Pedagogy Articles

by David Rhoads

August 2008

I really felt as if students got a grasp of first century life in ways they never would have done without this “involvement.” … What made the difference? Why was performance so central to the success of this class? Why were the students so engaged? And why were they motivated to do so well? There are probably a lot of good answers to those questions. But a key one is this: An activity done in a classroom is artificial, but a performance to an outside audience is for real.

Phil Ruge-Jones, "Performance Criticism as Critical Pedagogy" Currents in Theology and Mission 37.4 (Aug 2010): 288-295.

Presented by special permission of the publishers of Currents.

by David Rhoads

August 2008

I invited each student in my Gospels class to learn and present one story to the rest of the class, such as “the parable of the unjust steward” or “the healing of a blind man” or a “conflict over the Sabbath laws.” It was amazing what happened. Each student presented one story, and all students heard twenty or twenty-five stories—by different people from different social locations with different styles and approaches. The encouragement for students was considerable. It was one thing to hear the teacher perform. After all, they sort of expected it from me. But to hear their peers tell the stories was jaw-dropping for them. And each one came away knowing that they could do it!