As a Christian school teacher, you want to nurture your students’ faith. So, you want to help your students:

• Understand a Biblical perspective of what they study.
• Apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.

Question: How can you learn to nurture your students’ faith even more?

Answer: By reflecting on questions. By reflecting on questions about targeting Biblical perspective. Here are 65 questions, divided into categories:


Target Biblical perspective:

1. What happens in Christ-centered education?
2. How can you help your students love Jesus and live for Him?
3. What’s your mission?
4. In Christian education, what’s success?
5. What does “application of a Biblical perspective to course content” mean and not mean?
6. What role do connections play in Christian education?
7. What Biblical teaching connects to what students are studying?
8. What 3 Biblical principles will you help your students understand?
9. What Biblical principles do you want your students to understand and apply?
10. What hinders you/your school from helping students increase application of a Biblical perspective?
11. How can you increasingly target Biblical perspective?

Use creation-fall-redemption-restoration to target Biblical perspective:

1. Creation: What’s God’s purpose?
2. Fall: What’s wrong?
3. Redemption: What difference does Jesus make?
4. Restoration: What will you do?

Use questions to target Biblical perspective:

1. Why use questions? (Read, Discuss)
2. Why does God ask questions? (Read, Discuss)
3. How valuable are questions? (Read, Discuss)
4. What does using questions look like? (Read)
5. What questions should your students respond to? (Read, Discuss)
6. What questions should your students ask? (Read, Discuss)
7. What makes a good question good? (Read, Discuss)
8. What question do you want to ask your students? (Read, Discuss)
9. What do you want your students to learn (when you ask a question)? (Read, Discuss)
10. How can you get your students to sincerely respond to questions? (Read, Discuss)
11. How can you use your questions effectively? (Read, Discuss)

Use assessment to target Biblical perspective:

1. How does assessment impact student learning?
2. What type of assessment can you use?
3. What makes a good assessment good?
4. How good is your assessment?
5. How can you make your assessment even better?
6. How proficiently do you want your students to use a Biblical perspective?
7. How much practice do your students need?
8. What makes a good rubric good?
9. How can you use a rubric?
10. How can you use assessment data?
11. What's your vision for using assessment?
12. How committed are you to having your students apply a Biblical perspective to what they learn?

Meet student learning needs to target Biblical perspective:

1. What are sample learning needs? (Read)
2. How can you meet your students’ learning needs? (Watch, Read, Discuss)
3. How can you help your students see the importance of Biblical perspective? (Read)
4. How can you help your students understand that a Biblical perspective can be applied to course content? (Read)
5. How can you show your students what applying a Biblical perspective looks like? (Read)
6. How can you help your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective? (Read)
7. What vocabulary words do your students need to learn? (Read, Discuss)
8. What engaging instructional strategies will help your students? (Read, Discuss 1, Discuss 2)
   
9. How can you give your students opportunities to think through answers for themselves? (Read)
10. How can you provide time during class for reflection? (Read, Discuss)
11. How can you design assessments so that your students connect a Biblical perspective with their lives? (Read, Discuss)
12. How can you give your students more practice? (Read)

What 3 things will you do to target Biblical perspective?

1. What 3 behaviors will you model?
2. What 3 questions will you train students to ask?
3. What 3 questions will you ask students?
4. What 3 Bible verses will you help students memorize, understand, and apply?
5. What 3 Biblical principles will you help students understand and apply?
6. What 3 skills will you help students improve?
7. What 3 types of assessment will you use?
8. What 3 engaging instructional strategies will you use?
9. What 3 student learning needs will you meet?
10. What 3 ways will you decorate your room?
11. What 3 things will you put on your course handouts?
12. What 3 classroom guidelines will you use?
13. What 3 ways will you involve parents?
14. What 3 things do you want from your principal or colleagues?
15. What 3 things will you do to stay focused?
    

Remember: The real question isn't "How can you learn to nurture your students’ faith even more?" The real question is, "What will you do to nurture your students’ faith even more?"


Now it’s time for action. To take action, answer 5 questions:

1. How do you currently nurture your students’ faith?
2. What excites/concerns you about nurturing your student’s faith?
3. How does targeting Biblical perspective help you nurture your students’ faith?
4. To nurture your students’ faith even more, which 3-5 questions do you really want to reflect on?
   5 What will you do?

Take action. Nurture your students’ faith by targeting Biblical perspective. Today.

*Additional resources:

• Videos
• Self-assessments: Target Biblical perspective • Use questions • Use assessment • Meet student learning needs
• Tutorials
• Downloadable resources (articles, tools)

You want your students to understand and apply a Biblical perspective—to connect what they study, the Bible, and their lives. To help your students do this, you know you need to target Biblical perspective even more. So, you want to learn how to do this.

Question: How can you learn more about targeting Biblical perspective?

Answer: By exploring the following list of 12 questions:

1. What happens in Christ-centered education?
2. How can you help your students love Jesus and live for Him?
3. What’s your mission?
4. In Christian education, what’s success?
5. What does “application of a Biblical perspective to course content” mean and not mean?
6. What role do connections play in Christian education?
7. What Biblical teaching connects to what students are studying?
8. What 3 Biblical principles will you help your students understand?
9. What Biblical principles do you want your students to understand and apply?
10. What hinders you/your school from helping students increase application of a Biblical perspective?
11. How can you increasingly target Biblical perspective?
12. What 3 things can you do to help your students?

Resources:

1. Videos
2. Self-assessments
3. Testimonials
4. Tutorials

You want your students to understand and apply a Biblical perspective—to connect what they study, the Bible, and their lives. So, you want to target Biblical perspective.

Question: How can you get started?

Answer: By taking the following self-assessment. Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Strongly agree • 3: Agree • 2: Disagree • 1: Strongly disagree

___ I understand what happens in Christ-centered education.
___ My students love Jesus and live for Him.

___ I understand the mission of Christian education.
___ I understand what constitutes success in Christian education
___ I can clearly explain to a colleague what “application of a Biblical perspective to course content” means and doesn’t mean?

___ I can clearly explain to a colleague what role connections play in Christian education.
___ I have documented what Biblical teaching connects to what my students are studying.
___ I have documented the Biblical principles I want my students to understand and apply.

___ I am taking action to eliminate what hinders me from helping my students increase application of a Biblical perspective.
___ I am taking action to increasingly target Biblical perspective.


Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What excites/concerns me about the data?
3. Which items would it be helpful to learn more about?
4. What will I do?

Resources:

1. Videos
2. To learn more about targeting Biblical perspective, explore these 12 questions
3. Testimonials
4. Tutorials

Help your students connect God's world, God's Word, and their lives.

Harold Klassen of Transforming Teachers emphasizes the importance of understanding a Biblical perspective of your subject area.

Making sense of any idea is always easier if you know where it fits in the big picture. Knowing where the subject you teach fits in the big picture of God’s purposes and activities, can help you see the connections between your lesson content and God and His word. Helping your students see things from a Biblical perspective becomes an exciting possibility rather than a dreaded responsibility.

Here are a few questions that can help you develop the big picture of your subject area:

1. What does _____ reveal about God?
2. What is God’s purpose for _____?
3. How is God misunderstood because of _____?
4. How is _____ misused?
5. How does the Bible confirm God’s revelation in _____?
6. What does the Bible say about God’s purpose for _____?
7. How has _____ changed my relationship to my heavenly Father?
8. Will I allow the Holy Spirit to use _____ to give me a thankful, worshipful spirit?

For more help thinking about the subject you teach, check out chapter 3 of the Visual Valet.

Everyone has a perspective. On everything. On things like grasshoppers, gasoline prices, glaciers melting, and God. Everyone has a way of looking at things. At things like chocolate, character qualities, carbon emissions, and Christ.
 
Every Christian school student has a perspective. And our role as Christian educators is to help each of our students develop a Biblical perspective. Ways we can do this include:

1. Authentically living out a Biblical perspective.
2. Making explicit how we connect what the Bible teaches and what we teach.
3. Focusing our students on Biblical teaching and on worshipping Christ.
4. Having our students connect what the Bible teaches and what they study in class. (This blog, Target Biblical Perspective, addresses this.)
5. Having our students apply Biblical teaching through service.

Help your students develop a Biblical perspective. Today.

Everyone lives out his/her worldview. You live out your worldview in your classroom. As a Christian teacher, how can you increasingly target students understanding and then applying a Biblical perspective to course content and skills?
 
Faculty at Christian Academy in Japan indicated that they could increasingly target Biblical perspective by:

1. Asking questions.
2. Connecting course content and Biblical teaching.
3. Explaining to students how worldview impacts educational practices in terms of questions, content/skills, assessment, instructional strategies, and classroom guidelines.
4. Getting parents involved.
5. Supporting colleagues and getting support from colleagues.
6. Using bulletin boards to communicate truth.
7. Modeling Christian character.
8. Giving students more time in class to reflect on a Biblical perspective.

 
Real question: The real question isn’t “How can you increasingly target Biblical perspective?" The real question is “How will you increasingly target Biblical perspective?"

Target Biblical perspective. Today.
 

Here’s are the responses of CAJ faculty members:
 
One area I would like to work on is my essential questions. I want ones that don’t sound vague or repetitive. I’d like to have those questions and possible answers addressed explicitly in my lessons. An immediate action I plan to take is making a poster of my classroom guidelines. I don’t have a list of rules or any guidelines posted. I do not plan to have a long list, but a very short one that would address the heart of classroom behavior: respect. Respect for oneself, one’s peers, one’s teacher, the materials, etc.
 
I would like to try to have more time to reflect with students on the Math Department essential questions. I could add the essential questions with Bible verses into the syllabus.  Then give time during the year (possibly at the end of the units) to reflect on these verses and apply them to the lessons. This will help me to know if students are learning more than just the subject content.  I would also like to talk more with colleagues to get support and discuss targeting Biblical perspective.
 
I tend to have a few key questions that I want students to refer to almost automatically (such as “What difference does Christ make?” or “How can I follow and reflect Christ?”), so classroom decor might be a good place to post these. I also see students ¼ of the time that normal teachers do, so I feel like I have to harness what’s going on in other classes in order to get anything meaningful done. I could increase this by increasing communication with other teachers.
 
(1) Questions: Asking questions is a powerful way to get at Biblical perspective. Commit to asking one Biblical worldview question per quarter as the framing device for the units covered. Then break down the questions into smaller unit questions. Attempt to discuss and write on them at least once every two weeks in class. (2) Get support from colleagues in this and stay accountable to them by reporting on successes in the discussions and student writings. Working collaboratively with colleagues on a course can help as well. I found that my own planning for intentional worldview education increased when I was team teaching a course. (3) Instructional strategies: I am going to be more up front with the students about why I think collaboration is a good teaching strategy. It says something about my view of people, my view of relationships, and my view of the body of Christ.
 
I need to work on developing good questions that will target the Biblical principles for each of the units I teach. Then I need to include modeling the values and thinking of why I chose those questions and possible answers. I also need to intentionally inform parents at Back-to-School Day and through the weekly newsletters of the Biblical perspective that I am targeting and how they can help their child think through these things.
 
I will articulate in the content section of each unit map the 1-2 Biblical principles I will teach for each unit. I did this for my Night unit. It was difficult to get my head around and messy in process, but I was so much clearer at the end—how I taught to my questions and assessed that teaching at the end. 
 
I will stipulate times for myself to articulate to the students how my own Biblical perspective influences my teaching. When I give projects—that they are in the image of the Creator and therefore creative. When I set initial class expectations—we are all fallen and will push boundaries. When I assign new groups—God gives us all gifts and puts us in a body for the good of ourselves and of the body. When I ask “What else did you learn during this unit that you did not yet have an opportunity to show on this test?”—that they are meaning makers because they are in the image of God in his meaningful world so I expect them to be always learning more than what's required. Doing this will model understanding and applying a Biblical perspective.
 
I have been consistently trying to utilize the following three approaches in order to increasingly target Biblical perspective:

1. Room decor: For the last 2 years, I have been featuring a quote of the month, posting it on the bulletin board in the gym lobby. Some examples of these reflective statements are: “Today’s choices have consequences for tomorrow and for eternity” and “Character is measured by conduct.”
2. Questions: Another way I target student understanding is by inviting them to respond to key questions. I have used the following questions in class: What do you believe in? What Christ-like character qualities have you developed/are developing as a result of your participation in PE activities this year?
3. Modeling: …Nothing can impact students any better than to see God mirrored in the life and example of the teacher. Integrating a Biblical perspective must be woven into the very life of the teacher. With the teacher exemplifying Christ-like qualities with regard to character/conduct, it can provide the necessary motivation for the student in this kind of atmosphere, to commit him/herself to the same task!

 
As an administrator, I think that what I can do is to tell the teachers that the “main thing” is Biblical integration. I think it would help out the teachers to allow them the freedom to know that this is not an addition, that we want them to be teaching this and that may mean some of the textbook does not get covered. That’s OK! Our curriculum should be not be based on the textbook! I also can give support by checking maps, giving time to look at different maps, and giving time to talk about Biblical integration. If my focus in meetings is Biblical integration, I think they will catch on! I think educating parents is also important. I can share a lot in the newsletters about what we are doing and what it means.
 
I can choose intentional principles to teach. I can use characteristics of God to guide the questions and content—if this principle is not valued, look what happens to society here _____.... I need to find ways of developing relationships between students, and with students; I think this too will broaden their understanding of worldview. Do daily devotions for all periods, not just first period. This will model how to look at the daily issues connected to class content…. I need to give the kids time in class to process and think about how course content connects to Biblical perspective.
 
I am committed to discussing with colleagues how to integrate Biblical perspective into essay writing, grammar and vocabulary. To discussing with each other how God views languages and how our perspectives change when we learn a new language.

Collaboration with other teachers to intentionally integrate Biblical perspective will not only benefit me in this process, but will also help students as they continue to develop their own worldviews. My Biblical worldview will affect everything I do, but in order for my students to think “Christianly,” I must be intentional in presenting it. Prior to teaching each unit, I will ask myself specific questions, such as “What markers of grace of pieces of truth are recorded in any thought or writing?”, “How does human desire show incompletion in what we long for?”, and “How can I point out the process of "seeing things" as error or truth in books, themes, or authors?” I must ask these questions in conjunction with the specific content and skills in each unit. After I teach the unit, I will ask students the same questions to evaluate how well I've presented the Biblical perspective in relation to the content and skills.

I am going to spend more intentional moments discussing the how the following have their roots in Biblical teaching: serving one another, telling stories, accepting authority, asking questions, discovering order in music, using language uniformly, and using the created instrument in a way that brings honor to the Creator.

I can help students understand and apply a Biblical perspective by intentionally connecting it in my courses and modeling how to connect the content to a Biblical perspective.  I can model the thought process in various subjects. In Math, we have been working on a million dollar project where the students learn to find prices of items and budget their money.  We have been talking about how to make good decisions monetarily and how we can use money to serve the world.  

By targeting Biblical perspective, teachers can help student apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.

The standards are done! Many thanks to the Christian educators (living in Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, the US, and South Africa) who collaborated to develop 7 teacher training standards. These standards target helping teachers help their K-12 students understand and then apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.

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1. In response to Christ’s love and as the foundation for ministry, teachers have a growing relationship with Him.
2. Out of a desire to love God and be transformed by the renewing of their minds, teachers articulate and apply a Christ-centered worldview.
3. To love God and impact the world for Him, teachers apply a Christ-centered worldview to education.
4. To help students love God and impact the world for Him, teachers develop a curriculum that targets students understanding and then applying a Biblical perspective to course content and skills, and ultimately to their lives.
5. To help students love God and impact the world for Him, teachers design and implement unit plans that result in students understanding and then applying a Biblical perspective to course content and skills, and ultimately to their lives.
6. To help students love God and impact the world for Him, teachers design and implement lesson plans that result in students understanding and then applying a Biblical perspective to course content and skills, and ultimately to their lives.
7. To increase student application of a Biblical perspective to course content/skills and to life, teachers collaborate with other teachers.

You want your students to impact the world for Christ. To carry out this vital task, you know your students will need to apply a Biblical perspective to all of life—including the course content they are studying in your class right now.

How can you help your students increasingly apply a Biblical perspective to course content? Here are 4 things you can do:

1. Target this. You can shift your target from students learning course content to students applying a Biblical perspective to the course content they have learned.
   
2. Ask your students Biblical perspective questions like “What’s wrong with the world?”
   
3. Design assessments that require students to demonstrate their learning regarding the Biblical perspective questions you asked.
   
4. Meet your students’ learning needs regarding applying a Biblical perspective on classroom assessments. For example, your students may not know what applying a Biblical perspective to course content looks like. Meet this learning need by showing them student work samples.

Target Biblical perspective. Today.

As a Christian school leader, 2 of your key goals are:

1. For your students to understand a biblical perspective of course content.
   
2. For your students to proficiently apply a biblical perspective to course content.

What can you do to achieve your 2 goals? Ask and answer questions. Ask and answer questions about understanding biblical perspective of course content and applying a biblical perspective to course content.

Here’s a list of 75 questions: Read them over. Identify 3 or more questions you want to ask yourself and get answers to. Then get answers to your 3 questions. Use your answers. Ask others your questions. (And repeat this process until you have asked and answered all 75 questions.)

1. What happens at a Christ-centered school?
   
2. What’s my mission?
   
3. How can I close the gap between the words of my mission and the reality of my classroom?
   
4. How can I equip students to impact the world for Christ?
   
5. What’s success? (A) To have students learn course content or (B) to have students who apply a biblical perspective to the course content they have learned?
   
6. What does success look like?
   
7. How can I help my students increase their understanding and use of a biblical perspective today?
   
8. How well do my students understand and use a biblical perspective of the subject(s) I teach? The content of my class(es)? Issues related to course content? Values related to course content?
   
9. What do my students need to learn? What Bible verses, biblical principles, and biblical values?
   
10. How committed am I to helping my students increase their understanding of a biblical perspective? To helping my students apply a biblical perspective to course content?
    
11. How can I demonstrate my commitment?
    
12. What value-added content can I provide?
    
13. How can I use class time? (How many minutes did I use to help students last week? How many minutes do students need? What will I do?)
    
14. To help my students, what do I need to keep doing, stop doing, and start doing?
    
15. How can I get the support encouragement, and accountability I need to help my students?
    
16. How can I use questions today?
    
17. Why use questions (to help students understand and use a biblical perspective)?
    
18. Why does God ask questions?
    
19. How valuable are questions?
    
20. What does using questions look like?
    
21. What questions should my students respond to?
    
22. What questions should my students ask?
    
23. What makes a good question good?
    
24. What question do I want to ask my students?
    
25. What do I want my students to learn by responding to questions?
    
26. How can I help my students sincerely respond to questions?
    
27. What might happen if my students sincerely responded to questions like…?
    
28. How does learning ___ help me appreciate God and His creation?
    
29. Who am I?
    
30. How does learning ___ help me develop as a person?
    
31. What’s wrong with the world?
    
32. What’s the solution?
    
33. How does the Bible help me?
    
34. How can I use my learning to serve?
    
35. How can I be a wise steward?
    
36. What does it mean to lead a meaningful life?
    
37. How can I use assessment today?
    
38. How can assessment help my students increase their understanding and use of a biblical perspective?
    
39. What type of assessment can I use?
    
40. What makes a good assessment good?
    
41. How can I make my assessment even better?
    
42. How proficiently do I want my students to use a biblical perspective?
    
43. How much practice do my students need?
    
44. What makes a good rubric good?
    
45. How can I use rubrics?
    
46. How can I develop an effective rubric?
    
47. How can I use data to help students learn?
    
48. How committed am I to the following? Every student in every subject in every unit proficiently demonstrating an understanding and/or application of a biblical perspective to complete a classroom assessment.
    
49. How can I meet student needs today?
    
50. How can I help my students see the importance of understanding and using a biblical perspective?
    
51. How can I help my students understand that there’s biblical perspective of course content?
    
52. How can I help my students understand what effective application of a biblical perspective looks like on a classroom assessment?
    
53. How can I help my students understand how I teach from a biblical perspective?
    
54. What vocabulary words do my students need to learn?
    
55. What engaging instructional strategies will help my students?
    
56. How can I give my students opportunities to think through answers for themselves?
    
57. How much time during class do my students need for reflection?
    
58. How can I design assessments so that my students connect a biblical perspective with their lives?
    
59. How can I give my students more practice in using a biblical perspective?
    
60. To help my students increase their understanding and use of a biblical perspective, what 3 things will I do?
    
61. What 3 biblical values will I model?
    
62. What 3 questions will I train them to ask?
    
63. What 3 questions will I ask them?
    
64. What 3 Bible verses will I help them memorize, understand, and apply?
    
65. What 3 biblical principles will I help them understand and apply?
    
66. What 3 skills will I help them improve?
    
67. What 3 types of assessment will I use?
    
68. What 3 engaging instructional strategies will I use?
    
69. What 3 student learning needs will I meet?
    
70. What 3 ways will I decorate my room?
    
71. What 3 things will I put on my course handouts?
    
72. What 3 classroom guidelines will I use?
    
73. What 3 ways will I invite parents to be involved?
    
74. What 3 things do I want from my principal or colleagues?
    
75. What 3 things will I do to stay focused?

Thanks for reading the list of 75 questions. Now it’s time for action. To take action, answer 4 questions:

1. Which 3 or more questions are you going to ask yourself?
   
2. By when are you going to have answers to your questions?
   
3. By when are you going to use your answers?
   
4. By when are you going to ask others your questions?

Take action. Take action to help your students understand and use a biblical perspective of course content. Ask and answer questions. Today.

To help your students increase their understanding and use of a Biblical perspective of course content, answer 3 of the following questions:

1. What 3 behaviors will you model?
   
2. What 3 questions will you train students to ask?
   
3. What 3 questions will you ask students?
   
4. What 3 Bible verses will you help students memorize, understand, and apply?
   
5. What 3 Biblical principles will you help students understand and apply?
   
6. What 3 skills will you help students improve?
   
7. What 3 types of assessment will you use?
   
8. What 3 engaging instructional strategies will you use?
   
9. What 3 student learning needs will you meet?
   
10. What 3 ways will you decorate your room?
    
11. What 3 things will you put on your course handouts?
    
12. What 3 classroom guidelines will you use?
    
13. What 3 ways will you involve parents?
    
14. What 3 things do you want from your principal or colleagues?
    
15. What 3 things will you do to stay focused?

Now that you have answered 3 questions, use your answers. Use one of your answers today. Right now.

Remember, success is using your answers to help your students, not having the answers in your head.

You’re anew teacher at Faithful Christian School. Your students come from Christian homes, say they are Christians, and regularly attend church, Sunday school, and youth group. They behave well, encourage each other, and focus on learning. You like teaching at Faithful Christian, and parents thank you for being a positive role model.

In your English class, you help your students grapple with romanticism and realism, and you ask them to use realism to evaluate romanticism. This involves upper level thinking, and your students do well.

Next, you ask your students to use a biblical perspective to evaluate romanticism, and they don’t do as well as. You are puzzled, particularly since both assignments required a similar skill set. You wonder, “Why didn’t they get it?”

You reflect you what you did. “I used direct instruction to teach romanticism and realism, had them analyze several pieces of literature which reflect each perspective, had them role play each perspective, and finally had them complete a Venn diagram regarding the two perspectives And they got it. They understood romanticism, and they know a lot about the Bible, so why didn’t they get it?”

Why didn’t they get it? In the second example, students did not:

• Receive direct instruction of a biblical perspective of the issues romanticism seeks to address.
  
• Analyze relevant Christian doctrines and Bible passages.
  
• Role play a biblical perspective.
  
• Complete a Venn diagram regarding romanticism and a biblical perspective.

What enabled students to succeed on the first assessment was not provided to students for the second assessment. Please remember that being a Christian who behaves well does not mean that a student proficiently understands and can use a biblical perspective of course content.