About An Apology for Idlers

I am in complete argument with Robert Louis Stevenson in his essay An Apology for Idlers. However, I cannot help wishing he were here today, so that he could tell me how to accomplish the nearly insurmountable task of being a successful idler..

Faith Formation and Bible Stories: A Biblical Framework for Nurturing Faith Formation through the Study of Biblical Narratives

As scripture teachers, we may unintentionally reduce biblical narratives to a values-education program, making them engaging entertainment, self-help stories, cautionary tales or a collection of \u27good\u27 stories. An essential aspect of faith formation involves nurturing the personal love of, knowledge about, and interactive engagement with biblical narratives (Bible stories) on both an intellectual and a relational level, so the following Four H\u27s Biblical Framework (four-phase process) was designed to assist Scripture Teachers as they nurture a student\u27s faith formation through an engaging and interactive 21st century transformational approach to studying biblical narratives

Bible Stories in the Classroom: The Why and the How

Everyone relates to stories. Stories have universal appeal. They connect people, present them with new ideas, motivate them, and challenge their thinking. As Adventist educators, we have an enormous resource of such life-changing and life-challenging stories: the Bible. Using these stories, expressed in song, poetry, drama, biography, and personal accounts, we can lead our students to discover that the Bible is not one single narrative or a novel, but a compilation of many narratives, unified in their shared concern with overarching issues of the cosmic battle between good and evil. This article deals with the why and the how of using Bible stories in the classroom

The Four \u27H\u27 Teaching Strategy: An Interactive, Multisensory Approach to Teaching Bible

This article discusses an interactive multisensory approach to teaching the Bible, called the four h teaching strategy. The four H’s cover the history, head, heart and hand. History and Head knowledge are powerless without a Heart response, and a heart response provides the impetus for Hand(s) to demonstrate and share a personal and committed relationship to Jesus

Exploring Worldviews: A Framework

In an educational environment where multicultural and multi-faith classrooms have become the norm, it is essential that teachers are aware of, and are knowledgeable about contemporary worldviews. This article provides a general framework for exploring a worldview—in terms of defining, analysing, developing, testing and refining it. As part of this process, several contemporary major worldviews—theism, pantheism and naturalism—are examined and compared, before some classroom implications are considered and conclusions drawn

Integration of Faith and Learning: An Incidental or Intentional Approach?

In recent decades the ‘Integration of Faith and Learning’ (IFL) concept and its application have prompted research, dialogue and deliberation amongst SDA academics, researchers and educators (Akers & Moon, 1980a; Korniejczuk, 1994; Nwosu, 1999; Rasi, 2013; Roy, 2001; Taylor, 2012). It is the IFL concept that makes Christian education unique. Yet, despite all the research and information available about IFL, the author has discovered that an ‘Intentional’ or an ‘Incidental’ approach to integrating faith and learning in the Christian classroom is still a topic of discussion and debate among teachers. Therefore, in this article, the author proposes that both ‘Incidental’ and ‘Intentional’ IFL approaches are complementary and indispensable if a balanced and realistic engagement with Christian education is to be experienced by the students. The application of this thesis in the elementary school setting is then discussed and practical suggestions for its implementation outlined and explored

A BaRKing Good Idea

The story is about a therapy dog and his use in an after-school reading improvement program called BaRK (Building Reading Confidence for Kids)

Interactive Age-Specific Strategies for Introducing Beginner Readers to the Bible as an Authentic Text

Research (Barna, 2012; Morris, 2008), points to the noticeable decline in Bible reading and biblical literacy among Christians from all age brackets. This program aims at nurturing a young child’s love and reading of the Bible in an attempt to address the perceived biblical illiteracy. It is postulated that engaging, positive, age-appropriate and interactive experiences with the Bible may be one positive way to address this reported decline. The outlined original biblical literacy program, Bible Reading 4 Beginner Readers (BR4), designed by the writer, has been created, produced and trialled in an attempt to encourage positive biblical literacy development while children are at a very impressionable age. Each of the designated four sequential levels focuses on children aged five and six years and involve a fun way of interacting with and learning to read the Bible. It requires the teaching of early language literacy skills while using the Bible as the authentic text

Can Reading Adventure Packs (RAPS) Complement and Enrich the Literacy Program in Your Classroom?

Children’s personal experience, confidence and success (or otherwise) with books and reading, particularly at the initial stages, is directly related to their attitude towards reading (Wang, 2000). Many of these attitudes are developed prior to school commencement and often are closely linked to early literacy experiences in the home. Economic conditions of the household may determine children’s exposure and access to quality reading materials in the home. Some low-income families find it extremely difficult to resource their children’s early literacy needs. While it appears that most families are aware of the importance of the home literacy environment and the need for reading resources, too many are without books or lack an adult who is willing to read to children. With the realisation that family members can contribute positively to early literacy development, there has been a plethora of programs and initiatives in recent years designed to support and encourage family participation in children’s literacy education. Surprisingly, most current programs assume (often incorrectly) that parents/carers have sufficient available finances to resource the literacy needs of their children