Posted on 1 Comment on Dry Bones and Dead Hearts

Dry Bones and Dead Hearts

Ron Pirtle, Dean of Faculty – Chattanooga/Dalton

If you have ever wondered what impact you, an adjunct faculty member, might have on a student, let me share a story. A few months ago, I had a student in my office who had stopped by just to share what a blessing the class she had just completed was to her and others in the class. Knowing which faculty member was assigned to that class, it did not surprise me in the least. However, while I had expected to hear how effective the faculty had been in helping them learn the information, she surprised me by sharing how she felt the faculty member had been used by God to open her heart back up to Scripture and the Holy Spirit. What a testament to God and the faculty member’s willingness to listen to the Spirit and be used by Him! While that is just one short story related to the Chattanooga site, it is true for many of our faculty members, across all the instructional sites. I am confident the other deans would have similar stories. So, how can we, as faculty members, allow God to use us to open up a student’s mind or heart? Let’s take a trip to the Valley of Dry Bones!

Those familiar with the book of Ezekiel know that the “glory of the Lord” is fundamental to the book, as well as God’s kindness and restoration regardless of Israel’s continued disobedience. In Ezekiel 37, God gives Ezekiel a vision of a valley of dry bones and commands him to speak to the dry bones, exclaiming that God will put breath back into them, and tendons and flesh, and cause them to live again. Of course, this vision was God’s way of telling the Israelites that he would resurrect them as a nation, which is revealed in verses 11 – 13. It is through this resurrection that God will put His Spirit back into Israel and place them back in their own land. The message of this particular vision is as true today as it was in Ezekiel’s time; God can take dry bones and dead hearts and bring life back into them.

So, I ask again…how can we, as faculty members, allow God to use us to open up a student’s mind or heart? Listen for God’s direction and guidance when dealing with a student, opening ourselves up to allow His Spirit to move through us, and His word, to breathe life back into our students. The faculty member from the story allowed God to work through them and allowed the work of the Spirit to breathe new life into the students in the class. As a result, a new hunger for establishing how Scripture should be used in every area of our life to allow God to work through us was established, viewing life through the lens of Scripture! This is the very essence of the Christian worldview, which is central to our teaching. So, as we stand before our students each night, my prayer is that we will heed the Spirit’s leading and be the vessel God uses to breathe life back into those who He is restoring to Himself. I leave you with a link to a song by Lauren Daigle, “Dry Bones”…powerful rendition of Ezekiel 37! May it bless you as it has me! https://youtu.be/MqzrTpwXTr8

Posted on 2 Comments on Introducing Critical Thinking into the Classroom

Introducing Critical Thinking into the Classroom

by Rose Mary Foncree

(the below is an introduction to the webinar Rose Mary led on this subject which can be found HERE.   The webinar presents the argument for introducing critical thinking into the classroom and provides examples and ideas for doing so.)

For many of us who teach college students, we have likely found ourselves surprised at the lack of critical thinking among our students, especially as reflected in essays and classroom discussions.  When first considering the topic of critical thinking in the classroom, I began to reflect on my own college education and discovered that the courses I had taken for granted as basic requirements for the freshman and sophomore years had vanished from the required curriculum of most colleges and universities.  For example, I had not realized that an introduction to philosophy and a required course in logic had virtually disappeared as required courses.

At the high school level—where many of our interests and abilities are discovered, shaped, and formed—I learned that there is now a dearth of speaking and debate instruction—a consequence of budget-cutting as well as the desire to avoid introducing controversial political topics.  In my own case, I learned almost everything I know about thinking and argumentation from serving as a debater in high school and in college.

Here at Belhaven, we have a faculty mandate to integrate the Christian faith throughout the curriculum.  Foundational to this integration is the understanding that education (in its primary sense) is the acquisition of knowledge by which, secondarily, one becomes wise.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7, English Standard Version).  As John Patrick of St. Augustine College has written, a liberal education “is an apprenticeship  in wisdom.”

But how to introduce critical thinking into the classroom remains a challenge for everyone in higher education.  We can certainly teach our students how to identify and avoid logical fallacies.  We can introduce them to inductive and deductive reasoning.  But perhaps more importantly, students must be taught how to find evidence for their assertions and arguments.  We must teach them to take charge of their minds by basing their beliefs and ideas on facts, logic, and reason.

Posted on 1 Comment on A Perspective on Student Engagement

A Perspective on Student Engagement

by Dr. John Song, Full-time Bible Faculty, Atlanta

In our recent webinar, we had a panel of great instructors share some of their best teaching practices. The goal was to discuss how we can better engage our students. My personal contributions consisted of some basic but hopefully helpful principles. The three principles were: (1) relationships, (2) relevance, and (3) reflection.

First is relationship. While this seems obvious to many, it remains as a key component in increasing student engagement. Students tend to stay engaged in the classroom when they intuitively sense that their instructor cares about their success and overall well-being. This is a biblical form of shepherding. I suggested during the webinar that there were some key indicators that can help us gauge whether we have established sufficient rapport with the students. One of those indicators was whether the student felt comfortable asking the professor for prayer. As we all know, personal challenges can be serious obstructions to learning. Building trust and praying for our students, then, can make us better shepherds who can keep our students engaged. Trust can be built by sharing a moment of laughter and making conversation during breaks. These moments may hold more value than we surmise.

The second is relevance. During the webinar, I shared a brief anecdote about my personal experience in college. Before the dawn of the information revolution — the internet — I learned in my finance classes how to calculate loan payments. This required an expensive Hewlett-Packard finance calculator. To make a long story short, by applying what I learned I realized that I was being overcharged in my car loan. The moral of the story is that when instructors make the material practical students tend to become more engaged.

The third was reflection. Beyond the attempts at minor quips in the second principle, I tried using a more concrete example with this last point. I used the analogy of a “cup.” Our students, I argued, were like cups and over time these cups were filled with, to name a few examples, (1) elements of Christianity, (2) family and cultural values, (3) postmodern assumptions, (4) Nietzsche’s me-centered “will to power,” (5) hedonism, (6) nihilistic depression and so forth. What is interesting about this syncretistic mixture is not only the elements that have been inserted into this cup but the fact that after unconsciously swirling these worldviews together we label it “Christianity.” This again may seem obvious to those who study theology like myself but many don’t realize that from this we do what Ludwig Feuerbach has accused Christianity of doing all along — we take from this admixture (and because we have labeled it Christianity) we then project an image of “God.” In other words, our understanding of God is affected by what has been placed into this cup. This also, in turn, affects the way we live. Our job as faculty, then, is to help our students discover what is in this cup. By doing so, we keep our students engaged.

I personally enjoyed this webinar. I certainly learned a lot from my colleagues and I thank them for their valuable ministry at Belhaven.

If you would like to view the webinar it can be found at this LINK