Christian Educators Journal October 2022 Vol. 62 No. 1
Science in the Christian Community Community, Communion, Classrooms Building Thriving Science Laboratory and Classroom Communities Cultivating Space for Christian Practices Could Humility Be the Heart of Our Classroom Communities? Integrating Christian Virtues into the Science Classroom
Christian Educators Journal Vol. 62 No. 1, October 2022 cejonline.com Co-editors Steve Tuit and Abby Zwart cejeditor@gmail.com The Christian Educators Journal (CEJ) encourages letters to the editor in response to articles presented in the CEJ. Letters must be accompanied by the author’s name and email address. The CEJ reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Where a letter addresses issues raised by the author of an article, the CEJ reserves the right to invite the article author to respond to the letter. Subscriptions Klaas Wolterstorff 2474 Westboro Dr NE Grand Rapids, MI 49506 business@cejonline.com Subscription Price (US dollars) US: $25.00 (one year, print) Canada: $30.00 (one year, print) Digital: $25.00 (one year) Beginning September 2021, all subscriptions outside the US and Canada are digital only. Please visit www.cejonline for subscription information. US Postal Information Nonprofit Organization Postage paid in Grand Rapids, MI Permit No. 657 Return postage guaranteed to: Christian Educators Journal 2474 Westboro Dr NE Grand Rapids, MI 49506 Address Correction Requested Canadian Postal Information Registered under Publications Mail Agreement: No. 40022165 at Norwich, ON Return postage guaranteed to: Christian Educators Journal PO Box 39 Norwich, ON N0J 1P0 Indexed in Christian Periodicals Index Copyrighted 2000 CEJ. All rights reserved. Christian Educators Journal (130630) is published quarterly by Christian Educators Journal Association. Scripture All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Statement of Purpose The Christian Educators Journal Association publishes the Journal as a channel of communication for all educators committed to the idea of Christian day school at the elementary, secondary, and college levels. The views expressed are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the association. Reprint Policy We allow free reprinting or photocopying of individual articles that have appeared in our journal, as long as the copied articles are used within the context of schooling and the source is acknowledged. Co-editors Steve Tuit and Abby Zwart Copyeditor Bethany Murphy Design Editor Klaas Wolterstorff Business Manager Klaas Wolterstorff Web Shepherd Heather Altena Board of Trustees Dr. Henry Algera Heather Birch Justin Cook Albert Kok (Chair) Gayle Monsma Ed Noot Jim Rooks Sean Schat Christine Scholma Tricia Stobbe Lynn Swaner Edith Van Der Boom Heather VanDyke Christine Webb Supporting Institutions Calvin University Edvance Christian Schools Association Institute for Christian Studies The King’s University Redeemer University Trinity Christian College Tyndale University Subscribing Organizations Association of Christian Schools International Christian Educators Association Christian Educators of British Columbia Prairie Centre for Christian Education Printed back issues (if available) can be purchased for $7.50 per copy (cost of shipping to be added to total). Some back issues may be available in digital format.
Editorial What Faith Has to Offer Science RACHAEL BAKER
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n my class, we end the semester by reflecting together on what we have learned and what we hope to carry forward. As part of this reflection, one of my students wrote: Being humble has elevated my learning experience because now I get the chance to hear other people’s thoughts and ideas, as well as how they have come to their conclusions.
Humility may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of science, but it comes up frequently when I teach biochemistry. I think that humility, along with other practices like hospitality and gratitude, should be front and center in classrooms. These practices have immense value for helping students engage well in conversations and learn with each other. Discussing these practices also creates opportunities to help students think about how they want to approach future work in areas like the sciences. But in order for students to authentically engage, it is important to convince them that these practices matter for their learning. Today, collaboration is an important part of scientific work, with people who have diverse ideas and experiences from various disciplines working together to solve complex scientific problems. While scientific teams have significant opportunities to address important problems in our society, they also face a myriad of challenges. Doing science in an interdisciplinary setting requires a distinct set of skills. As teachers, we should be thinking about how we prepare our students to work together to solve problems. At this moment in science, when people are interested in understanding how to work together well in teams, we have an exciting and unique opportunity at Christian schools to be an important part of this conversation. In David Smith’s article, we explore the importance of building communities in our classrooms and the impact they have on learning, regardless of discipline. As Amy Wilstermann discusses in her article, Christians—who have been living and working together in community for a long time—have developed and use a variety of practices to foster thriving community. A thriving community, characterized by safety, trust, productivity, and member well-being, can help teams tackle problems together. A practice like humility fosters a thriving community and mitigates the challenges that can come with working together. Telling an accurate story about how scientists solve problems and how Christian practices can contribute creates new space for students to think about the intersections of faith and science. In this framework, faith adds value to the practice of science in rich and important ways. Students can develop a vision of how Christian Educators Journal
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they can carry their whole selves forward in the field of science. Consider the following reflection on humility from another student: The reading about humility resonated with me because I’ve been thinking about how God does not call us to be perfect—in fact, he knows that is impossible for us. I think this perspective is really important to have, because the realization of our imperfection creates room for his grace. I love how this concept of humility can relate both to complex problems in a biological context, and to our Christian faith.
So how do we get students ready for this work? We shape our conversations and learning experiences to bring community and learning together, front and center. We need a thriving community in our classroom, and for that we need to teach students how to build and participate in a thriving community. In my own article, we explore various Christian practices and the ways they can shape our learning processes and spaces. When we are discussing a practice like humility, students often wonder what place they will have when they leave their Christian environment and move out into the working world. We explore ideas like how a genuinely humble person is more confident than a proud person because the confidence of someone with humility is rooted in what is real and what they know to be true about themselves and others. When we engage these Christian practices with students, we are helping them see how the practices they choose and the habits they develop contribute to forming their character. In Julie Yonker’s article, there is a practical example of how this is done in a classroom. Faith Stults’s article describes a curriculum project created by BioLogos that has been used in many Christian schools to help teachers incorporate Christian practices in the science classroom. What excites me most about this project is that students see their faith as a resource that can help them be successful in a scientific field. The practices create space to talk about vocation with students both as what they would like to do and how they can live into being the person God has called them to be in the work that they do. Rachael Baker is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Calvin University. Her scientific research in the highly interdisciplinary rare disease field led her to focus on how to prepare students to be effective collaborators and team members in the classroom and in their future careers.
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Community, Communion, Classrooms DAVID I. SMITH
Missing Community Years ago, when I first began teaching at a Christian university, I asked a student at the start of a class to help me distribute a pile of quizzes that I needed to return. She passed out several before pausing and then resorting to standing and calling out names to identify the remaining recipients. I was a little taken aback. It was a beginner-level language class with lots of speaking practice, and I had been calling on students by name multiple times each day. It was several weeks into the semester. Yet this student appeared not to know the names of many of the other class participants. Apparently, knowing who else was there was not considered necessary to successful participation. There was no doubt a larger culture at work here, but I had to acknowledge that it also said something about the culture created in the class that I was teaching. I did this. The following semester, a student who had been in that class asked me to mentor him. We began to meet weekly to discuss a range of topics. One day I allowed myself a little rant. “I had not taught full-time at a Christian institution before coming here,” I told him, “so I did not know exactly what to expect. But I am getting the impression that the general ethos among students is that each is here to get their learning and their grade from the instructor, and whether the person sitting two seats away from them lives or dies is none of their business. Other people are the teacher’s job. And I am wondering how that can possibly be Christian. Am I my brother’s keeper? Love your neighbor as yourself? All of the ‘one another’ stuff? It seems wrong.” What stayed with me from that conversation was the student’s response. He was a deeply thoughtful person with an articulate and passionate commitment to his faith. He had been through Christian elementary, middle, and secondary school and had spent time at two prominent Christian universities. Yet the idea that part of his discipleship included taking some personal responsibility for the academic wellbeing of the people sitting around him in class was an exciting new vista. He was animated with possibilities. I thought: how could he get through that much Christian education and this still seem new? Of course, a deeply individualistic surrounding culture is in play, but it also helps if seating arrangements in his classrooms were rows of individual, forward-facing chairs; if assignments were always solo; if grading was always individual; if attending only to the teacher’s words was rewarded; if his considerable academic success never actually depended on anyone but the teacher. We did this. This was one of several experiences that started me thinking about the nature of the temporary community that is built during a course of Christian Educators Journal
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What connections and responsibilities do we have to one another as we learn, and how do they become part of the planning, teaching, and learning process?
instruction. What connections and responsibilities do we have to one another as we learn, and how do they become part of the planning, teaching, and learning process? Could I do something that would lead students closer to the “one anothers” while remaining focused on teaching my discipline? Years later, I was in a conversation about planning for online courses early in the pandemic. It was that moment of parachute-deprived freefall into Zoom, and a group of faculty were brainstorming ways to make our first stab at large-scale online instruction somewhere close to palatable for all involved. Someone spoke up in favor of building a sense of community and suggested reserving a discussion forum where students could post personal pictures and share a little about themselves. This is by no means a bad idea, and I don’t think my colleague intended it as a comprehensive account of classroom community, but it made me pause. It made me wonder what we mean when we say “community.”
Confessing Community The history of Christian theology includes quite a lot of reflection on the nature of Christian community. In fact, it is a recurring theme in the major creeds and confessions. The Westminster Confession of Faith (chap. 26) puts it this way: All saints that are united to Jesus Christ their head, by His Spirit and by faith, have fellowship with Him in His graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory: and, being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other’s gifts and graces, and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man. Saints, by profession, are bound to maintain an holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God, and in performing such other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification; as also in relieving each other in outward things, according to their several abilities and necessities.
Our commitment to one another does not arise because we share the same politics or musical tastes or ethnicity or neighborhood or nationality or sporting allegiances.
Several points that have been emphasized in various classic theological writings are worth noting here. Community (“fellowship,” “communion”) is rooted in Christ, not in preference. Our commitment to one another does not arise because we share the same politics or musical tastes or ethnicity or neighborhood or nationality or sporting allegiances. It does not arise because we would have chosen one another. It arises from God’s choice to unite us in Christ. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued much later, if we confuse Christian community with the cozy feeling of being with people we like, we will quickly become disappointed with the actual people with whom we have been placed in fellowship by God’s choice. They will fall short of our dream of unfractured belonging, they will spoil our idyll, and we will become accusers of others (Bonhoeffer 35–38). When the Westminster Confession of Faith (chap. 26) speaks of fellowship, the focus is not on feelings, but on responsibilities and practices—we are “obliged” to the “performance of duties” that amount to whatever contributes to the good of others. This is not restricted to religious behavior. Yes, it includes “worship” and “spiritual services” (the things that modern Christian talk tends to have in mind when 6
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referring to “fellowship”). But it also includes “relieving each other in outward things,” whether those things are “public or private.” Community here means (i) an acceptance that we belong by receiving grace, and (ii) an obligation to work out that belonging in intentional, practical, real-world acts of service aimed at one another’s overall wellbeing. Community is about embodied actions and mutual support in all life contexts, not just good company and church meetings. I don’t mean to gloss over the real differences between the nature of the church community and the nature of a school class, but I want to focus here on some connections. Love of neighbor applies to the classroom as much as to the sanctuary. Classrooms include public and private actions, and opportunities to build one another up both in our spirits and in terms of our practical needs—in our ability to thrive. What if classroom community is not primarily about whether we can generate a feeling of camaraderie and a warm glow at being together, or whether we get to share our pet pictures, even if those things can have their own role and importance? What if classroom community is about investing in practices that habituate us to seeking one another’s good rather than primarily our own individual success?
Practicing Community These questions usher us quite quickly toward the limitations of verbal confession. I love the idea of a classroom where we have “communion in each other’s gifts and graces.” But passages such as the one quoted above are not meant to just give us beautiful words. They are supposed to describe how we go about life. They highlight how we fall short and invite us to growing obedience. A few years ago, I had a conversation with a student about how one of her classes had begun that semester. She described how the instructor had talked on the first day about how the class was a Christian learning community, and that meant that each person was valuable, each had gifts to bring, and so it was important to attend class every day because each person belonged. She told me that she had found this inspiring. Classes more often began with the syllabus and due dates and course bureaucracy. Starting off by talking about community was different, striking. She paused. Then she commented that it had taken her a few weeks to conclude that what had been said at the beginning was not really true. The way the class was taught (mostly lectures, tests that required repeating what the teacher said) made it largely irrelevant whether she was physically present or not. In the end the community talk was just beautiful words (Smith 71). Perfect wholeness is not going to arrive next term through some curriculum reform. All of us live all the time with gaps between what we profess and what we practice. Yet when the gap becomes particularly noticeable, then our use of Christian words in public can lead to cynicism. The words are not really true as a description of what is happening. If community is more about practices than feelings, then falling short is not about our failure to be friends. It has more to do with choices made about how to teach. I cannot claim to have solved this in my own teaching. I have been trying Christian Educators Journal
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Community is about embodied actions and mutual support in all life contexts, not just good company and church meetings.
Cultivating Space for Christian Practices in our Science Classrooms RACHAEL BAKER
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If we want students to understand scientific practice, our classes and labs should include learning activities where students depend on each other for success in solving problems.
ur shared imagination of classroom science is created by the images, words, texts, and activities in which the class participates. For example, textbooks often use beautifully rendered, polished images. These images make what we know seem comprehensive and static. They do not always create natural space for discussion of scientific models and how they change over time. Similarly, the way textbooks often present scientists crafts a narrative of an individual following a clear path to discovery. These and other elements of our spaces and pedagogical practices focus our attention on the individualistic aspects of science. But in reality, solving scientific problems requires teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration (Cooke 7). To prepare students, we should think carefully about how we describe science and the work of scientists. The story about science into which we invite students can impact students’ beliefs about whether they can be successful scientists and what value they bring to science. What if we designed our classrooms to cultivate in students the skills and practices needed to tackle scientific problems as a team? If we want students to understand scientific practice, our classes and labs should include learning activities where students depend on each other for success in solving problems. Such activities require students to draw on disciplinary knowledge but also use that knowledge in a context where they must navigate solving problems with others. Solving problems together can increase students’ abilities to articulate their own thinking, recognize gaps in their knowledge, and increase their openness to learning (Eberlein et al. 263). However, if success requires working together, we should also prepare students for the challenges that come with working in teams and equip them to participate effectively. As we explored more deeply in the previous article in this issue, a focus on building a thriving community can help to overcome the challenges that can inhibit the productivity of teams and their ability to solve problems. Christian practices can become a bridge into discussing interdisciplinary team environments, as well as deepening students’ understanding of how faith can shape their vocation in science and interdisciplinary team settings. The Christian practices my colleague Amy Wilstermann and I engage with students include both individual and communal practices. Communal practices like hospitality, commitment, and celebration build and strengthen community life when they are lived out together (McLaren 100). Individual practices like humility, silence, rest, and gratitude shape character and can help prepare an individual to engage with others in communal practices that lead to a thriving community. Experiencing a Christian practice is a powerful way to explore the effect it has on the shared work of learning together and solving complex problems. 16
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In our classrooms and laboratories, we share why a practice is important, then take time to live it together before discussing the effect of the practice on learning, teamwork, and belonging. Many of the practices carry risks for participants because they require vulnerability. Committing as a class to trying things together creates a safe shared space for exploration. Choosing practices that help students thrive in the classroom or lab also creates the incentive for trying the practice. Therefore, it is important to be explicit about how the practice fits in the classroom and what it contributes to learning. This allows students to understand why they are engaging with the practice, reflect on the impact it has on their experience, and consider how and why they may want to continue it in the future. In a teaching setting that employs active learning pedagogies or group work, using Christian practices can improve learning. Students collaborate and participate more effectively because the pedagogical practices and Christian practices align to reinforce the course goal of working through problems like a scientist (Smith 72). In the following sections, we explore some of the practices that contribute to thriving teams and the ways they shape learning experiences.
Fostering Hospitality and Belonging through the Practice of Silence For our students, we define the practice of silence as freeing oneself from the addiction to distraction and noise to be present and attentive to what is at hand.* When students learn about silence, they learn about why it is important to remove distractions and how that contributes to being able to listen well to others. After an assessment of their own comfort with various elements of silence and listening, students practice silence through intentional choices to set aside distractions or listen to and understand someone else in the classroom. In reflections after practicing together, we explore how silence supports the communal practice of hospitality and how, together, these two practices contribute to a thriving community by enabling us to better listen to, understand, and value the ideas of others. One student wrote concerning this practice: I managed to go out of my way and talk to someone new in our biochemistry class. We talked outside the classroom for almost one hour (yes, one hour—I was so surprised that our first real conversation lasted that long). After that first conversation, I have totally different perceptions about her. Before talking to her, I already held a couple of perceptions toward her based on the way she was interacting in class, as well as her look. From the conversation with her, I learned that I should be more mindful of my perceptions toward people, since perceptions can never be close to the beauty that person’s personality may hold. It is easy to talk about institutional ways to treat * Our Christian practices definitions throughout this article are adapted from Adele Calhoun’s definitions. We remove or broaden some of the religious language in the definitions to make them more directly applicable to the learning community in the classroom. Christian Educators Journal
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When students learn about silence, they learn about why it is important to remove distractions and how that contributes to being able to listen well to others.
students to participate in building a thriving community of learning, which can shape their vision for who can be a scientist and what it looks like to practice science. The practices also point to distinct ways in which faith is a resource that makes us better team members and better scientists. We have given students a tangible example of how our faith gives us tools that let us live more fully into being the people God has called us to be. This is a unique avenue to help students envision what it would be like to bring their whole selves, with their values and unique strengths, to work in the sciences.
Works Cited Calhoun, Adele. Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform Us. InterVarsity, 2015. Cooke, Nancy J., and Hilton, Margaret L., eds. Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science. National Academies Press, 2015. Eberlein, Thomas, et al. “Pedagogies of Engagement in Science: A Comparison of PBL, POGIL, and PLTL.” Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, vol. 36, August (2008): 262–73. Freeman, Tierra, et al. “Sense of Belonging in College Freshmen at the Classroom and Campus Levels.” The Journal of Experimental Education, vol. 75, no. 3, Spring (2007): 203–20. McLaren, Brian. Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices. Thomas Nelson, 2008. Smith, David. On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom. Eerdmans, 2018. Rachael Baker is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Calvin University. Her scientific research in the highly interdisciplinary rare disease field led her to focus on how to prepare students to be effective collaborators and team members in the classroom and in their future careers.
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Could Humility Be the Heart of Our Classroom Communities? JULIE E. YONKER
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f we desire humility to be an important value in our life together in community, especially in the classroom or science labs, we need to understand what we mean by humility. Within the Christian context, humility is often one of those “Christian-ese” words, like “grace” or “righteousness” or “sanctification.” We sort of know what it means, but we can be hard pressed to explain it to someone who doesn’t speak the “Christian language.” For us, for our students, and for others to deeply value the practice of humility, we need to be explicit about what humility is and is not. Let’s start at the beginning: the Bible. Humility is a frequent theme in the New Testament, second only to the number of teachings on love (Bridges 3). Although there is an entire chapter in 1 Corinthians 13 devoted to helpful examples about love, there are no such chapters devoted to humility. Humility is encouraged within relationship with God and others; therefore, humility is important within our community. We learn from the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1–12) and Paul’s description of the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22–24) about the importance of connecting our lives of dependence on God with others through thriving relationships. In Romans 12, we are challenged to approach God with respect tinged with awe. We are also challenged to offer gratitude to God for who he is. Fulfilling these challenges results in an outcome of godly appreciation exemplified through humble relationships with others as God’s image bearers. Humility is not humiliation, shame, or embarrassment. These negative perspectives on humility are a distortion of our self-worth as God’s image bearers (Roberts 101). Given this very brief synopsis of why humility is important to God, to relationships, and to us, we understand more from a Christian perspective, yet we still require a precise definition. As a psychologist, I can definitively state that the field of psychology is a discipline that adores definitions. Within the subfield of positive psychology—the study of contributors to human thriving—research has focused on some of the key features of humility, namely, an accurate estimation of one’s abilities and appreciation of the attributes and abilities of others (Peterson and Seligman). Therefore, the definition of humility that we land on is this: an accurate intra- and interpersonal awareness and appreciation of who we are in relation to others. If you dissect this definition, you will see that there are other relational Christian practices embedded in humility’s definition, specifically, empathy and gratitude. When we practice empathy, we take the perspective of another person. When we practice gratitude, we recognize our limitations and our indebtedness to others. Therefore, humility, encompassing empathy and gratitude, has the power to enrich our relationships with others and thereby Christian Educators Journal
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Humility is an accurate intra- and interpersonal awareness and appreciation of who we are in relation to others.