“Let Them Read Drafts!”—Integrating Teaching & Scholarship Posted on May 16, 2014 by Mindy McGarrah SharpLike brioche of “Let Them Eat Cake” fame, students need to delve into the kneading process that moves academic writing from idea to publication. Many of us get stuck believing that a first draft should be a polished draft, which is far from the case. Sharing drafts can also begin to address power dynamics by opening up what can be seen as exclusive academic conversations.
Theology of Mission in the Classroom: Embodied Cultural Contestations? Posted on April 25, 2014 by Robert SalerWhat does theologizing about mission mean for the seminary classroom? I would suggest that it means that discussions of theology and mission need to take a cue from history courses and emphasize that culture, like the history of the church, is not a peaceful stream of predictable events but a contested series of contingencies, complex theologies, and variegated worldviews. We must “complicate” talk of culture in the classroom with the same rigor with which we complicate the theological discourses native to our seminaries.
Sleep in Academia: The Brain We’ve Got Posted on April 21, 2014 by A+ Brooke Lester, Curator(See also Part One: Waking Up to the Problem.) It’s sometimes said in “recovery” circles that “You can’t fix the brain you’ve got with the brain you’ve got.” But let’s see if we can’t try to think clearly—our crippling sleep deficit notwithstanding—about the brain. Anybody who can manage a Google or YouTube search can discover…
Metacognition: Teach Me How to Learn! Posted on March 31, 2014 by Jane S. WebsterWhen we shift our task as educators from those who deliver content to those who help students learn how to learn, we see that they still learn the content that we cherish, but they have also developed skills that will take them far into the future with success. And as we become more conscious of students’ learning, we will become more attuned to their needs, enabling us to intervene in just the right place at just the right time…
Integrating by Parts Posted on February 11, 2014 by A+ Brooke Lester, CuratorSomething there is that doesn’t love a silo. A curriculum is divided into fields are divided into courses are divided into units are divided into assignments. Ever review a student’s final paper for a course and find that, somehow, she didn’t succeed in using the knowledge and skills that she _actually did develop_ throughout the course? That final paper was constructed in a silo. There are a lot of factors from which the silo problem has been constructed and maintained. But, it’s pretty disheartening to imagine our learners going into their vocations and building silos around the challenges they find there…silos with high walls that keep out all the knowledge, intuition, skills, and habits that they’ve poured themselves into developing. My institution’s response-in-progress to the silo problem is a capstone project to the M.Div program, the “Final Integrative Paper…”