Stepping stones notes Chapter 1-3

Chapter one out line

preliminary questions:

Can curriculum be neutral?

Who makes curriculum decisions?

What role does one's worldview play in

making curriculum decisions?

What does it mean to teach for commitment?

What are the implications for?

teaching in Christian schools? in public

schools?

How do we define curriculum? The author defines curriculum as meant the length of time
needed to complete a program of learning (page 11).

Every education has a certain curriculum that they follow. This chapter analyzes the
different world views and how the Bible can be used to blend in with these world view. (page 3)

Curriculum ought to have a lot of options and these are not to have one side that they
favor this is because students in various places are different. (page 3)

Ought to be given a chance to explore and can construct their own and the teacher is only
to guide the students. Learning would be too complex if students were to investigate everything
fully. (Page 2). This is because students need you as a teacher to guide them through.

Teachers must present various position fairly and leave students free to reach their own
conclusions. (page 2). This should be done because it forces students to make sense of what you
are trying to teach but the age is very important as we try to give these students to teach.

instructors will always go beyond teaching fact, they shirk their duty if they do not give
their own views and persuasion (page 4). This should happen because our work as teachers is to
show our students the truth and our truth does not only mean to teach the class content but, to go
beyond and force them to think and find out the truth.

For any teacher to be able to have an effective curriculum they need to work with other
teachers and discus at the school level because we know that teachers and roles they are not
supposed to make curriculum.
 The book tells of the different players that impact the curriculum and these include the
following

The Government departments of education

Textbook publishers
Professional association
School systems and school
Teachers
Students
NB; They are all found on page 4

curriculum must be directly related to the needs, interests, experiences, and capabilities of the
students. In the end, students must personally understand, interpret, and respond to knowledge.
(page 6)

Teachers who are reflective practitioners use their best judgment to do what is best for
their students. (Page 6). This helps the student to benefit from the material they are learning
from school.

My vision of good teaching includes nurturing the moral and spiritual development, the
civic engagement, and the socialization of students ... (page 6)

Everything that is done in schools, and in preparation for school activity, is already
infused with the spiritual. All activity has moral consequences. . .. (Page 7)

But critical theorist Kanpol is right that a redemptive pedagogy and a curriculum of
compassion obey the teachings of Jesus. (page 8)

If Christians in education talc seriously the teachings of Jesus, they will, like the critical
theorists, teach with and for commitment. Their belief in biblical love and justice will affect how
they plan and implement their programs (Page 10)

Christian teachers are more than facilitators. They are guides. They develop their
teaching skills reflectively within a well-defined philosophical and religious framework. (Page
13)

Reflection
As I read chapter one I came to realize that its not fully me the teacher who has to make the
curriculum but, it but I as well have a part to play as a teacher and my responsibility as a teacher
is to determine how am going to teach it and my other responsibility is to talk on behalf of the
students so that at the school level the curriculum the students are benefiting from it. But as a
Christian teacher to be I came to notice that its beyond being a teacher of religion indirectly
depending on the school that I will end up teaching that am supposed to reflect Christ in my
teaching and let students know that everything starts with God. As a Christian teacher, my
obligation is to love these students that God would have entrusted me with, pray for them and
show them the truth.

Stepping stone Chapter 2

Teachers have specific, measurable objectives for each lesson. They give solvents
frequent positive reinforcement. They use prespecified standards to assess the students
achievement. (page 24)
Through open -ended investigations, students construct their own knowledge. Teachers are
facilitators who suggest activities and strategies. (page 24)

The curriculum is project oriented, with students often working in small groups. They
are encouraged to interpret what they learn so that they develop their personal sense of meaning,
direction, and values. (Page 24)

The purpose of a curriculum orientation is to provide a school, a department, or teacher

with a clear sense of direction for an educational program. (page 25)

The purpose of a curriculum orientation is to provide a school, a department, or a

teacher with a clear sense of direction for an educational program. (page 26)

Teachers tell students and parents how well students achieve on tests. They report
whether students have reached defined academic standards. They also report how well they do in
comparison with their classmates. (page 25)

The basic feature of humans is their ability to reason. The main thrust of education
therefore becomes cultivating reason. Through reason students can discover and explore.
knowledge including truth, beauty, goodness, and justice. (page 26)

Knowledge is not just intellectual, but it is also an affair of the heart, something that
traditionalists often overlook. (page 27)

The key to efficient learning is carefully structured inquiry based on observations and guided
thought. For example, a detailed set of sequential questions guides students to observe the
characteristics of plants. (page 28)

A process/mastery orientation emphasizes efficiency in planning and implementing

teaching and learning. (page 30) This means that for us as teachers to have an effective lesson
we need to have done thorough planning but we also supposed to be learning from each lesson
that we have taught in the past.

A worldview is a set of basic beliefs and assumptions about life and reality. It answers
what a person believes about the nature and purpose of life in our world. It provides meaning,
and it guides and directs the thought and action of its adherents. (page 28) In other words world
views for us as teachers its viewing the thoughts about different topics or using the world glasses
to see.

Teachers in traditional schools carefully sequence, present, and transmit knowledge to

their students. Students are expected to store knowledge and use it as a fund for rational thought.
They will have few guidelines for action or experiences in applying their learning to real-life
situations page (28) As teachers we are obligated to passing the truth and knowledge.

Teachers generally know what knowledge is significant for living and working in
society. Therefore, they decide what to teach. (page 27). The teacher has the decision on what
he wants to teach because he knows best the students how long unit plan will take.

A Christian worldview and therefore a

Christian curriculum orientation, takes as its starting point that the Bible is God's authoritative
Word for life. Scripture is God's inspired self-disclosure that calls for obedience and response.
That does not mean that the Bible gives us detailed formulas whose applications solve all current
issues. (page 37) As we teach and follow the curriculum we need to be fully aware that
everything rotates around the world of God and even what we teach them that the Bible does not
have definite answers or formulas but Gods word is authoritative.

Reflection
Through this chapter one of my long-time question of the main purpose of a curriculum. I have
come to understand that curriculum gives a sense of direction in the education program (page
26). As I read this portion of the book I found a lot of things that are relevant to my career of
teaching. As a teacher oversee my class and however much the curriculum dictates what we are
supposed to teach at higher levels we are as teachers understand better our students. As teachers,
we are meant to be exposed to the worldviews so we get to know how some of our students think
its only by understanding the worldviews and compare them to the Biblical views then make a
contrast of the two to deliver the truth to the students we teacher. As we teach and follow the
curriculum we need to be fully aware that everything rotates around the world of God and even
what we teach them that the Bible does not have definite answers or formulas but Gods word
is authoritative.

Stepping stones Chapter 3

A Christian Worldview as a Basis for Curriculum

The starting point of this view is that God governs all things in His sovereignty and
faithfulness. Further, all knowledge depends on God's revelation. God reveals. Himself in
creation, in Scripture, and in Jesus Christ. (page 48)

A third mandate that God gave us was the Great Commission. It bids Christians to
preach the gospel and to teach nations everything that Christ commanded. Physics classes should
not just unfold theories and applications of physics. They might discuss, for instance, how
technology can help us spread the gospel. (page 48)

Worldviews are tl1e often-unseen rules witling which society operates. Worldviews also
shape how we view and conduct schooling. Today, the dominant worldview in Western society is
secular. It has effectively made God and Christian faith irrelevant. (page 49)

The task of Christians in society is to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. They do
so by discipling others and by calling and working for a restoration of all aspects of culture
according to God's creation norms. The details of a responsible biblical worldview are beyond
the scope of this book. (page 49).

God gave the Creation Mandate to humans when. He created them and placed them on
the earth. After humankind's fall into sin, God added precepts that Jesus summarized as the Great
Commandment. God needed to instruct us in what it meant to serve Him in obedience. (page
50)
The Great Commission gave us the privilege of becoming God's coworkers through
Christ's redemption and reconciliation. All three mandates require us to seek first God's Kingdom
and its justice and righteousness. (page 61)

We help our students sense that God calls them to be His servants in His world. We
invite them to be stewards of the God-given gifts within and around them. (page 62) This means
that as we teach our students we let them understand that God is sovereign and he owns
everything even what you are teaching them. Therefore, their obligation is to take are of Gods
created creatures.

Bible is a guide to Kingdom living, Christians must remain humble. They do not have
all the answers, and their thinking and action are also tainted with sin. (page 53)

The Creation Mandate calls Christians to be involved in forming culture. We therefore

plan a curriculum that challenges students to explore how they may work at and call for more
biblical direction in the structures and practices of society (page 62)

Below are some of the things that we Christian teacher are meant to be practicing in our classes.

Teachers care and pray for their students and help them be and become what God
wants them to be. (53)
Teachers encourage students to use their minds to the best of their ability in
service to and love for God and neighbor, and to develop the mind of Christ (1
Corinthians 2: 16). (53)
Teachers promote constructive and fair relationships. They implement strategies
for conflict resolution based on repentance, recompense, forgiveness, and mutual
respect. (53)
Rather than insisting on personal rights, teachers and students together observe
personal and communal gratitude for God's gift of grace (53)
 Curriculum content deals with issues in our society in which agape love can make
a difference. It deals with the effects of sin in society, but it also proclaims hope in
the future because God is faithful forever (Psalm 146). (page 54)

Christian discipleship is a following of Jesus in the power of his risen life on the way
which he went. That way is neither the way of purely interior spiritual pilgrimage, nor is it the
way of realpolitik: for the creation of a new social order. (57)

Reflection
As I read this chapter came to understand our obligations as Christian teachers. Our first
responsibility in rising and educating students that God has entrusted us with is by us accepting
who God is and his love for us then we can go on and love the students God has entrusted us in.
As we take part in making the curriculum its important to always know the worldviews because
they help us get ways of teaching the different worldviews in line with the biblical truth. Its also
important to know that as we plan our curriculum we are meant to design it in a way that engages
them into critical thinking with an aim of understanding the truth in the Biblical view. Again, the
kind of curriculum we design as Christ teachers should have a positive impact on the people and
the surrounding society.