Teaching and Learning > DOCUMENTS
Pedagogical Issues Deriving from ODL for Mature/Non-Traditional Students
Bill Campbell
Having taught Biblical Studies to university students for many years in a
diversity of degree programmes I have gradually developed pedagogical techniques
to assist delivery of courses. More recently I have had the opportunity to
teach non-traditional students in ODL. This has meant a considerable rethinking
and modification of both my approach and subject content. So I developed a
case study involving the teaching of a module on Paul's letters over a period
of twenty weeks. To enable comparison and contrast I taught the same module
concurrently to two very different groups. The first was a normal undergraduate
group taught twice each week whilst the other comprised only mature and part-time
students taught once per week at a site far distant from the university campus.
The following pedagogical reflections originate from my previous experience
of teaching as modified by specific considerations arising from the needs
of mature/non-traditional ODL students.
Introductory Issues
In teaching a normal undergraduate class one can assume a certain basic knowledge
and skill despite the variety of examination boards. But with non-traditional
mature students where does one start ? Should one proceed from the general
to the particular or vice versa ? My decision is to start with the particular,
providing minimal background information of the first century hellenistic
world. Sociologically Paul may be a type of first century man but it is his
distinctiveness that distinguishes him religiously, and it is on this that
I wish to concentrate.
In good educational approaches we must start where the students are. This
means taking account of their presuppositions. Biblical Studies even in so-called
post-Christian societies involves inherited attitudes towards the Bible. In
the case of some mature students with a life-long commitment to the church,
the Bible is not just another text book but a resource for spiritual nourishment,
a guide to ultimate values, perhaps even the very words of God. Other mature
students of course may not share this perspective, but alternatively may have
a negative reaction to Paul's letters because they regard him as authoritarian
etc. My response to these presuppositions is to insist on an historical approach
to biblical texts. I start by asking the students to read a particular letter
underlining those verses that refer to identifiable historical places, people,
and actions. This attempts to subvert a spiritual or a theological approach
to the text, encouraging critical analysis rather than merely devotion or
cynicism. Starting where the students are in the case of mature students also
means to take account of their previous experience. This has to be related
specifically to the Biblical text otherwise one finds the class taken up with
long and irrelevant accounts of personal narrative. The intention is also
to point the students towards a literary approach, seeing the letters as narrative
and studying the interaction of the characters within this narrative.
Module Structure
Very early in the course I had to make a decision whether quantity or quality
of teaching content was the more important. Too much detail early in the course
is counter-productive; some students think they must remember every detail
and they 'can't see the wood for the trees'. The intention here was to give
a brief but sufficient introduction to the main issues involved in the study
of Paul's letters as biblical texts. I decided to limit myself to one topic
per week, thus dividing the module into 20 constituent parts. This of course
meant that some topics could not be included and I had to think very carefully
about my criteria for inclusion or exclusion.
In order to assist students towards independent study I provided summaries
of the lectures starting with a listing of the relevant Biblical texts. I
limited these summaries wherever possible to 500-750 words with an absolute
maximum of 1000 words. The purpose in this was that students would have a
summary of the main issues long enough to introduce them to the topics but
not so detailed as to be too complex. For greater depth of understanding a
very precise but limited reading list was included at the end of each lecture
summary.
Sequence of Lecture Topics
In view of the fact that students were unable to meet with me except once
a week I recognized that careful consideration of the sequence of lecture
topics was crucial. If I introduced a particular topic early in the course
I would have had to give a certain amount of explanation which would not have
been unnecessary had lectures on other related topics already been given.
The sequence of the presentation of material also has another significance.
To some extent it determines the model of Paul that one wishes to present
(community founder, pastor, teacher, theologian etc).
Early in the course, therefore, I gave an overview of what we can with reasonable
certainty know of Paul's life and activity in the general context of contemporary
events in the first century Hellenistic world. This had the effect of stressing
historicity, of depicting Paul as a founder of communities emphasizing first
of all what he did rather than what he taught. It also had the effect of contextualizing
Paul's teaching in real life social situations rather than in an historical
vacuum.
Gaining an Understanding of the Content
Having been provided with some introductory skills and a minimal historical
framework students are now ready to study the text in accordance with the
perspectives already acquired. Students need to investigate then in more detail
why a particular text was first created and what was the purpose for this.
In the case of Paul it is possible to discover from his letters from where
they were sent, the reasons for sending and even to some extent the nature
of the audience for whom they were intended. Recommended reading at this point
must include standard Biblical commentaries with a good historical introduction
so that students are made aware of the interaction between the occasion of
the document and its content.
Two major issues arise here. Firstly, a general presupposition amongst students
of Christian cultural background is that they tend to regard Paul's statements
as theological rather than historical. Secondly, partly resulting from the
first issue his statements are seen as of universal application rather than
relating to particular communities and contexts.
By considering Paul's statements in context students can discover that what
he says he says to a particular community at a particular moment in its history.
This can be aptly exemplified by noting that whilst in the letter to the Galatians
Paul says that if they accept circumcision they will cut themselves off from
Christ whereas in Romans he admits that circumcision indeed is value for those
who keep the law. Theology in fact emerges in the form of pastoral advice
when Paul reacts to the needs of particular communities. These localized and
particular statements do not admit of generalization. Popular and traditional
attempts to outline Paul's theology have tended to generalize across the particular
letters by means of an artificial harmonization. (The presupposition here
is that pure theology being of an absolute quality rather than historically
and contextually relative can never be self-contradictory.)
A basic misunderstanding in this is that Paul's statements are perceived to
be universal. Nineteenth century New Testament scholarship influenced by Hegelian
philosophy was prone to contrast the universal with the particular to the
lasting detriment of the latter. This had the effect of devaluing Judaism
because of its particularity. Incipient anti-Judaism was thus promoted in
that Judaism was viewed as a primitive tribal religion and Christianity as
the universal religion. Hegelian influence has in fact encouraged a dominant
tendency to regard Paul's statements as of universal application, so that
what he says in one letter must be in accordance with other statements elsewhere.
Students must be taught the particularity of Paul's letters in order to deliberately
subvert this tendency with its resultant anti-Judaism, especially when it
is allied with a parallel preference for absolute truth statements.
Desired Outcomes
The intention in the planning of such a module is to introduce mature students
to the study of Biblical texts in such a way as to encourage independent learning
through the use of limited and relevant reading. It is also designed to avoid
the promotion of simplistic stereotyping. If Christianity is taught in contrast
to its Jewish origins this readily results in an unwarranted sense of Christian
superiority. The strategy employed in the teaching of this module is designed
not only to avoid this negative outcome but instead to positively prepare
students to be tolerant citizens of a multifaith and multicultural society.
As a Biblical Studies module it seeks to give a brief but basic introduction
to a particular group of Biblical texts in such a way that what is learnt
has real validity and does not have to be relearnt when progress is made to
greater depth of understanding.
Conclusion
The approach outlined above is very much my own developed as noted out of
my own experience of teaching. I would very much appreciate the interaction
of other colleagues who have developed different approaches or who are critical
of my proposals.
This page was originally on the website of The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies. It was transfered here following the closure of the Subject Centre at the end of 2011.
