Teaching is the art of equipping students with skills, knowledge, and experiences that will enhance their ability to ethically participate in their communities. My classroom presents an opportunity for students to engage in humanizing conversation about religion in ancient and contemporary life. My pedagogy aims to sow the seed of critical discourse about religion.
As a teacher, I will facilitate the teaching-learning experience by:
1) providing my students with data in an empirical and accessible manner,
- All lecture materials will be well researched and well cited.
- Class resources are presented in a multimedia fashion (lecture, digital media, print media, the arts, etc.).
- I commit to make my scholarly works available in open source publications when possible.
2) prompting them to ask keen questions,
-Students will engage in self-reflection about their own understanding of religion.
-The reasoned critique of established scholarly publications is encouraged.
-Personal and public assumptions about religion will be tested.
3) challenging them to seek informed answers,
-Students must clearly demonstrate how they arrived at their conclusions.
-Classes will work cooperatively to evaluate the strengths and weakness of various approaches in the historical study of religion.
-Students will do their best to locate their answers within existing scholarly and public conversations.
4) and fostering their study skills.
- Students will hone their ability to examine, structure, and present an argument.
- Each student will practice investigating a question, topic, or hunch.
- Students will demonstrate content mastery in a combination of formats, including presentations, tests, and papers.
Together we will model the type of informed, inclusive, and enlightened exchanges on religion that can ameliorate our world.
