TEACHING

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

Over the past decade of teaching as both a pastor and a professor, I have refined the following three main pedagogies for teaching: belonging, dialogical, and prophetic. These three values have shaped the ways in which I design, develop, and evaluate my classroom experiences.

Belonging Pedagogy

My first value is based upon Willie James Jennings’ term, “a pedagogy of belonging” (Willie James Jennings, After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, 2020). A “pedagogy of belonging” suggests that community is both the means and ends of education. We are not only formed in community, but we are also formed for community. Western teaching modalities tend to emphasize the mastery of content first, especially in terms of rote memorization and the basic understanding of concepts. This is largely formed by our cultural values of utilitarianism and efficiency, which Jennings argues is antithetical to a pedagogy of belonging (After Whiteness, 10). While content is certainly important, I also strive to shape my classrooms as communities where people are loved, seen, and known. People flourish when deep, relational connections are forged, and this in turn leads to spiritual and emotional transformation.

My teaching philosophy embodies this value via the following statement that appears in each of my syllabi:

"It is my fundamental conviction that the Bible cannot be interpreted correctly on one’s own, nor apart from the Church. These holy scriptures have been written, preserved, and interpreted by followers of the God revealed within them, and in partnership with that God; to divorce the scriptures from the community which produced them, and through which that God continues to work in the world, is both a fatal error and a futile endeavor. These convictions will influence the approach we take in this course. We will attempt as much as possible to form ourselves into a learning community, and I will approach our study from a position of faith, with no apologies for the presumptions that position creates. However, those without faith in the Christian God will learn in this classroom and are welcome! Toward the goal of developing a learning community, all perspectives are welcome, and I expect each student to contribute to the learning process in significant ways. Personal respect and cordiality are crucial to this process and are expected in every interaction. I know I will be learning new things from you this semester, and I look forward to hearing your stories, perspectives, and questions. Welcome to class!"

I also prioritize belonging by structuring small group discussion into all of my class sessions, memorizing all my students' names by the third week of class, asking students introspective questions related to the course content, and moving around the classroom and chatting with students prior to the start of class.

Dialogical Pedagogy

As I have studied the Old Testament, I have been constantly struck by its dialogical nature.  God maintains open conversation with Israel, the nations, and even creation, inviting  praise, questions, and even lament. Israel is a fully invested dialogic partner whose engagement with God is presented as faithfulness. There is another dimension to this conversation, as the Old Testament is structured as a dialogue within itself: the prophets evaluate the Torah and the wisdom writers test Israel's theological traditions. Since both God and the Old Testament are dialogical, I invite my students to enter this conversation. My students are invited to wonder, ask, critique, and process aloud as a community. 

In order to accomplish this culture, I consider my role as a teacher a "guide from the side." In my classes, I introduce concepts and give "mini-lectures" on important material, but I strive to give the students room to explore as a learning community. Remaining dialogical also means giving students the ability to "push back" against my own viewpoints. Embodying such a posture of humility invites mutual learning and mutual receptivity. By functioning as a "guide from the side," I aim to create environments of hospitality, creativity, and wonder. This dialogical approach was a faculty goal of mine for my Pentateuch class in fall 2021, and while learning how to do this I regularly assessed student feedback on the process and adjusted my approach throughout the semester based upon that feedback.

I prioritize dialogue by intentionally scheduling “unscripted” time into each of our class sessions, being open-handed and fluid about where the discussions lead (allowing the students to dictate the direction of the class discussions), pausing at the end of each unit for student feedback about our class culture, and including podcasts as our course "readings."

Prophetic Pedagogy

Last spring, the students in my Historical Books class read an article that was challenging for some. During class, one student asked with sincerity, "Isn't this a progressive perspective?" This question generated one of the richest discussions I've had in the classroom setting. We as a class agreed that the terms "conservative" and "liberal/progressive" were so deeply formed by our culture's political climate and were largely unhelpful for biblical and theological discussion. Instead, we reframed these terms to include the two poles of "tradition" and "prophetic." Both tradition and the prophetic can be faithful or unfaithful, and we must discern the difference carefully. Yet, the Old Testament includes both tradition (the Torah) and the prophetic (the Prophets), indicating that we need to maintain dialogue with both.

While my classes certainly include tradition (Scripture is itself an integral tradition of the Church), I have been greatly shaped by the Hebrew prophetic tradition in the ways in which I introduce and invite new, challenging ideas. In The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann writes that "the prophet is called to be a child of the tradition, [...] one who is so at home in that memory that the points of contact and incongruity with the situation of the Church in culture can be discerned and articulated with proper urgency" (2). Toward the aim of helping students imagine new, hopeful ways forward for God's people, I carefully and gently frame challenging content, often acknowledging how uncomfortable new ideas can feel for the first time. Where there is tension in class, I invite students to lean more into it rather than disengaging from it. I assume a pastoral role by giving students permission to feel discomfort and explore without judgement or shame.

Being willing to have challenging conversations in class is a strong conviction of mine, as I firmly believe that the academic setting is where we should be permitted to explore adventurous ideas and learn how to disagree with each other graciously. In this way, students are not only learning content but are also learning the virtues of curiosity, humility, and commitment to community.

TEACHING & LEARNING

While my primary teaching responsibilities include the university's Old Testament and Hebrew classes, I have also taught spiritual formation classes. Specifically, my classes have included Discovering the Old Testament, all the upper-division Old Testament classes (Poetic and Wisdom Literature, Prophetic Literature, Pentateuch, and Historical Books), Biblical Hebrew, Christian Theology and Worldview, Introduction to Ministry, and Cohort 1, 2, and 3. Because of both the content and the diversity of students represented in the classroom, my teaching approach varies from course-to-course. Below are some specific ways I have intentionally designed my instructional practices.

Discovering the Old Testament (General Education course)

This class is the most intentionally structured of all my classes because of the nature of the students (mostly freshman, at least 50 students in a classroom). I have found that the clear plan for these class sessions aids new students who are developing college skills for the first time. Although this class is a general educational course, I consider the content to be what I call "better than basic." My goal in this class is not to dispel information the students can easily find about the Old Testament anywhere (and there are plenty of sources, both good but mostly bad, circulating the internet!). My goal is to guide students in developing a frame of reference for the Old Testament based upon ancient Near Eastern thought and customs, careful interpretive skills, and theological synthesis. In this way, this class engages students in higher order thinking.

Student feedback from fall 2023:

"I absolutely loved Old Testament with Professor Bohn. She has a teaching style that I absolutely love and can follow along. She has the same tone throughout the entirety of the semester which was reassuring that I know that how she teaches is going to be consistent each time I come to class. Each time I emailed her about missing class when I had to miss class for either heading home to a funeral or for being sick she was understanding and compassionate about me and my feelings as human and putting the human side of me ahead of my academic side."

Upper-Division Old Testament Classes (Poetic and Wisdom Literature, Prophetic Literature, Pentateuch, and Historical Books)

More than any of my other classes, my upper-division Old Testament classes are dedicated space for students to practice exploring and interpreting Scripture. These classes are arranged so that 25%-50% of the class is "scripted" and the remaining 50%-75% is "unscripted" for students to shape the classroom as their own. While this does include a significant more amount of research on my part, as I try to the best of my ability to prepare for multiple directions the class may go, this approach has been the most effective and meaningful for my students.

Biblical Hebrew

Because of my dissatisfaction with the available Hebrew resources, I invented my own curriculum for Biblical Hebrew 1. One of my goals is to have students reading from the Hebrew Bible as quickly as possible, and all curriculums waited until second year Hebrew to begin this practice. In response, I chose a text (Genesis 22:1-19) and created a scaffolding curriculum so that students began reading simplified texts as early as their fourth week into the semester. I also created illustrations for the students (see Artifact 1 in Files section). Immediately, I noticed that this built confidence with the students' translation skills. This quick pay-off also showed students how much progress they were making in their mastery of the language.

In addition to the curriculum re-design, I also employed several creative teaching techniques, often in the form of games. For instance, students played Pictionary, charades, a modified form of Taboo, Frisbee golf, and many other games I made-up. Toward the end of the semester, I created a Hebrew scavenger hunt all over campus that used their vocabulary.

Student feedback:

"Very well prepared and creative learning style. Passionate and knows what she's doing."

"This has been one of the best classes of my semester."

"It [the scavenger hunt] was a great way to review and learn that was also super fun!"

"keep the scavenger hunt. use more of campus next time and maybe more clues"

"SO FUN!!! we were able to apply what we had been learning throughout the semester in a memorable way"

Cohorts 1, 2, and 3

The cohort courses are very different from the standard classroom experience, in that they are designed to guide students with spiritual formation. I have structured these classes so that the are extremely relational, contemplative, unhurried, and introspective. We meet every-other week for intention formation as a community. When we gather, I invite students to participate in formational practices and give guidance on how to help students arrange their lives for the greater awareness of God's presence. On weeks when we do not gather as a large group, students meet with 2-3 other students for spiritual discussion and accountability. Over the past few years, I've developed own "curriculum" for teaching students how to do examen and rule of life (see artifacts).

Christian Beliefs and Worldview (General Education course)

Compared to my other general education course (Discovering the Old Testament), I've designed Christian Theology and Worldview to be more student-centric. The classes are structured so that there is a balance between mini-lectures (10-15 minutes intervals), large group discussion, small group discussion, and working with "case studies." The latter invites students to consider their reaction to a certain idea and then get out of their seats and interact with students who also think similarly. As a group, they then consider the major arguments for their position and present them to the rest of the class. In addition to the more interactive teaching styles, I also incorporate what I call "lived theology": spiritual formation practices that are related to the theological topic. This is discussed further in my "Integration" section.

Introduction to Ministry

Like the cohort groups, Introduction to Ministry is designed to be introspective and spiritually formational as students further discover who they are in God's kingdom. My strategies for the classroom include introducing one main idea for each session and then considering/discussing it from multiple angles. My aim in this class is to be unhurried, discerning, and emotionally present. This is accomplished through formational practices, questions that invite careful contemplation, moments of silence for self-reflection, and guided discussion. Students are invited to "listen to their lives" and notice the ways in which God is present.

Learning Field Trips

• Pentateuch - visited the Nelson-Adkins and viewed the Egyptian collection

• Historical Books - visited the Shawnee Indian mission and discussed how to interpret the book of Joshua post-colonially

• Poetic and Wisdom Literature - attended the Kansas City Poetry Slam and discussed how modern poetry/lament functions

• Prophetic Books - invited a local pastor to speak about the ways the prophetic books have impacted his preaching

• Discovering the Old Testament - visited Temple B'nai Jehudah and viewed their collection of Hebrew artifacts

• Biblical Hebrew - translated Hebrew clues in a scavenger hunt all over campus

• Christian Beliefs and Worldview - applied the Wesleyan Quadrilateral to a game of ethics (Trial by Trolley)

• Introduction to Ministry - attended the Preacher's Conference at Nazarene Theological Seminary

Directed Studies and Honors

• In fall 2024, I oversaw a directed study for Introduction to Ministry.

• I oversaw a directed study with a student in spring 2023 on the Pentateuch, in which the student researched the connections between Leviticus and Ezekiel.

• In fall 2023, I oversaw a honors project for Hebrew 2. The student translated the entire book of Ruth and provided interpretive notes on the experience.

AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT

While I have matured as professor these past six years at MNU, there are still many ways I am developing my teaching style. The prospect of improving my classes is by no means discouraging or daunting for me; the process of evaluating and refining is actually very exciting and meaningful for me. That said, I am mindful of the following ways my classes could be adapted for further development.

1. Inviting the participation of quiet and disengaged students.

This teaching strategy was my faculty goal for the 2024-2025 year. Over the past years, I've noticed the consistent pattern of a handful of more extroverted students participating while the remaining students remain silent observers. Dr. Dermer also noticed this in his feedback from his observance of one of my classes (see artifact below). In my Christian Beliefs and Worldview class in particular, I incorporated in-class written assignments to engage quieter students better.

2. Instructing students on the "why" of the unscripted sessions.

A few years ago, a student wrote the following in a course evaluation:

"Every single class she would just ask us questions, and every we would listen to everyone's opinions, which is fine but that' what our notes consisted of. Every person's input was our lesson plan for the day."

Unfortunately, what the student did not realize that everyone's input demonstrated the multiple ways texts could be interpreted. Further, I had strategically structured the course in such a way that students arrived at conclusions that were similar to experts in the field. Had students consulted commentaries after our class sessions, they would have perhaps been surprised to realize that their conclusions were similar to the "scholars"! For me, this was a missed opportunity to explain the process of interpretation and the reasons why the classes are structured based upon student input. I would like to be more intentional about helping students understand the process more clearly.

3. Managing technology wisely.

Every semester, I've noticed that students become more and more attached to their phones in class. This is easier to manage in my smaller classes, but I struggle knowing how to best manage technology in classes with over 40 students. I would like to learn about some wise practices and implement "tech-free" days in meaningful ways.