sustain:if:able kiwi

2 book chapters on learning and teaching

Wondering about God together, edited by Les Ball and Peter Bolt has just been published. At 460 pages, it is an extraordinary resource.  In the 2007-2012 period, the Australian Council of Deans of Theology had a research focus on learning and teaching of theology in Australia.

“much of that literature reported on earnest aspiration …. What is particularly heartening about this current volume is the growing report of active implementation and initial attainment, a sense of: ‘This is now actually happening’. (xxii)

Two of the book chapters are mine. So I’m happy.

One chapter  (“Researching the future”) explores the role of research in teaching practice.

Another chapter (“Curiousity and Doubt”) analyses the role of flipped learning in theological innovation.  One of the editor’s Les Ball waxes eloquent, describing this chapter as a

“worthy conclusio to the entire conversation … incisive insights … skillfully demonstrated … warrants close and repeated attention .. as a finale … cogently continue the conversation in pressing the case for ongoing reform towards student-centred curricula.” 

So there we are. That’s me.  Incisive :).

My 2 chapters took shape as 2 keynote presentations I was invited to give in Sydney in April 2017.  Two academic keynotes is a lot of work but I had two deposits I wanted to mine. The first was my 2015 Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching. That had required a 5,000 word submission and I was looking for a way to do “double work” on those words, to use the work done for a panel of judges in another context. That was the basis for the “Curiousity and Doubt” chapter, which includes 6 pages of appendices of my teaching resources (in colour!).

Second, the Award included $5000 to spend on things teaching related. So I asked if I could use that in relation to research assistance, particularly in relation to the chapter on “Researching the future”, in which I wanted to have a literature review of recent outputs on research in teaching practice.  This involved working with a colleague, Rosemary Dewerse and hence the two chapters are co-authored with her.

The book has 26 chapters and is available from Sydney College of Divinity (also Book Depository).