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Our reviewing education standards is a useful tool for our understanding the new trends in the way that learning theory can be used in theological studies. After all, most of our students do not learn the way we teachers learn -- they are as varied in the way they encounter their teachers, their course materials, their classroom environment, their out-of-classroom learning activities, their own learning styles, etc., as there are individuals within a classroom. For that reason, it might help for us to standardize an educational process by which we can engage in a non-standardized educational practice.
The Association of Theological Schools has teaching and learning standards that mention the necessity of using appropriate technologies in appropriate ways, for instance, but the methods by which each school might engage its learners are left largely up to the individual communities. We have, therefore, no set of standards for what it means for teachers of Sacred Scripture to engage in the use of appropriate tools within their teaching and learning environments.
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), however, has already developed a model that we might adapt in its National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for all three groups within an institution of learning -- administrators, teachers, and students. We also have some texts that may prove instructive to us, published by ATS in Theological Education, Volume 41, Number 1 and in the Teaching with Technology: Notes from the Field. |
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Teaching and Learning Standards |
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A Few of Dr. Mahfood's Andragogical Projects |
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Read the ATS teaching
and learning standards below and suggest some standards for the integration of
appropriate technologies into the teaching of sacred scripture. Click Post
when done.
ATS Teaching and
Learning Standards
A theological school is a community of faith and learning that cultivates habits of theological reflection, nurtures wise and skilled ministerial practice, and contributes to the formation of spiritual awareness and moral sensitivity. Within this context, the task of theological scholarship is central. It includes the interrelated activities of learning, teaching, and research.
Learning and Teaching in Theological Scholarship
3.1.0 Learning and teaching occur in the classroom and through experiences outside the classroom; the responsibilities of teaching and learning rest with both students and faculty; the collaborative nature of theological scholarship requires that people teach and learn from one another in communal settings; and research is integral to the quality of both learning and teaching.
3.1.1 Learning
3.1.1.1 Learning in a theological school should reflect the goals of the total curriculum and be appropriate to post-baccalaureate education.
3.1.1.2 Learning should cultivate scholarly discourse and result in the ability to think critically and constructively, conduct research, use library resources, and engage in the practice of ministry.
3.1.1.3 Learning should foster, in addition to the acquisition of knowledge, the capacity to understand and assess one’s tradition and identity, and to integrate materials from various theological disciplines and modes of instructional engagement in ways that enhance ministry and cultivate emotional and spiritual maturity.
3.1.2 Teaching
3.1.2.1 Teaching should involve faculty, librarians, and students working together in an environment of mutual learning, respect, and engagement.
3.1.2.2 Instructional methods should use the diversity of life experiences represented by the students, by faith communities, and by the larger cultural context. Instructional methods and the use of technology should be sensitive to the diversity of student populations, different learning styles of students, the importance of communities of learning, and the instructional goals.
3.1.2.3 Courses are a central place of interaction between teachers and learners. The way the instructor arranges the work and structures the class should encourage theological conversation. Courses and programs of study should reflect an awareness of the diversity of worldwide and local settings. In the development of new courses and the review of syllabi, faculty should interact with one another, with librarians, with their students, with the church, and with the developing fields of knowledge. Course development and review best occur in the context of the goals of the entire curriculum.