Caring for Education (Idea #5)

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Educating Educators

“The Levites and priests taught the people the Book of the Law” (2 Chronicles 17:1-9)

This week’s Idea #5 is for teachers and students who want to be teachers.

SO WHAT? Getting attention, interest, “buy in”

I’m a BIG believer in cookies, both to eat and to use in teaching. Use the free 2-minute video entitled “cookies” to communicate the key idea: as educators we need to make sure everyone can access and understand our teaching.

WHO CARES? Relation to student, potential applications

There is a whole section on MarkEckel.com committed to faith-learning integration; seeing the synthesis of all subjects from a decidedly Christian point of view. The following subjects are available so that teachers and students can see the immediate connection to their studies, their interests:

WHY SHOULD I? Reasons for investing time, thought

The sixth video in the series “Thoughtful Christians in Culture” is focused on education. The importance of teaching is fully on display here with multiple stories from my teaching days to make the point.

Find quotes, websites, books, articles, and comments about education on a research page here.

 

HOW DO I? Ways to be involved

A brand new series at MarkEckel.com “Never Let ‘Em See You Comin’!” is all about maintaining student interest in the classroom.

From Idea #4, the use of projects and visible examples are available here:

Find examples and biblical principles of PROJECT-based learning here.

See my review of Making Thinking Visible here to show the HOW of student engagement.

 

WHO SAYS? Authority, standard, influence

Biblical principles from the “Thoughtful Christians in Culture: Education” episode include:

Biblical Philosophy of Education Biblical instruction is content-centered, teacher-directed, student-discovered, life-related, service-enacted learning for the next generation (Ps 71:14-18; 78:1-8).

  1. Content-centered. Capital “T” Truth does exist and can be known; therefore people are responsible to the laws of God’s Word and His world (Deut 4:5-9; 30:11-16).  Curriculum is based on the principle that all Truth originates from God (Is 28:23-29), all truth is inclusive within His Truth (heaven and earth are His, Josh 2:11; 2 Kings 19:15; 2 Chr 2:12), and all truth is God’s Truth (Ps 119:152, 160).
  2. Teacher-directed. The teacher is God’s authority in the school’s sphere of influence (Prov 23:12; Eph 4:11-12; 1 Thess 5:12, 13; Heb 13:17). Teachers bear the responsibility of clear commitment to and communication of “true Truth” (2 Tim 2:14-4:5; Titus 1:9).
  3. Student-discovered. Students are accountable for the privilege of teaching-learning (Prov 13:13, 16, 18; 20:15; etc.; Gal 6:6).  If this is God’s world, He made it, and it is important to Him, it should be important to us (1 Chr 29:11; Neh 9:6; Ps 33:6-11; 50:9-12; 89:11). As creatures responsible to The Creator, students have been given responsibilities to rule the creation, including one’s studies (Gen 1:28; 2:5, 15, 19-20; Ps 8:5-8).
  4. Life-related. God’s common grace creates common truth for the common good for common lives of all people (Gen 39:5; Ps 145:9, 15-16; Matt 5:44-45; Lk 6:35-36; Jn 1:9; Acts 14:16-17). God’s law addresses all of life for everyone (Deut 30:11-15; 1 Tim 1:8-11). We are responsible to develop biblical, wisdom thinking skills (Prov 2:1-6; Col 2:8; Heb 5:11-14). Wisdom is how we better understand the world (Prov 8:12-36).
  5. Service-enacted. There is a standard of goodness (Titus 1:8), to be modeled (2:7), and practiced (2:14; 3:1, 8, 14)—something of praiseworthy quality or measured with excellent results.  Teaching must link sound doctrine to doing what is good (2:1, 3).

 

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