FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
Instructor: Susan Forshey
Phone: 206-963-0472
Email: sforshey@dbq.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course explores the role and practice of the teaching and discipling ministries of the church as graced means of cultivating the character of Christ personally and corporately. An incarnational model of teaching and learning—engaging the whole person—will be emphasized. Students will reflect on their own experiences of these ministries, both as teacher and student; engage texts on teaching and instructional design, the neuroscience of learning and habit formation; contemplative attention; spiritual formation in children and youth; and practice practical theological reflection as they build skills for teaching in various contexts. Models for learning, recent cognitive research, and instructional design models will be dialogue partners as students select and describe a context of teaching and learning; then design, teach, and evaluate a teaching/learning experience.
STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
By participating fully in this class, students will:
1. Be able to identify and build on biblical, theological, and practical foundations for the educational tasks of the local congregation.
2. Use models for structuring the worship and ministry of congregations in ways that
call and shape disciples from spiritual infancy to maturity in Christian community and
public witness, as measured by the evaluations of a teaching session.
CRE CURRICULAR GOALS:
1. Be formed by, live in, and minister out of Scripture and the historical and theological
tradition of the Church.
2. Educate and equip individuals and congregations to live and minister joyfully and
faithfully as part of their own denomination and the ecumenical church.
3. Integrate theology and practice in all areas of life and ministry.
REQUIREMENTS:
1. Demonstrate reflective understanding of the assigned reading and lectures by submitting online journals each week (20% of grade).
2. Comment on two colleague online posts each week (10%)
3. Write a context description of church or ministry that will be the setting for teaching a learning experience (35% of grade).
4. Plan, teach, and evaluate a learning experience (35% of grade).
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Maria Lichtmann, The Teacher's Way: Teaching and the Contemplative Life
Parker Palmer, To Know as We are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey
David Sousa, How the Brain Learns
- Teacher: Susan Forshey