Resources
One page Teaching Tactic: students experience the transformative power of telling your story through well designed prompts for pairs.
The author and her colleagues planned and led three retreats to build relationships between rabbinical students and Muslim leaders of tomorrow. Narrative Pedagogy served to inform the creation of these immersive experiences. The retreats made use of the shared scriptural traditions around Joseph (Torah) and Yusuf (Qur'an) to build connections based on a common passion for text study. Parallel to the academic exploration of religious and cultural narratives, participants wove connections based on an ethos of appreciative inquiry and the guided sharing of personal stories. Carefully structured exercises provided a container for the growth of understanding and connection.
Jesus and Mary have been called simultaneously a bridge and a gulf between two massive, complex religion-communities. In spite of this – and in spite of obvious distinctions between instructional venues such as a church's adult education program, a seminary classroom, or a required university theology course – a fairly consistent set of strategies work well when helping Christians understand Jesus and Mary as Muslims known them. Gaining such familiarity is useful preparation for Christians' eventual appreciative conversation with Muslims.
The authors developed and co-taught a course on Korean indigenous spiritualities designed primarily for Korean Christians to reflect on whether such spiritualities might hold resources for their religious lives. Engaging students directly with the spiritual practices, texts, and representatives of the traditions, the course encouraged students to voice their understandings of these traditions on their own terms, and the extent to which they might hold resources for Korean Christianity. Starting each class session with pair discussions (in Korean, if desired), and then sharing the pair responses with the larger class for fuller discussion gradually developed intracultural interreligious openness to the Korean indigenous heritage. Two non-Korean students brought “outsider” questions and responses to the conversation. Students reported that the learning experience was successful and valuable.
Many theological schools use short term travel as a way to foster interfaith education. Due to their experiential, holistic, and intense nature, travel seminars focused on the promotion of interfaith learning can shape a future religious leader's outlook on religious communities across the course of her entire career. In this article I explore the pedagogical dimensions of travel seminars as a tool for interfaith education through the lens of a travel seminar to Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories.
A wide range of specific learning designs and strategies for the online and blended classroom, organized and reviewed by The University of Central Florida's Center for Distributed Learning. Each entry describes a strategy drawn from the pedagogical practice of online/blended teaching faculty, depicts this strategy with artifacts from actual courses, and is aligned with findings from research or professional practice literature. Search and browse interface.
Video. Several extended video presentations, from the Merlot Elixer Initiative, analyzying best practices as faculty implement community service learning projects in their courses (however, NOT in religion or theology).
Video. Extended video presentations, from the Merlot Elixer Initiative, illustrating exemplary practices for developing students understanding, attitudes and capabilities for academic integrity.
A thorough and accessible introduction to concept mapping: graphic organizers, strategies for visualizing knowledge or graphically representing ideas. Includes brief description of process, short lists of best practices, and links to additional resources and software.