The Emerging Scholars Blog

Education for Human Flourishing, Cover

After rattling the reader’s cage by exploring Have you been properly educated?, Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis argue:

Most of the abilities that we associate with knowledge in the educational field turn out to be mostly a capacity to recite. … As humans we are constantly engaged in mental activities.  We constantly access and categorize everything around us.  We experience the world around us and we have beliefs about the world, some of which are true and some of which are false.  We justify our ideas through our rational capacities, by which we set up a system of understanding that arbitrates what can be constituted as knowledge, what is and is not an accurate depiction of reality.

To claim we know something implies we have sufficiently good reasons to say the things we believe are as we say they are.  Knowledge is justified true belief. Each of these categories — justification, truth and belief — plays a necessary but not sufficient role in determining knowledge, and each should be explained in order to see how belief, justification and truth form an integrated concept of knowledge. – Education for Human Flourishing: A Christian Perspective.* InterVarsity Press, 2009. p.103-4) .

Questions …

• Are Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis on track with their definition of knowledge?  Note:  earlier they distinguish three types of knowledge
  • technical knowledge or what is more commonly called know-how
  • propositional knowledge, which is knowledge of facts
  • knowledge of acquaintance, which is knowledge about something in direct awareness (78-80, 103).
• How do you define knowledge and describe it’s acquisition in general, in your discipline?
• What scholars/resources/books have you found most helpful in shaping your understanding of knowledge?

*Find the title appealing? Then check out the Preface & Precis of Book and Chapters.

Education for Human Flourishing, Cover

Educational standards are the foundation of the modern educational endeavor.  Statements about educational success imply standards.  Measuring whether or not students are being properly educated involves testing them in particular subjects with its prescribed set of grade-appropriate standards that they must meet or exceed (Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis. Education for Human Flourishing: A Christian Perspective.* InterVarsity Press, 2009. p.100).

The battery of standardized tests which Spears and Loomis go onto describe and critique in Chapter 3:  Who Knows?  Education and epistemology are not just applicable my fourth grade twin girls, as I hear a variety of students/educators in higher education discuss standardized tests with some frequency (particularly at PSU-Hershey Medical Center).   Here are the questions Spears and Loomis bring to our attention:

• What do such tests actually tell us about the student’s intelligence, ability, creativity, insightfulness or grasp of reality?
• Do current standards provide an accurate way to assess a genuine education?
• What does it mean to be educated?
• How do educators determine the success or failure of our educational project? (p. 100)

Any responses?  Do the “answers” vary depending on the level, sphere of education

• Fourth graders
• Medical students
• Undergraduate History major prepare to teach Secondary Education versus preparing for Graduate School
• Computer Science PhD student headed to Microsoft versus a Faculty position involving Research/Teaching
• Vo-Tech student

As you’re mulling these things over, here are the three types of knowledge the authors discuss in chapter 2 and remind the reader of in chapter 3:

• technical knowledge or what is more commonly called know-how
• propositional knowledge, which is knowledge of facts
• knowledge of acquaintance, which is knowledge about something in direct awareness (103).

More coming from Chapter 3.

*Find the title appealing?  Then check out the Preface & Precis of Book and Chapters.

Education for Human Flourishing, Cover

In Chapter 2 of Education for Human Flourishing:  A Christian Perspective* (InterVarsity Press, 2009), Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis draw attention to the importance of foundational categories and philosophical thinkers for the development of educational theory.  Furthermore, they argue modern educational theory, influenced by modern philosophy, has led to some of the pitfalls of our prestigious institutions of higher education (p.71).  Spears and Loomis begin Chapter 2 with these comments:

Educators are inundated with myriads of competing educational theories, and these theories dictate the methods and goals that are actualized in the classroom on a daily basis.  These educational theories are a product of a commitment to a certain philosophical paradigm.  Teachers are overwhelmed, understandably, with the amount of work it takes to properly manage the classroom. … This doesn’t leave a teacher much time (if any at all) to reflect on educational theory — let alone the theories’ underlying philosophical commitments.  If teachers are going to be properly equipped for their task of education, they must begin to grapple with the historical development of educational purpose.

Broadly speaking, modern education lacks a unified purpose or goal to direct its curricular and pedagogical commitments.  This lack of unity exists because education has many competing allegiances to different educational methodologies, which are driven by a variety of diverse philosophical commitments.  Education is no longer understood in terms of training that enable us to pursue a true conception of reality.  Formerly, education was conceived as a tool by which we came to properly understand our humanity, ourselves and our right role within society.  Education was about pursuing and understanding objective value, as C.S. Lewis points out:  “the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and that others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are.”  Today, education is not so much about truth or morality as it is about tolerance and contributing to the nation’s economic growth. — p.69-70.

Questions to ponder/discuss:

• Do you feel overwhelmed by competing educational theories, whether as a student, researcher, a professor, or an administrator?
• What do you consider the purpose/goal/end of education?
• What training in foundational categories/philosophy is necessary for followers of Christ to work out their faith in the complex market of educational theory/practice?

*Find the title appealing?  Then check out the Preface & Precis of Book and Chapters.

What are you reading, watching, thinking about over Thanksgiving break? Anything special with some time off or is there too much going on with the holiday?

As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them.  In addition, if you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.

1.  Tom’s supervisor passed along a helpful slide show on how slide shows work.  Time for some upgrades?  Do you agree with the psychologist?

2.  Take a moment to consider Adopted Objects: The Art of Kenneth Steinbach (James Romaine, Comment, November 20, 2009). Below’s a picture and quote to get you started.

#38 (lost glove 2)

Steinbach’s art is not immediately or evidently “Christian.” His drawings, such as Tape recorder, Paper bags, Lost Glove and Pistol, do not depict religious iconography, and he does not illustrate Bible stories. Steinbach’s art is a practice of faith realized in forms that materialize a transformed vision. His drawings are created by an unorthodox process of adoption and revision that parallels a life of faith.

3. Academic pledges to give away £1m – Toby Ord, a researcher with the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics (as opposed to impractical ethics?) has pledged to give away 10% of his income, plus any income over £20,000 (about $33,000) for the remainder of his academic career.

“I was living very happily as a student and worked out what I’d need to continue living like that through my life – or a little bit better, to allow some room for improvement – and then I worked out how much I could do with that amount of money.

“I could save thousands of people’s lives, and saving one person’s life is often thought to be an amazing kind of thing you can do over your whole career,” he said.

4. The APA and Christian Colleges – The American Philosophical Association is said to have decided on a new policy that will flag job listings from any college or university that doesn’t follow APA’s non-discrimination policy, which includes sexual orientation alongside race, religion, and gender. The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities objects to the policy, while Peter van Inwagen of Notre Dame has said that flagging job listings is preferable to the APA’s other desired course – banning those listings altogether.

5. There is no number five! Tom and Mike are heading out for Black Friday, so we encourage you to get shopping, too. Actually, that’s not true. Instead, take a look at this short film from Nathan Clarke about the prosperity gospel in Africa. I guess that is number five after all, isn’t it?

Longtime friend of ESN Jay Woodham shared this link on Facebook to an “opinionated play-by-play” of the dialogue between Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga and atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett at the recent American Philosophical Association meeting. It’s a very interesting read, both the blog post and the comments, about a discussion between two of the leading philosophers in academia today. The contributor admits his bias towards Plantinga, so read it for what it’s worth, though some of his judgments are countered by commenters. The bloggers does a good job, in my opinion, of putting Plantinga and Dennett in philosophical context for those of us (like myself) who are only familiar with them through the current debates about atheism and naturalism.

Also in the comments is a side conversation about whether or not open belief in God is a hazard to one’s career in philosophy. The commenters are split: some say that it’s not a problem at all, while others strongly recommend keeping your theism under your hat. (My bet is that it strongly depends on your particular department and the attitudes of its faculty.)

BTW, if you are interested in Plantinga, his book Warranted Christian Belief is available for free from the always excellent Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

There’s a very interesting article today at the Chronicle of Higher Education, How to Be Happy in Academe ($) by Gregory Pence, professor of philosophy at Alabama-Birmingham. He’s writing about how career expectations can become defeaters, leading you to feel depressed about perfectly fine academic work. He shares his own tangled path from New York City to Birmingham, and how much more rewarding his “Plan B” has become than he ever expected.

Compare Pence’s article to two recent articles published on InterVarsity websites – Christian Professors Flourishing? by Terry Morrison and Loving the Academic Life by Dorothy Boorse. All three get at the issue of fulfilling one’s academic calling, but all from different perspectives.

Any stories to share of unexpected rewards of working at “second-tier” schools? Feel free to change names to protect the innocent.

The Christian Classics Ethereal Library is an incredible resource for theological and devotional classics. It specializes in free or low-cost public domain books. For example, don’t have $300 to plunk down for an entire edition of the Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene Fathers? Download them from CCEL.

Today, I received notice that CCEL has obtained permission to publish Alvin Plantinga’s Warranted Christian Belief (Oxford, 2000). Here’s CCEL’s description of this highly regarded book:

Warranted Christian Belief is a philosophical defense of the reasonableness of belief in God and the great matters of the faith. It answers all the common objections how could a good God allow so much evil in the world? Isn’t belief in God is irrational because there isn’t enough evidence, or because it is only wish fulfillment? Doesn’t modern theology show that the traditional beliefs are false? How about postmodernism? You get the idea. These objections are answered in a way that is philosophically rigorous. The treatment is perhaps at a level appropriate for a college philosophy student rather than other professional philosophers.

Here is the full announcement. You can read the book online or download a plain text version for free, or download a PDF for $2.95.