Teaching As Leadership

Catalog description

Teaching is an art. It is elusive and challenging artistic work yet when it is done well, persons of all ages grow and are inspired. Teaching is also a skill. There are particular methods and skills that are essential to good teaching and when these methods and skills are employed well, they dramatically increase the probability that learners will grow in a rich and vibrant and sustaining faith. Students in this course will explore together both the skills and the art of teaching. Dependent as always upon the Holy Spirit, we will explore what makes for good teaching through practicing and honing such skills and methods as: creating the best environment for teaching and learning, applying the use of objectives that meet the needs of the learner while still challenging them, discerning what motivates learners, applying the method of discussion as a key tool in instruction, and how to help learners retain and live what they have learned. The culminating activity of the course will require that each student demonstrate and evaluate their own teaching skills and methods and identify ways to grow as leaders who are adept at the art of teaching. [Auditors with faculty permission]