The Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies section is requesting paper proposals in three areas:
1) Overcoming the challenge of under prepared students
Students frequently enter our courses under prepared. Their skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking may not be as high as we expect or desire. Lacking proficiency in these skills, students find biblical studies daunting. Additionally, even if they are familiar with the Bible or other religious texts, many of our classes introduce new ways of analyzing texts that can be threatening.
If you have experience with these issues and have overcome them, we invite you to share your best practices. We are envisioning a series of short presentations that give practical suggestions / teaching-tips.
2) Teach well and save time
Teachers seek effectiveness and efficiency. How can these two goals be combined? Please propose your best time-saving effective teaching strategies. Presentations will be limited to 15 minutes so that we can showcase multiple ideas across the two and a half hours (10 total). Proposals that describe how the presentations will demonstrate and/or involve participants in the effective teaching strategies are most likely to be accepted.
3) Okay, I've "Flipped It"…What Do I Do Now?
Many educators are learning to "flip" their classrooms: moving lectures online to be viewed at home, and bringing "homework" activities into the classroom for a more collaborative, supervised engagement with Bible content and Biblical Studies.
You've accomplished the technical task of getting lectures online, where students can view at their own pace, reaching out to peers or teaching staff for clarity. But now you discover, to your horror, that you don't know enough different activities to fill those yawning hours of session time!
Come share in-class activities in which students actively engage what they've read and viewed at home about Bible