PS78 Teacher Education Program EDU 610 Foundations For Curriculum Development We will not hide... but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of our LORD. Psalm 78:4

A study of the implications of a biblical worldview and of the various foundational principles that guide in the selection of goals, content, and materials in the curriculum. Students evaluate these principles from a Christian perspective, and choose those appropriate for evaluating and changing classroom practice in day or home schools Foundations For Curriculum Development EDU 610 Course Description Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?2

The goal of this course is to enable participants to articulate and to apply biblically informed foundation principles to curriculum and planning decisions. To meet that goal, the following student objectives have been defined. As a result of this course, participants will: 1.apply a range of philosophical terms and ideas within the school setting. 2.develop a reformed Christian worldview and apply it to an understanding of the nature of the learner and the mission of the school. 3.develop and apply a set of biblically informed principles for assessing pedagogy and curricular practice. Goals Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?3

Lessons 1.What is a Worldview? 2.Worldview Framework: Creation 3.Worldview Framework: Fall 4.Worldview Framework: Redemption 5.Structure and Direction: Implications 6.Curriculum: By What Standard 7.Attributes of the Learner 8.Critiquing Educational Practices Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?4 Foundations For Curriculum Development

"Teachers often have no conscious and reflective reason whatsoever for selecting one thing to teach rather than another, …[or] for emphasizing one thing rather than another." (Wolterstorff, p. 2) Reasons For Our Choices 5Lesson 1: What is a Worldview? 2 Corinthians 10:5 (ESV) We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ

1.What is a worldview? 2.In what ways does a worldview serve as a guide to our lives? 3.How ought Scripture determine the character of our worldview? 4.What is the distinction between an integral worldview and a dualistic worldview? Lesson 1: What is a Worldview? Essential Questions Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?6

The comprehensive framework of one's basic beliefs about things* Things* "Anything about which one can have a belief" Beliefs* Cognitive claim  of some kind of knowledge. Can be argued, defended, or promoted Not feelings or opinions Basic* Having to do with ultimate questions (general principles) Framework or Pattern* Way things hang together  either coherent (consistent) or clashing (inconsistent) views Worldview * Adapted from Albert Wolters Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?7

Worldview(s) Set of Shared Values : equity, honesty, morality, sacredness of life, deference to law Institutions : education, law, politics, business, finance, church, home Life style, customs, diet, music, dress, media 8 The comprehensive framework of one's basic beliefs about things* Worldview Lesson 1: What is a Worldview? Anatomy of a Culture GUIDES SHAPES

Human as lover What we LOVE Worldview Filter Human as thinker/believer Cognitive Constructs Expectations Vocabulary 9Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?

…but most cannot VERBALIZE Everyone has a Worldview… Can be INFERRED from responses to events or controversial issues Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?10 What Christians say "We live our lives according to God's Word" Professed beliefs vs. Controlling beliefs What Christians Actually Do We fail to consistently live our lives according to God's Word.

Only when a worldview is "shaped and tested by scripture" can it "legitimately guide our lives. " Wolters, pg 6 Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?11 Worldview  functions as guide to life "Christians must constantly check their worldview beliefs against the scriptures, because failing that there will be a powerful inclination to appropriate many of our beliefs, even basic ones, from a culture that has been secularizing at an accelerating rate for generations." Wolters, pg. 6

12 Romans 12:2 (ESV) Do not be conformed to this world,[a] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.[b] Footnotes: a. Romans 12:2 Greek age b. Romans 12:2 Or what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God Implications SHOULD be significant difference between those who hold a biblical worldview and those who do not. Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?

Fallen World (secular) Challenge to Christian Worldviews A Biblical confession: "God the Father has reconciled His created but fallen world through the death of His son, and renews it into a kingdom of God by His Spirit" (Herman Bavinck) Differences (problems) arise when there is ANY LIMITATION to the SCOPE of this confessions  Results in a DUALISTIC worldview. Limitation = Saying that ANYTHING except God is outside the truths in this confession Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?13 Sacred

Dangerous Error Problem: Sacred/Secular Split Private "sacred" or "religious" life that is separate from a public "secular" life Scripture OR a competing worldview (that does not acknowledge the authority of God's Word) Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?14 Either ALL aspects of our LIFE & WORLD are evaluated according to …

Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?15 Excerpt: David Naugle Introduction to Christian Worldview "The single most debilitating problem plaguing the Church throughout her history has been the ingrained human tendency to divide life itself up into the airtight compartments of the sacred and the secular. This “split-vision” of reality regards church-related activities such as prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and evangelism as spiritually significant and of eternal value. Everything else outside this sacred realm — education, work, play, art, politics, nature, rationality, culture, etc. — has no real connection to God’s kingdom, and is viewed as temporal and basically unimportant."

Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?16 "Though applauded as super-spiritual, this false, fragmented approach to Christianity hands huge chunks of life over to the kingdom of darkness. It results in serious psychological disintegration and personal fragmentation in the lives of believers. It is an unbiblical perspective on Christian living and borders on heresy. In fact, it is! In place of this sinister dualism, a Biblically-based worldview offers a fresh, motivating vision of wholeness. It embraces the entirety of life. It redefines the nature of sacred and secular in terms of obedience and disobedience respectively. It brings the totality of life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Christianity is concerned about the whole person, the whole of life, and the whole world! For God is not a God of dualism, but of unity, integrity, and completeness. This is exactly what a truly Biblical view of life teaches! We must learn to just say NO! to dualism through a Christian worldview!"

Lesson 1: What is a Worldview?17 In a certain sense the plea being made here for a biblical worldview is simply an appeal to the believer to take the Bible and its teaching seriously for the totality of our civilization right now and not to relegate it to some optional area called "religion." (Wolters, p. 9) Integral (Reformational) Worldview not a Dualistic Worldview