Education Blog Purpose Statement

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DiPietro, Ferdig, Black and Preston (2008) claim that, "The skills needed for teaching in an online learning environment support a teacher's function as a point of intersection for pedagogy, technology, and content (Russel, 2004; Savery, 2005)". Advancing the art of blending and balancing the concerns of pedagogy, technology, and content is an urgent task for all teachers at EBI. Pedagogy, technology, and content are three key pillars of all good education. When one or several of these are ignored, missing, or underdeveloped, student learning suffers. 

The teaching style at EBI is often didactic, and our pedagogy is overtly religious. We spiritualize learning and have embraced educational theories and philosophies that support overly simplistic conclusions about how education works. One example: At times we present too much information in a course (or program). We even use the metaphor "drinking from a fire hose" to describe this phenomenon. Sometimes we acknowledge the problem but in the next breath we tell students to “pray“ or “ask God for strength“ to help them understand and learn the material. 

My blog is designed to demonstrate and promulgate the latest research in online course design, blended course design, best practices in online education, educational psychology, and the latest trends in education in order to show that students learn best when course material is carefully designed with learner needs in mind. That is, when the material is selected, sequenced, and chunked appropriately based on learner needs and and then learning is measured against predetermined learning objectives. We should respect students by carefully studying concepts such as information load, course development standards, evaluation, learning objectives, and the latest trends in adult education.

Indoctrination and Intellectual Abuse

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Indoctrination and intellectual abuse can and do happen anywhere, even in secular institutions. Iona and Crasner (2016) describe the difference between education and indoctrination by stating, "Education means critical thinking with regards to the content of ... received information. Indoctrination is intended to influence targets to believe in what they are told without questioning the veracity or authenticity of the conveyed information." The authors go on to relate the dangers of religious indoctrination particularly in the Muslim faith in the Middle East.

Joshua D. Reichard (2013) wrote in the Journal of Education & Christian Belief, "'indoctrination' may be defined as deliberately teaching beliefs without supporting rationalization, deliberately falsifying evidence contrary to stated beliefs, censoring and omitting particular beliefs, or teaching beliefs coercively." He goes on to quote McDonough (2011),

"...indoctrination occurs when all aspects of learning are ‘overshadowed or subsumed by the assumption of a given set of truths’ and students are coerced to speak and act in only one way that is deemed ‘meaningful’” (McDonough, 2011, p. 708). 

This last definition is particularly relevant to our context as our “distinctives” and “core values” certainly overshadow all learning at EBI. Also, we exert overt and covert coercion in an attempt to get students to agree with a certain, narrow doctrinal perspective before they get “recommended on” to the one place that will accept all EBI credits toward a Bachelor’s degree.

Note that the definition of indoctrination from McDonough applies to the overall culture that educators foster as well as to the subject matter that they teach. The ways that students speak and act toward each other are, in many cases, the most important part of the indoctrination process. A general climate full of narrow-minded, bigoted, and opinionated students (as an example) will tend to perpetuate itself and contribute to the indoctrination of future groups of students.

A Historical Perspective

Academic Transformation

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A key issue in 2018 for academic institutions is the idea of institutional and educational transformation. Everyone agrees that higher education has changed permanently with the advent of technology, changing student demographics, and new research about how students learn best. But will the pace of change slow in the future? Gilbert, Crow, and Anderson write in the Stanford Innovation Review that, "We expect that in the coming years, long-standing models of higher education that prefer tradition and stability will be supplemented, if not displaced, by new models that embrace organizational innovation, responsivity, and adaptation."

Other educators and researchers see the same trends continuing and accelerating in the future. Emma Zone from Colorado Technical University says, "We must be nimble as we redefine the truths we have used as our foundation [in higher education]. At the intersection of this redefinition we find discussions of technology, data, and engagement." But how do we change? What does it mean to have a "nimble" and "innovative" organizational model? Both sources provide a few key recommendations that I will explore in this blog post.

10-Point Rubric for Online Education

What constitutes good online education? Consider my 10- point rubric as a starting point: 

1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. If a course does not inspire students to learn, it is a failure right out of the gate. I like to use the “guide on the side” model rather than the “sage on the stage“ model of teaching and learning.
   
2. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. To me, one of the most important skills that is developed in college is perspective taking and empathy. Students in my courses should learn to appreciate and value the contributions of each team member and to challenge their own assumptions about thinking and learning.
   
3. Ongoing, varied, and frequent assessments are conducted throughout the course to inform instruction. I believe that one of the most important components of learning is timely, accurate, and complete feedback. This feedback must be provided both to the teacher and to the students in order to inform learning. Formative and Summative assessment are integral parts of teaching and learning.
   
4. The course provides opportunities for students to engage in higher order thinking, critical reasoning activities, and thinking in increasingly complex ways. I believe in modeling and teaching the four C’s of 21st-century learning: communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking.
   
5. Course design reflects a clear understanding of all students’ needs and incorporates varied ways to learn and master the curriculum. I believe that varied learning and teaching styles promotes retention, transfer, and application to real life. Many of my favorite courses were varied and challenging.
   
6. The course learning objectives describe outcomes that are measurable and all learning objectives are clearly stated and written from the students perspective. Without clear learning objectives, teachers have no idea what they’re assessing and students have no idea what they were supposed to have learned. Developing and describing clear learning objectives should be one of the first steps in instructional design.
   
7. The instructional materials contribute to the achievement of the stated course and module/unit learning objectives. The purpose of instructional materials and how the materials are to be used for learning activities are clearly explained. I appreciate a well organized course and I always really like to know how to get an A. I owe that to my students as well.
   
8. Learning activities provide support for interaction that support active learning. I am a huge believer in active versus passive learning. I know for myself, when something is real to me and seems to make a real difference in my life I tend to pour myself into it. When I think about the best courses that I’ve ever taken in my life, I was in charge of my learning. I got out what I put into those classes. It may be easier to sit on the sidelines and watch someone else perform but I learn best when I am partly in control of the pace, depth, and sequence of my learning.
   
9. Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources. It may be because I am young, but I really appreciate teachers who understand digital literacy and model best practices in the area of technological integration. Everything in my life is constantly being taken over by technology and learning is no different.
   
10. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support students access and innovation by modeling digital age work and learning. Too often we believe that good teaching consists of teachers creating their own original work. Good teaching, instead, is about using existing tools and collaborating with others in the community to support student innovation. We model what students will do for the rest of their lives: work with others in humility.

Works Cited:

• QM Rubric

• National Standards for Quality Online Courses - iNACOL

• iste nets-t

Digital Wisdom

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As you may remember, we discussed the term "digital native" coined by Marc Prensky back in July. I think we should reflect on how old this digital immigrants/ digital natives talk actually is. Prensky noted a sea change in K-12 students… two years before I graduated from high school (2001). An entire generation has been through the education system since this term was coined. If anything, the trends he noted 17 years ago have accelerated.

Prensky has since written other articles that are well worth mentioning. The first is about what technology ISN'T good at. With so much of the education world moving rapidly toward digitization, what role do physical teachers play? As teachers, we must be aware of the weaknesses inherent in whatever delivery medium we're working in at the moment. Prensky says we must come to grips with three questions:

1. How do we use the technology wisely? 
2. How do we find best symbiosis of brain and machine? 
3. What should we outsource to machines, and what should be reserved for humans and human minds?

He says, "I would propose empathy as the most important element a good teacher offers that technology cannot replace." Empathy goes far beyond content delivery (which machines are often better at) to understand each learner as a unique human individual with strengths, weaknesses, passions, and propensities. At its core, Presky says, empathy means that teachers like students... and want to help them. Would you agree?

In a second post he also identifies "passion" (basically enthusiasm) as something that is irreplaceable by technology.  He says, 

"While teachers think, quite rightly, that their own passion for their subject is important, and hope to inspire their students by showing that passion, a teacher’s goal now must additionally be to bring each student to the material they are teaching through each student’s own passion, whatever it may be."

Prensky argues that a resource like Khan Academy - which has one good lesson for just about every subject out there - should have 100 good lessons for each subject, each approaching the subject from a unique angle or passion. He gives the example of teaching math using music examples and music theory for students passionate about music.

This conversation dovetails quite nicely into Prenky's writing about digital wisdom and knowing how to use technology to its fullest extent. When we use digital technology we're faced with ethical and moral dilemmas as well as more pragmatic problems and questions:

1. What should we memorize vs allow a machine to remember for us? 
2. Should we allow machines like smartphones and wearables to enhance and extend our minds? 
3. When should we allow digital calendars and to-do lists to plan and prioritize our lives? 

Easy answers don't exist. In your lifetime computers moved from room-sized monstrosities to pocketable, wearable supercomptuers. They will continue to take over more and more of our lives and even move into our physical bodies. The answer is not to avoid technology or to demonize it. The only workable solution is to teach and model digital wisdom and digital literacy so that our students will know how to interact wisely with technology for the rest of their lives. 

Works Cited: 

1. http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf  
2. http://www.wisdompage.com/Prensky01.html
3. http://marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-What_Isn't_Technology_Good_At-(Part%202)-EDTECH-Nov-Dec-1012.pdf
4. http://marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-What_Isn't_Technology_Good_At-EDTECH-Sept-Oct-1012.pdf
5. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/worlds-first-cyborg-human-evolution-science/ 

7 Things You Should Know About...

This week on the education blog we'll look at a resource that may fill an existing gap for you: EDUCAUSE's library of "Seven things you should know about..." 

These short meta-analyses provide a synthesized, at-a-glance summary of many pressing issues in education today. Each entry also features case studies and examples that provide down-to-earth help for everyday practitioners such as ourselves. I believe you'll find these resources informative but also accessible and easy to read. Enjoy!


For example:

Seven things you should know about:

1. Research on Active Learning Classrooms
2. Developments in Learning Analytics
3. The 2017 Key Issues in Teaching and Learning
4. Personalized Learning
5. Institutional Self-Assessment 
6. Cross-Institutional Collaboration
7. Developments in Instructional Design 
8. Gamification of Education

And many more. The archive goes back to 2005 and contains about 150 discrete articles. 

Thoughtful and Timely Feedback

Providing clear, timely, substantial feedback to learners is a foundational principle of modern educational learning theory. Why does feedback matter so much?

When I was in ninth grade my algebra teacher labeled me as one of the dumb kids. In fact, I was struggling with a course design problem related to feedback. Many times, she would provide feedback on my algebra assignments weeks or even months after I turned in the work. At that point, it was too late to implement her suggestions to improve my performance on the next assignment.

Contrast that experience with my experience taking algebra in college. By the time I took college Algebra, an online learning tool called MyMathLab had revolutionized homework and feedback for Algebra students. Rather than face the harsh criticism and personal judgment of my teacher months after I had done my assignments, MyMathLab provided impersonal, instant feedback for me, allowing me the freedom to fail without feeling singled out as a person of below average intelligence. I aced the course and all subsequent Algebra and math courses I took in college.

The primary difference between my algebra teacher in high school and the automatic, algorithmic learning program was that I received instant feedback on each step of the process. My feedback was always 100% accurate. The feedback the computer gave me was always accompanied with videos that showed me how to do the problem correctly, passages from the textbook that explained the learning concepts, and the computer would even solve the problem for me if I chose and give me a new, similar problem to solve.

In developing a professional teaching practice, providing timely and complete feedback to learners shows our respect for their work. Student work is the heart of a course. Our goal as teachers should be to to empower students to become scholars, subject matter experts, and skilled practitioners of their Biblical craft. My goal in Apologetics is not to cover all the content or subject matter, although those are one important element of the course. My goal is to train Biblical apologists who are capable, confident, and yet humble. My goal is to instill an attitude of gentleness and respect but to develop the skill of making a defense for the classic doctrines of the Christian faith.

No teacher that I know loves grading. I would challenge you, however, that we ignore the centrality of feedback at our own peril. Easy assignments that give the illusion of learning will not leave students satisfied for the long term with the learning they experienced at Bible School. 

Populi gives us new and exciting ways to gather data and provide feedback for our students. For example, the lessons feature of Populi allows us to have an intelligent conversation with our students about the amount of time they spent engaging with the material, the number of words that they generated in discussion forums, and the frequency and depth of their engagement with the material.  

I hope that the following verses will spur us on to appreciate and value the opportunity and privilege we each get to hone and sharpen student’s skills as they faithfully demonstrate their learning for us:

Proverbs 15: 31 If you listen to constructive criticism, you will be at home among the wise (NLT)

Proverbs 3:12 “For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. ” (KJV)

Proverbs 11:14  “Where no wise guidance is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” (AMP)

Online Discipleship and Relationships: Being Relational Online

Today on the education blog let’s explore a topic that is crucial in the online learning and teaching discussion: how do we recreate a personal touch in the digital environment? Researchers that study distance education define an online teaching and learning persona as your, “social presence.” You may be saying to yourself… “But Ric, I don’t do online teaching.“ Ah, but remember what we said on the blog last week. We are all doing online teaching just by using a learning management system such as Populi.

As we know, discipleship is key to any biblical student – teacher relationship. Can natural and frustration-free discipleship take place online? Can mediated communication such as Populi really take the place of face-to-face classroom interaction? Perhaps not perfectly, no, but social interaction online does have strengths that the face-to-face classroom lacks. For example, it is easy in an online discussion to require a main post and follow-up comments from each student and to track whether or not each student is participating. In the physical classroom, it is much more difficult to track this individually.

It gets better. Lowenthal and Dunlap (2009) looked at whether or not storytelling can enhance online learning. They concluded that digital storytelling such as explaining a photo, narrating a video, giving a PowerPoint presentation, or disclosing personal information and relating it to what is being learned helped students retain more information, feel more involved in their learning, and humanize the teacher. Bottom line: we can be relational online.

What does it really mean to be relational in an online context? Bentley (2011) defines social presence as “an individual’s ability to demonstrate his or her state of being in a virtual space”. This would include the level of connectivity and communication taking place on a personal level between a teacher and his or her students. It would also include the individual’s “level of availability” for interpersonal interactions.

Bentley says, “social presence may represent the degree to which experiences seem unmediated.” Oddly enough, an experience that seems unmediated will almost always occur when teachers and students are comfortable and familiar with interactions in the online environment. This kind of natural social interaction takes place best when people forget that they are using a learning management system or a tool to communicate at all.

With that in mind, here are a few questions to get a conversation started today:

How comfortable are you communicating with students online? How comfortable do you think students are communicating with each other (or with anyone else for that matter) online? Is your interaction with students on Populi important to you? Is it important to our students? Do you seek opportunities for online interaction or avoid it? Do you view Populi as a way to serve our students or as a simple grading and correcting tool? Is an online class or course shell that is devoid of all personal information and human interaction ideal? Can we do better?

Thanks for thinking with me. As usual, leave any comments below. You can click the drop-down box and select “anonymous” to make a comment anonymously.

Works cited

Bentley, Kia J. (2011). The centrality of social presence in online teaching and learning 

Lowenthal, Patrick R. And Joanna C. Dunlap. (2009). From pixel on a screen to real person in your students lives: establishing social presence using digital storytelling

Distance Education Best Practices

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First of all, I want to congratulate and thank everyone who has been doing online education at EBI for the past three semesters. Moore and Kearsley propose a working definition of distance education as, “teaching and planned learning in which teaching normally occurs in a different place from learning, requiring communication through technologies as well as special institutional organization (2012).” Two years ago, online learning didn’t happen at EBI. Today, we each interact regularly with students asynchronously via Populi, which technically counts as distance education according to Moore and Kearsley’s definition. Crazy!

Still, we have a long way to go in order to catch up with current educational trends. Allen and Seaman (2013) Point out that as of 2012, 62.4% of higher education institutions provided complete online programs to students. They claim that only 13.5% of higher education institutions offered no purely online classes at all... that was five years ago. You may have heard we’re moving in the direction of offering purely online classes ourselves.

Considering that, let’s examine some online learning best practices in this blog post. Moore and Kearsley (2012) propose that distance education is best delivered and designed in the broader framework of a supporting system. In their words, “adopting a systems approach [to distance ed] is the secret of successful practice.”  They identify the main subsystems of a distance education system as: technology, learning, teaching, program/course design, management, policy, and organization. 

They go on to say, “Content, or subject matter, does not make a course. In a course, the content is organized into a carefully designed structure that is intended to make it as easy as possible for the student to learn... Therefore, preparing a distance education course requires not only the content expert but also instructional designers who can organize the content according to what is known about the theory and practice of knowledge management and the theory of learning.” The point here is that online education (just like all education) is best envisioned as a collaborative effort between multiple experts: design experts, technologists, chief education officers (think dean of ed), and content experts to name a few examples.

Everyone agrees that the key to an online class is communication. This communication should not just exist in the form of content delivery (one way communication). Moore and Kearsley say, “it is the communication that goes on between the individual learner and an instructor that transforms common information into personally relevant knowledge (2012)”. They go on to explain that the form this personal communication takes and the extent of the communication will vary based on the subject matter being taught, the educational philosophy of the designers, and even the maturity level of the students. But they make a point to emphasize the imperative nature of this type of communication. Similarly, most instructional designers emphasize the importance of peer interactions via discussion boards, wikis, or blogs, etc.

Finally, a key component of all education including distance education is quality control. In distance education, the key components of quality control are the products that students complete at regular intervals throughout the course. These are generally thought of as “assignments”, though quality control can be insured another ways as well. These assignments should be based on the knowledge content of the course and deserve careful review, evaluation, correction, and comment from the instructor himself. Anecdotally, speaking from my own experience, I have found that online assignments tend to be more challenging and time consuming than assignments in face-to-face courses. There is a very real sense in which online learning requires discipline, time, and commitment.

What has your experience been so far in delivering assignments and some content knowledge online to students at EBI using Populi? What components of the systems approach outlined above do you include in your regular teaching even for face-to-face courses? Which course has been the best online course that you’ve ever taken? What made it so good? What are the essential characteristics and qualities of a good online teacher? Are they the same as those for a good face-to-face teacher?

Feedback is always welcome.

Sources:

Moore, M. G., & Kearsley, G. (2012). Distance education: a systems view of online learning. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

I. Elaine Allen, & Jeff Seaman. (2013). Changing course: ten years of tracking online education in the United States. Pearson Education.

Toward a Healthy Teacher-Student Relationship

How does the student-teacher relationship work? What role does the teacher play in students' lives in scripture? Here at EBI? In our culture at large? What does authority of the Bible School teacher look like as compared with the authority of a pastor or elder in a church? Let's explore these topics together over the next few weeks on the education blog.

As people, we have a tendency to worship things and individuals rather than God. Jeremiah 1:16 "I will pronounce My judgments on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken Me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.

If only all idolatry were easy to spot! 1 John 2:16: reminds us that, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” Unfortunately, subtle lies related to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life can creep into the student-teacher relationship. 

The student-teacher relationship is a contractual one with certain assumed cultural and biblical obligations. There is a certain way to conceptualize the contractual obligations between teachers and students that frames education as a give and take relationship. The teacher gives and the student takes or receives. While this model is not entirely without merit, I personally believe that it tends toward those problems in 1 John 2:16. Accreditation with TRACS is going to push us toward a contractual obligation with students centered around the students' achievement of measurable, predetermined learning objectives. 

At its core, of course, the student–teacher relationship is built on trust. Trust requires transparency. Transparency is achieved when students understand where and how the information being presented to them came about and when the obligations of teachers and students are clear. Just like teachers, students must weigh and evaluate available evidence and come to personal conclusions. Transparency means that teachers admit when they do not know the answer to a question or objection. It also means that teachers admit when their knowledge is incomplete, their evidence is circumstantial or when their opinions are open to interpretation.

Empowerment (the concept that every course should enable students to achieve and demonstrate core competencies related to the discipline, course, or lesson) enhances learning and transparency. On a practical level, this means that we shouldn't be saying as teachers, "students are paying to hear what I have to say about a topic." This sort of mentality about the teacher-student relationship fosters an unhealthy dependency on the teacher rather than the healthy interdependence and independence modeled in scriptural teaching relationships such as the relationship between Paul and Timothy or Jesus and his disciples.

In general, biblically speaking, we want to embrace those teaching practices and standards that reduce the fleshly problems discussed in 1 John 2:16. As humans, we need guard rails and protections against the idolatry that so easily creeps into our lives.

I think the best way to do this is to simply esteem others as higher than ourselves and practice the kind of incarnational ministry that Jesus himself modeled for us. What about you? Do you see the need for guard rails or standards in your teaching relationship that prevents idol worship? How do the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life intersect with teaching? How do you achieve a healthy balance between challenging students with the word of God on the one hand and participating in what God is already doing in their hearts, minds, and lives? What steps or efforts are you making to create transparency and trust in your student relationships? Is it obvious where you got the information from your notes or do you at times pass off other people's information as your own? Are you generally more focused on student learning or on your own teaching? 

Thanks for any and all comments/participation. 

The K-12 Conversation

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How do we know when someone is ready for EBI? Is a high school diploma and a letter from a pastor enough or is there more involved? 1 Corinthians 3:2 says, "I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren't ready for anything stronger. And you still aren't ready" (NLT). The Corinthians were "not ready" for engagement in spiritual truth because they were, "still controlled by [their] sinful nature," or living in the flesh (verse 3). 

Jesus also talks about the idea of being ready to engage in truth. John 16:12, ""There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can't bear it now." In addition to the information Jesus presented, he was very concerned that his disciples build life skills that would prepare them for life after his death, burial and resurrection. He often chastised the disciples for their lack of faith (Mark 4:40, Matt 8:26, Luke 8:25). He taught them how to travel (Luke 8). He taught them about humility and service by washing their feet (Matt 26). 

We know that people don't have to be perfect in order to understand truth (John 1:8-10) so our task as educators and trainers is to balance the idea of being ready with the urgent need to change hearts and minds with the truth of the Word. A simple phrase used by Christian educators might be helpful here: Our task is to meet students where they're at. 

Here at EBI, how do we know when someone is ready to engage in the very verbal, literacy-heavy learning environment that we have created? Basic skills such as writing, reading, listening, and critical thinking are not universal, as we know. When someone engages in a learning environment that they are not ready for, many things can go wrong. In fact, as we can see from the above Bible verses it is better for the teacher to go back and re-teach basic concepts and skills rather than moving into information that the learner cannot handle. 

The good news is that we are not the only people having this conversation. Professors at two and four year colleges around United States have noticed a considerable increase in the number of students who need remedial college courses that re-teach high school content knowledge. According to Henry and Stahl (2017), "In two-year colleges, nearly 75% of incoming students need remediation in more than one academic area (most commonly Mathematics and English) and enroll in at least two remedial courses to prepare for college-level coursework."

What does this trend mean for us? As has been noted, students are coming to us less prepared in general for college and less accustomed to lecture-style teaching. Because we attract a good number of private and homeschool students from a wide variety of backgrounds, we can't be confident about the type of education that students received prior to arriving here. If we think about the K-12 experience in terms of a pipeline, a lot can go wrong with the fittings, the joints, and the pipe itself on the way to our EBI bucket under the faucet. 

On the admissions front, we make every effort to select students who are ready for college. Not only is engaging in college prematurely bad for the learner, it can be detrimental for the learning of all other students at the school. My suggestion is that we step up these efforts by collecting High School grades, ACT and SAT scores and other relevant data from the K-12 experience that could help us make a more informed decision. 

On the remediation front, most of us agree that we need more than just one course that teaches basic writing skills to a small group of "struggling" students. A general education writing course is an urgent need for students who have been out of school for a long time and for the 75% of students entering 2-year schools who need remediation anyways. 

Writing skills alone are not enough, of course. There are many other ways in which students struggle. For example some lack basic social skills, financial management skills, listening skills, creativity, a thriving spiritual walk with God, time management skills, training in logic, critical thinking, etc. 

In the broader culture, education is being re-imagined and re-envisioned it in the 21st century as K-16 education. This means that basic skills development such as reading, writing, arithmetic, and scientific inquiry skills are designed to be continued through a bachelors degree. There's a reason most people are unable to get even a basic job without a bachelors degree in our society.

What about us here? Do you feel as though our students are prepared for the rigors of EBI in the same way that they were 10 years ago? 20 years ago? What steps do you take in your classes to ensure that basic skills in literacy, critical thinking, and social interaction are adequate before you move on to core content? Are you primarily focused on delivering information or building life skills? Which skills are most crucial for success at EBI? 

Any thoughts are, as usual, very much appreciated. 

Works Cited: 

Henry, L. A., & Stahl, N. A. (2017). Dismantling the Developmental Education Pipeline: Potent Pedagogies and Promising Practices That Address the College Readiness Gap. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(6), 611-616. doi:10.1002/jaal.640

Are teaching standards necessary?

James 3:1-2 “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”

When someone teaches kindergarten math they are teaching extremely basic topics that they have completely mastered themselves. Virtually everyone is a kindergarten math subject matter expert. Do they let just anyone teach kindergarten? Why does the state standards initiative known as the "common core" still lay out standards for kindergarten math? Some of the standards include:

Grade K Overview

Counting and Cardinality

• Know number names and the count sequence.
• Count to tell the number of objects.
• Compare numbers.

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

• Understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understand subtraction as taking apart and taking from.

Number and Operations in Base Ten

• Work with numbers 11-19 to gain foundations for place value.

Measurement and Data

• Describe and compare measurable attributes.
• Classify objects and count the number of objects in each category

Geometry

• Identify and describe shapes.
• Analyze, compare, create, and compose shapes.

http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/K/introduction/ 


Just because we know something extremely well does not mean that we are good at teaching it. Similarly, as James 3:1-2 says, not everyone is cut out to be a teacher. How do we know if we are doing a good job? Is it just a matter of whether or not students subjectively like our courses? Is there a nonnegotiable core of each class that must be learned by each student in order for the course goals to have been met? Are there any teaching standards that are universal for all teachers of the Bible (or any other subject for that matter)?

I will admit freely that our culture is assessment obsessed. Our culture scientifically and empirically tries to gauge every measurable aspect of the education task. I will also admit that here at the Bible school we are engaged in a primarily spiritual endeavor. What, then, is the role of objective, measurable standards as laid out in the TRACS accreditation manual? For example:

D 11.4 Curriculum (regardless of mode of delivery) has as its central focus the education of students.

a. Course and program objectives are written in reference to measurable learning outcomes.
b. Course outcomes are assessed through student achievement and competency. 

D 11.5 Curriculum has a logical and appropriate scope and sequence.

a. Curriculum conforms to national norms.
c. Curriculum progressively leads to student competency and learning. 

D 11.6 Clearly defined student learning outcomes are established at the course, program and institutional level and reflected in all aspects of academic and support services.

D 11.7 Programs offered by the institution impart a common core of knowledge, which enhances students educationally and/or vocationally, are consistent with national norms, and are appropriate for educational level.

How are we going to meet these standards? What do these standards even mean? How do you use standards in your teaching and how do they contribute to to the goal of imparting, "a common core of knowledge, which enhances students educationally and/or vocationally, are consistent with national norms, and are appropriate for the educational level?"

Any thoughts are appreciated.

What is Knowledge?

Proverbs 2:6 says, "For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding."

This week on the education blog let's discuss knowledge. How do we know that someone knows/understands something? Knowledge is complex. Here are a few thoughts and feel free to give yours in the comments below.

1. First, we can probably all agree that there is a difference between knowing something experientially and knowing it intellectually. We are all all fantastic quarterbacks… From our comfy arm chairs in the living room. 
2. Second, we likely agree that there are some things that we learn and remember for a long time whereas other things seem to slip through our mental fingers like sand. Not all types of knowledge are equally "sticky." 
3. Knowledge seems to "stick" better when there is a solid foundation or base for that knowledge. That is why our program is progressive and builds on itself. That also explains why people who have more life experience, field experience, or biblical knowledge seem to do better here generally speaking. Also, some people learn certain things better in some environments/contexts than others. In other words, knowledge is differentiated. 
4. As we have been discussing, knowledge is not made up of a bunch of discrete, one-off pieces of information. Rather, all information is embedded in a system, a culture, and a worldview that did not develop overnight. Getting students to think about and evaluate that system requires developing a skill called metacognition. 
5. Skills development is related to and even crucial for knowledge acquisition. If people do not know how to think and learn then they will always be reliant upon a teacher, a course, or a textbook in order to tell them what and how to learn. 

Conclusion: if knowledge is systematic, experiential, progressive, metacognitive, and skills-dependent what are we doing to foster learning that is "sticky"? If the goal is to eventually create independent, lifelong learners how is the program at EBI enabling that? Are there some ways of gaining knowledge that are better than others? What are your thoughts? Post comments below or send me an email. Thanks.

The Biblical Basis for Multiple Teaching Methods/Tools/Styles

In this post we'll briefly list out 10 Biblical types of teaching. At the end we'll come to some conclusions about varied teaching methods and learning:

1. Sermons. Acts is full of sermons. Jesus preached some sermons like the sermon on the mount, commissioning the 12, parables, the olivet discourse, etc.
2. Written communication (letters). Paul's epistles are a great example. These seem to be 
3. Questioning. Take a look at Job 38-41. No systematic theology is given by God there... just questions to make Job think. Jesus used questions in Matthew 16:26, 21:23-27, 22:20-21, etc.
4. Parables. Jesus, of course, was the master of parables. He often left the parables uninterpreted and they were created to teach a lesson and make people think. 
5. Assigned tasks. Jesus told the rich young ruler to go, sell his possessions and give them to the poor. Jesus told the woman at the well to go get her husband and come back. Paul gave people in his epistles tasks and then chastised them for not following through (or praised them for doing what he asked). 
6. Learning by experience. Real, physical, verifiable miracles accompanied Jesus' teaching and life. Paul's conversion is clearly learning by experience. Israel's tug-of-war with God plays out as a giant narrative told in the OT and is full of evaluated experiences interpreted in light of who God is. 
7. Discussion and Debate. Jesus answered questions from real people in a real historical cultural context. Paul clearly had detractors and doubters in mind as he wrote some epistles. In the book of Acts there are multiple debates between early Christians and unbelievers.
8. Life-on-Life Coaching. We might say discipleship. It's everywhere in scripture. 
9. Group activities. There were things done as a group in the Old and New Testaments that served as great object lessons and hands-on learning opportunities. For example, building the walls of Jerusalem, wandering in a wilderness, building pyramids, taking up collections for the poor in Jerusalem, and standing up to the demands of a pagan culture (think Daniel and friends for example). 
10. Patience/waiting. One of the great principles of spiritual growth is that it takes time. We all know this and yet our teaching methods are often the most efficient, time-saving ones rather than the methods that allow for long-term growth. Jacob waited and worked to get Rachel. Saul was stripped of the kingdom but David exercised patience (and grew) while he waited to take it over. See the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-25. The epistles are full of references to patience and endurance in suffering. 

If there is so much variety of teaching method in scripture, why do we gravitate to the lecture method first and foremost? Perhaps there is a simple creativity problem here. Kenneth O. Gangel says (2005), "One danger teachers face is the constant temptation to offer excuses for lack of variety in teaching methodology. Many teachers excuse their consistent gravitation to the lecture method by suggesting that the amount of content, or perhaps the nature of the content, requires that approach. Actually, they are probably guilty of not thinking creatively with regard to methodology."
https://bible.org/seriespage/1-thinking-about-teaching-methods 

Where are you at? What kinds of creative ways can you think of to vary your teaching method? What Biblical examples struck you the most? Do you disagree with any of the teaching methods mentioned? What steps can we take as a staff to spur one another on to more creativity and variance in our methods as we seek to change hearts and lives? 

God's "Teaching Method"

Consider how God taught Job. The book of Job could have simply begun and ended with chapters 38-41. As Bible School professors, that's how we may have written the book. Our heart is to get people right into the meat and potatoes. Instead, God allows Job to wrestle with difficult experiences in his life and God allows Job to receive conflicting, incorrect information and advice from his friends and relatives. Finally, at the end of the book, God speaks. But God does not deliver a complete book of basic Theology. Instead, God asks a series of questions designed to get Job to come to the right conclusion on his own. 

To begin the fall off right, let's consider some basic learning theory and how it might apply to our courses. First of all, what is knowledge? Most people agree that knowledge is not a single entity. Instead, it is a connected web of experiences that relate to each other in some way, as determined by the individual. According to this model of knowledge, experiences must be reflected upon and actively correlated and compared to each other. If this is true, then there is no "text book" definition of any term that exists in someone's head in isolation from other terms or from any body of knowledge. People are not computers that can be programmed with information that is spit out later.

If we think about this from a worldview approach to teaching tribal people in an E3 context, this will make perfect sense. In order to "paint a picture" in the tribal person's mind, we are forced to move from shaping worldview to explaining biblical truth. For example, if tribal people do not understand the permanence and importance of writing they will not understand the value of the written word and their need for it. They will not value the Bible in their language if they do you not understand that what is written down is preserved for thousands of years while oral myths and legends change over generations and through the years.

In order to aid tribal people as they begin to construct knowledge about God, good missionaries will use methods such as acting the story out, graphic illustrations, connecting new information back to previous stories, and clearly showing how every aspect of life changes based on principles like God's ownership, God's love for his people, and God's omnipotence. In their case (as in ours), existing myths and superstitions are not harmless at all. Instead, previous understandings about things like the nature and character of the world must be consciously rejected by the people themselves because they interfere with a biblical understanding in the first place.

God recognized that human knowledge is constructed from learning experiences. Based on the fact that all knowledge is constructed, we can clearly see that the foundations are crucial in "constructivist" approaches to teaching and learning. In other words, when we acknowledge that all learning is constructive, we take care as teaching professionals to understand learner characteristics and to craft learning experiences that change hearts and minds. I would challenge you to consider that modern educational learning theories have given some insights into how to teach that are based on Biblical principles. 

In constructivist learning theory, students are actively involved in the process of meaning making. The role of the instructor shifts in the cognitive constructivist approach from primarily being a purveyor of information to helping students learn how to learn. This is the crucial crucial distinction that defines the constructivist approach. 

When constructivism is done right, teaching and learning strategies are student-centered and often student-led. The emphasis switches from organizing a class around the creative efforts of the teacher to emphasizing creative efforts (read: struggle, pain, wrestling, hardship) of the students, allowing students to work on social skills, communication skills, organizational skills, goal setting, and long-term planning in the process. Although there will always be a set knowledge component of every course, students in constructivist classrooms are more likely to work on real life problems in class and are more likely to be able to explore areas of personal interest than in traditional classrooms. Like Job, in order to be successful in their learning students will need to evidence grit, determination and loads of struggle.

Here is a simple summary:

The Traditional Classroom

• Emphasizes basic skills like sitting in chairs and listening
• Strict adherence to a fixed curriculum (teacher's notes)
• Textbooks and workbooks summarize and synthesize knowledge
• Instructor gives/students receive
• Instructor assumes directive, authoritative role
• Assessment via testing / correct answers
• Knowledge is inert (it doesn't react to anything)
• Students work individually

The Constructivist Classroom

• Begin with asking good questions – expanding to answers
• Pursuit of student questions / interests
• Primary Sources (like field trips) / hands-on materials
• Learning is interaction – building on what students already know
• Instructor interacts / negotiates with students
• Assessment via student works, observations, points of view, tests. 
• Process is as important as the product
• Knowledge is dynamic / it changes with experiences and contexts
• Students work in groups 

Adapted from:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivist_teaching_methods

I would encourage you to try the constructivist approach for just one course and see how it goes. 

Check this out for more info:

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/ 

A Few Populi Reminders

Most of us are now using Populi to manage our homeworks, provide feedback to students and assign grades.

This week on the education blog let's think about how we introduce learning technology to new students and remind returning students of our expectations. Although many students will be familiar with the idea of a learning management system already, we cannot assume that everyone is on the same page about how it is to be used and what the expectations are. Let's deal with a few common excuses that students give when something goes wrong in educational technology:

• I did not know when it was due. This common excuse is primarily a consequence of poor planning combined with poor communication on our part. I have noticed several classes missing due dates in Populi. Let's do our best this week to introduce students to our learning management system by getting all of our dates and times correct in the system so that students can see on their calendar at a glance when something is due. I'll be working on this on my end too.
  
• Populi ate my homework. This excuse is very rare once students learn the system, but in the early days of learning a new system students may unintentionally click a button twice or think they have submitted something when they haven't. The best thing we can do here is to show students how to turn in their work by pulling up Populi ourselves and going through the motions a few times. Even though I did that in the intro to Populi yesterday, students still forget or get confused. Thanks for your help in this regard.
  
• It is too hard to learn. Certainly learning a new way of doing something can be difficult. However, if we as teachers take the attitude that students can do it and if we express that optimism, anything is possible. We're coaches of learning; we're masters of our craft that patiently explain things again and again if necessary. 

Are Textbooks A Foregone Conclusion?

Image Credit

This week I'd like to challenge us to consider the digital revolution as it relates to a very specific aspect of our courses: textbooks.

Are textbooks absolutely necessary in all cases? Or is there a plethora of free information on the web that allows us to forgo their use in certain cases?

61 professors at Lansing Community College have decided to eliminate textbooks in 27 courses, saving LCC students at total of one million dollars since 2015. Check it out:

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2017/08/15/lansing-community-college-cutting-costly-textbooks/551936001/

I would challenge you to consider that textbooks are not a foregone conclusion in the broader education world, nor are they universally recommended or embraced by all education experts. Most education professionals instead rely on the principles of systematic instructional design to determine the "building blocks" of content. Similarly, don't forget that educational fair use allows you to copy and hand out a chapter of a book or 10%, whichever is smaller.

Try to eliminate a textbook from a course you teach and watch the results. We might save our students a bundle of cash AND enhance student learning by delivering more targeted, specific content that says what we want to communicate more concisely and effectively than assigning an entire book could.

Thanks, feel free to comment below or shoot us all an email.

Technology use in the Classroom

First, we must address the issue of whether or not Internet use makes us "stupid," as Nicholas Carr infamously asked in The Atlantic back in 2008. Regardless of whether or not you think students are less intelligent now than they were before the advent of the internet, virtually all experts agree that some changes are inevitable in an age of instant information access.

Writing using an alphabet revolutionized learning partly because people didn't have to remember as much. Then again, writing allowed the world's knowledge to be preserved and passed on from generation to generation.

Gutenberg's printing press revolutionized learning by allowing faster long-form copying and distribution of written materials, further eroding the amount that people needed to recall from memory. And yet... where would we be without the printing press?

Most experts argue that the digital revolution has transformed communication on the same scale as these other technologies. Teachers the world over are identifying disturbing trends in the attention span of students in the information age as students are increasingly wondering why they should store discrete facts in their minds when they can simply Google them later.

Where does that leave us at our school? We can probably all admit that the internet and the digital revolution isn't going anywhere any time soon. Is using learning technology in the classroom simply pandering to the desires of millennials? If not, what learning technologies would be appropriate to integrate into the classroom? Is missions becoming more digital? In what ways? Would it benefit our students to consider some of these issues before heading to the field?