Education Commons^™

Letter From The Editor, Christina Belcher

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Welcome to Issue 6, Volume 1 of the ICCTE Journal.

Welcome back to the ICCTE online community as we share the fruits of yet another journal publication. Some of the five articles in this issue address the work of Christian colleagues in secular institutions. Others assist us in our quest to teach and learn by sharpening our thoughts on specific disciplines of teaching and learning in an educational setting. Topics include: teacher vitality as this relates to a two country study; faculty perspectives of academic freedom; students’ perceptions on motivations to learn; learning from the parables and controversial issues in …

Faculty Perceptions Of Academic Freedom At A Private Religious University, James A. Swezey Ed.D., T. Christopher Ross Ed.S

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Academic freedom is viewed by many in higher education as an indispensible foundational principle offering protection to university faculty. University faculty working within schools of education rely on the protection of academic freedom to pursue and develop new knowledge, frameworks, and pedagogies with which they can train and equip the next generation of classroom teachers and school administrators. Private religious universities have been a part of the American education landscape since the founding of Harvard University, yet the perception exists that faculty at religious universities are de facto inhibited by the religious commitment of many of these institutions. This study …

Teaching And Learning By Analogy: Psychological Perspectives On The Parables Of Jesus, Kevin B. Zook Ph.D.

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Christian teachers are often encouraged to use Jesus’ teaching strategies as models for their own pedagogy. Jesus frequently utilized analogical comparisons, or parables, to help his learners understand elements of his Gospel message. Although teachers can use analogical models to facilitate comprehension, such models also can sow the seeds of confusion and misconception. Recent advances in cognitive psychology have provided new theoretical frameworks to help us understand how instructional analogies function in the teaching-learning process. The goal of this paper is to analyze Jesus’ analogical teaching from these psychological perspectives, with implications for all teachers who utilize instructional analogies. In …

Students’ Perspective On Intrinsic Motivation To Learn: A Model To Guide Educators, Jane Taylor Wilson Ph.D.

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the collective perspective of what motivates students to exert effort and energy towards learning tasks in a classroom setting. To reach this goal, the researcher utilized a qualitative methodology, the Insider Perspective Approach, to take a deep look inside the classroom experience and examine the broad view of the students’ collective perspective. A model for situational motivation is presented suggesting factors that educators can manipulate to enhance students’ intrinsic motivation to learn: control, competence, active involvement, variety, curiosity, challenge, a sense of belonging, and honored voices. When teachers integrate these constructs …

Teacher Vital Signs: A Two-Country Study Of Teacher Vitality, Delta Cavner Ed.D.

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Defining teacher vitality as the vigor, energy, passion, and joy teachers bring to their classroom, students and colleagues; this article describes an international, comparative, qualitative, phenomenological study of teachers’ lived experiences to determine the elements influencing teacher vitality. This is a two-country, multiple-case study of twenty-one middle and high school teachers who had taught ten to twenty years. In order to serve as a confirmation of the universality of the elements of teacher vitality, the study was not only conducted in two different schools in Idaho, but also was replicated in two different schools in Austria. In each of the …

Letter From The Editor, Christina Belcher

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

As summer leans closer to the start of another school year, I invite you to put your feet up and read Volume 5, Issue 2 (Summer Issue) of the ICCTE e-journal. This publication includes papers from the recent ICCTE conference. The theme of the 2010 ICCTE conference in Longview, Texas was Igniting the Flames of Faith and Learning. Papers submitted probe this theme from different perspectives. In addition, this issue includes papers forthcoming since our last online publication.

Iccte 2010 Conference Review, Scot Headley

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This past May, the Ninth Biennial Conference of the ICCTE took place at LeTourneau University in Longview Texas. About 75 faculty members from a number of colleges and universities gathered to share their research, to fellowship together and to enjoy the hospitality of colleagues. Every other year our group gathers. In the spring of 2012, we will gather at Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area. I am grateful to colleagues who have worked diligently for about 20 years to provide opportunity for Christian professors of education and in related fields to gather for the purpose of sharing our …

Book Review: Smith, J.K.A.: Desiring The Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, And Cultural Formation, Christina Belcher

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

What if education was not first and foremost about what we know, but about what we love? (Smith, 2009, p.18)

This is one of the driving questions that frames Smith’s book; a question worthy of educational reflection. Smith organizes his argument around the ideas of the dichotomy between thinking and doing; work and worship [liturgy]. His argument is that worldview must not be merely cognitive and intellectual, but must include a robust ‘social imaginary’ (flowing from the work of Charles Taylor) that is grounded in the practices of Christian worship. So far so good.

Building A Community Of Shalom: What The Bible Says About Multicultural Education, Heekap Lee

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Multicultural education is a highly controversial topic in which it has been the center of contentions and conflicts as it has evolved for the last couple of decades. Several concerns and problems existed in the field of multicultural education will be addressed in this article. In addition, a new framework of multicultural education, called the shalom model, which is drawn from the Bible is presented, along with the characteristics of the model. The goal of multicultural education, according to this model, is to build a community of shalom, an image that is clearly described in Isaiah 11:6. In order to …

Core Competencies And Christian Education: An Integrative Approach To Education In Marriage And Family Therapy Programs, Thomas V. Frederick Ph.D., Laura L. Steele

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

For educating marriage and family therapy (MFT) students, there has been an increasing emphasis on their ability to demonstrate a series of core competencies as identified by the American Associate for Marriage and Family (AAMFT) (Nelson et al., 2007). This type of therapist education from outcome-based education (OBE) fosters the characteristics or worldview associated with educational institutions and the profession. At the most general level, OBE is education or socialization into the professional MFT worldview. As a corrective to this, there is a need to seek this moral character in a Christian worldview which emphasizes a metanarrative informed by the …

Special Education And Spiritual Formation, David W. Anderson

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Faith-learning integration is a complex and sometimes challenging issue for university faculty, and something which our students have not likely engaged in. Rather than “integration,” emphasis will be on how Christian thought informs educational practice, and contributes to our spiritual formation, igniting flames of faith-learning and helping prepare caring and competent teachers.

Part Ii: Professional Development Activities And Professional Learning Community In The Mid-America Region Of The Association Of Christian Schools International, Linda M. Neuzil

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Current trends in the education literature currently point to school leadership as responsible for the professional growth of the faculty (Fullan, 2010; Reeves, 2006) leading to the desired academic growth of the students. The Christian school community, however, has limited resources compared to those in the public sector. Unfortunately, the literature rarely includes the 400,000 teachers or the school leaders who have chosen to work in private education and their influence on the lives of over 5 million children (Broughman & Swaim, 2006). By examining effective professional development and its relationship to the development of professional learning communities specifically for …

The Role Of Controversial Issues In Moral Education: Approaches And Attitudes Of Christian School Educators, Samuel J. Smith

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This study investigated the approaches and attitudes of Christian school teachers as they addressed controversial issues in moral education. Thirteen teachers from four schools were interviewed extensively. A hermeneutic phenomenological methodology was implemented. Participants conveyed that they attempted to remain pedagogically neutral in matters relating to denominational differences among Christian churches. While acknowledging that indoctrinative techniques may alienate students, teachers chose to indoctrinate selectively, especially in matters critical to the Christian faith. Issues impacting the classrooms included abortion, sex, doctrine, homosexuality, evolution, etc. Teachers rarely chose to remain neutral on controversial issues unless by doing so they sensed that they …