ABSTRACT
During the second year of her involvement in our community, Kathy, a bible teacher educator, wrote an academic research article about integrating thinking with bible teaching. After her research was published she reflected:
On a personal level, I actually wrote an article recently. This is great for me to have that knowledge . . . The article is about the importance of teaching [and] education for complex thinking. The whole article is about giving an example of how important this is in teaching bible. Being in our community gave me the theoretical background in the general educational world. In the article I gave an example of a question which arises in studying bible and two possible answers that are given to that question. In the modern era you have to deal with it . . . what would motivate such a position, and then take the other side. It is really using the skills that we were learning in the community, teaching students to look at both sides. See the beauty and the problem with each position. The group strengthens me to write this article. It’s a kind of thing that I was connected to, but hearing about it and seeing how much work has been done on it in the academic world made me realize: Wow you are really [learning something important] . . . The article was kind of sitting there in my head. I said, “Wait a minute, you know what? I can use that content as an example of how you have to teach for complex thinking.” I really needed to develop my own thoughts about it.
