Christian Education Teaching Methods From Modern To Postmodern

This book provides pastors, professional teachers, students of religious education or Christian education, theological students and Sunday school teachers with methods of teaching the faith today and opportunities to reflect critically on the methods and approaches they use in the classroom in the changed cultural context of our postmodern world. The book is the result of years of practical experience in the field of Christian education as a Director of Religious Education and head of a team involved in providing religious education training and producing teaching materials and textbooks for Sunday school and professional teachers of Christian education. This book proposes the Herald model of church and model of Christian education as a very helpful model for postmodern culture.

Christianity regards teaching as one of the most foundational and critically sustaining ministries of the Church. As a result, Christian education remains one of the largest and oldest continuously functioning educational systems in the world, comprising both formal day schools and higher education institutions as well as informal church study groups and parachurch ministries in more than 140 countries. In The Encyclopedia of Christian Education, contributors explore the many facets of Christian education in terms of its impact on curriculum, literacy, teacher training, outcomes, and professional standards. This encyclopedia is the first reference work devoted exclusively to chronicling the unique history of Christian education across the globe, illustrating how Christian educators pioneered such educational institutions and reforms as universal literacy, home schooling, Sunday schools, women’s education, graded schools, compulsory education of the deaf and blind, and kindergarten. With an editorial advisory board of more than 30 distinguished scholars and five consulting editors, TheEncyclopedia of Christian Education contains more than 1,200 entries by 400 contributors from 75 countries. These volumes covers a vast range of topics from Christian education: History spanning from the church’s founding through the Middle Ages to the modern day Denominational and institutional profiles Intellectual traditions in Christian education Biblical and theological frameworks, curricula, missions, adolescent and higher education, theological training, and Christian pedagogy Biographies of distinguished Christian educators This work is ideal for scholars of both the history of Christianity and education, as well as researchers and students of contemporary Christianity and modern religious education.

Faith left on rocky soil withers. But faith nurtured in the good soil of Christian teaching, formation, and mentorship grows to maturity and yields thriving community. Educational ministries are so often where this happens—where the desires of the human heart are shaped toward a love for God, a love for one’s neighbor, and a love for the world. In this comprehensive guide to educational ministries in the twenty-first century, Fred Edie and Mark Lamport explore how church leaders and others involved in Christian education can nurture a robust, cruciform faith within their communities. When discussing strategies and goals, Edie and Lamport consider a range of contexts and a variety of related fields that might give insight into educational ministry: theology, pedagogy, philosophy, social science, and more. Those working with any age group—children, adolescents, and adults—will find a relevant discussion of key underlying theological themes, a guide to concrete practices, and indispensable help in navigating shifting cultural dynamics. Exceedingly practical and consistent with the teachings of the gospel, the wisdom in this book will speak to all who long to foster discipleship in their church, school, or missional community. Key Features A “Road Map” at the beginning of each chapter concisely introduces the chapter’s topic and essential themes. Sidebars throughout the text provide deeper insight into particular important or nuanced concepts. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter facilitate further reflection, especially in conversation with others. Suggestions for further reading are provided at the end of each chapter for those interested in exploring the chapter’s ideas in greater depth. Concluding the book is a series of afterwords from experts in the field of Christian educational ministries: Martyn Percy, Almeda Wright, Craig Dykstra, Kirsten Oh, Elizabeth DeGaynor, and Thomas Groome.

Newspapers are filled with stories about poorly educated children, ineffective teachers, and cash-strapped school districts. In this greatly expanded treatment of a topic he first dealt with in Rediscovering the Lost Tools of Learning, Douglas Wilson proposes an alternative to government-operated school by advocating a return to classical Christian education with its discipline, hard work, and learning geared to child development stages. As an educator, Wilson is well-equipped to diagnose the cause of America's deteriorating school system and to propose remedies for those committed to their children's best interests in education. He maintains that education is essentially religious because it deals with the basic questions about life that require spiritual answers-reading and writing are simply the tools. Offering a review of classical education and the history of this movement, Wilson also reflects on his own involvement in the process of creating educational institutions that embrace that style of learning. He details elements needed in a useful curriculum, including a list of literary classics. Readers will see that classical education offers the best opportunity for academic achievement, character growth, and spiritual education, and that such quality cannot be duplicated in a religiously-neutral environment.

This study examined potential differences between modern and postmodern teaching styles and students' perceived levels of motivation and engagement, using Christian high school Bible teachers and their students. Twenty-four teachers were categorized as either modern or postmodern in style using a Teaching Style Inventory (TSI). These same teachers administered the Motivation and Engagement Scale --High School Version (MES-HS) (Martin, 2008) to their students (N=1,063. The means of students' scores on the MES-HS were examined using a t-test for equally of means. The t-tests revealed no significant difference between students' perceived levels of motivation and engagement and teaching styles.

All signs point to Christian education having lost its theological location and prominence in the life of the Western Protestant church. The Emerging Church movement, as an intentionally postmodern approach to ministry in the contemporary context, may, however, offer insights to reinterpret Christian education. This significant movement in today's church gives Christian education a new interpretive framework that is theologically located at an intersection of doxology and doctrine. In her examination of postmodern faith formation, Wendi Sargeant explores the importance of the Christian worshipping community as the most appropriate setting for Christian education. Practitioners and students will benefit from the ready-to-use teaching and learning matrix, and all those with interest in the formation of faith in themselves and others will draw much from the way Sargeant situates worship as the basis for enhancing Christian formation and ethos.

Seymour and Miller, with four other experts in the field, seek to clarify the agenda, resources, and hopes for Christian education in the twenty-first century. Gone are the days when Christian education was variously envisioned as a school, a home, an educational system, a mission agency, or a school for Christian living. These dreams revealed the conflicts Christian education was to face throughout much of the twentieth century; yet they also clarified its resources and motivated efforts on its behalf. Modern educators such as Seymour and Miller also dream of what Christian education is and what it can become. Here they investigate five approaches through which contemporary Christian educators can develop the theory and practice of Christian education: (1) religious instruction (2) faith community (3) development (4) liberation (5) interpretation. Although they explore these five vital approaches from psychological, philosophical, exegetical, and sociological viewpoints, the authors agree that the central theme is still the teaching of the Good News. It is there we will discover that we are delivered for dependency on the old ways and that we are free to move into new ways of living.

Synthesizes basic Christian teachings with thoughts derived from the behavioral sciences. Text.

The cultural landscape is now made up of diverse "communities"--feminists, gays, neo-conservatists, African-Americans, pro-lifers--who seem to have no common frame of reference by which to communicate with each other. Veith offers Christians instructions as to how they can respond to these varied groups.

Here is a serious and passionate plea for theology and education to stand in relationship. Moore argues for an organic approach to religious, moral and theological education.