I was recently asked to provide some reflections on worldview and a philosophy of teaching. I share those here as a way of helping others to think through articulating their own committments.
Worldview
I seek to integrate a Christian worldview into everything I write (or say or do) in a way that is, at once, intentional, helpful, and natural.
Intentional. I would want to be very intentional about seeking to present ideas in light of a Creation-Fall-Redemption motif, whether in the Arts or Sciences. Moreover, I would hope to evaluate dissenting ideas or formulae through the same lens. I would seek to craft courses and teaching experiences for students so that they, too, could inquire, e.g., “Is this consistent with a Biblical worldview? If not, at what point does it depart? Where is it the same? Is this worldview consistent or inconsistent? Why? Why Not?” Thus, intentionality provides a framework for constructive thought about foundational ideas in the lesson.
Helpful. I, also, am concerned that the worldview discussion is helpful. In helping students to think critically and reflectively about premises and praxis of ideas I want to be helpful. There are times when an intentional discussion of underlying worldviews is more helpful in a class (or in writing a course) than others. The lesson plan and in-class discussion should be in direct relationship to the lesson goals and student learning outcomes. How worldview is presented is, thus, critical in moving the course—and the students—towards the ultimate goals.
Natural. Finally, on the matter of worldview, I trust that my own commitment to a Biblical worldview comes across as not only intentional, helpful, but, also, natural. By “natural,” I mean to say that worldview as a personal credo should be fully integrated into all that I write or say without being contrived and, therfore, clumsy (and questionable authenticity). I pray that as my own spirit is cultivated, pruned, and further shaped by the Holy Spirit I may be able to better present—and integrate—a faithful, Biblical worldview into all of my life and work. Thus, the worldview I espouse should not only be intentional, but informed by a life so lived.
Philosophy of Teaching
I seek to describe this philosophy with personal (and institutional, as it may be) commitments regarding educational instruction, as well as the preferred frameworks and methods of praxis.
Teaching Assumptions. My own philosophy of education begins with commitments to the worldview that I have described in this paper. Worldview informs and shapes all that we do.[1] Through the theological assumptions about God and Man and the World around us (that I compile through Special Revelation of the Bible) I begin with a commitment to explore those relationships and world for greater insight and understanding for myself and the student.
Teach for discovery. I am committed to education as not only a necessary committal of the repository of knowledge from mentor to student, but also an experience of leading students to the awareness of the “wholly Other,”[2] then to self-awareness and through it all to a discovery of truth.
Teach through a rabbinic approach. I believe that is done not only by didactic information,[3] but through personal experience of the respective subject. Therefore the praxis of education follows these commitments with a Socratic (or rabbinic) approach to guiding the student through dialectical interaction on the subject. My own worldview involves a sensus divinitatis or sensus religionis in the human spirit. Thus, while I reject the premise that all truth can be accessed through self-discovery, I do desire to employ self-discovery in the service of truth (aiming to actuate a deeper learning experience for the student) as I seek to guide the learner to a measurable “student learning outcome” through lectures, interpretive readings, small group and peer-to-peer discussions (Havruta)[4], student reflection (e.g., a written paper or project), critical analysis, synthesis, and assessment.[5]
Education’s guiding Principle. My educational philosophy must be constantly refined and reformed to the essential truth of education: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). In this I find both admonition and warning that keeps my thinking about education within the divine parameters where truth lives.
[1] Worldview definitions vary. I define worldview as the controlling beliefs that a person has about mankind and the world around us. The Christian worldview is that there is a God; He created all that is ex nihilo. Mankind fell from the original state of posse peccare, posse non peccare, thereby plunging the world itself into a fallen state. Creation and Fall are being liberated through Redemption in Jesus Christ. That redemption will ultimately bring about a Paradise Regained. See “Augustine’s Doctrine of the Bondage of the Will,” Augustine’s Doctrine of the Bondage of the Will, accessed November 16, 2014, http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/augustinewill.html.
[2] “What began forcibly to press itself upon us…was…a God absolutely unique in His relation to man and the world, overpoweringly lofty and distance, strange, yes even wholly other” (Barth, 37). See Karl Barth, The Humanity of God (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1960).
[3] I advocate use of the Great Books as a foundation for learning chemistry, as well as English Literature. An integrative exercise follows each reading that leads to praxis. See Worldview Academy, The Great Books Reading List, accessed November 19, 2014, http://thegreatbooks.com/.
[4] The six core practices of Havruta learning may be identified as “listening, articulating, wondering, focusing, challenging and supporting” (Kent, 2010). See Orit Kent, “A Theory of Learning,” Journal of Jewish Education 76, no. 3 (2010), doi:10.1080/15244113.2010.501499; and Elie Holzer and Orit Kent, A Philosophy of Havruta: Understanding and Teaching the Art of Text Study in Pairs (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2013).
[5] I have been trained in adaptations from the Kolb “Experiential Learning” model. Moving beyond volunteerism, small group dynamics, and outdoor experiences, I hold to a simpler, Biblical proposition that as faith and works belong together (James 2:17) so, too, do theory and praxis. Kolb remarked that “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping experience and transforming it” (41). I would prefer to say that as Christian faith integrates heart, soul, and mind and produces transformation, so, too, does a fully integrative educational approach produce deeper learning.