Search Results

Director's Page
Follow Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield Contact Dr. Westfield Mailing Address The Wabash Center 301 West Wabash Ave. Crawfordsville, IN 47933 westfiel@wabash.edu Phone Office: 800-655-7117 Dr. Westfield: 765-361-6047 Fax: 765-361-6051  Social Media Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Biography Podcasts - Dialogue On Teaching & I'm Just Saying Books   ...

Nancy Lynne Westfield Publications
Publications of Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield Blogs Huffington Post – contributor 2015-16. Wabash Center Blogs under the headings of “Reflective Teaching,” “Teaching, Religion, Politics,” “Learning from the Front (of the Classroom)” – 2014 to present. Podcasts “Dialogue on Teaching” moderated for Wabash Center. “Womanist Conversation” moderated by Dr. Tina Pippin, in conversation with ...

For the Sake of Possibility, Nurture Curiosity
(An audio version of this blog may be found here.) We were not gathered to analyze the problems facing systems of education, societal storms, weaponized misinformation, wars around the globe, or climate change. We were not convened to solve problems of organizational structures or craft new and much needed policies ...

Dare to Be an Amateur at Something
(An audio version of this blog may be found here.)  My editor is one of my most ardent supporters and a beloved friend. We are working, together, on my next book. He has not, in many months, received any pages from me. At a recent gathering, he asked me if ...

Sharing the Gold
(An audio recording of this blog may be found here.)  With people all around the globe, my attention was captured by the Paris 2024 Olympics. I tuned into the TV coverage as often as I could. Watching world class athletes perform their craft is spellbinding. Athletes performing at the highest level, ...

Aspiring to Power, Influence and Humility
(An audio recording of this blog post may be found here.) One of the first requests I received in my new role as Director of the Wabash Center was to convene a group of “late-career” scholars. I said no. The friend requesting the workshop explained that they had participated in ...

Teaching One-on-One
An audio version of this blog post may be found here. It was the first morning of my vacation. The restaurant at the resort had a waiting list for breakfast patrons. The hostess took my phone number and said I would be called when a table opened. I thanked her ...

Disrupting a Single Chronological Narrative to Teach a More Racially Just and Ethnically Inclusive History of Christianity in the United States

Growing a Department: Cultivating Beneficial Processes and Results in the Development of a Team-Taught Capstone Course
This project is designed to cultivate healthy and productive processes for creating a departmental capstone course at Austin College. Through a constructive process, involving all three members of the religion department, the project will engage in critical reflection about issues related to collaborative processes, team teaching, and modeling of collaboration. ...

Theological Education in a Multicultural Environment: Identifying and Evaluating Best Practices for Empowerment. Part I - Research and Planning
The Joint Faculty Multiethnic Concerns Committee of Fuller Theological Seminary proposes a four-stage evaluation of student perceptions of classroom practices. The proposal is conceived as the first part of a larger planning initiative to further policymaking and pedagogy which will support the culturally diverse ministries of our student body. Stage 1 ...

Toward a Dynamic Model of Religious Studies Senior Capstone
The Religious Studies Senior Capstone, currently a 25-page thesis required of all majors, does not consistently meet the needs of students and faculty and may not be the appropriate capstone for the major. We propose to evaluate and redesign the senior capstone to bring it into alignment with our department ...

Discovering Student Learning in the Religious Site Visit Assignment
Support for a small research project to identify the goals of the religious site visit assignment with respect to student learning. Specific project goals include: 1) a workshop for Georgia faculty to discuss the religious site visit assignment and determine how best to assess student responses in an experiential learning environment; 2) ...

Extending the Principles of Flipped Learning to Achieve Measurable Results: Emerging Research and Opportunities
As higher education continues to grapple with expanding online coursework in meaningful ways, faculty must confront a perennial question: how can online coursework mirror the rigor of in-person classes while preserving the flexibility that makes online learning attractive to students? In Extending the Principles of Flipped Learning to Achieve Measurable ...

Specifications Grading: Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty Time
Concerns about mastery of learning outcomes or competencies, grade inflation, student motivation, and faculty time compel reflection on how we assess students in higher education. In Specifications Grading, Nilson critiques the traditional, point-based grading system and argues that students should be assessed on whether they have mastered course learning outcomes. ...

On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom
What is expressly Christian about teaching in a Christian context? In this assessment of the state of Protestant Christian pedagogy and constructive vision for its improvement, Smith addresses a gap he perceives between the aspirations and actual practices of Christian teaching. Teaching in Christian contexts cannot be reduced to issues ...

Understanding Bible by Design: Create Courses with Purpose
Lester, Webster, and Jones came together from different academic contexts to create a practical, succinct resource for professors on course design. Lester and his co-authors set out to demonstrate how the principles of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s 2005 updated Understanding by Design (UbD) model can be applied to theological ...

Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College
Mark C. Carnes’s Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College is the work of a true believer seeking the conversion of others to the path of right pedagogical practice. Fortunately, the approach he advocates, teaching history through month-long, immersive, student-led role-play, seems a worthy recipient of his impassioned ...