Teaching Reflectively in Theological Contexts


Book Description

"Teaching Reflectively in Theological Contexts explores the dynamics, principles, contradictions and tensions of teaching within theological contexts. It offers practical suggestions on modeling pastoral leadership, building trust with learners, negotiating the dynamics of team-teaching, questioning received truth, teaching through discussions, working with diversities, and building a culture of reflective teaching." --




Reflective Teaching


Book Description

This popular text provides a clear, succinct explanation of how reflection is integral to teachers’ understandings of themselves, their practice, and their context, and elaborates how various conceptions of reflective teaching differ from one another. The emphasis on the importance of both self and context is embedded within distinct and varied educational traditions (conservative, progressive, radical, and spiritual). Throughout the text the reader is encouraged to examine his/her assumptions and understandings of teaching, learning, and schooling and to reflect on self and context. The major goal of this book is to help teachers explore and define their own positions with regard to key topics and issues related to the aims of education in a democratic society. Its core message is that such reflection is essential to becoming more skilled, more capable, and in general better teachers. New in the Second Edition: Underscores use of critical educational texts and film to encourage reflection; highlights emotional features of teaching and reflection; addresses spiritual/contemplative domains in educational traditions; Companion Website.




Engaging Technology in Theological Education


Book Description

We live in a media culture, surrounded by ever-evolving digital technologies. While state schools and secular organizations have embraced the new teaching tools and models for learning that technology affords, religious institutions have struggled with how and why to do the same. All that we can't leave behind: Engaging technology in theological education is a breakthrough book that invites religious educators to both engage and adapt their pedagogy to incorporate new media and technology. Drawing from her expertise as a seminary professor and consultant to religious institutions on the use of technology in teaching, Mary Hess invites professors, pastors, seminarians, and anyone interested in religious education into critical reflection on ways of engaging technology to enhance learning and serve as critical interpreters within communities of faith.




Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher


Book Description

A practical guide to the essential practice that builds better teachers. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher is the landmark guide to critical reflection, providing expert insight and practical tools to facilitate a journey of constructive self-critique. Stephen Brookfield shows how you can uncover and assess your assumptions about practice by viewing them through the lens of your students' eyes, your colleagues' perceptions, relevant theory and research, and your own personal experience. Practicing critical reflection will help you... Align your teaching with desired student outcomes See your practice from new perspectives Engage learners via multiple teaching formats Understand and manage classroom power dynamics Model critical thinking for your students Manage the complex rhythms of diverse classrooms This fully revised second edition features a wealth of new material, including new chapters on critical reflection in the context of social media, teaching race and racism, leadership in a critically reflective key, and team teaching as critical reflection. In addition, all chapters have been thoroughly updated and expanded to align with today's classrooms, whether online or face-to-face, in large lecture formats or small groups. In his own personal voice Stephen Brookfield draws from over 45 years of experience to illustrate the clear benefits of critical reflection. Assumptions guide practice and only when we base our actions on accurate assumptions will we achieve the results we want. Educators with the courage to challenge their own assumptions in an effort to improve learning are the invaluable role models our students need. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher provides the foundational information and practical tools that help teachers reach their true potential.




Interreligious Learning and Teaching


Book Description

There is still resistance in Christian institutions to interreligious dialogue. The author provides not only the theological grounding for such a position but also advice on how to teach and live out this conviction in a way that promotes greater understanding and respect for others and engenders a deeper appreciation of one's own faith tradition.




Handbook of Research on Scholarly Publishing and Research Methods


Book Description

For faculty to advance their careers in higher education, publishing is essential. A competitive marketplace, strict research standards, and scrupulous tenure committees are all challenges academicians face in publishing their research and achieving tenure at their institutions. The Handbook of Research on Scholarly Publishing and Research Methods assists researchers in navigating the field of scholarly publishing through a careful analysis of multidisciplinary research topics and recent trends in the industry. With its broad, practical focus, this handbook is of particular use to researchers, scholars, professors, graduate students, and librarians.




Theological Reflection across Religious Traditions


Book Description

Theological reflection — connecting real life, ministry, and religious traditions — is a core component of most pastoral training. It is also a hallmark of practical theology and a common spiritual exercise among ordinary Christians trying to discern how their beliefs might influence daily living. Yet, our society is increasingly pluralistic, with growing numbers of people from varying belief systems — from Islam to Buddhism — as well as an increasing number of atheists. In this book, Edward Foley reimagines theological reflection in interfaith contexts and with those of no faith tradition. The book addresses and celebrates diverse beliefs, and envisions the practice of theological reflection in such contexts. Theological Reflection Across Religious Traditions introduces readers to the basics of traditional forms of theological reflection, then considers how it might be reconceived in different contexts — from interfaith ministers working together to reduce poverty and homelessness to people of diverse or no faith traditions strategizing to secure the dignity of undocumented immigrants. Beyond suggestions for collaborative social action, the book offers tools for productive interfaith conversation through a process Foley calls “reflective believing.” This is a groundbreaking rethinking of theological reflection for today’s world, proposing that people across the religious landscape can participate in reflective believing for personal and communal benefit without sacrificing their own integrity.




Scholarly Publishing and Research Methods Across Disciplines


Book Description

There is no singular ‘best’ method of research. The differing nature of various research endeavors warrant multiple ways of generating knowledge, sharing knowledge, and more importantly, avoiding errors. More recently, the dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative approaches has begun to dissolve as the integrated approach of mixed methods gains popularity. Scholarly Publishing and Research Methods Across Disciplines is a collection of innovative findings on the methods and applications of research in scholarly publishing, ranging from the analyzation of mixed methods and qualitative/quantitative research, to Dewey’s scientific method and more. Highlighting a range of topics including higher education, digital divide, and model development, this publication applies a cross-disciplinary viewpoint that will appeal to researchers, graduate students, academicians, librarians, scholars, and industry-leading experts around the globe seeking an understanding of the limitations and strengths in research techniques.




Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity


Book Description

The Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity is the first attempt to map and analyze developments in theological education on a global scale. This volume, with contributions from 98 leaders in theological education from around the world, provides a comprehensive introduction to the major themes and contexts in the international discourse on theological education, surveys of the issues and challenges faced in different regions, and introductory essays on the developments in the major denominational families in World Christianity. The editors are Dietrich Werner, World Council of Churches, Geneva; David Esterline, McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago; Namsoon Kang, Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth; and Joshva Raja, Queen's Foundation, Birmingham.




Proleptic Pedagogy


Book Description

Could we have imagined how much theological education would change in the new millennium? Shifting needs of students, classrooms, and churches have demanded constant revisions of the curriculum, course design, classroom technology, and pedagogical strategies. Saint Paul School of Theology felt the tide of change within our own walls and designed a project called "Proleptic Pedagogy" to address three distinct pedagogical challenges for the future of theological education. First, instead of fitting new technologies into old pedagogies, how are teaching and learning transformed by shifting needs of students who are "digital natives," "digital immigrants," or distance learners? Second, instead of reactive strategies, what pedagogy proactively eliminates "accommodations" because courses are designed with flexibility and openness to diverse learning styles, disabilities, and needs? Third, instead of engaging student diversity with the tools of the 1960s, what new teaching and learning strategies anticipate future student racial and ethnic demographics and interracial educational experiences? This volume of essays narrates our classroom stories, teases out pedagogical issues, examines pedagogical literature, reflects on theology of pedagogy, and constructs pedagogical proposals--with an open invitation for other theological educators to join our conversation about the future of theological education.