Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher William Badke Associated Canadian Theological Schools of Trinity Western University, Langley, BC, Canada

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Much of higher education involves the construction of walls.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher The professor is the expert.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Students are novices

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher The professor’s expertise creates a wall.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Student inexperience supports the reality of the wall.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher What is the nature of the wall?

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher What is the nature of the wall?  Professors teach about their subjects

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher What is the nature of the wall?  Professors teach about their subjects  Students learn about their subjects

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher What is the nature of the wall?  Professors teach about their subjects  Students learn about their subjects  Professors send their students out to do research projects (badly and without much guidance).

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher What is the nature of the wall?  Professors teach about their subjects  Students learn about their subjects  Professors send their students out to do research projects (badly and without guidance).  Professors, without intending to, convey the impression that they are the true experts and their students cannot be expected to participate fully in their world.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher It is the nature of expertise to create walls between experts and non-experts. But are students really learning when we just pass our knowledge on to them?

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher The core of our argument is this: Until our students are invited into our disciplines as participating partners with us, they remain on the other side of the wall, knowing about our subject matter but not being able to do our disciplines.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Two definitions of “expertise”:  Knowing about  Knowing how

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Theological students can learn about the discipline, but complete the course still having little ability to do the discipline.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Isn’t this a caricature? Isn’t all seminary education a process of both knowing about and knowing how?

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Granted, theological students do actually engage in more than “knowing about.” But their direct involvement in doing their subjects varies.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher The goal of most seminary education is to develop the ability to handle information resources so that students can make sense of the subject matter, solve problems and advance knowledge. What we are talking about is the ability to do research.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher We might well ask: “What is the student’s ability to do the subject he/she is studying, that is, to handle information and do research like that done by disciplinary experts?” And, if we ask the question, how do we assess student ability?

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Now, here are some facts, based on extensive studies that have been done in recent years on the research and information handling abilities of undergraduate and graduate students:

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher The Facts: Most students in higher education have weak, haphazard skills in handling the information of the disciplines they are studying and doing research. Such students do not develop significantly better research skills over time, even at graduate level. Most students struggle even to understand the expectations of their professors in assigning research projects to them.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Here is what Project Information Literacy found:

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher How could this be? Our students turn in research projects all the time, and many of these appear to be adequate at least.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher But are we measuring the right elements in student research? Are we looking for key evidences of ability to actually engage in the disciplines they are studying?

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Key elements of good research skill: A clearly stated goal that is a problem-based statement rather than only information gathering Use of the best sources in citations Inclusion of a significant number of sources Evidence that the student understands the nature of the way research is done in the discipline

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher My experience, in 28 years of teaching seminary courses and being a seminary librarian: Most students are baffled by the professor’s instructions in research assignments. Most students feel that they are not given sufficient help to improve their projects. They are on their own. Most students feel like outsiders to the rules and conventions of the research to be done in the discipline.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Students are being provided with a wealth of knowledge, but they are not being sufficiently equipped to work with that knowledge to solve problems and advance understanding. We leave that to research projects, done outside of class with little initial guidance provided.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher What is more, it may be weeks before students get feedback on those assignments from the professor.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher We are putting those same students into vocations where active practice of their seminary disciplines is required, whether it be biblical interpretation, theology, or elements of ministry. But are they genuine practitioners?

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher What, then, is the alternative?

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher What, then, is the alternative? It is to invite our students into our disciplines by helping them to grasp, not just content, but method, in equal measure. It is to get them deeply involved working with the information bases of our disciplines in a context of regular professorial guidance and feedback.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Let’s start with the core of the problem: Your students, even if they have some background in your subject area, are strangers. They are hearing new vocabulary, discovering new authorities, navigating new methodologies.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher We are great at knowing about (that is, knowing content). We do not do as well at integrating knowing about with knowing how (that is, doing the discipline)

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Think of your discipline as a foreign culture, and the information that “informs” your discipline as the knowledge of your culture. Is your lecture like a video about your foreign land – seeing it from a distance but not experiencing it personally?

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Let me suggest an alternative approach Put “knowing how” into the very foundation of your teaching rather than leaving it to a research assignment students are sent out to do.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Teaching “knowing how” requires enabling students to become skilled and wise handlers of the information resources of your discipline. Knowing how means that your students will learn how to become researchers, thus doing the discipline rather than simply learning about it.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher A Path Forward 1.The Power of Autobiography Help students to understand the guiding principles of your discipline by sharing your history with and passion about it.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher 2. Create a Roadmap to the Nature of the Discipline  History  Valued Texts  Major Approaches  Key Players

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher 3. Do Close Reading of Key Texts Go through key works, looking, not merely for content but for method. Bring students into the world of the writers in your discipline. Here there is a focus on how writers present problem statements, use evidence, create arguments, and enlist sources.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher 4. Create Faceted Research Assignments Faceting (doing research assignments in stages) is not new, but it can be done with more of an eye to developing “knowing how.”

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Instead of sending students out to do research projects, use class time to help students: Learn how to create research problem statements Optimize use of research tools and resources Critique information resources Develop research arguments

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Structure the submission of assignments in stages so that students get significant feedback before they submit final papers.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Here’s a faceting plan:  Students submit a preliminary working knowledge of the topic they are working on.  Students learn how to formulate research problems and then submit their of research problem and preliminary outline

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher  Students get instruction in the use of research tools and then submit a preliminary bibliography that includes: 1.Which research tools were used. 2.What kinds of searches and search terms were used. 3.Resources found.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher  Students then submit their stated research problem, arguments they intent to make, and conclusion. When this has been critiqued by the professor, students submit their final paper.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher The Key Elements for Success Students learn method along with content Students are enabled to practice the discipline under the professor’s direct guidance Students receive frequent, quick feedback Doing the discipline is not relegated to non-class time but is initiated in class

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher This can seem like a disruption of traditional seminary teaching practices. What about content that needs to be covered? Who is available to teach the use of research tools?

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Content can be taught along with process: Close reading of texts can introduce students to key thinking in the discipline Practice with formulating research problems can be modeled by considering important research issues in the discipline Development of research projects can involve students and faculty in class discussions of key areas of content

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Teaching the use of research tools like catalogs and databases is best done by librarians, who know these tools well. There are good books for students on research method as well.

Breaking Down the Wall: The Theological Student as Researcher Your students need to be invited into your disciplines as practitioners rather than observers