Pub Date : 2021-07-15DOI: 10.1177/20569971211031497
Rhonda M. McEwen
Drawing upon over five decades of intercultural educational experience in dialogue with relevant research, biblical and theological insights, and engaging illustrations, authors Muriel and Duane Elmer have provided an exceptionally practical and accessible text that is as applicable to formal educational settings in the classroom, as it is to informal ministry contexts, particularly with adult learners. Their overall emphasis is to explicate how teachers and facilitators can intentionally nurture learning that leads to life change—moving from knowing to doing to transforming practice and character. Utilizing their thoughtfully constructed Learning Cycle, adapted from Duane Elmer’s doctoral dissertation, the authors delineate five levels of learning with the goal of integrating cognitive, affective, and psychomotor elements of learning into a cohesive whole. While content recall is identified at each level, they also introduce additional features into the learning process including the role of emotion, speculation as to how to use new knowledge, identifying and overcoming barriers, the importance of practice, and developing habits which eventually lead to character transformation or the goal of Christlikeness. Recent discoveries from neuroscience provide additional validation for these time-honored principles. The authors write, “Only when stored in long-term memory do beliefs and behavior begin the fusion into integrity, character, and wisdom” (p. 194). Replete
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Pub Date : 2021-07-11DOI: 10.1177/20569971211031437
David I. Smith
The most successful second language textbook in the history of the discipline, a text used in a wide range of countries for centuries after its publication, was the Orbis Sensualium Pictus (World of Sensory Things in Pictures) by John Amos Comenius (1658). It went through at least 248 distinct editions stretching from the late 17th to the mid-20th century (Pilz, 1967). Though the frequent claim that it was the first illustrated children’s book is false (Good, 1942), it was innovative, influenced later textbook design, and is still studied (Michel, 1992). The text was organized into 150 illustrated chapters, each offering a woodcut image of a scene with numbered items corresponding to words in the bilingual text beneath it. The Orbis Pictus includes no less than six chapters about birds. The first (“Living Creatures: and First, Birds”) begins with the sentence, “Animal vivit, sentit, movet se; nascitur, moritur, nutritur, & crescit; stat aut sedet, aut cubat, aut graditur” (A living creature lives, perceives, moves itself, is born, dies, is nourished, and grows; stands or sits or lies or walks). The living beings exemplified
该学科历史上最成功的第二语言教科书是约翰·阿莫斯·科梅纽斯（1658）的《图片中的感官世界》（Orbis Sensualium Pictus），该书出版后在许多国家使用了几个世纪。从17世纪末到20世纪中期，它至少经历了248个不同的版本（Pilz，1967）。尽管经常声称这是第一本带插图的儿童读物是错误的（Good，1942），但它是创新的，影响了后来的教科书设计，目前仍在研究中（Michel，1992）。该文本被组织成150个图文并茂的章节，每个章节都提供了一个场景的木刻图像，下面有与双语文本中单词相对应的编号项目。《奥比斯象形图》包括不少于六个关于鸟类的章节。第一个（“活的生物：和第一个，鸟类”）以句子开头，“动物生动，感性，运动se；nascitur，moritur，nutritur，&crecit；stat aut sedet，aut cubat，aut-graditur”（活的生物生活、感知、移动自己，出生、死亡、营养和成长；站立、坐着、躺着或行走）。以生物为例
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Pub Date : 2021-07-01DOI: 10.1177/2056997121994752
Katherine G. Schmidt
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Pub Date : 2021-07-01DOI: 10.1177/2056997121994525
Julie Ooms
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Pub Date : 2021-06-26DOI: 10.1177/20569971211019256
Yu-Ling Lee
Mark Chater is a former teacher and policy maker who presents a fascinating thesis for this book. He proposes that an educational perspective can help bring greater understanding and love of Jesus Christ. Chater asks, “can the Son of God be a learner?” (p. xix). Moreover, how did Jesus grow in his understanding of ideas, or how was he metacognitively aware of his own learning? By contrast, Jesus is held as the ultimate teacher exemplar. How does this relationship between teaching and learning combine into the life and teachings of Jesus? Perhaps a bigger challenge is that recounting Jesus’ many pedagogical acts results in “a record of a puzzling teacher who on occasion misleads and perturbs, and is not a uniformly useful or admirable example” (p. 106). The book addresses these questions in three parts: First born; Learning teacher; and How our hearts burned within us. In the first part, I appreciate that Chater begins autobiographically. He is a teacher observing the “dance of theology and pedagogy” (p. 20) within his own life, as well as the broader Christian history. Theology, and specifically Christological thought, can learn from pedagogy’s questions by asking “how are we breaking down knowledge? What do we expect learners to do?” (p. 32). These questions give life to our theological praxis. In part 2, several chapters are devoted to the exegetical and historical-critical explorations of Jesus as teacher. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the different chapter themes in this section. One chapter amusingly suggests a pedagogical dimension of Jesus as “trickster teacher” (p. 55). Another provocative chapter asks whether Matthew portrayed Jesus as a good teacher (p. 98). In Matthew’s gospel, we see how often Jesus’ followers fail to understand his parables (i.e. Matthew 13:36). Educators would rightfully critique such a teacher if their students continually misunderstand the lesson taught in class. Yet the resolution by theologians like Kierkegaard suggest that there is a “causal relationship between unsuccessful teacher and savior” (pp. 98–99) within the duties of Jesus as teacher versus Jesus as Savior. Instead of accepting such a binary, we are called in part 3 to engage the Christian pedagogical imagination with an “educationalization of theology” (p. 183). This last section is certainly imaginatively re-reading scripture International Journal of Christianity & Education
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Pub Date : 2021-06-26DOI: 10.1177/20569971211020665
C. Iluzada
The four authors of White Jesus: The Architecture of Racism in Religion and Education, all scholars in higher education, seek to differentiate between the White Jesus of American civil religion and the real Jesus of Nazareth. They point educators and administrators to evidence that reveals two rivaling notions of Christian faith in colleges and universities. The former is often oppressive and distinctly aligned with White American culture, and the latter predates and supersedes that narrow definition with a historical, transcultural, and self-sacrificial faith. The book calls educators and administrators in higher education out of silence to examine and reckon with historical and systemic racism within their Christian institutions. White Jesus describes American civil religion, in which Christianity became enmeshed with the ethos of the nation. The marriage of Christianity and state has had historical precedents, such as Constantine’s Roman Empire, and this marriage becomes dangerous when adherents justify the country’s practices through misinterpreted Christian texts. The myths of Manifest Destiny or Americans as God’s chosen people, for example, are problematic both because they misinterpret Scripture and because they overlook the experiences of marginalized groups in America, such as Native Americans and African Americans. Also, in this American-Christian syncretism, White cultural values become as weighty as biblical values. The book provides a brief history of Christian culpability in systemic racism in America. For example, after Reconstruction, White Christians thought that African Americans threatened their culture because they weren’t sufficiently educated or evangelized. Also, for nearly a hundred years after Reconstruction, many Christians taught that God created distinct races; therefore, those races should be maintained and not mixed or unified. Additionally, even in today’s discourse, White Christians usually deny the existence of systemic racism because Protestant individualism (emphasizing individual accountability and salvation) International Journal of Christianity & Education
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Pub Date : 2021-06-26DOI: 10.1177/20569971211019272
Valerie K Phillips
A variety of resources exist for cross-cultural educators, providing how-to tips addressing attitudes and methodologies for the teaching process. The focus of L Lynn Thigpen’s unique and valuable book, Connected Learning: How Adults with Limited Formal Education Learn, asks the deeper and more significant questions that concern the learning process of the cross-cultural learner. The author points out a disturbing “grave inequity in the learning realm” (p. xvii) for a majority of the world who are “adults with limited formal education” (ALFE) (p. 6). As a result, Thigpen considers Walter Ong (Orality and Literacy, 2002) and the growing literature on orality, challenging the adoption of oral methods of teaching as a strategy for communicating information to learners who are not functionally literate. By pushing orality into a broader scope of “general learning strategy” (p. 7) or “learning format” (p. 144), the author ties orality to a learning process that has relational significance for the communicators of information—a value which emerges as her central theme of “connected learning” (p. 100). As a long-term worker in Cambodia with the International Mission Board, Thigpen uses her field experience as the ethnographic basis for researching how Cambodian Khmer ALFE, as oral learners, learn best. The author collects and analyzes data discovered through observation and interviews with numerous Khmer contacts to develop grounded theories on how her ALFE “learn or acquire new knowledge, beliefs/values, or skills” (p. 78). Thigpen’s personal investment in and concern for her learners is apparent, and research helps her to recognize her own need for “empathy” (p. 150) in order to connect to and better understand her learners. Thigpen’s findings provide a fascinating introduction into Khmer culture and history as she gathers quotations and knowledge from interviews with her study participants. My personal overseas experience has been primarily in Africa, and I found myself wanting to know more background on Cambodian culture and the Khmer people, partly from curiosity but more importantly to be International Journal of Christianity & Education
为跨文化教育工作者提供了各种资源，提供了解决教学过程中态度和方法的技巧。L Lynn Thigpen的独特而有价值的书《互联学习：正规教育有限的成年人如何学习》的重点提出了与跨文化学习者的学习过程有关的更深层次、更重要的问题。作者指出，对于世界上大多数“正规教育有限的成年人”（ALFE）（第6页）来说，“学习领域的严重不平等”（第xvii页）令人不安。因此，Thigpen认为Walter Ong（Orality and Literacy，2002）和越来越多的关于口语的文献，对采用口语教学方法作为向不识字的学习者传达信息的策略提出了挑战。通过将口语推向“一般学习策略”（第7页）或“学习形式”（第144页）的更广泛范围，作者将口语与对信息传播者具有关系意义的学习过程联系起来，这一价值观成为她“连接学习”的中心主题（第100页）。作为国际使命委员会在柬埔寨的长期工作人员，Thigpen利用她的实地经验作为人种学基础，研究柬埔寨高棉语ALFE作为口语学习者如何学习得最好。作者收集并分析了通过观察和采访大量高棉联系人发现的数据，以发展关于她的ALFE如何“学习或获得新知识、信仰/价值观或技能”的基础理论（第78页）。Thigpen对学习者的个人投资和关心是显而易见的，研究帮助她认识到自己对“同理心”的需求（第150页），以便与学习者建立联系并更好地理解他们。Thigpen的发现为高棉文化和历史提供了一个引人入胜的介绍，她从对研究参与者的采访中收集了引文和知识。我个人的海外经历主要是在非洲，我发现自己想了解更多柬埔寨文化和高棉人的背景，部分原因是好奇，但更重要的是想成为《国际基督教与教育杂志》
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Pub Date : 2021-06-09DOI: 10.1177/20569971211021342
J. Jusu
“Should Christians form their own political parties, take the helm of government and solve all the problems of society?” Governance and Christian Higher Education in the African Context is the third in the series of The Africa Society of Evangelical Theology and provides insights toward Christians and governance. The contributors build a case for the constructive engagement of Christians with secular leadership toward good governance. To this task, the book explored two major themes which are treated in two parts. In part 1, the writers treat Christian relationships and responsibilities to secular authorities, and in part 2, they present the integration of faith, life, and learning in Christian higher education. For the first purpose, part 1 presents four chapters of well-researched, balanced, and appropriately documented arguments about the Christian’s role in promoting good governance in society. Chapters 1 and 2 present an in-depth biblical analysis that informs the Christian response to bad governance. Chapter 3 provides a case study of church political engagement in Kenya, while chapter 4 offers a prescription for promoting biblical principles of good governance. I find this first part relevant to African Christians—especially those at the helm of secular authority. I was elated when Burk (p. 15) remarked that Christians should not build a theocracy but rather strive to strengthen the existing structures for all religions to flourish. Notwithstanding, Oketch (p. 41) recognized that the Church needs to do some introspection and first remove the proverbial log in its eye before attempting to do the same for society. For the second purpose, part 2 presents seven chapters of credible application of well-researched findings on the relevance and integration of Christian higher education. Often, we speak of the rapid numerical growth of the church in Africa but fail to examine the impact of such growth on pastoral care. The report in chapter 5, which paints dire pictures of the strain this rapid growth has on pastors and offers suggestions on how to minimize the strain, is worth our attention. Four chapters examine the integration of faith, life, and learning in higher education. Chapter 6 examines worldview issues in integration, while chapters 7 International Journal of Christianity & Education
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Pub Date : 2021-06-09DOI: 10.1177/20569971211022588
Brian Mills
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Pub Date : 2021-06-09DOI: 10.1177/20569971211019652
Anne-Marie Ellithorpe
In Understanding Faith Formation, North American evangelical theologians and educators Mark A Maddix, Jonathan H Kim and James Riley Estep seek to articulate an integrated and holistic approach to faith formation. Through this work they aim to provoke conversation about matters of faith and faith formation and help readers grow and mature in their faith. The authors encourage readers to recognize faith as being expressed and lived out in particular contexts. Ideally such awareness provokes the re-examination of presuppositions about one’s faith and the recognition that ‘people from other cultures may mature in their faith in different ways’ (p. x). This book is divided into three parts. Part 1 focuses on theological dimensions of faith formation and acknowledges biblical, traditional and theoretical diversity. Intriguingly, the authors identify a study of faith in the First Testament as revealing more about God than about the faith of the people. They acknowledge personal and corporate dimensions of faith as expressed in diverse church traditions.Maddix,Kim andEstep revisit James Fowler’smodel of faith formation and present a model of faith formation comprised of four stages: converging faith, consolidating faith, conforming faith and contagious faith. The authors describe evangelical Christians as moving through these stages in a ‘non-mechanical fashion’ (p. 45). As noted, this model, based on qualitative research with 429 evangelical Christians aged 18 to 66, is ‘in an incipient stage’ and requires further development along with validation through replicating the study with ‘a different Christian population’ (p. 46). However, there is no indication of what subset/s of the US evangelical Christian population these initial participants have been drawn from, nor of other characteristics of participants. The outcome of the final stage of contagious faith is presented as selfless service. This stage would benefit from further description and exploration, including acknowledgement of terminology challenges, given that the language of self-sacrifice has been misused to the detriment of marginalized populations. Part 2 acknowledges congregational dimensions of faith formation. The authors identify biblical illiteracy, Moral Therapeutic Deism and the rejection of religious faith among the nones (those who self-identify as having no religious affiliation, International Journal of Christianity & Education
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