Integration in the classroom: ten teaching strategies.(Report)

Teaching integration involves engaging students as active participants in the unfolding relationship of psychology and Christianity, with a particular focus on integration. Ten specific teaching strategies are offered to help students enter into the challenges and opportunities of integration. The teaching strategies are organized according to Moon's (1997) four directions for integration: practical, personal, classic, and contemporary.

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When Bain (2004) reported the results of a 15-year study on what the best college teachers do in the classroom, he emphasized the importance of lively engagement, where students are ushered into the drama and mystery of a particular discipline. Bain writes:

The best teachers often try to create what we have come to call " a natural critical learning environment." In that environment, people learn by confronting intriguing, beautiful, or important problems, authentic tasks that will challenge them to grapple with ideas, rethink their assumptions, and examine their mental models of reality. (p. 18)

Though Bain's research pertained to a variety of disciplines and worldviews his notion of crafting a "natural critical learning environment" seems particularly fitting for those attempting to teach the relationship of psychology and Christianity.

There are various views regarding the proper relationship between psychology and Christian theology (Johnson & Jones, 2000), ranging from those who perceive that the two disciplines should be relatively independent to those who believe one should be mostly quieted by the other. In this article-crafted by two professors and a graduate student each with a variety of experiences and perspectives on integration-we begin with the assumption that a mutually transformative integration is a worthy endeavor. That is, our faith ought to be influenced by what we discover in psychology, and our psychology ought to be influenced by what we discover in Christian theology. We explore possibilities for creating a learning environment where students enter into the realm of integration as active participants more than passive learners. We do this by revisiting the 4 directions for integration offered by Moon (1997): practical integration, personal integration, classic integration, and contemporary integration. In each case, we offer teaching strategies designed to engage students in the integrative process.

PRACTICAL INTEGRATION