Resources

A 2019 course by Christy Lang Hearlson at Villanova University adopts a practical theology approach ("a way of doing theology that attends to lived reality and practice, engages in interdisciplinary dialogue, and seeks to cultivate practical wisdom for life") to critical issues of contemporary life using the case study of "consumerism." The course has "a particular (but not exclusive) focus on Roman Catholicism."

Click Here for Book Review Best Practices in Engaging Online Learners Through Active and Experiential Learning Strategies is a practical guide for all instructors and instructional designers working in online or blended learning environments who want to provide a supportive, engaging, and interactive learner experience. This book explores the integration of active and experiential learning approaches and activities including gamification, social media integration, and project- and scenario-based learning, as they relate to the development of authentic skill-building, communication, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills in learners. Readers will find guidelines for the development of participatory peer-learning, cooperative education, and service learning opportunities in the online classroom. In addition, the authors provide effective learning strategies, resources, and tools that align learner engagement with course outcomes. (From the Publisher)

Click Here for Book Review This book provides higher education faculty and administrators a scholarly resource on the most salient aspects and emerging trends in creative learning in higher education today. International contributors explore ways to foster creativity in any student, regardless of academic discipline or demographic characteristics and demonstrate that creativity is a skill all students can and should learn. Chapters analyzes how different countries and cultures implement creative learning, exploring issues of instruction, assessment, and ultimately how these practices are transforming learning. This important book helps higher education professionals understand and cultivate creative learning across disciplines in any college and university setting. (From the Publisher)

Click Here for Book Review This book offers a moral rather than instrumental notion of university education whilst locating the university within society. It reflects a balancing of the instrumentalization of higher education as a mode of employment training and enhances the notion of the students’ well-being being at the core of the university mission. Compassion is examined in this volume as a weaving of diverse cultures and beliefs into a way of recognizing that diversity through a common good offers a way of preparing students and staff for a complex and anxious world. This book provides theoretical and practical discussions of compassion in higher education, it draws contributors from around the world and offers illustrations of compassion in action through a number of international cases studies.

Click Here for Book Review Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925, when the nation's new universities created grades and departments, majors and minors, in an attempt to prepare young people for a world transformed by the telegraph and the Model T. As Cathy N. Davidson argues in The New Education, this approach to education is wholly unsuited to the era of the gig economy. From the Ivy League to community colleges, she introduces us to innovators who are remaking college for our own time by emphasizing student-centered learning that values creativity in the face of change above all. The New Education ultimately shows how we can teach students not only to survive but to thrive amid the challenges to come. (From the Publisher)

One-page Teaching Tactic that describes assignments using the new Religious Sounds Project database, helping students explore what counts as "religion."

One-page Teaching Tactic describing break out groups that integrate online-distance students with face-to-face students in the classroom.

One-page Teaching Tactic that helps students reflect critically on their own positionalities and to culturally and historically contextualize the life of a human figure they are studying.

One-page Teaching Tactic that uses pages from a children's book to concretize theoretical lessons about exegesis such as the contextual translation of words, reading in community, and larger literary, historical, social, and theological contexts.

This is a short reflection on aspects of the pedagogy and mentoring practice of Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon. This approach invited collaborative engagement and included a threefold process that included affirmation, inspiration, and charge. See companion contributions to this Forum written by Miguel A. De La Torre, Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, Karen K. Seat, and Angela D. Sims.