Books

Book Review: On Teaching and Learning – Vella

August 13, 2012 By Daniel Im

Jane Vella’s On Teaching and Learning is a magnificent follow-up book to the principles of dialogue education she laid out in Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach (2002).

In this book, Vella takes the principles of dialogue education and shows what it looks like to put them into action through both the traditional face-to-face educational setting and also in an online setting.

Dialogue education is not merely a pedagogy; it is more importantly a way to make society a place of peace (xix). Thus, teaching with dialogue education involves listening to learners, empowering them, and respecting them (xix). Consequently, the following statement appropriately sums up the necessary subconscious of dialogue educators – “the dialogue is not a dialogue between teachers and learner, but among learners, of whom the teacher is one” (xxi). [Read more…] about Book Review: On Teaching and Learning – Vella

Book Review: Leadership Can Be Taught – Parks

August 11, 2012 By Daniel Im

Sharon Daloz Parks’ Leadership Can Be Taught is an examination and illumination of Ronald Heifetz’s teaching method at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

She not only gives the reader an in depth experience of being in Heifetz’s classroom, but she also translates his methodology into transferrable principles for leadership and teaching. She does this by dissecting the case-in-point approach that Heifetz uses. She also dismantles the notion that an individual is born a leader, and plots a way to develop presence – “the ability to intervene, to hold steady, inspire a group, and work in both verbal and nonverbal realms” (13).

In the second half of the book, Parks addresses the transferability of this approach to a variety of different situations, such as the workplace or different classroom settings. She then places herself in the shoes of a teacher, and examines the principles that teachers need to learn in order to teach with this methodology. The book closes with a critique on our culture’s myth of leadership and an evaluation of this method’s strengths and limits.

In a sense, Leadership Can Be Taught is a hybrid-workbook or pathway to help leaders, teachers, and organizations rethink leadership, teaching, and how to learn. [Read more…] about Book Review: Leadership Can Be Taught – Parks

Book Review: The Adult Learner – Knowles

August 9, 2012 By Daniel Im

Knowles’, Holton’s, and Swanson’s The Adult Learner serves as a comprehensive overview of the field of adult education.

Andragogy, in contrast to pedagogy, is a field that focuses on adult learning and everything that ensues. It is “any intentional and professionally guided activity that aims at a change in adult persons” (Location 1174). It does not merely translate pedagogical principles to an adult context, but it is an attempt to focus on the adult learner and “provide an alternative to the methodology-centered instructional design perspective” (Location 124).

This book proposes and argues for six principles of andragogy: the learner’s need to know, the self-concept of the learner, the prior experience of the learner, the readiness to learn, the orientation to learning, and the motivation to learn (Location 155). These core principles are set in the context of individual and situational differences, which are subject matter differences, individual learner differences, and situational differences. This is then set in the context of the broader goals and purposes for learning, which are institutional growth, individual growth, and societal growth (Location 164).

An Old Insight on Theological Education that is Gaining Traction

June 1, 2012 By Daniel Im

I’ve been thinking and wrestling with the usefulness of theological education for a while now, and came across this older insight from one of the greatest theological thinkers out there – the late Lesslie Newbigin.

“It seems clear that ministerial training as currently conceived is still far too much training for the pastoral care of the existing congregation, and far too little oriented toward the missionary calling to claim the whole of public life for Christ and his kingdom.” – The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

He wrote this in 1989 and so many still haven’t realized this and made the necessary changes!

Book Review: The Missional Leader

May 28, 2012 By Daniel Im

The following is an analytical book review of The Missional Leader.

Roxburgh is one of the foremost leading thinkers in everything missional, yet he is a pastor at heart with over thirty years of experience in church leadership, consulting, and seminary education. He is also leads The Missional Network, which is an organization that is committed to resourcing missional leaders. On the other hand, Romanuk is an experienced psychologist with years of organizational consulting experience. He brings expertise in assessing and developing the potential of people in leadership roles.

The thesis of this book is that every church needs to move from a consumeristic model to a missional model, since the very nature of the church is to be God’s missionary people. Roxburgh and Romanuk explain how leaders need to make this transition first personally before being able to lead his/her church through this transition.

Books

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