Nurturing and Reflective Teachers:

A Christian Approach for the 21st Century

(The activities below are adapted from those included in Chapter 7 of the published text.)

a] Use the following questions as a stimulus to record some of your thoughts and reflections upon the topic of this chapter:

1 - I believe that I am teaching Christianly when I…

a)

b)

c)…

2 - I believe that I am not teaching Christianly when I…

a)

b)

c)…

b] A recent study, undertaken by Dordt College’s Center for Education Services, was prepared following investigations among over 200 teachers in Christian schools throughout the USA. The research question was: "What, in your opinion, does it mean to teach Christianly?" Some surprising responses were reported. Some "were even disturbingly diverse. What seemed central to one teacher seemed peripheral to another. No uniformity could be detected" (Van Dyk, 1997, 39). Van Dyk also wrote: "It was especially worrisome to note that some of the teachers - amongst them some who had graduated from Christian teacher education programs - bluntly admitted they had no idea of what teaching Christianly really means. ‘I know it’s an important issue,’ they acknowledged, ‘but, frankly, I am so busy teaching, I have no time to think about it.’ Yet there are at least six commonly held, even if implicit conceptions of teaching Christianly", each of which is listed below:

Conception 1: The teacher who is a sincere, Bible-believing teacher will automatically teach Christianly.

Conception 2: Teaching Christianly is essentially the modeling of Christian love, virtue and morality.

Conception 3: Teaching Christianly consists of devotional exercises such as prayer, Bible reading, and the singing of appropriate hymns (along with the study of the Bible as a curricular subject), to be added to a standard, more or less, objective curriculum and teaching practice.

Conception 4: Teaching Christianly means to imprint truth on impressionable minds.

Conception 5: Teaching Christianly means to imitate the way Jesus taught.

Conception 6: The essential [sic.] of teaching Christianly is to impart a Christian perspective on subject matter.

Complete the following table to record your comments, suggestions and criticisms of each of these conceptions.

 c] Reflect upon the following statement from Van Dyk (1997, 42). What comments can you make about it? If possible, use it as a basis for discussion.

"What shall I then say about these six conceptions? Are they misconceptions? Are they wrong? I would be very hesitant to make such a judgment. After all, we all see through a glass darkly. So, I see these views of teaching Christianly as incomplete. They are reductionistic: they recognize an important dimension of teaching Christianly, but overlook others. Needed, it seems to me, is a more holistic view of teaching, one that takes all the aspects mentioned into account and integrates them into a totality view"