distinctively christian learning? 24 th november 2012
TRANSCRIPT
Distinctively Christian Learning?
24th November 2012
Two Strategies to Communicating Christian
TruthDidactic
Transmission
Persuasion
Monolithic
Inquiry-based
Interpretation
Debate
Accepts diversity
What Do You See?
Old Woman or Young Woman?
A Matter of Interpretation?
Old Woman or Young Woman?
A Matter of Interpretation?Professor Francis
Collins – Director, Human Genome Project
Professor Richard Dawkins – Public Understanding of Science, Oxford University
Where Does Christian Learning Happen?
What happens to people’s thoughts when they die?
It’s All About Anthropology?
Mujahedeen alphabet
Taliban mathematics
Communist arithmetic
It’s All About Anthropology
What would you have to believe about students to teach like this?
Reinhard Heydrich
Heydrich was one of the architects of the “Final Solution”. He chaired the Wannsee Conference.
Heydrich was educated at a Church School
It’s All About Anthropology
What vision of who our pupils will become inspires our school?
CARDUS Survey
Catholics were high achievers
Protestants were good citizens, morally earnest and faithful church-goers
Not much evidence of Christian cultural engagement
Compliant
www.cardus.ca/research/education
What Are You Doing In This Lesson?
One responds: “I am cutting this stone in a perfectly square shape.” The other responds: “I am building a cathedral.”
Their experiences of what they are doing and their sense of self in doing it are rather different. This difference is a function of imagination. As a result, they may be learning very different things from the same activity. (Wenger,1998, p.176)
The Distinctively Christian Classroom
How are we managing the way students come to “see things”?
What do we have to believe about our students to teach like this?
What vision of who our pupils will become inspires our teaching?
What do our pupils imagine they are doing?
Distinctively Christian?
Origination
Justification
Interpretation
Application
Prioritization
Motivation
Their conclusions are accessible to, and can be utilised by, Christians and non-Christians alike (BHA)
Distinctively Christian?
Faithfulness to the Christian tradition in the way that schools undertake the tasks of education
Uniqueness by distinguishing Christian schools from every other kind of school
Models of Christian Schools
Exclusively Christian (Gavin D’Costa, Bristol)
Richly religiously pluralist (David Ford, Cambridge)
Creation and redemption of learning (Perry Glanzer, Baylor)
The Significance of Jesus’ Resurrection
With Jesus the future hope has come forwards into the present
Tom Wrightformerly Bishop of Durham
Christian Character Education: Virtue Reborn
an “eschatologically-driven” virtue ethic (p. 149)
character formed by God’s promised future (p. 51)
Building Character
Christian School:a Kind of Church?
Signpost Community?
Wisdom Community?
Virtue community?
www.whatiflearning.co.uk
Christian Virtues
Faith
Hope
Love
What if Learning…? Connecting Christian faith and teaching
Seeing anew: How could a Christian understanding of God, people and the world provide a different way of seeing a lesson/unit?Choosing Engagement: How could the students engage with this new way of seeing? Reshaping practice: What changes to my practice do I need to make as a teacher?
The approach
What if Learning…? Connecting Christian faith and teaching
Seeing anew
Decide on a lesson you would like to teach more Christianly. Think of how you might look at it from a different angle - more in line with Christian belief and ethos.
For ideas refer to:
Strategies for seeing anew
What if Learning…? Connecting Christian faith and teaching
Choosing engagement
Now think of ways in which learners could engage with this new way of seeing. What opportunities for participation do they have?
If you need some ideas refer to:
Strategies for choosing engagement
What if Learning…? Connecting Christian faith and teaching
Reshaping practice
What changes do you, as the teacher, need to make to your practice? Are there habits of the classroom that you need to change in the light of your new emphasis?
For some ideas refer to:
Strategies for reshaping practice
What if Learning…? Connecting Christian faith and teaching
What if learning could be different?
What if we could learn to see our teaching in a new way?
What if we could begin with small changes – one moment at a time.
‘What if Learning…?’