David Morgan’s Weblog

L Dee Fink’s, Creating Significant Learning Experiences, goes on in chapter 2 to consider a way to explain what is needed in a signifcant learning experience.  I deliberately use the phrase “a way” as Fink’s work is based on consultancy and research while trying to make the taxonomy he describes true across multiple disciplines.  The approach is integrative trying to bring in views of students, faculty and accrediting bodies.

Fink suggests 6 areas needed for Significant Learning.  These areas are:

• Foundational Knowledge
• Application
• Integration
• Human Dimension
• Caring
• Learning How to Learn

I find this list incredibly helpful as most times accrediting bodies want to know what Foundational Knowledge will be taught in a unit but are not concerned with how this connects to learning other than through assessment.  I know in Hermeneutics I want the students to care that a sermon or exposition is Biblical.  I do not think this can be a learning outcome that is measurable but is important.  It is not the hidden curriculum as sometimes discussed but making the values explicit in a unit.  I really like this idea.

Now I would usually relate this sort of post back to some unit that I teach.  This series has started considering the role of discipleship in the church and also when I look at blog posts like Steve’s and the Biblical text I am starting to think of new ways, that really are old, we need to do discipleship.

So imagine a program for Christians about subject S, what is the foundational knowledge for S?  How do they apply S?  Where does S relate to other areas of the Christian life?  What ways do other people affect S?  What ways do they describe S to others?  What ways should a Christian be interested in S? and what are good ongoing resources to learn more about S?

I am particularly impacted by the idea of “What ways do they describe S to others?”  We recently received a local paper that has a churches double page.  Reading over the page I only think 1 of the 5 or 6 churches would appeal to a non-Christian.  A service described as “soaking in God’s presence” I don’t think will cut it with most non-Christians.

Next semester I will be teaching two units and starting now I want to think of how these can be significant learning experiences.

Well it was my wonderful wife’s 4th mothers day.  I know those who count think it should be her 5th but due to the location of the birth one of these was missed out so I am aware of how many she has had.

These facts mean it was a weekend where I was more willing than usual to do what my wonderful wife wanted.  So we went to Captain Americas on Friday.  Now my super son was not being so super so the evening did not go as well as planned but it was nice anyway.  This is another place to add to the list of “We’ll go back there when its just the two of us.”  Hopefully they will also have gluten-free rolls again but that is another issue.

Saturday we all went to the markets so my wonderful wife could see what fruit was now in season.  My super son pushed my trolley around.  As well as he ran over a few feet.  When we got home I installed our hook rack for the spoons and other hanging things we needed in the kitchen.  I then tried to check if what I had purchased to secure the knife rack to the wall would.  We have two computers and the little computer had a fit of some sort and would not attach itself to the network.  In the end all was working and I am still not sure I could use the connectors I had.

Sunday dawned, and my super son made his presence known.  We gave his mother, my wonderful wife, her presents and she was pleased.  We went up to Sassafras for breakfast and what was news was they now have a gluten-free menu.  My wonderful wife was overwhelmed with choices.  We meandered through the mountains and eventually came home for naps and lite lunches.  In the evening me decided to hit Cafe Fraus for chocolate, galettes and crepes.  This was a longer drive than I expected but good for me as I now have better ideas of where some things are.  This is also added to the list of “We’ll go back to when its just the two of us.”

While we were at Cafe Fraus one of the funniest thing did happen though.  I was hit on; well more accurately I was hit on on behalf of my son.  One of the people who served us said, “Do you ever need a baby sitter?”  I had to explain we lived a long way away and it would not work.  Darn. I think my super son yet again worked his magic and charmed his way into the heart of someone.

We recently had the extended family over and it in the process it reminded me of a conversation and then enactment of said conversation with my supervisor. The conversation went something like:

Supervisor: The rules of hospitality are quite complex.

Me: ???

Supervisor: Well if you are invited to someone’s place for a meal you usually bring a gift, what sort of gift do you bring, chocolates, or flowers indicate different things. What do you do?

Now this of course is not that profound a conversation until you realise that when I invited my supervisor to dinner we had to play it out again.

And then of course we recently had the family over. This is always an interesting process. We have hosted the family in at least 3 other locations than our present one and depending on who is there determines the loudness or quietness of the event. In other words each time we do it there is a noticeable difference and to my thinking it gets back down to what my supervisor said, “The rules of hospitality are quite complex”.

Each person who comes to an event has a different expectation of what their role is. Some people just sit, others wander around, some help in the kitchen or in the cleaning up, others leave everything to their hosts including feeding them the peeled grapes, just joking about the feeding part. The rules are complex. The hosts may expect a quiet night, the guests may expect a noisy one. The hosts may have lots of food or under cater, the guests may not have an appetite or may be ravenous because they missed lunch. The rules are quite complex.

We were glad we had everyone over and will do so again.

So how hospitable are you and what rules of hospitality do you expect people to follow?

I guessed well so far. Sunday was a good sermon on gluttony. My wonderful wife had a great time looking at a visitor who started off not interested and grew progressively more interested. Good work Dan. So back to the deadly sins for me.

While preparing last week for a Church History class I came across Zwingli’s 67 articles. Jim West has a copy here. One of the articles, number 49 amused me:

49- I know of no greater offence than to forbid priests to have wives, yet allow them to engage prostitutes.

For centuries the church has tried to figure out how to deal with society’s proclivity to sexual activity, especially outside publicly witnessed committed monogamous legally recognised heterosexual relationships. This is sometimes called marriage but some people I think consider marriage in a lesser form so I wanted to write the long fashioned sense in which I was thinking.

At the same time there has been an greater acceptance in the liberal end of the spectrum of church to accept relationships outside the above definition because we all suffer from lust and it is better to be committed than lusting. In Venice, I was told when my wonderful wife and I were there, they had set up brothels to decrease sodomy. Well I suppose that is one solution but not one I would recommend. Neither as we can see above is celibacy without marriage.

I do not want to consider why lust is a problem, we have enough examples above of the outcomes but what are some solutions. While marriage may seem to be an answer I think that is like saying a drainage system stops floods. Sure a drainage system takes away lots of rain but if the system is still overloaded a flood still happens. So it is with lust, a marriage may give a legitimate outlet to express sexual activity but it does not guarantee that attitudes and ideas have been dealt with.

So what is the response to lust? It is again not self-control but purity. This is a revelation to me as I have just written this and had not successfully thought before as to how I would answer this. Lust comes from what we observe and dwell on, to remain out of the control of lust means we have to make decisions to be pure, in what we see hear, listen, talk and think about. A great discussion of this can be found in the comments to Letting Porn Win. Yet in the end we have to decide which we let win, lust or purity, flesh or God.

So what is your purity like?

One of the most difficult things lecturers need to learn is that teaching is not learning. Just because I taught you something does not mean you as a student have learnt it. Actually this is probably a good lesson for all of life but that is another days topic. L Dee Fink’s Creating Significant Learning Experiences challenges teaching staff on how to create or design a college course that encourages learning.

In chapter 1 Fink sets the scene using evidence of the poor learning that is occurring in many US and UK colleges. It also states that lecturing is not a good way to encourage learning. This generates concerns for faculty, students and the public.

The solution according to Fink is to create significant learning experiences. These experiences have students engaged in the process and classes are high energy. [Ok at this point I am convicted for tomorrow's lecture and have just changed some things]. The impact is significant and lasting change. I think many preachers need to hear this as well.

This moves to an understanding of new kinds of learning - Industrial age to Information age paradigms are examined. I am particularly intrigued by this as I think of the history of preaching and wonder how long it took Peter or Stephen to preach in the New Testament. Maybe less is more. From this Fink gives an overview of the new forms of teaching.

In the end the proposal is to redesign - sounds familiar eh? The way to fix things is to do it differently.

Now I could put on either hat here the academic or the ecclesiologist. Both groups academics and church leaders are being told the same thing - we must change - but it does not mean throwing out the baby with the bathwater. It means making conscious decisions as to what we accept or reject.

I am going to quote and then paraphrase a comment that reflects where I am at in reading this:

We won’t meet the needs for more and better higher education until professors become designers of learning experiences and not teachers. (Spence in Fink 2003:1)

And my paraphrase:

We won’t meet the needs for more and better discipleship until church leaders become designers of discipling experiences and not preachers.

So can we improve?

p.s. My original paraphrase has been changed I orignally said “learning experiences” on reflection I really do want to say “discipling experiences”

Well it has been a bit of an odd weekend. Last week I tried to cancel an online order with a “reputable online company” which has been a nightmare. The order was for a wireless adaptor for the computer at home and some ink for the printer. This has bearings on what happened over the weekend.

On Saturday I went to the markets like usual but deliberately a little later so who I would consider dodgy brothers computer supplies would have set up shop. Well after getting all the fruit and vegetables and the bread I went to said stall. I asked for printer ink and they had it this time. I then said you wouldn’t have a USB wireless adaptor would you? The guy shows me a package which looked like the right thing and I purchased it. Total $58 - total online $118. Now i admit the stuff is not exactly the same but it all works.

I went home and then took my super son out as my wonderful wife was not feeling wonderful. We went to Windsor as it was Free Comic Book Day and I wanted to purchase an expensive comic (total cost $1). We parked where we usually park and then went to the comic shop. My super son loved seeing Batman. We then decided to try and find some lunch. We stopped at one (Korean?) bakery cafe and had toasted sandwiches. This was an interesting experience as I am not sure I have seen a cafe burn half a toasted sandwich before. Anyway we had that and my super son asked for more. We were about to order when the gentleman in front of us asked for a juice - from a juice extractor - the noise upset my sensitive sons ears and we went out of there. The next place did not toast sandwiches but it did give him one cheap. We sat and ate that and then he wanted a third. I compromised and purchased a choc chip cookie as he also wanted a biscuit and all was well. I’d rank the bakeries in reverse order the first was the worst and the last best. Total cost of outing $13.20 including comic excluding petrol. Plus a couple of “I love you daddys for taking em to the city” which are priceless.

Somewhere along the way I hooked up the wireless connector and could not get it working. And could not and could not. I got desperate and thought - maybe if I just change a password. Lo and behold no more cables through the house. In the afternoon we got to church as a family and then came home and had dinner for which my wonderful wife went to bed as she was still not well.

Sunday dawned and I sort of expected a repeat of the day before. Instead we all went to Frankston around 10am had a walk on the boardwalk and the beach and saw heaps of starfish. I have never seen them like this before washed up on a beach so it was an exciting experience for me and my son. We had lunch at Roxy’s Cafe in Karringal and will be back there as they actually understand what is Gluten Free for my wife. Mind you seeing a sign that the Taxi Stand is a security stand from 00am to 5:30am is a bit of a worry.

We had a quite afternoon at home, I did some lecture prep while my super son played and watched some television. In the evening for the first time in ages my wonderful wife and I watched a movie I had borrowed from the library, Brassed Off, with a very young Ewan McGregor. While not the most brilliant screenplay, consider:

Gloria: Do you want to come up for coffee?
Andy: I don’t drink coffeee
Gloria: I don’t have any.

it still worked.

It was a good movie which I wanted to see having lived near areas hit by Maggie Thatcher shutting down the mines. One line will stay with me for a long time where one of the characters is in a church and shouts about and to God that some people have died but Maggie Thatcher is still alive where is the justice in that. A powerful scene about injustice.

Overall a good weekend with lots done but more to do around the house.

In the third of the Capitol crime series, Capitol Conspiracy, William Bernhardt brings together a series of interesting ideas.  Finally his hero, Ben Kincaid, and his offsider Christina are married but not all is pleasant for these honeymooners.  On top of this then is a number of deaths that Ben is forced to be involved with which separates him from Christina.  In the end it all resolves happily with a few twists that I did not see coming especially as a conspiracy is involved.

There are some interesting questions that this novel raises.  First Ben has to decide whether he is a liberal who has been mugged, thus having him side with the conservative Republican party.  Second what do you do if you make a decision your partner disagrees with? Ben sleeps in his office.  Finally there is the question of at what cost should a nation be protected from enemies - especially if it means giving up your liberties or what defines you as a nation.

I think I have said before that it seems to me Bernhardt writes as a liberal while Grisham with sometimes the same style writes as a conservative.  In this novel the issue of partisanship slips into the background to face an almost Tom Clancy-ish issue.  How do you respond when your government - both parties eventually - are attacked?

This seems to me to be an interesting take on government and one I’d like to see more novels consider as at least one Christian approach to government is not to see them as always right in every action but to have some suspicion or idea of evil in many acts.  This novel shows ways to see people being manipulated for all the “right reasons”.

While I liked the novel, partially because I have been reading the series for a while I will leave it to you to decide if you want to think through the issues of how to handle a conspiracy.

Well life is getting busier at work and while I want to post daily it seems some weeks this will not happen.

Last week was ANZAC day.  This is a public holiday and made a long weekend for us this year.  Now I have very mixed reactions to ANZAC day as it is a glorification of the sacrifices of war, particularly wars that did not need to be had and battles that should not have been fought the way they were.  At the same time I recognise that those sacrifices have made us the nation that we are and defined us in ways we are not real certain of.  I am opposed to war on the grounds of the gospel and need to work out my feelings on ANZAC day further.

Over the weekend I also had mixed reactions to a couple of gifts I have received.  A couple of years ago my wonderful wife bought a hoodie for me.  I was delighted as I had wanted its particular design on a piece of clothing for years.  I wore it a little and then went to a warm climate and thought it was never to be used again.  This weekend showed me otherwise with not only the warmth being provided but also the hood keeping me dry.

As my super son had a family birthday party I received a few more gifts for my birthday.  Getting everyone out again one week apart just seems so unfair and my son needs to have his birthday celebrated.  Anyway someone came in with a gift which looked to me like something I had asked for but was not quite what I wanted as I did not think it would work due to technical limitations.  I was wrong.  I read the manual and realised while I had some fiddling around to do it would do exactly what I asked for.  I had thanked the recipient but now I am thankful.

Overall I am learning to be thankful for what I am given but realising I do not always value those things up front.  I need to be more trusting of what I am given knowing that in the end the people have my concerns at heart and that it will work out.

So what have you received lately that may end up being a blessing?

Ok I’ll admit I was stuck on what I would write this week. That was until I saw a sneak reference in NT scholar Mark Goodacre’s blog about Doctor Who. So nice to see another blogger and academic with the same taste as me. Unfortunately he tells me the new series of Doctor Who has started in the UK and I have no idea how long I’ll have to wait out here before the ABC shows it.

Anyway the good thing about Mark’s blog other than the academic quality of all he does is that he shows that academic blogs can function in multiple ways. This is a great encouragement to me as I see more reading of this blog happening. I am never sure of how to keep my voice and my tone right. Mark shows me I can keep it professional and personal. Mind you he seems to keep these in separate sections which I don’t do yet.

I expect looking around I will need to update my blogroll soon as there are a few changes I should make.

Also I keep intending to do an indepth review of Fink’s, Creating Significant Learning Experiences so if I say this I will then start next Monday.

Enjoy your reading.

p.s. It turns out one of the photos I had linked to previously was under terms more limited than I am used to and the author asked for a cease and desist.  I have done so and will need to be more careful in future.  Ah just when I thought I was getting pretty too :(  No more photos except my own I guess.

It has been a long weekend. My super son has been sick and passed on a milder version of what he has to me making it feel like a very loooong weekebd. In the midst of this sickness tomorrow is his birthday. The plan for this weekend was cleaning up around the house on Friday, party and church on Saturday and a trip to the City for lunch on Sunday. Monday is a whole different kettle of fish due to it being the day!

So it all went a bit pear shaped. Friday we did clean up. Saturday we did have the party but my super son was tired after that. Very tired. Though his temperature was gone and all he had was a runny nose. We had a quiet night at home and I watched a DVD I borrowed from the library on Thursday night.

Sunday came around and my super son had a streaming nose and weepy eyes and wanted to go on a tram and a train to the city. Could we make it? We decided inflicting my sick son on children’s workers at church would be a bad idea. We decided to head for a little car park near the city and do a loop of train and tram.

Along the way we stopped at Caffe Si and had a bite to eat for an early lunch. We will be back some time.

We did make it to the city and alighted from the train at Melbourne Central.

For my super son this meant going up and down lifts, chatting to some people and then his parents deciding to bring him home. He has slept ever since.