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A brief abridgement (37 pages) of Fink’s best-selling book, "Creating Significant Learning Experiences” (2003). A “workshop” to help faculty through the course-design process step by step.
Additional Info:
A brief abridgement (37 pages) of Fink’s best-selling book, "Creating Significant Learning Experiences” (2003). A “workshop” to help faculty through the course-design process step by step.
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"Converting My Course Converted Me: How Reinventing an On-campus Course for an Online Environment Reinvigorated My Teaching"

TTR
Ruth, Lester
2006
Teaching Theology and Religion 9, no. 4 (2006): 236-242
BL41.T4
Topics: Course Design   |   Online Learning

Additional Info:
The challenge of learning to teach online leads a junior faculty person to achieve greater levels of teaching satisfaction and proficiency overall. For this professor transitioning an on-campus pastoral liturgy course to an online environment brings about serendipitous discoveries that allow him to do more than survive as a frustrated teacher. The transition creates a revolution in one professor's whole approach to teaching.
Additional Info:
The challenge of learning to teach online leads a junior faculty person to achieve greater levels of teaching satisfaction and proficiency overall. For this professor transitioning an on-campus pastoral liturgy course to an online environment brings about serendipitous discoveries that allow him to do more than survive as a frustrated teacher. The transition creates a revolution in one professor's whole approach to teaching.
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"Planning Your Course: A Decision Guide"

Article
Dee Fink
2000
Brigham Young University Faculty Center, http://fc.byu.edu/tpages/planning/pycguide.doc.
Topics: Course Design

Additional Info:
A handout from BYU's Faculty Center, based on the work of L. Dee Fink, provides a series of detailed questions to guide you through the construction of a course, organized in categories such as: where are you? where do you want to go? how would you know if the students got there? how can you help them get there? what are the students going to do? etc.
Additional Info:
A handout from BYU's Faculty Center, based on the work of L. Dee Fink, provides a series of detailed questions to guide you through the construction of a course, organized in categories such as: where are you? where do you want to go? how would you know if the students got there? how can you help them get there? what are the students going to do? etc.
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"Promoting Freedom, Responsibility, and Learning in the Classroom: The Learning Covenant a Decade Later"

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Glennon, Fred
2008
Teaching Theology and Religion 11, no. 1 (2008): 32-41
BL41.T4
Topics: Course Design   |   18-22 Year Olds   |   Constructivist & Active Learning Theory

Additional Info:
This essay discusses an approach to teaching religious studies in a general education or core curriculum that I have experimented with for the last decade, which I call the "Learning Covenant." The Learning Covenant brings together various pedagogical theories, including transformational, experiential, contract, and cooperative learning, in an attempt to address diverse learning styles, multiple intelligences, and student learning assessment. It has advantages over more traditional teacher-directed approaches to teaching, ...
Additional Info:
This essay discusses an approach to teaching religious studies in a general education or core curriculum that I have experimented with for the last decade, which I call the "Learning Covenant." The Learning Covenant brings together various pedagogical theories, including transformational, experiential, contract, and cooperative learning, in an attempt to address diverse learning styles, multiple intelligences, and student learning assessment. It has advantages over more traditional teacher-directed approaches to teaching, including meeting student resistance to "required" courses head-on by inviting them to identify learning needs regardless of chosen vocation and meeting them in the context of a religious studies course, recognizing the multiple ways in which students learn and providing a variety of opportunities for students to express their learning, and allowing students opportunity to take increased responsibility for their own learning. The essay will focus on the Learning Covenant's development, components, strengths, and drawbacks.
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"Tell Me a Story of Jesus: Teaching as Storytelling and Four Recent Short Histories of Christianity"

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Clingerman, Forrest
2008
Teaching Theology and Religion 11, no. 3 (2008): 134-140
BL41.T4
Topics: Course Design   |   Teaching Religion

Additional Info:
Offering a review of four short introductory books on Christianity, this essay discusses how introductory textbooks, and introductory religion courses more generally, are like storytelling. Books by Lindberg, Tomkins, Norris, and Woodhead are reviewed with an emphasis on their classroom use. These books share several things in common – most notably, each is a "short," popular text. Dealing with the topic of Christianity in abbreviated form presents certain challenges and possibilities ...
Additional Info:
Offering a review of four short introductory books on Christianity, this essay discusses how introductory textbooks, and introductory religion courses more generally, are like storytelling. Books by Lindberg, Tomkins, Norris, and Woodhead are reviewed with an emphasis on their classroom use. These books share several things in common – most notably, each is a "short," popular text. Dealing with the topic of Christianity in abbreviated form presents certain challenges and possibilities in the task of teaching. After examining these short histories, the essay reflects on several questions that emerge: When should we use textbooks in college classrooms? What are the goals that teachers have in the use of textbooks? How do textbooks define the subject matter of a course? And finally, how do teachers use texts to aid in telling a story in the classroom?
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"The Syllabus as Passport into a Common Culture of Teaching and Learning: Developing and Assessing Strategies for Dealing with Diversity"

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Green, Barbara and Martha Stortz
2006
Teaching Theology and Religion 9, no. 4 (2006): 221-228
BL41.T4
Topics: Course Design   |   Teaching Diverse Students

Additional Info:
Finding themselves teaching to increasingly diverse student populations, two mid-career faculty from different disciplines embarked on a common voyage to make their foundational courses more sensitive to student learning styles. Adrift in the seas of multiple intelligences and multiculturalism, the researchers quickly abandoned any hope of developing distinctive teaching portfolios for individual learning profiles. Instead, they structured the syllabus to be the passport into a common culture of teaching and ...
Additional Info:
Finding themselves teaching to increasingly diverse student populations, two mid-career faculty from different disciplines embarked on a common voyage to make their foundational courses more sensitive to student learning styles. Adrift in the seas of multiple intelligences and multiculturalism, the researchers quickly abandoned any hope of developing distinctive teaching portfolios for individual learning profiles. Instead, they structured the syllabus to be the passport into a common culture of teaching and learning in the classroom. Syllabus design and on-going "spot" assessments proved trusty guides in re-centering learning on the students' needs. In the process of outlining these two strategies for creating a common culture of teaching and learning, the article offers testimony that old dogs can learn new tricks! Additional materials, including syllabi used in these courses and in class assessment tools, can be found on the Web page of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion: https://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/journal/greenstortz.html
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In the backward design process you structure student learning based upon assessments that are intentionally designed to provide evidence that students have achieved the course goals.
Additional Info:
In the backward design process you structure student learning based upon assessments that are intentionally designed to provide evidence that students have achieved the course goals.
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Charting Your Course: How to Prepare to Teach More Effectively

Book
Pregent, Richard
2000
Atwood Publishing, Madison, WI
LB2331.P6813 2000
Topics: Course Design

Additional Info:
Good teaching begins with good preparation. But many instructors and teaching assistants are unsure about how to plan their courses in order to teach more effectively.

Charting Your Course is a systematic approach to course planning that applies to all disciplines and course types. Prégent stresses analysis, planning, critical thinking, and careful evaluation and provides step-by-step examples of how actual new courses were designed and prepared. Whatever ...
Additional Info:
Good teaching begins with good preparation. But many instructors and teaching assistants are unsure about how to plan their courses in order to teach more effectively.

Charting Your Course is a systematic approach to course planning that applies to all disciplines and course types. Prégent stresses analysis, planning, critical thinking, and careful evaluation and provides step-by-step examples of how actual new courses were designed and prepared. Whatever type of course you teach, use Charting Your Course to complement your current planning. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Introduction

ch. 1: Analyzing the Conditions of Your Teaching Situation
ch. 2: Formulating Course Objectives
ch. 3: Planning to Evaluate Learning
ch. 4: Choosing Your Teaching Methods
ch. 5: Choosing Your Teaching Materials
ch. 6: Detailed Course Planning
ch. 7: Preparing and Delivering a Lecture
ch. 8: Training Students for Group Work
ch. 9: Evaluating Your Teaching

Conclusion
Bibliography
Additional Info:
"When I read this book it was like starting over as a teacher. I had been convinced of the importance of the flipped classroom, but not until Fink’s approach did I see how the various components of my courses—the goals and outcomes, assignments, learning activities, and evaluation—need to be aligned and integrated in a coherent way. For too long these connections were implicit and students had to ...
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"When I read this book it was like starting over as a teacher. I had been convinced of the importance of the flipped classroom, but not until Fink’s approach did I see how the various components of my courses—the goals and outcomes, assignments, learning activities, and evaluation—need to be aligned and integrated in a coherent way. For too long these connections were implicit and students had to figure out how it all made sense.  At the beginning of every semester, I pull Fink off the shelf and do a few of the exercises to make sure my courses are ready to go. I strongly recommend you do the same."
Kathleen Cahalan, St. John's School of Theology and Seminary


Offering methods for improving teaching practices in higher education, Fink challenges educators to shift from the content-oriented "information dump" approach toward one that is learning-centered. Fink outlines his taxonomy of significant learning and shows how to combine new and traditional techniques to create powerful learning experiences. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Preface
The Author

ch. 1 Creating Significant Learning Experiences
ch. 2 A Taxonomy of Significant Learning
ch. 3 Designing Significant Learning Experiences I: Getting Started
ch. 4 Designing Significant Learning Experiences II: Shaping the Learning Experience
ch. 5 Changing the Way We Teach
ch. 6 Better Organizational Support for Faculty
ch. 7 The Human Significance of Good Teaching and Learning

App. A Planning Your Course: A Decision Guide
App. B: Suggested Readings

References
Index
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By “Decoding” what an expert does so that he or she does not get stuck at the bottleneck, we can spell out crucial operations, the “critical thinking” of a discipline.
Additional Info:
By “Decoding” what an expert does so that he or she does not get stuck at the bottleneck, we can spell out crucial operations, the “critical thinking” of a discipline.
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Developing Learner-Centered Teaching: A Practical Guide for Faculty

Book
Blumberg, Phyllis
2009
Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint, San Francisco
LB2331.B55 2009
Topics: Course Design   |   Constructivist & Active Learning Theory

Additional Info:
Developing Learner-Centered Teaching offers a step-by-step plan for transforming any course from teacher-centered to the more engaging learner-centered model. Filled with self-assessments and worksheets that are based on each of the five practices identified in Maryellen WeimerÕs Learner-Centered Teaching, this groundbreaking book gives instructors, faculty developers, and instructional designers a practical and effective resource for putting the learner-centered model into action. (From the Publisher)
Additional Info:
Developing Learner-Centered Teaching offers a step-by-step plan for transforming any course from teacher-centered to the more engaging learner-centered model. Filled with self-assessments and worksheets that are based on each of the five practices identified in Maryellen WeimerÕs Learner-Centered Teaching, this groundbreaking book gives instructors, faculty developers, and instructional designers a practical and effective resource for putting the learner-centered model into action. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
List of Tables, Exhibits, and Boxes
Foreword Maryellen Weimer

Part I Transforming Teaching to Be More Learner-Centered
ch. 1 Introduction
ch. 2 Understanding the Rubrics
ch. 3 Tools for Facilitating Change and Assessment

Part II The Five Dimensions of Learner-Centered Teaching
ch. 4 The Function of Content
ch. 5 The Role of the Instructor
ch. 6 The Responsibility for Learning
ch. 7 The Purposes and Processes of Assessment
ch. 8 The Balance of Power

Part III Discussion and Conclusion
ch. 9 Can All Courses Be Learner-Centered?
ch. 10 Strategies for Overcoming Obstacles and Resistance
ch. 11 Conclusion

References

Appendix A Glossary of Terms
Appendix B Rubrics, Planning for Transformation Exercise, and Documentation to Support the Selected Status Form
Appendix C Development of the Rubrics

Index
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Forum: Crafting the Introductory Course in Religious Studies

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McCutcheon, Russell T.; Hollander, Aaron T.; Durdin, Andrew F.; Gardner, Kellli A.; Miller, Adam T.; and Crews, Emily D.
2016
Teaching Theology and Religion 19, no. 1 (2016): 78-98
BL41.T4 v.19 no.1
Topics: Course Design   |   Teaching Religion

Additional Info:
This series of short essays considers the complex choices and decision-making processes of instructors preparing to teach, and continuing to teach, introductory courses in religious studies. In a paper originally presented in the University of Chicago's “The Craft of Teaching in the Academic Study of Religion” series, Russell McCutcheon explores a “baker's dozen” of such choices and the larger pedagogical problems with which they are entwined, ranging from classic questions ...
Additional Info:
This series of short essays considers the complex choices and decision-making processes of instructors preparing to teach, and continuing to teach, introductory courses in religious studies. In a paper originally presented in the University of Chicago's “The Craft of Teaching in the Academic Study of Religion” series, Russell McCutcheon explores a “baker's dozen” of such choices and the larger pedagogical problems with which they are entwined, ranging from classic questions of skill development and content coverage to philosophical concerns around students' identification with their topics of study and institutional concerns around governance and assessment. Aaron Hollander provides a brief introduction and four doctoral students at the University of Chicago Divinity School respond to McCutcheon's essay, widening its scope, testing its applicability, and interrogating its undergirding suppositions from the perspective of early-career educators in the field.
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From Civic Engagement to Circles of Grace: Mid-Range Reflection on Teaching for Global Citizenship

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Corrie, Elizabeth W.
2013
Teaching Theology and Religion 16, no. 2 (2013): 165-181
BL41.T4 v.16 no. 2
Topics: Ministerial Formation   |   Alternative Classrooms

Additional Info:
The course “Empowering Youth for Global Citizenship” seeks to equip students to teach global citizenship by engaging them in practices of ascetic withdrawal from consumer habits and active engagement in the public sphere. These goals underlie the design of the assignments, but should have also shaped the relationship between the assignments themselves. This article addresses the issue of course design in the service of empowering students for engagement in the ...
Additional Info:
The course “Empowering Youth for Global Citizenship” seeks to equip students to teach global citizenship by engaging them in practices of ascetic withdrawal from consumer habits and active engagement in the public sphere. These goals underlie the design of the assignments, but should have also shaped the relationship between the assignments themselves. This article addresses the issue of course design in the service of empowering students for engagement in the public sphere by reflecting upon the course assignments, with emphasis on a project that worked well, and the implications this has for its relationship to the other course assignments, including one that missed the mark. The exploration of this misalignment between the learning goals and actual outcomes of the different assignments brings to light the unique role of learning communities of accountability and acceptance in deepening the impact of assignments aimed at personal transformation, as well as the rich dynamic that can come from coordinating course assignments to bring “head, heart, and hands” together.
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Games help people develop a disposition toward collaboration, problem-solving, communication, experimentation, and exploration of identities, all attributes that promote success in a rapidly-changing, information-based culture
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Games help people develop a disposition toward collaboration, problem-solving, communication, experimentation, and exploration of identities, all attributes that promote success in a rapidly-changing, information-based culture
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According to author L.D. Fink, effective course design makes the biggest difference in classroom learning and success. Consider these strategies and resources for designing your course.
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According to author L.D. Fink, effective course design makes the biggest difference in classroom learning and success. Consider these strategies and resources for designing your course.
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An online tutorial describing a methodology for creating online learning. Upon completion of the course you should be able to: explain why online education is an effective learning format for adult learners; write measurable learning objectives; organize content into an online format; and create assessment tools/exercises that measure achievement of learning objectives. University of Tennessee.
Additional Info:
An online tutorial describing a methodology for creating online learning. Upon completion of the course you should be able to: explain why online education is an effective learning format for adult learners; write measurable learning objectives; organize content into an online format; and create assessment tools/exercises that measure achievement of learning objectives. University of Tennessee.
Additional Info:
Series of detailed questions to guide you through the construction of a course, organized in categories such as: where are you? where do you want to go? how would you know if the students got there? how can you help them get there? what are the students going to do? etc.
Additional Info:
Series of detailed questions to guide you through the construction of a course, organized in categories such as: where are you? where do you want to go? how would you know if the students got there? how can you help them get there? what are the students going to do? etc.
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Teaching Introductory Upper-Level Religion and Theology Classes

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Clingerman, Forrest and O'Brien, Kevin J.
2015
Teaching Theology and Religion 18, no. 4 (2015): 326-342
BL41.T4 v.18 no. 4 2015
Topics: Course Design   |   Teaching Religion

Additional Info:
The undergraduate study of religion is predominantly undertaken by non-majors who are meeting a general education requirement. This means that, while curricular discussions make important distinctions between the work of lower- and upper-division courses, many religion and theology faculty are teaching hybrid courses that we call “introductory upper-level courses.” These play an introductory role in general education while also serving the study of religion in a more advanced way. Attention ...
Additional Info:
The undergraduate study of religion is predominantly undertaken by non-majors who are meeting a general education requirement. This means that, while curricular discussions make important distinctions between the work of lower- and upper-division courses, many religion and theology faculty are teaching hybrid courses that we call “introductory upper-level courses.” These play an introductory role in general education while also serving the study of religion in a more advanced way. Attention to how these courses fit into multiple curricular goals will be important for the scholarship of teaching and learning in religious studies and theology. This essay draws on scholarship about introductory teaching and a survey of faculty about introductory upper-level courses to argue that the content of such courses should be understood as serving the study of religion at an advanced level, the context should be understood as introducing general education goals, and the goals for intellectual growth must strike a challenging balance between the two.
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Teaching World Religions without Teaching “World Religions”

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Locklin, Reid B., Tiemeier, Tracy, and Vento,, Johann M.
2012
Teaching Theology and Religion 15, no. 2 (2012): 159-181
BL.T4 v.15 no. 2 2012
Topics: Course Design   |   Teaching Religion   |   Religion and Academia   |   18-22 Year Olds

Additional Info:
Tomoko Masuzawa and a number of other contemporary scholars have recently problematized the categories of “religion” and “world religions” and, in some cases, called for its abandonment altogether as a discipline of scholarly study. In this collaborative essay, we respond to this critique by highlighting three attempts to teach world religions without teaching “world religions.” That is, we attempt to promote student engagement with the empirical study of a plurality ...
Additional Info:
Tomoko Masuzawa and a number of other contemporary scholars have recently problematized the categories of “religion” and “world religions” and, in some cases, called for its abandonment altogether as a discipline of scholarly study. In this collaborative essay, we respond to this critique by highlighting three attempts to teach world religions without teaching “world religions.” That is, we attempt to promote student engagement with the empirical study of a plurality of religious traditions without engaging in the rhetoric of pluralism or the reification of the category “religion.” The first two essays focus on topical courses taught at the undergraduate level in self-consciously Christian settings: the online course “Women and Religion” at Georgian Court University and the service-learning course “Interreligious Dialogue and Practice” at St. Michael's College, in the University of Toronto. The final essay discusses the integration of texts and traditions from diverse traditions into the graduate theology curriculum more broadly, in this case at Loyola Marymount University. Such confessional settings can, we suggest, offer particularly suitable – if somewhat counter-intuitive – contexts for bringing the otherwise covert agendas of the world religions discourse to light and subjecting them to a searching inquiry in the religion classroom.
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Wabash tree

The Capstone Experience For the Religious Studies Major

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Upson-Saia, Kristi
2013
Teaching Theology and Religion 16, no. 1 (2013): 3-17
BL41.T4 v.16 no. 1
Topics: Teaching Religion   |   Liberal Arts

Additional Info:
The purpose of this essay is to offer a survey of religious studies capstones from twenty-nine U.S. colleges and universities, to identify the most common frustrations about the capstone, and to observe how departments resolve such frustrations. I conclude that the most successful capstones -- in terms of students’ performance and faculty satisfaction -- are those that are carefully linked to their department’s major curriculum, pedagogies, and staffing, ...
Additional Info:
The purpose of this essay is to offer a survey of religious studies capstones from twenty-nine U.S. colleges and universities, to identify the most common frustrations about the capstone, and to observe how departments resolve such frustrations. I conclude that the most successful capstones -- in terms of students’ performance and faculty satisfaction -- are those that are carefully linked to their department’s major curriculum, pedagogies, and staffing, that set out to achieve a reasonable set of objectives, and that are aligned with their institutional mission, culture, and expectations for assessment. Yet, I argue that it is becoming increasingly difficult to design our capstone experiences according to the above principles because of the proliferation of departmental and institutional pressures we presently face. Finally, I offer some guidelines by which we might devise or revise our capstones to alleviate some of the most common pressures.
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Understanding Bible by Design: Create Courses with Purpose

Book
Lester, G. Brooke
2014
Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, MN
BS600.3.L47 2014
Topics: Course Design   |   Teaching Religion

Additional Info:
Click Here for Book Review
Abstract: Today’s seminary and religious-education instructors are expected to design and redesign their courses more nimbly than in the past. We have to adapt our courses to novel learning environments, for more diverse learners, toward more diverse vocations. At the same time, institutional rewards for time invested in course design are ...
Additional Info:
Click Here for Book Review
Abstract: Today’s seminary and religious-education instructors are expected to design and redesign their courses more nimbly than in the past. We have to adapt our courses to novel learning environments, for more diverse learners, toward more diverse vocations. At the same time, institutional rewards for time invested in course design are fewer than ever. Understanding Bible by Design introduces the reader to Understanding by Design: an approach to course design that is proven time-efficient and grounded in the instructor’s most closely-held convictions about her subject matter’s “big ideas and essential questions.” This book’s contributors (one in Old Testament, one in New Testament, and one in Jewish Studies) demonstrate the value of Understanding Bible by Design for the Biblical Studies instructor, whether at seminary or university, face-to-face or online, from the intimate seminar to the massive MOOC.

Lester’s synopsis of course design and suggested action is followed by a collaborative dialogue with Jane S. Webster and Christopher M. Jones. Webster and Jones provide practical commentary regarding the successful implementation of Lester’s proposed approaches. As a group, Lester, Webster, and Jones create a text that extends pedagogical innovation in inspiring but practical ways. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
ch. 1 Setting the Problem (G. Brooke Lester)
ch. 2 Understanding by Design (G. Brooke Lester)
ch. 3 Understanding by Design: Old Testament in Seminary (G. Brooke Lester)
ch. 4 Understanding by Design: Putting Your Course Online(G. Brooke Lester)
ch. 5 Understanding by Design: New Testament at University(Jane S. Webster)
Exhibit 3: Annotated Sample Template for Essay in "New Testament" (Jane S. Webster)
ch. 6 Understanding by Design: Judaism Studies at University (Christopher M. Jones)

Appendix
Exhibit 1: Rubric for Presentations (G. Brooke Lester)
Exhibit 2: All-Purpose Rubric for "Introduction to the Old Testament" (G. Brooke Lester)
Exhibit 4: Interdisciplinary Institutional Rubric for Writing at Barton College (Jane S. Webster)
Exhibit 5: Rubric for Essays in "New Testament"(Jane S. Webster)
Exhibit 6: Rubric for Ritual Analysis Papers in "Ritual and Ritualization" (Christopher M. Jones)
Exhibit 7: Rubric for Drafts in "Space and Place in Early Jewish Literature" (Christopher M. Jones)
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Understanding by Design

Book
Wiggins, Grant and Jay McTighe
1998
Assn. for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, VA
LB2806.15.W54
Topics: Course Design

Additional Info:
What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment?

Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these ...
Additional Info:
What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment?

Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum.

Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition, offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike. (From the Publisher)

Table Of Content:
Introduction
ch. 1 What Is Backward Design?
ch. 2 What Is a Matter of Understanding?
ch. 3 Understanding Understanding
ch. 4 The Six Facets of Understanding
ch. 5 Thinking Like an Assessor
ch. 6 How Is Understanding Assessed in Light of the Six Facets?
ch. 7 What Is Uncoverage?
ch. 8 What the Facets Imply for Unit Design
ch. 9 Implications for Organizing Curriculum
ch. 10 Implications for Teaching
ch. 11 Putting It All Together: A Design Template
Afterword
Bibliography
Additional Info:
Info page, with files and web links, on Understanding by Design, and approach to "backward course design" developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.
Additional Info:
Info page, with files and web links, on Understanding by Design, and approach to "backward course design" developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.
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Virtual Empathy? Anxieties and Connections Teaching and Learning Pastoral Care Online

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Sharp, Melinda McGarrah; and Morris, Mary Ann
2014
Teaching Theology and Religion 17, no. 3 (2014): 247-263
BL41.T4 v.17 no. 3
Topics: Online Learning   |   Ministerial Formation   |   Learning Designs

Additional Info:
Is it possible to teach pastoral care online? McGarrah Sharp and Morris describe their process of transforming a residential on-campus pastoral care course into the first online offering of the course at their seminary. They begin by describing a series of pedagogical choices made with the intent of facilitating dynamic movement between peer-to-peer, small group, and whole class discussions throughout the semester. Before and during the course, anxieties arose at ...
Additional Info:
Is it possible to teach pastoral care online? McGarrah Sharp and Morris describe their process of transforming a residential on-campus pastoral care course into the first online offering of the course at their seminary. They begin by describing a series of pedagogical choices made with the intent of facilitating dynamic movement between peer-to-peer, small group, and whole class discussions throughout the semester. Before and during the course, anxieties arose at many levels of instruction for the professor, teaching assistant, and students. Anecdotes and examples from the online course show how the online course design and facilitation was able to name and respond to anxieties as part of integrating pastoral care course content and practice – a key learning goal for the course. The authors are persuaded that online pedagogy can help identify how anxieties create space for developing empathy as much, if not more than, a traditional on-campus format.
Additional Info:
Most anyone who has taught a college course more than once realizes that students' learning does not proceed in a uniformly smooth fashion. All instructors encounter bottlenecks, places where the learning of a significant number of students is blocked. We used to think these bottlenecks were simply conceptually difficult places.
Additional Info:
Most anyone who has taught a college course more than once realizes that students' learning does not proceed in a uniformly smooth fashion. All instructors encounter bottlenecks, places where the learning of a significant number of students is blocked. We used to think these bottlenecks were simply conceptually difficult places.
Wabash Center