Talk"

This project involves the use of technology for theological teaching and conversation; specifically, the use of power-point to convey images and symbols of God that enhance the learning and transformation of students. Using Tillich’s theory of symbol to explain the experience of the divine/human encounter one can extrapolate a corollary in the use of power-point to convey images that facilitate this encounter. For example, Tillich had a profound experience with the divine, or as he put it, with “Ultimate Concern” or “Ultimate Other” when he visited an art gallery in Paris during World War II. When viewing a painting he was touched and transformed by an encounter with an image that somehow conveyed transcendent meaning and purpose in the midst of an incomprehensible war. By applying a more post-modern method of high tech in the classroom such as through the use of power-point for conveying symbols as potential images of God one can facilitate not only the reception of information but also an encounter with the “Other” who is at the heart of the transformational process.

Kent Burreson, Concordia Seminary in St. Louis
"Integrating Liturgical Theology into the Systematic Theology Curriculum"

The learning and teaching project proposed for the workshop involved four learning goals: 1) The preparation of a bibliography of the literature available in liturgical theology; 2) The identification of the theological themes in liturgical theology and the pedagogical tools best suited for integration into the core systematic theology curriculum; 3) The preparation of pedagogical strategies and instruments that could be integrated into core systematics courses; and 4) The integration of the strategies and instruments into the courses. The participant engaged all four learning goals as his project unfolded. He identified a significant portion of the resources available in the area of liturgical theology. He also began the process of abstracting and annotating the theological themes which fit most appropriately with his theological context and the structures of his institution's core systematics curriculum. Much of the work of integrating the themes of liturgical theology and pedagogical strategies for their integration into the courses will be accomplished during the final months of the project.

Marsha Cutting, Boston University School of Theology/Danielsen Institute
"(Everything You Need to Know about) Pastoral Care in One Semester"

The one required pastoral care course in the M.Div. curriculum is redesigned to prioritize essential material, and the most effective method of presenting this material is explored in this project. The possibility of organizing the course around a developmental perspective within the communal contextual paradigm is also considered, as are methods of evaluating student learning.

Russell Haitch, Bethany Theological Seminary
"On-line Learning in Theological Perspective"

In examining distance learning in theological schools and seminaries, Dr. Haitch began with three issues where he saw a convergence of pedagogical and theological concerns. One was the question of “presence.” Does distance education cultivate a sense of imaginative presence or of alienating absence? A second, related question involves “community.” Does on-line learning foster a sense of wider, interconnected communities, or a pseudo-intimacy that deepens alienation? A third question concerns “inclusivity.” Does on-line education transcend or reinforce status quo boundaries?
After presenting ideas at a meeting of the Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education (Denver, 2004), and reflecting further at a meeting of International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry (London, 2005), Dr. Haitch focused the project mainly on the question of community, looking at emerging churches with a predominant internet dimension as a barometer for gauging whether and how theological schools can foster a sense of religious community in their on-line classrooms.

Mark Hoffman, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
"Experiencing the Parables of Jesus: Creating a Virtual, Interactive, Immersive Environment for Learning"

This project intends to find a better way to create a learning experience for students in contrast to simply presenting information to them. This issue is particularly relevant in teaching the parables of Jesus. Some information is required to understand the parable appropriately, but ultimately the goal of the parable is to engage and potentially even transform the perceptions of the audience. The project aims to establish an ‘environment’ in which the student becomes a participant in directing the learning so that the process of learning becomes an experience. The project utilizes computer-assisted tools to create a virtual, interactive environment for learning. Rather than using textual directions, this environment will be a visual setting that encourages participants to explore, intuit, and reflect in order to determine how to proceed and eventually to come to a genuine experience of the parable.

Arun Jones, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
"Developing an Effective Pedagogy to Engage North American Seminary Students in Relating to the Church in the Third World"

This purpose of this project is for Dr. Jones as a teacher to develop pedagogical methods, styles and techniques beyond the lecture which will help seminary students bridge the experiential gap between their own social, cultural and ecclesial contexts and the contexts of the churches in the third world. By bridging this gap in the classroom Dr. Jones hopes that students will more fruitfully and vitally engage the life of the church in the third world, both in their intellectual endeavors at school as well as in their ministries after school.

Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, School of Theology and Ministry, Seattle University
"Morally Empowering Pedagogy: The Challenge of Christian Ethics Today"

This project aims at developing ways of teaching Christian ethics that help overcome deep disciplinary fault lines responsible for diminishing the discipline’s capacity to address an unprecedented two-fold moral crisis: unsustainable Earth-human relations, wed to an economic gap so vast that a small number of people have wealth equal to that of half of humanity. Dr. Moe-Lobeda's method is to bring into dialogue three bodies of pedagogical knowledge that are formative in her work. They are: 1) knowledge regarding “experiential cross-cultural education” developed as Director of the East Coast office of Augsburg College’s Center for Global Education, and as a church-based health educator in Honduras; 2) pedagogical knowledge gained in formal theological studies as graduate student and as professor; 3) the knowledge of selected theorists in the multi-faceted “field” of learning theory that may be called “education for social transformation.” The outcomes for this project include two illustrative syllabi and course plans.

Damayanthi Niles, Eden Theological Seminary
"How to Teach Theological Foundations in a Pluralistic World"

The purpose of this project is to figure out how to construct and teach a foundational course in theology that takes into account the pluralistic world in which we find ourselves. It is Dr. Niles intension by the end of the workshop to have created a syllabus and work out some teaching methods that will enable her to teach such a course better. The course should help the student to develop critical tools for evaluating, constructing, and articulating theology. In the first portion of the course she envisions that students will look at how theology is constructed. In the second part of the course students will focus on central doctrines that are building blocks for theological construction. And the third portion of the course will look at three traditional frameworks to demonstrate theological construction in recent Christian history. The class will engage various theological perspectives across the tradition and across the world. It will use this method of comparison as a means to help the student develop critical understanding of how the students' own theological beliefs work together in a framework and how that framework can be in dialogue with other frameworks.

Colleen Shantz, University of St. Michaels
“Course Development: the Complementarity of Content and Delivery”

This project is centered on the development of a course that will consider factors in the development of the earliest (Pauline) Christian congregations. The first members of these assemblies were attracted to them not only by theological teaching, but also by a variety of social, material and spatial, and experiential dynamics. Dr. Shantz proposed to design the course to engage these factors both as the content of learning and as part of the process of learning. Thus, Dr. Shantz considers such questions as: How might the choice of classroom and the arrangement of the learning space contribute to our understanding of the effect of meeting space (private homes, workshops, synagogues) on the formation of the assemblies? What roles might students play in constructing a social milieu for the class that will also highlight the social impact of formative Christianity? What settings and resources in the broader community might bring students into contact with people who are searching for some of the same benefits provided by the first Christian groups?

Laura Simmons, George Fox Evangelical Seminary
"Adult Learning in Adult Ministries: Modeling What We Teach"

In this project, Dr. Simmons set out to read through the literature on adult learning and apply it extensively in a course on Ministry To and With Adults. Eight of her nine students elected to pursue a self-directed-learning experience in the class, while the ninth chose the traditional syllabus. Class sessions included teaching by all ten of the participants in the class, supplemented by a common body of reading. Dr. Simmons has learned that self-directed learning proposals must be very detailed in order for students to follow through and actually learn the material, rather than mastering just enough to make a presentation. Consistency and foundational learning can be ensured through assigning a set body of readings outside of what each student is reading for his/her project. Students seem more engaged both in their own learning and in each other’s projects when given the opportunity to have a voice in their learning experience. Dr. Simmons will repeat the class and implement learnings gained through the first course.

Susan Smith, St. Paul School of Theology
Teaching theology and practice in a diverse setting: Syllabus and Teaching Strategies for a new course entitled "Sin and Sacrament"

The liturgies of the liturgical churches (Lutheran, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Orthodox) are authorized by synodal bodies and may not be changed except by permission of the ecclesiastical authority/ies. The Divine Liturgy (Orthodox), like Scripture, is inspired; novelty, therefore, ranges from impossible (Orthodox) to requiring a world Council (Roman) to needing national approval (Episcopal). Free churches, on the other hand, generate liturgies weekly with no theological, authoritative, ritual, aesthetic, or liturgical compunction about doing so. This project seeks to teach "faithful liturgical creativity" to persons of both traditions. Its main goal is for students to learn the deep structures and rhythms of worship, and then to appropriate both (theological, ritual, and aesthetic) restraint against as well as pastoral reasons for ritual generation. Intended results of this project are a syllabus unit, a presentation on Creative Christian Ritualization, and a student worship-evaluation form. A class evaluation tool for students, and my own evaluations of their worship leadership, will assess its effectiveness.

Warren Smith, Duke Divinity School
"Ecclesial" Writing in an Introductory Survey of Church History

The aim of this project is to integrate an “ecclesial” or cooperative writing component to the preceptorial groups for Church History 13, “Early and Medieval Christianity” (aka CH13). CH13 is one of the core courses required of all first year M.Div. and M.T.S. students at Duke Divinity School. The purpose of the class is twofold. First, it introduces students to the vocabulary and grammar of Christian orthodoxy by studying the development of Christian. Second, it trains the students how to give close and critical readings of the classical texts of patristic and medieval Christianity The preceptorial discussion groups train students how to give a nuanced interpretation of the text by paying close attention to the details of its argument. The objective of the ecclesial writing project is to use the preceptorial as the context for collective, student-led discussion of the assigned text that focuses on a student’s paper on a particular topic.

Brent Strawn, Candler School of Theology
"On Using Multi-Sensory Imagery in an Old Testament Introduction Class"

Dr. Strawn proposed to build on prior use of multi-sensory imagery (whether visual, oral/aural, or combinatory – so, e.g., songs, film, poetry, images) and develop it further in order to explore and implement a better understanding of this imagery and my selection and use thereof. The project has two interrelated goals: 1. To develop a theory of why multi-sensory images are generative (not just illustrative), even essential, in teaching. [Theory] 2. To ask how such theory impacts adequate and appropriate selection of multi-sensory tools and to begin the process of identifying multi-sensory imagery that is hermeneutically significant for lectures but that is also theoretically-informed and pedagogically-intentional. [Practice] A better understanding of why (theory) will help with how (practices and delivery), so the theoretical knowledge gained in the course of this project will prove useful in subsequent selection and implementation. The context of the investigation is a large, two-semester, lecture-oriented introductory course.

David Stubbs, Western Theological Seminary
"Theology and Economy:" Development of Course Format and Pedagogies

This project is focused on (i) familiarizing the participant with some more of the literature on case studies and active learning, (ii) incorporating two case studies into my Introduction to Theology and Worship class in the fall, and two more into my Christian Ethics class in the spring, and (iii) spending time reflecting on how those case studies went and what could be improved, and then incorporate those improvements into the course syllabi and teaching plans for the next time the participant will teach those courses.

Elisabeth Suárez, Denver Seminary
"Diversifying Teaching Techniques By Incorporating Globalization Issues"

This project focuses on incorporating diverse teaching techniques and globalization issues into a Social and Cultural Counseling class and a Research and Evaluation in Counseling course. For the cross-cultural class, numerous experiential activities and simulation games were used to help raise awareness of cultural stereotypes, biases, and prejudices. Large and small group discussions helped students debrief the concepts introduced through movie clips, documentaries, and guest speakers. Hispanic and Asian surnames were used in case studies and a group formal utilized for the final exam. In the Research and Evaluation class, peer-reviewed journal articles that focused on multicultural issues were used to exemplify the statistical concepts being studied. Real-life multicultural examples were used during the lectures to help bring the concepts to life. Movie clips and math-related comics helped infuse humor into the lectures. In addition, the knowledge gained on diverse teaching methods was the basis for a seminar presented to the faculty in September.

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