At Christian Academy in Japan, we’re excited about using the Understanding by Design framework to foster student understanding of God’s world and Word. David Marshall, high school math/science teacher, reflects on using Understanding by Design:

I am a more enthusiastic teacher than I used to be. Mathematics and science are courses traditionally loaded with content and light on connection to anything. I have been increasingly dissatisfied with this. Understanding by Design has given me the tools I need to turn this situation around.

The six facets of understanding have helped me to see what I really want my mathematics and science students to "get" by the time they leave my class. I especially like the facet that looks for how the students gauge the relevance of what they are learning to the world in which they live.

Focusing on enduring understandings has helped to weed out some content that has been there just because it is in the textbook. I now deal with what is really important and do not get tripped by extraneous detail. For example, our geometry course has often dealt with some obscure properties of quadrilaterals. They are interesting to mathematicians, but not necessary in a 9th grade course. Once we understood that measurements with quadrilaterals were more important, we only did that material. This left us time to deal with proportions and trigonometry in more depth, something we knew was important but had consistently not managed to reach in one year.

Mathematics and science do not have great track records with Biblical connection either. Adding an enduring understanding about, for example, how the extreme order of the periodic table supports the existence of a Creator and Designer of the universe, makes me address this and similar issues. The students then have a real connection to what they learn in Bible.

The whole Understanding by Design process has also helped my partner teacher and me plan effectively together. We have common goals, we have common assessments, and we have 47 students who are much more engaged in science classes than I have seen for a long time! We are hopeful that some of them will take their interest in science, combine it with a solid Christian worldview and impact the world of science for Jesus.

To get an idea of how your teachers can more effectively help students what they study and what the Bible teaches, complete the following assessment (download). Next, use your assessment data to develop action plans. For each statement below, circle the appropriate rating. Use the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

Worldview: To help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, my teachers…
___ Articulate Biblical answers to the big questions of life.
___ Explain the creation-fall-redemption-fulfillment/restoration framework.
___ Articulate a Christ-centered philosophy of education.
___ Articulate the implications of a Christ-centered philosophy of education.
___ Articulate that the target is students understanding and then applying a Biblical perspective to the course content and skills, and ultimately to their lives.
___ Articulate what student understanding and application of a Biblical perspective is/is not.
 
Department level: To help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, my teachers…
___ Develop, document, and explain a Biblical perspective of their academic discipline(s).
___ Develop, document, and explain content and skill standards/benchmarks.
___ Articulate a Biblical perspective of the content and skills they teach.
___ Develop, document, and explain enduring Biblical perspective understandings.
 
Unit level: To help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, my teachers…
___ Design and ask effective essential questions.
___ Document and teach students Biblical content.
___ Document and teach students skills.
___ Design and give a variety of quality formative and summative authentic assessments.
___ Use rubrics to clarify expectations, assess student learning, and provide feedback.
___ Give students specific, timely feedback.
___ Use assessment data to modify instruction.
 
Lesson level: To help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, my teachers…
___ Use effective lesson plan models.
___ Use effective instructional strategies.
___ Identify and meet student learning needs.
 
Collaboration: To help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, my teachers…
___ Participate in professional learning communities that set student learning goals.
___ Participate in professional learning communities that provide support, encouragement, and accountability for achieving student learning goals through mentoring, coaching, and group interaction.
___ Contribute to a bank of quality instructional materials.
___ Lead Biblical perspective workshops for other teachers.


Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What’s encouraging/discouraging about the data?
3. In terms of helping teachers help students make connections, how would I prioritize the 5 areas?
4. What can I do to address the area I ranked #1?
5. What will I do?

Target Biblical perspective. Help your teachers help your students connect what they study and with the Bible teaches. Today.


* This self-assessment is based on a set of Biblical perspective teacher training standards.

Dan Beerens, vice president of learning services at Christian Schools International, focuses on Christian education in his blog Nurturing Faith. In this blog entry, he discusses why a Biblical worldview is critically important.

Ron Sider presents evidence in his disturbing book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World?, that evangelicals without a Biblical worldview are not living any differently (or in some cases demonstrating worse behavior) than the average non-evangelical. However, all is not gloom and despair! In the last part of his book he presents a strong argument that evangelicals with a Biblical worldview demonstrate different behavior – deeply committed Christians demonstrate more Godly behavior and spend significantly more time living out their faith. 

(For sake of clarity, he uses Barna’s definition of a Biblical worldview: the Bible is the moral standard, absolute moral truths exist and are conveyed through the Bible, God is the all-knowing, all-powerful Creator who still rules the universe; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life; Satan is a real, living entity; salvation is a free gift, not something we can earn; every Christian has a personal responsibility to evangelize; and the Bible is totally accurate in all it teaches.) 

Knowing the Word and living it out (discipleship) is something home, church, and school desire for students – worldview development is a key task of the Christian school – it is the place where faith and learning intersect directly – again and again in planned ways over a course of years.

Your goal: To develop a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum:

• Guaranteed: All teachers at a given Christian school teach specified Bible content in each subject they teach.
• Viable: All teachers have sufficient instructional time to teach the specified Bible content.
• Biblical perspective: The specified Bible content is formatted as Biblical principles. Each Biblical principle is supported by at least 3 Bible passages.
• Curriculum: The specified Bible content is documented in the curriculum. 

My question: Regarding developing a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum, what’s your/your school’s level of motivation?
 
Here are responses from Christian educators like you:
 
Teacher: Motivation is important. To develop this type of curriculum, all teachers would need to be motivated. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being really motivated), I’d say teachers would need to be at least at an 8. Right now, I think teachers are at a 3. We’re beginning to enjoy helping students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. We’re beginning to think beyond specific lesson plans and toward developing a curriculum that could help students make connections. And we’re beginning to find it satisfying to work on curriculum.
 
To maintain and increase the motivation of all teachers, key players, including department chairs, would need to be interested in and provide support for developing a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum. Key players are interested, are beginning to think about how to provide support, and have generated momentum. So, I think our social motivation is about a 6.
 
Given that organizations use rewards and accountability to maintain and increase motivation, I’d rate our organizational motivation at a 3. We don’t talk about developing a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum. We’re beginning to hold teachers accountable to develop Biblical perspective lesson plans, and we don’t yet reward teachers for developing such plans.
 
Overall, I’d say my school’s level of motivation is a 4. And it needs to be at 8 or higher if we’re to pull this off.
 
Principal: Certain departments are further along and more willing to work on developing a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum. Everyone wants to integrate faith and learning, and having a Biblical perspective curriculum would help teachers move forward on this. Everyone is on board in concept, and we need to get everyone fully on board in practice.
 
If the administration announced to our teachers that our school was going to develop a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum, I think overall teachers would be somewhat receptive. If I suggested developing a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum to fellow administrators, I think the idea would be well received, and I think they would be willing to look at this in the context of our improvement plans.
 
Given what we already have going right now, I’d say our administration has a mid-range level of motivation to develop a Biblical perspective curriculum. Biblical perspective is on our radar because Biblical perspective is at the core of who we are.
 
Consultant: Like with doing devotions, developing a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum can get crowded out. Teachers face urgent things every day, and these urgent things tend to take priority over what’s critically important. Consequently, teachers don’t get around to developing a Biblical perspective curriculum.
 
Administrators sense that teachers face a variety of unavoidable demands, including classes, co-curricular activities, and cross-cultural issues. So administrators are hesitant to add another demand—that of asking teachers to develop a Biblical perspective curriculum.
 
As Christian educators, we tend to do things that have a good chance of success, and we tend to put off things we aren’t sure will succeed. As we’re not sure how successful we’ll be at developing and implementing a Biblical perspective curriculum, we put it off. And to further complicate matters, there’s limited accountability from fellow teachers, administrators, and parents to develop a Biblical perspective curriculum—so teachers aren’t operationally motivated.
 
On a scale of 1-10, I’d say the average level of motivation in international Christian schools is a 3-4, the average level of motivation in new North American Christian schools is a 7, and the average level of motivation in established North American Christian schools is a 5 or lower.
 
Principal: Teachers want to teach from a Biblical perspective, and they are motivated to do this. Department chairs have bought into the importance of this, are starting to take ownership, and are looking for ways to lead teachers in teaching from a Biblical perspective. The administration thinks teaching from a Biblical perspective is vital.
 
The curriculum doesn’t change overnight, but this year we’ve started with 1 lesson plan and 1 unit plan. This is a manageable goal, and teachers are beginning to see how having a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum would be helpful.
 
Teachers are more motivated to teach from a Biblical perspective than they are to develop Biblical perspective standards and benchmarks. I think the more teachers teach from a Biblical perspective, the more motivated they’ll be to infuse Biblical perspective into the curriculum.
 
 
Next question: To develop a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum, what do you/your school need to keep doing? start doing? stop doing?
 
Target Biblical perspective. Today.
 
*This blog entry addresses Biblical perspective teacher training standard #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.

You want to help your students develop a Christ-centered worldview. So, you want to help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. You think that having a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum will help you:

• Guaranteed: All teachers at a given Christian school teach specified Bible content in each subject they teach.
• Viable: All teachers have sufficient instructional time to teach the specified Bible content.
• Biblical perspective: The specified Bible content is formatted as Biblical principles. Each Biblical principle is supported by at least 3 Bible passages.
• Curriculum: The specified Bible content is documented in the curriculum.

 Question: What’s a next step?
 
Answer: Determine where you/your school are in terms of having a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum. Be brutally honest.
 
Here are responses from Christian school educators like you:

1. Teacher: I think we’re motivated to develop a Biblical perspective curriculum—I say this because I’m part of many conversations about teaching students a Biblical perspective. I think we sort of are at the beginning stage, though. While we have a Biblical perspective standard for each subject (as in, make sure kids can apply a Biblical perspective), we don't have benchmarks, a scope/sequence, or documentation regarding what our students are supposed learn in our classes—only 29 of 1077 unit maps have a Biblical perspective enduring understanding identified in them. While I know our students don’t experience a guaranteed Biblical perspective curriculum, I’m encouraged with the progress my school is making.
2. Professor: I’m not aware of a K-12 Christian school that has Biblical perspective scope and sequence in all subject areas.
3. Teacher: Last year, the staff was really hit-and-miss about integrating. Most of the staff didn’t really have a strong understanding of what Biblical integration really looked like. Last year, we did several workshops, and now we all have a common language and understanding. We now know how and feel comfortable with integrating—teachers feel competent. But we are at the beginning stages of writing curriculum and putting in the Biblical integration points. We don’t have standards and benchmarks, we don’t have a scope and sequence, but we do have a general set of Biblical principles that we should be implementing. Teachers are documenting Biblical principles in unit plans.
4. Trainer: There isn’t very much in place. I talked with teachers about this, and they said they were so busy they didn’t have time to develop a Biblical perspective scope and sequence. Teachers work on Biblical perspective in terms of teachable moments, not intentionally through the curriculum.
5. Curriculum coordinator: We’ve made a good start—we now have the expectation that Biblical principles will be embedded in our curriculum. We’re not ready to talk about standards and benchmarks. In curriculum development, you need to start by developing shared understanding about worldview and a Christian philosophy of education. For example, we need to define what we mean by Christian worldview, what our mission means in terms of educating our children, and what we believe about teaching children. Once we’ve developed more shared understanding, we’ll be able to move forward on developing standards/benchmarks and scope/sequence.

Remember: Be brutally honest about where you/your school are. Next, consider you/your school’s level of motivation and training.
 
Question: Regarding developing a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum, what’s your/your school’s level of motivation?

Target Biblical perspective. Today.

*This blog entry addresses Biblical perspective teacher training standard #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.

As a result of Christian education, we want our students to love Jesus and live for Him. So, we help our students develop a Christ-centered worldview by:

1. Modeling Christ-like behavior.
2. Providing devotions, chapel, and Bible class.
3. Giving opportunities for service.
4. Helping students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.

In terms of worldview formation, each of the 4 things listed above are vital. We know this. None of us want to work at or send our children to a Christian school where:

1. Teachers model behavior that isn’t Christ-like
2. Devotions, chapel, and Bible class aren’t provided.
3. There are no opportunities to serve.
4. Students are encouraged to separate what they study and what the Bible teaches.

Analysis: In terms of worldview development, Christian schools do a better job of modeling, providing devotions and Bible class, and giving service opportunities than Christian schools do with helping students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.
 
Opportunity: Christian schools can take fuller advantage of a key opportunity—to help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.
 
Recommendation: That Christian schools develop a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum:

• Guaranteed: All teachers at a given Christian school teach specified Bible content in each subject they teach.
• Viable: All teachers have sufficient instructional time to teach the specified Bible content.
• Biblical perspective: The specified Bible content is formatted as Biblical principles. Each Biblical principle is supported by 3 at least Bible passages.
• Curriculum: The specified Bible content is documented in the curriculum.

Question: Regarding a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum, what are the opportunities/problems?
 
Target Biblical perspective. Today.

*This blog entry addresses Biblical perspective teacher training standard #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.

Want to use your curriculum to help students develop a Christ-centered worldview? Reflecting on the following 7 questions can help:

1. What’s the goal?
2. Regarding developing a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum, what are the opportunities/problems?
3. What’s your stakeholders’ perspective of a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum?
4. Where are you/your school in terms of having a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum?
5. Regarding developing a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum, what’s your/your school’s level of motivation?
6. To develop a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum, what do you/your school need to keep doing? start doing? stop doing?
7. How would you/your school develop a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum?

Reflect with others on these questions. Then, develop a guaranteed, viable Biblical perspective curriculum—and get your students to experience it!

Target Biblical perspective. Today.

*These 7 questions address Biblical perspective teacher training standard #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.

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.

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, uses 5 questions to reflect on connecting a Christian philosophy of education with classroom practice.
 
(1) What kind of people do you want your students to be?

Kim: I want them to love Jesus. I want them to be joyful, inquisitive, thoughtful people who always connect what they learn with their lives.
 
(2) Broadly speaking, what do you want your students to understand about God and His creation through one of the subjects they study?

Kim: Through their study of English, I want my students to understand that God created a good world so that we could enjoy it and participate in developing its potential. I want my students to understand that in this fallen world, God calls us to join Him in working to restore peace and justice. Language helps us all understand God’s truth and communicate it to others.
 
(3) In one of your subjects, what are some of the Biblical principles you want your students to be grounded in?
 
Kim: Language is a good gift from God. Because people are in God’s image, they are creative, communicative truth-seekers. All truth is God’s truth. The Bible is God’s Word and is the filter we use to analyze all truth claims. Because people are in God’s image, they are to be respected and honored. The neighbor whom I am to love is anyone I am in a position to help.
 
(4) In terms of your students applying a Biblical perspective to what they study, what’s your vision?
 
Kim: Students delighting in the creative beauty of language, checking the things that strike them as true with the Bible, reading fiction to vicariously understand the neighbor they are to love, and using language effectively to understand themselves and serve others.
 
(5) Helping your students learn course content is a big challenge. Christian education targets a bigger challenge—helping students apply a Biblical perspective to the course content they have learned. Is the “Christian education challenge” worth it?
 
Kim: Definitely. If we don’t teach students that the Bible connects to what they study and to their lives, we by default are teaching them that the Bible doesn’t connect. We simply can’t afford to be teaching that to our children, to the next generation of the Church. 

Christian education involves worldview education, education that helps students develop and apply a Christian worldview.

Here are 6 questions you can use to explore Christian worldview education:

1. Regarding providing worldview education, what helps/hinders you?
2. Everyone has a worldview. What helps students understand this?
3. You can help your students develop a Christian worldview by asking questions. What key questions do you want your students to consider?
4. A person’s worldview is connected to how s/he answers questions. How can you help your students understand this?
5. Worldview affects educational practice. How does your Christian worldview affect your educational practice?
6. 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?

Worldview affects educational practice. How does your Christian worldview affect your educational practice? When responding to this question, teachers at Christian Academy in Japan indicated that their Christian worldview affects:

• The essential questions they ask.
• The content and skills they teach.
• The assessments they give.
• The instructional strategies they use.
• The way they manage their classrooms.
  

Real question: The real question isn’t “How does your Christian worldview affect your educational practice?" The real question is “How will you help your students develop a Christian worldview?"

Take action. Today.

---

Here’s are the responses of CAJ teachers:

1. The Bible is at the center of the curriculum. All subjects…are taught on the basis of the truth of the Word of God
2. Knowing that God has given us the ability to reason, I must be intentional in emphasizing questions that give students more opportunities to think critically. The questions I've used in the past few weeks have stretched the 8th graders in ways that were sometimes uncomfortable. For example, when I asked them to write the last chapter rough draft of their autobiographies, entitled “Who am I now?”, many struggled with writing what they believed when they know that they act one way but say they believe the opposite.
3. I have students ponder higher-level questions such as “Is there such a thing as a just war?” or “Should Christians support research on genetic engineering?” or “What is my calling in life?"
4. Questions – these should ask things that matter to God; should be core to a better understanding of the nature of God and humanity. Content/skills – should teach process over content (which is the great luxury of English classes) in that we need to know how to apply and understand worldview rather than just what it is.
5. In my curriculum I need to look for the larger principles or topics and not just the details of the unit. What are the life skills and issues I want students to learn and think about? Examples: How do I solve problems with friends? How do I get along with people? How do I serve others? How do I serve God?
6. I teach them to recognize numbers in God’s creation, giving them more appreciation. We look at social issues with the perspective of numbers, giving them another viewpoint to draw upon.
7. What I test, I value. I have to be careful about what I test. Does it really help students to articulate a Biblical worldview? Does it help them answer the core questions? For instructional strategies, I focus heavily on collaboration. I used to have my proof text for collaboration up in my room: Proverbs 27:17. I guess I’ve internalized that and seen the value over and over again of students working together…. As for classroom management, my worldview of people being made in the image of God comes out in this area. Students working together in a class will respect each other, listen to each other, and value each other as God’s creations.
8. Because I believe that my students are made in the breathtaking image of the invisible, triune God, each of them an active meaning maker with significant contributions to give and receive in the classroom community, I have them do many group activities, I challenge them with tough questions and/or choice, and I model, encourage, and require them to connect subject matter, faith, and life. Because I also believe that image is heartbreakingly defaced and distorted by the Fall, I realize the carrot method won’t always work. I try to make expectations clear and enforce them firmly—expectations regarding behavior, due dates, prompts for unit assessments, and school policies like dress code and late work.
9. My Christian worldview affects how I respond to students and how I teach them to respond to others. I put a lot of emphasis on teaching about treating each other fairly and that each person is talented in their own way.  I spend time teaching about right ways to speak to others, what it means to be uplifting, and what respect looks like. Part of this focus comes from personal hard experiences growing up with peers. My biggest reason for this emphasis is how often it is talked about or shown in stories in the Bible, especially in Jesus’ life. Loving your neighbor as yourself is the second greatest commandment, and Jesus showed so often that He cared about those others overlooked. He placed a huge emphasis on relationships, and that has been something I have always wanted to focus on – valuing relationships and keeping them healthy.
10. I value students learning to be responsible for themselves. This affects the way I teach the students to care for the classroom including materials, clean up procedures, desk organization. I value a variety of ways for students to show their understanding and so I do not give a lot of tests. I like to give students opportunities to apply their learning and so projects and process oriented ways to assess are used. I value and appreciate that all learners learn differently and so I use a variety of instructional strategies. I use a variety of groupings (whole group, small group, and individual conferences) and an approach that scaffolds the learning where needed.
11. As a Christian, I believe that every child has been created in the image of God, the Creator. This means that every child is creative in some way. In the art curriculum, I want to provide a wide variety of projects and assignments that give each child a chance to express themselves creatively. I want my questions to trigger thought and discussion that would help students learn more about God and His character and their relationship to Him. (What can we learn about God and his character from studying art? What is Christian Art? What does studying the principles of art tell us about God?)
12. I try to take every available opportunity to get my students to see a question from a perspective they have never experienced before. I do this because I believe that people are naturally (fallenly) bent in on themselves, preferring to see only themselves and the world as it appears and applies to them. By broadening their horizons, then, I can encourage them to take their attention away from themselves and be truly e-ducated (Latin: led out). I don’t do this because I believe that all perspectives are equally valid (they aren’t), but because resistance to seeing other perspectives is a symptom of selfishness.

A person’s worldview is connected to how s/he answers questions. How can you help your students understand this?

To help their students, teachers at Christian Academy have their students:

1. Role play.
   
2. Compare and contrast responses.
   
3. Process responses to questions.
   
4. Debate.
   
5. Discuss.
   
6. Learn about a variety of perspectives.
   
7. Connect perspective and behavior.

Real question: The real question isn’t “How can you help your students understand that worldview affects how a person answers questions?” The real question is “How will you help your students understand that worldview affects how a person answers questions?”

Take action. Today.

---

Here are responses of teachers at Christian Academy in Japan:

1. My students understand differing worldviews when I have them role play and represent the ideas of someone that does not have the same view they do. When they role play, they learn that actions come from thoughts and thoughts are formed based on worldview. Giving students examples of conflicting or differing worldviews (i.e., literature, history, news, media) can help them see that people will respond and act differently depending on their worldview.
   
2. Last week I decided I wanted to begin senior English with the question, “What is the nature of man?” Why will that question help them see worldview, both their own, and others by contrast? They read Chaucer and Beowulf—decidedly differing views of the nature of man. I think that asking this question of themselves and of these two different pieces of literature, and of the medieval mind, will help students understand worldview. The medieval differs strongly from the present, but even within the span, early to late (Beowulf to Canterbury Tales), there is a strong disparity between views. Hopefully this will help the seniors see worldview as the source of choices.
   
3. Students need to be exposed to concrete examples of various worldviews…. One good example from the first grade curriculum is the study of Korea and the Venn diagram of Korean families and the student’s family. In “Our School” unit in second grade, I need to do more intentional teaching of Japanese school (or schools in other countries) and have students look at the differences. There are books in the library that tell about schooling in other countries.
   
4. By continuing to ask questions that force them to back up to basic beliefs. Eventually, they have to get to worldview. And the final answer is not “Because God made it that way!” Perhaps as I start the platonic solids unit, I will ask students to answer the question, “What’s beautiful?” How students answer this question will hint at worldview assumptions. I will then weave that question into future lessons each day. We will then examine a Biblical view of beauty and find support for it using specific Bible texts.
   
5. In math, I often look at the process for answers to see how students figure problems out; I scrutinize how students solve problems. There is also is a similar process that I use to help students to come up with their answers to my key questions. Through this process, students learn what their worldview is as it is being formed. I break down their thinking to small chunks (looking at social issues, and patterns around us) to grasp the process of building their worldview.
   
6. Have my students debate the issue of how increasing technology affects the lives of people, especially students. Since both sides of an issue must be presented in a debate, I hope to have enough time for students to switch sides, even if they don’t agree with the argument. Following the debate, I hope to have a discussion about the values held by each perspective, leading up to the idea that worldview is connected to how people respond to issues.
   
7. I would have to have questions, first of all, questions that would elicit different responses based on a person’s worldview. Then I would need to create an opportunity to talk about those answers. Or have them (the questions) displayed in a way that students could see that worldview affects the way one would answer them.
   
8. After working with the course question “Who am I?” in various ways for 3 quarters, students write a paper answering that question, addressing who they are spiritually, temperamentally, and culturally. To address who they are spiritually, we have discussed that people are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), fallen, but loved and offered redemption, fully known by God (Ps. 139), and gifted and placed in the body to serve (Ro. 12), where they are one in Christ (Gal. 3:28). Students must articulate the Christian belief, but are encouraged to state to what degree they embrace it. To address who they are temperamentally, students learn about Meyers-Briggs profiling, take an online assessment, and read about and discuss their outcome. To address who they are culturally, students read the article “The Values Americans Live By” by L. Robert Kohls and discuss which values Japanese, Koreans, the CAJ community, and they themselves hold. After writing the first draft of the paper, they discuss ways beliefs/personality, personality/culture, and culture/beliefs interact.
   
9. Students need to be asked the questions and have an opportunity to answer. I think it’s quite amazing how often teachers/coaches talk and share what they think, but rarely do they stop and ask the kids what they think. By giving them this opportunity, students think for themselves. Students also need an opportunity to see and hear that others have different opinions and perspectives. If they never see or hear that, it’s quite easy for students to think everyone thinks the same.
   
10. I can help students to see the difference that their answer to my question makes in the way that they live their lives. This prevents them from thinking that this is all “abstract” and allows them to play out the significance of their thinking in concrete situations. I can do this by approaching a question in several steps: (1) What are the possible answers to the question? (2) What are possible strategies for choosing an answer? (3) What difference will the strategy and answer we pick make in our lives? A question with which I recently used these steps is: “How should we use the Old Testament law in our ethical thinking as Christians?”

You can help your students develop a Christian worldview by asking questions. What key questions do you want your students to consider?

Here are some of the questions teachers at Christian Academy in Japan want to ask their students:

1. What’s true?
   
2. What's real?
   
3. What is best?
   
4. Who are you?
   
5. Where are we going?
   
6. What’s wrong with the world?
   
7. What do you believe in?
   
8. What basic assumptions about life do you have?
   
9. How does learning a new language change your worldview and your relationship with God?
   
10. What difference does Jesus make?
    
11. How do math truths reflect God's character?
    
12. What patterns from math can be found in creation?
    
13. How do authors help you see truth?
    
14. How do you make a difference?
    
15. What is the connection?
    
16. How should you use you words?
    
17. Why do we study math?

Real question: The real question isn’t “What key questions do you want your students to consider?” The real question is “What questions will you ask your students?”

Ask your students a question. Today.

*To take an online tutorial on using questions, click here.

---

Why do CAJ teachers want to ask their students questions?

1. The supreme value of almost any question is that it invites a person to think, especially about eternal things. How do we invite our students to think about God and what matters to Him? By asking them the sort of question that will invite them to think.
   
2. Asking questions helps students to focus and make connections…. Questions encourage the students to do some reflection and articulate what they are thinking. I want the students to think beyond themselves and consider others. I want students to begin to develop a Christian worldview that they will continue to refine and articulate as they grow and mature.
   
3. The big questions for World Literature are “Who am I?”, “Who is my neighbor?”, “What’s wrong with the world?”, and “What is the significance of words?” I want my students to answer these because I believe nearly everything ever written has been, to a certain extent, in response to one of these questions, especially one of the first 3. I want them to see by this that humans are at root spiritual beings, seeking meaning.
   
4. I would want my students to reflect on how they are changing and how they are being influenced when learning a new language. I want the learning to be intentional and I want them to see the difference between who they were and who they have become as they are learning a new language.
   
5. I want my students to consider the question, “What difference does Jesus make?” This question provides a window into both theology proper (thinking about who God is as He has revealed Himself to us in Christ) and into our ways of relating to everything else (e.g., because of Christ, we are not responsible for fashioning and accomplishing our own salvation; we do not need to seek vengeance; loving enemies can be more than a nice idea, etc.).
   
6. In order to broaden students' perspectives about different worldviews and to articulate their own, they need to understand which truths are the basis for their own worldview. One question I've been asking, and will continue to ask, is "What is truth?" followed by "How do authors help me see truth?" These questions not only got my students talking more, but also got my students thinking about how literature relates to them directly.
   
7. I use questions to open a dialogue. Some questions are pretty closed: What's 2 + 2? Others are open: What's real? So the questions I ask will range from simple closed questions (or even more complex closed questions) to open-ended questions that get at a worldview. A question for tomorrow: How does the study of shapes in geometry inform you about the world?

You want your students to develop a Christ-centered worldview. To do this, you can:

1. Model the fruit of the Spirit.
   
2. Do daily devotions/chapel.
   
3. Teach object lessons.
   
4. Have your students do service projects.
   
5. Have your students connect course content and Biblical principles.

These 5 things are vital—and different, for example:

• Service projects do not equal doing daily devotions.
  
• Modeling the fruit of the Spirit does not equal teaching object lessons.

My point? While you want modeling, devotions/chapel, object lessons, and service projects, these things don’t equal connecting course content and Biblical principles—which you also want.

The good news? You can do all 5 things!

Everyone has a worldview. What helps students understand this? According to teachers at Christian Academy in Japan, what helps their students includes:

1. Connecting course content and life
   
2. Questions
   
3. Literature
   
4. Discussion/debate
   
5. Clarifying what a worldview is
   
6. Experiential learning

Real question: The real question isn’t “What helps your students understand that everyone has a worldview?" The real question is “How will you help your students today understand that everyone has a worldview?”

Take action. Today.

---

Here are the responses of teachers at Christian Academy in Japan:

(1) Connecting course content and life:

• Math seems a little cut-and-dried, but it's possible to examine mathematical assumptions to see where they begin, or on what basis they are made…. I think starting with topics or characters that touch students' lives is a good place to begin, and then moving from there to more complex connections and implications.
  
• Exposing students to things that seem nonsensical to them and then helping them come to understand those things by understanding a new worldview helps students to understand that everyone has a worldview. For example, in my Bible 9 unit on Hinduism, students choose a news article from the BBC related to Hinduism and explain how the things we have learned in class help them make sense of the event. One student selected a story about a man who married his dog. He did this to try to create good karma after being cruel to several other dogs. What we had learned about the Hindu worldview helped the student understand this bizarre event.
  
• For one project, I have them look at a social issue and then relate it to math. I can see them putting together ideas from their beliefs (I ask them for their Bible references) as well as what they have learned from their project in their conclusion. In this project and in others (i.e., Planet Project in 6th grade), we apply math to real life situations, which in turn will affect their worldview. Often applying math can change the way they look at an issue or a topic.

(2) Questions:

• Questions about issues…challenge my students to think about their own worldviews….
  
• My students are the elementary teachers…. Helping them to understand they have a “view” on the classroom environment could look like this: I could ask them: What does the ideal classroom look like? Make a list. Which items on your list are based on your assumptions and your beliefs?

(3) Literature:

• Studying literature…helps my students see more of what a worldview is and means.
  
• This week we will be reading Where’s the Big Bad Wolf? by Eileen Christelow….. We will be reading and discussing the motivation and misunderstanding of actions…in regards to various versions of the Three Little Pigs.
  
• The 10th grade literature book has 2 companion pieces showing 2 different views of the same event—reaching Everest’s peak—one by Edmund Hillary and the other by Tenzig Norgay…. Not only does Hillary’s focus on facts and Norgay’s on the emotion of the experience, but also there are flat out factual discrepancies: Hillary’s account sounds like he pulled Norgay up, and Norgay’s sounds like they were equal partners. In the future, I want to not just make the point that all writing has bias, but why—all people have a worldview.

(4) Discussion/debate:

• Showing students artwork from various time periods and various countries and cultures clearly can show various worldviews…. Discussion of worldviews represented in the art can help students understand that everyone has a worldview.
  
• In Bible, we assume one worldview. The OT is full of idols and asherah poles and pagan kings. What was their worldview? I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it before. We should talk in class about the worldview of the pagan kings. And we should talk about what it is in the Israelites worldview that causes them to be disobedient to God so often.
  
• …ethical choices/issues, case studies, and environmental studies.

(5) Clarifying what a worldview is: It is important to help students clearly understand what a worldview consists of—defining what makes up such a worldview will help to diminish confusion.

(6) Experiential learning: Experience helps. I’ve tried out various activities, getting students into other shoes. I wonder what would happen if we took this literally? Switch shoes, swap iPods, change grades or essays? I might actually try this—what would it literally look like to embrace the customs of another, to get a glimpse of his worldview?

Christian education involves worldview education, education that helps students develop and apply a Christian worldview. Regarding providing worldview education, what helps/hinders you?

Here’s a summary of the responses of teachers at Christian Academy in Japan:

• Helps: conversation, time, resources, personal knowledge of a Christian worldview, essential questions
  
• Hindrances: insufficient conversation, time, resources, clarity regarding expectations for student learning, student background knowledge, and accountability

Real question: The real question isn’t “Regarding providing worldview education, what helps/hinders you?” The real question is “Regarding providing worldview education, how will you maximize your helps and minimize your hindrances?”

Take action. Today.

---

Here are the responses of teachers at Christian Academy in Japan:

(1) Regarding providing worldview education, what helps you?

Conversation:

• …I really need conversations with others….
  Conversations with colleagues about what I’m trying, what they’re trying, energize and motivate me.
  
• …conversations with others on how to do this—or hearing what they are doing in their class.
  
• …conversation with other math teachers during the unit-planning stage of the lesson.
  
• Having conversations about teaching Biblical perspectives with other math teachers also helps me directly apply it to my lesson plans.
  
• …conversations at school…[have] been helpful.

Time: …taking the time to read about Christian worldview education and various authors’ views on it stimulates my thinking. Following it up with time to reflect, journal and talk it over with others helps me to sort out my understanding of worldview education.

Resources: I am helped by my own readings and the library I keep around me.

Personal knowledge of a Christian worldview: …[being] familiar with what God’s Word says in every area.

Essential questions: [Having essential questions in each unit helps] students think about a Christian worldview…. The questions…elicit valuable student conversations and whole-class discussions.

(2) Regarding providing worldview education, what hinders you?

Insufficient conversation: …lack of opportunity to dialogue.

Insufficient time:

• We have so many responsibilities these days, just to survive, it’s hard to think about finding time to discuss and contemplate the great things we could/should be doing. Most days I’m just staying alive!
  
• …not having enough time to reflect and time to devote to developing worldview education.
  
• What hinders me from doing this is time to think about the big picture, collect my thoughts, and then to articulate them.

Insufficient resources:

• When I need to look for help in designing a great math lesson, I have multiple resources to tap. When I need help designing a great worldview lesson, I have far fewer places to go for help. There aren't models out there; there aren't resources to access.
  
• I’m hindered by lack of good reading material.

Insufficient clarity regarding expectations for student learning: Now I seem to struggle more with what is expected of students at the level I teach. What should be the standard? How do I best evaluate the students` understanding? Are students who are very definitely concrete thinkers able to understand and articulate more abstract ideas?

Insufficient student background knowledge:

• …a lack of students’ Bible understanding hinders me from pursuing a deep connection. Also, lack of subject understanding hinders worldview education. Because of this lack of understanding, time is consumed in class to bring students up to the level to integrate their worldview education.
  
• Lack of basic Bible knowledge hinders some students from going beyond concrete ideas. What often compounds the problems is the desire to challenge others who have a strong knowledge of the Bible. The dichotomy makes it difficult for me to help students apply a Christian worldview.
  
• Many students are very limited in their knowledge of the Bible and Christian doctrine.
  
• …the key aspect that hinders the providing of a worldview education would be the challenge of leading the students to a knowledge of God’s will and the doing of His will—especially for the students with little or no Bible background.

Insufficient accountability: Lack of accountability hinders me. If scores on Iowa Tests, AP tests, SATs, etc., rise or fall, someone is monitoring, concern or success is registered: we know what the standard is, and we know it’s important. Worldview education—everyone says it’s important, but there’s no accountability. No one is monitoring. No one ever says, “Hey, this indicator is up! Our students are doing well! Let’s celebrate!” or “Oh, oh, this indicator is down. We have to work on this.” We don’t even know what the standard is. What is good worldview education?