Repository of Truth: Full and Unrestricted Access? Posted on August 1, 2014 by Gregory CuéllarAdmissions policies for entering into a repository of truth—whether it be museums, archives, or libraries—are more complex than simple technical rules involving security and preservation. Although the stewardship of material culture is a genuine concern, all rules of admission contain social and political dimensions….
Contextualization as an Ethical Practice: Part 2—Unpacking “Machine-Made” Biblical Knowledge Posted on June 2, 2014 by Gregory CuéllarThe cultural iconic status of the Bible in Western society can easily be harnessed for oppressive purposes. This demands an ethical obligation to biblical interpretation that scientific historical methods alone are unable to fulfill…. Through contextualization, we are drawn to uncover the social beliefs underwriting the default system present within the field of biblical studies….
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…”
Hey, Instructors: Show Us Your Essential Questions! Posted on November 18, 2013 by A+ Brooke Lester, CuratorI’ll show you mine, and you can show me yours. I have written before on designing a course “backward” from essential questions, using the “Understanding by Design” system created by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. Also here at Seminarium, others have described their own experience with “Understanding by Design.” A key idea is that we teach, not so that the learners will acquire particular facts in our subject matter, but so that they will develop enduring understandings that can be transferred into other contexts and subject matters. Toward this end, early in the process of designing or revising a course (“Intro to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible”) or unit (“Latter Prophets”), you want to come up with the “big ideas” and “essential questions” toward which the assessments, activities, and resources are oriented. These are my own, for the course “Introduction to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible.”
Write Along Side of Them Posted on October 5, 2013 by Philip Ruge-JonesTwo things often slip my mind when teaching a writing intensive research course: That students refuse to believe that writing is a process and overestimate their ability to pull off a project in the final hour, and That when I’m writing I know the lure of the same delusions….