How Do we Keep it Real? Authentic Assessment and Religious Studies Posted on June 13, 2014 by Nathan LoewenIt seems to me that a change in pedagogy towards authentic assessment and outcomes-based instruction demands the conception of clear lines between religious studies and professional lives in contemporary society. But to answer that, I need to determine how might religious studies teaching authentically assess learners….
Sleep in Academia: An End-of-Term Tantrum Posted on May 15, 2014 by A+ Brooke Lester, CuratorI’m sleeping terribly this month. Because it’s May. Again. In the first two installments of this sleep-deprivation series I bragged about how meticulously I average 8+ hours of sleep per night. But it’s May. Again. Normally, “May” means “grading,” and “grading” means “throwing out my lower back and suffering 3–4 weeks of sleep- and work-inhibiting chronic pain.” As it happens, I’m on sabbatical this term, but I do have an end-of-month writing deadline, which turns out to have the same effect. You don’t need me to tell you what work-related stressors prevent you from getting enough sleep. But having named the problem, and having acknowledged the crippling effects of sleep deprivation on our performance and our health, and before looking for solutions, it seems right to ask out loud: What are the stressors in academia that kill our sleep, whether by introducing physical pain, or by keeping our brains in fight-or-flight mode, or by simply filling too many hours?
Metacognition and the End of the “Pastor?” Posted on April 6, 2014 by George ElerickThere are many seminarians, clergy persons, and even their congregations who believe that the weight of responsibility for inculcating theology comes down to the role of the pastor. This is highly problematic due to the fact that it creates psychic stress within the individual to perform a saviour-like role. In today’s ever-changing landscape is there a way in which we can respond to both the culture we live and the beliefs we hold so dear? Maybe one possible response lies in metacognition…
Are Research Papers the Best Way Forward? Posted on March 21, 2014 by Josh KingcadeWant to irritate the entire world of academia? Try suggesting that professors should stop assigning papers. In an essay on Slate.com, Rebecca Shuman suggests that college professors should stop assigning papers in required courses and instead should give “old-school, hardcore exams, written and oral.” Her reasons will sound familiar: teachers hate grading papers, the emerging…
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…”