Teaching The Tradition

Our world is growing increasingly complex and confused—a unique and urgent context that calls for a grounded and fresh approach to Christian higher education. Christian higher education involves a distinctive way of thinking about teaching, learning, scholarship, curriculum, student life, administration, and governance that is rooted in the historic Christian faith. In this volume, twenty-nine experts from a variety of fields, including theology, the humanities, science, mathematics, social science, philosophy, the arts, and professional programs, explore how the foundational beliefs of Christianity influence higher education and its disciplines. Aimed at equipping the next generation to better engage the shifting cultural context, this book calls students, professors, trustees, administrators, and church leaders to a renewed commitment to the distinctive work of Christian higher education—for the good of the society, the good of the church, and the glory of God.

This volume presents a mix of translations of classical and modern papers from the German Didaktik tradition, newly prepared essays by German scholars and practitioners writing from within the tradition, and interpretive essays by U.S. scholars. It brings this tradition, which virtually dominated German curricular thought and teacher education until the 1960s when American curriculum theory entered Germany--and which is now experiencing a renaissance--to the English-speaking world, where it has been essentially unknown. The intent is to capture in one volume the core (at least) of the tradition of Didaktik and to communicate its potential relevance to English-language curricularists and teacher educators. It introduces a theoretical tradition which, although very different in almost every respect from those we know, offers a set of approaches that suggest ways of thinking about problems of reflection on curricular and teaching praxis (the core focus of the tradition) which the editors believe are accessible to North American readers--with appropriate "translation." These ways of thinking and related praxis are very relevant to notions such as reflective teaching and the discourse on teachers as professionals. By raising the possibility that the "new" tradition of Didaktik can be highly suggestive for thinking through issues related to a number of central ideas within contemporary discourse--and for exploring the implications of these ideas for both teacher education and for a curriculum theory appropriate to these new contexts for theorizing, this book opens up a gold mine of theoretical and practical possibilities.

The Catholic intellectual tradition is broad, and covers a wide array of academic disciplines. In their book, John Piderit, Melanie Morey, and their contributors take a disciplinary approach to the Catholic intellectual tradition. Each chapter focuses on one academic discipline or major that is taught at the undergraduate level in most colleges or universities, including English literature, political theory, psychology, business economics, and law.

This text offers a supplement to any foreign language methods class. It describes and analyzes the centuries old struggle between the two approaches to teaching a second language: grammar accuracy versus whole language/communication.

The Miriam Tradition works from the premise that religious values form in and through movement, with ritual and dance developing patterns for enacting those values. Cia Sautter considers the case of Sephardic Jewish women who, following in the tradition of Miriam the prophet, performed dance and music for Jewish celebrations and special occasions. She uses rabbinic and feminist understandings of the Torah to argue that these women, called tanyaderas, "taught" Jewish values by leading appropriate behavior for major life events. Sautter considers the religious values that are in music and dance performed by tanyaderas and examines them in conjunction with written and visual records and evidence from dance and music traditions. Explaining the symbolic gestures and motions encoded in dances, Sautter shows how rituals display deeply held values that are best expressed through the body. The book argues that the activities of women in other religions might also be examined for their embodiment and display of important values, bringing forgotten groups of women back into the historical record as important community leaders

English language teaching methods and language learning styles have changed dramatically over the past decade in Asia and the surrounding regions. Huge efforts are being made by teachers from the K-12 system, as well as at the tertiary level, to move away from the traditional Grammar-Translation Method towards more communicative approaches to teaching and learning, including the use of project – and task-based learning and technology-enhanced language learning, just to name a few of the more frequently used methodologies. In this book, the authors shed light on the changes in ELT in Asia and the region over the past 10 years or so as seen in the wider context of language policy, which puts greater value on the acquisition of English and the new directions in learner-centered classrooms which encourage student autonomy and voice and place students as active decision-makers in the learning process.With the title of “Departing from Tradition: Innovations in English Language Teaching and Learning”, this book showcases some of the innovations in ELT that are currently happening in this rapidly growing field. Given the growing importance of English and the enormous energy and enthusiasm in the region for learning the language in both formal and informal contexts, ELT will continue to flourish. This volume will offer insights into the tremendous changes that have been made in secondary and university English language classrooms across the region.

“We don’t need books about teaching so much as books that teach.” Considering Jesus himself taught in a variety of ways—parable, discussion, miracle performance, ritual observance—it seems that there can be no single, definitive, Christian method of teaching. How then should Christian teaching happen, especially in this time of significant change to theological education as an institution? Mark Jordan addresses this question by first allowing various depictions and instances of Christian teaching from literature to speak for themselves before meditating on what these illustrative examples might mean for Christian pedagogy. Each textual scene he shares is juxtaposed with a contrasting scene to capture the pluralistic possibilities in the art of teaching a faith that is so often rooted in paradox. He exemplifies forms of teaching that operate beyond the boundaries of scholarly books and discursive lectures to disrupt the normative Western academic approach of treating theology as a body of knowledge to be transmitted merely through language. Transforming Fire consults writers ranging from Gregory of Nyssa to C. S. Lewis, and from John Bunyan to Octavia Butler, cutting across historical distance and boundaries of identity. Rather than offering solutions or systems, Jordan seeks in these texts new shelters for theological education where powerful teaching can happen and—even as traditional institutions shrink or vanish—the hearts of students can catch fire once again.

(Meredith Music Resource). An exciting, balanced approach to student performance, music learning and personal change. Written in an informal, engaging style, the text is highlighted by anecdotes, quotations, challenges for self-reflection, and techniques used by the author and top professionals in the field. The result a fulfilling, productive and successful music teaching experience.