For many years, Christian educators have been looking for a better and more effective way of teaching that allows them to explain and to communicate to their students the knowledge from the Lord’s Word. Nowadays, Christian educators have access to various tools that make learning Bible passages easier for students, such as constant recitation and using songs to present new information in a more inviting manner. Despite the remarkable amount of teaching methods available, one stands as the most efficient: storytelling, or like Benjamin D. Espinoza calls in his article “The Christian Story and Our Stories: Narrative Pedagogy in Congregational Life”: Narrative Pedagogy. We regard this method as one of the best because it allows for a better illustration …show more content…
Just as Espinoza proposes, “Narrative pedagogy seeks to engage the most creative and personal components of human existence in an attempt to form and transform peoples’ lives in order that they move beyond the limitations of their past stories and celebrate the possibilities of their present and future stories, shaped by God’s story of redemption and hope found in Jesus Christ” (p.434). In other words, Narrative Pedagogy looks for more than just sharing or receiving the knowledge; Narrative Pedagogy looks for embracing knowledge and truly understanding the situations in our lives where we can apply that knowledge so as to fight against the bad situations from our past, and to improve as human beings and sons and daughters of God now and for the rest of our …show more content…
Through this practice, it is possible to create an easier way to share wisdom with the students, creating new knowledge, and even teaching how to apply this new knowledge in our lives in order to become better Christians. It is also extremely crucial to mention that the pedagogy must be Christ-centered at every moment in order to avoid creating false knowledge or even committing blasphemy. As Espinoza emphasizes, “Our pedagogy must always be rooted in the life-giving narrative of the Christian faith… (p.442)” In addition, it is recommendable to remember that even though narrative pedagogy is a highly convenient practice, it is not the only practice that exists, although it can be an excellent complement for our
This book, first required readers not just to read books and earn knowledge of how to write, but it encourages readers to start to write while reading this book. Yaghjian suggests a concrete, clear way to begin to write good theology, thus, to write well is just to start writing it (4). To answer the fundamental question of “what is writing and why do people write?” Yaghjian attempts to answer under the title of “the Sociorhetorical Context of Writing Theology.” To sum up the answer, people write “to communicate people” (5), passing the information “across time and space” (5), because writer has intention to leave behind to his audience.
In conclusion, teachers who share their worldview with their students and encourage them to also expand and develop their own biblical worldview are giving their students a whole integrated education. The hope of a teacher should be that what their students learn will carry them through life by always seeing everything through the lens of God’s
I have a deep appreciation of Andy Stanley’s teaching approach, which involved several presentation steps; me, we, God, you, and we. [ ] As teacher, I learned, after applying this five step transitional approach, to move from personal experience to community understanding where God was the main focus of discussion. However, I found the HBLT approach to be more useful, particularly in my small discipleship studies being that it did not require a great deal of time to prepare the lessons, whereas, with the MWGYW ap...
Throughout my childhood, the idea of having a college education was greatly stressed. As a result, it was my duty as the next generational child, to excel in my studies and achieve a life of prosperity and success. Learning became the basic foundation of my growth. Therefore, my youth was overtaken by many hours spent reading and writing what was known to be correct "Standard" English. I first found this to be a great shortcoming, but as I grew older, I began to realize the many rewards acquired by having the ability to be literate.
Van Brummelen, H. (2009). Walking with God in the classroom: Christian approaches to teaching and learning (3rd Ed.). Colorado Springs, CO: Purposeful Design Publications.
Plantinga, Cornelius. 2002. Engaging God's World: A Primer for Students. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Throughout this course we have discussed through the scriptures ways of helping our students learn and grow in God’s word. It is our duty to model God’s lessons in our daily lives and in our
To begin teaching my lesson, I must first understand the differing approaches needed to present instructional learning opportunities which provide content and language objectives for the EL (ACTS 7, INTASC 1). With this understanding in place, I will be able to align the objectives to the standards and also present comprehensible input necessary for the student to understand the lesson. For comprehensible input, I will use the strategies of pre-reading passages and audios or videos which provide information allowing my students some advance knowledge of what they will be learning. During this time I will be able to search out and define the more challenging vocabulary that I deem to be important.
Over the course of the semester, my knowledge of theology has grown from very little into something much larger. My curiosity for this class sparked a yearn for further education about theology. People do not seem interested about the topic but they should be because it makes you think about religion differently and to a Christian it can give perspective as well as further your walk with God. The two topics that have stuck out the most to me was Doubt and Character Development. Doubt and Character Development is a vital part of Christian’s faith as well as it is in their growth with God.
Goodson & Gill (2011), believe when narrative learning is acknowledged and these techniques are “carried out with the full awareness and respect through collaboration” between the educator and the adult learner, “it brings about important shifts in self and motivations, and even a reflection on their places in the world can occur” (p.
Narrative has a large role in shaping and maintaining society. In J. Hillis Miller’s chapter “Narrative” in Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin’s book Critical Terms for Literary Study, J. Hillis Miller argues that narrative is present in all stages of human life from early childhood development and into adulthood. It is used in early childhood development to teach adolescents how to tell a story and make them aware of what is socially acceptable behavior. However, socially acceptable behavior does not necessarily need to be learned as an adult. Instead, adults use narratives in order to fill a sense of lacking and to find meaning and purpose in life. Miller suggests that narration is a way for humans to make sense of experience and life
The first scripture that comes to mind when I think of Christian education is the Hebrew Shema and its challenge to families. “These comm...
Within the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Jesus is often identified as, “Teacher,” and is seen utilizing a unique pedagogical approach of which ignites life transformation of the individual. The Theological pattern in practice from this type of transformation is that the individual would go back into their social domain in which they reside and make an impact for Jesus Christ in turn igniting sociological transformation. Passages of scripture such as Matthew 16:13-20, Matthew 22:23-44, Mark 12:28-40, Luke 9:18-27, Luke 8:26-39, and Luke 20:1-18 display glimpses of Jesus’ pedagogy as He serves as teacher/facilitator within a dialogue asking probing questions utilizing a Socratic methodol...
Teaching and teachers have been around for a long time. In the Old Testament, the instruction was provided by the scribes. Even though we don’t have an in-depth description of teaching techniques, we do have an idea that the usual method was rote memory. The teacher’s role was to communicate the message and the hearer was to recite that same message back to the teacher. Teaching then moved to another phase – this next phase was to arouse the listener’s aptitude by presenting problems and to cultivate the students use of his powers by demanding that he exercise those powers. This background just mentioned was to help us understand the Old Testament teaching, which laid the groundwork for the ultimate teacher – Jesus the Christ.
... conclusion, narrative could be a very powerful method of teaching, which if properly developed maybe more motivating than the expository teaching method. However, there is an urgent need of coming up with a tangible model explaining how narrative communication can be implemented so as to become an integral part in teaching-learning activities. In addition, educators should be creative and should embrace the use narrative communication so as to enhance understanding of classroom content (Herman, Jahn, & Ryan, 2005).