Thursday, August 24, 2006

Teaching, Course Prep and Resources

Most of us who embark on teaching careers have been ill-equipped to actually teach. If your experience was anything like mine -- and admittedly this is a bit more of a problem in British programs than American -- you had no pedagogical training or experience in your doctoral program. Fortunately, I had spent many years doing student ministry prior to pursuing an academic career and that has been a big help for me, but still there is so much to learn.

I am of the mind that good teaching is extremely important, and for me it is as important it not more important than good writing. But it appears to me that we spend much more of our time trying to be better researches and writers than we do being better teachers. Perhaps this is because it is in writing that we can make a name for ourselves (but that is another issue).

I have been collecting good resources for course preparation and teaching and I would like to know if you can recommend some.

Recently I came across this resource and it really helped prepared my courses for this senester; I would highly recommend it:

L. Dee Fink. Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses.

You can also find the meat of the book on the web; Fink published an article entitled A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning.

1 comment:

Andy Rowell said...

Joel,
Thanks for the resource.

I started teaching last fall.

I enjoyed reading two books:

Advice for New Faculty Members by Robert Boice
http://www.amazon.com/Advice-Faculty-Members-Robert-Boice/dp/0205281591/sr=8-1/qid=1157088105/ref=sr_1_1/002-0734877-1914437?ie=UTF8&s=books

and
What the Best College Teachers Do
by Ken Bain

http://www.amazon.com/What-Best-College-Teachers-Do/dp/0674013255/sr=1-1/qid=1157088222/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-0734877-1914437?ie=UTF8&s=books

The first is the voice of the realist. He tells you how to survive. The second book sets the bar high - what the best most creative professors do.

Also check out this:

Teaching the Bible: Practical Strategies for Classroom Instruction (SBL - Resources for Biblical Study, 49) (Resources for Biblical Study)
by Mark Roncace (Editor), Patrick Gray (Editor)

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13840519&postID=115645527234456725

Andy Rowell
Taylor University
Department of Biblical Studies and Christian Ministry
Blog: Church Leadership Conversations