Life in the university promises a chance to think about the big questions in life, to reflect on who we are and what we’re learning. But all too often, life as an academic seems so busy as to overwhelm any chance at contemplation; it can be a struggle to figure out even how to have daily time with God. For our fall tips series, we’re asking writers to share a brief tip or idea on building your spiritual life in your role as an academic. We’re thrilled that longtime friend of ESN Mary Poplin has agreed to start the series today. Click here for other work by Mary. [Read more…] about New Tips Series: Growing Spiritually in Your Academic Life
education
Engaged Learning, YouTube, and Audience Needs
W. Brian Lane is a physics professor who wrote the very first post for Scholar’s Compass, our ongoing online devotional for academics. This fall, he’s writing a series on engaged learning and how it can help Christian academics teach well in the university and the church. In our mission to support emerging Christian scholars, we’ve found that one key question most grad students and early career profs are asking is how they can serve their students by teaching well. We’re delighted to publish Brian’s reflections on engaged learning this fall, and we hope they help you as you hone the craft of teaching. To God be the glory! [Read more…] about Engaged Learning, YouTube, and Audience Needs
Imago Dei: Witness and Work (Part 5 of 5)
Michael Huerter finishes his series responding to The Image of God in an Image Driven Age: Explorations in Theological Anthropology, edited by Beth Felker Jones and Jeffrey W. Barbeau (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2016). See Part 1 of Michael’s explorations here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here. [Read more…] about Imago Dei: Witness and Work (Part 5 of 5)
Introducing Kuyper’s “Sphere Sovereignty”
The fourth post in a series introducing the thought of Abraham Kuyper. The series draws from and interacts with Richard Mouw’s Abraham Kuyper: A Short and Personal Introduction (Eerdmans, 2011).Â
Kuyper’s love of multiplicity and unity ran deep. He thought it was the bedrock of creation, as shown previously. We discussed what not to do with diversity and unity and now it falls on us to examine what the proper use of the two realities is. Kuyper’s answer lays in a key concept that is not fully developed, that he termed Sphere Sovereignty. Sphere sovereignty, at its base, is quite easy to understand. Kuyper posited that there are multiple spheres of influence in life. Mouw defines spheres like this:
[A sphere] It is an arena where interactions take place, and where some sort of authority is exercised. (Mouw, 23)
[Read more…] about Introducing Kuyper’s “Sphere Sovereignty”
Book Review: Teaching Naked
Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning by Jose A. Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The subtitle of this book actually explains the attention-grabbing title of this book. Bowen contends that the onslaught of technological resources that in the minds of many jeopardize traditional higher education can in fact enhance the basic thing professors and teachers do in the classroom–advance student learning. And the way this occurs is for those who teach to employ all these technologies outside the classroom, including those beloved PowerPoints!
These along with online lectures, podcasts, emails, Facebook posts, tweets and course management systems can be used to promote outside-the-classroom learning so that interactive and action-based learning in the classroom or lab can take the lecture (often described as the transfer of information from the notes of the teacher to the notes of the student without engaging the minds of either!).