Here's a set of DRAW questions you can use for a discussion of “How can you help your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective?”

Define: Get the facts defined.

1. How do you teach from a Biblical perspective?
2. What do you do to help your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective?

Respond: Get the facts responded to in terms of feelings/experiences.

1. What satisfies/concerns you about how you teach from a Biblical perspective?
2. What satisfies/concerns you about your students’ understanding of how you teach from a Biblical perspective?

Analyze: Get the facts, feelings, and experiences analyzed.

1. What happens when your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective?
2. What helps them understand this?

What’s next?: Get next steps considered.
What will you do to help your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective?

Your students’ objective is to better connect what they study and God’s story of creation-fall-redemption-restoration. You want to help your students achieve their objective. Good.

Now what? Help your students achieve their objective by meeting 1 of their learning needs.

Question: What are you students’ learning needs? To identify your students’ learning needs, review the list of 10 questions below. Note which questions you think you need to answer in order to meet your students’ learning needs:

1. How can you help your students see the importance of creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
2. How can you help your students understand that creation-fall-redemption-restoration can be connected to course content?
3. How can you show your students what connecting course content and creation-fall-redemption-restoration looks like?
4. How can you help your students understand how you teach using creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
5. What vocabulary words do your students need to learn?
6. What engaging instructional strategies will help your students?
   
7. How can you give your students opportunities to think through answers for themselves?
8. How can you provide time during class for reflection?
9. How can you design assessments so that your students connect creation-fall-redemption-restoration with their lives?
10. How can you give your students more practice?

Take action: Answer 1 of the questions you noted. Then use your answer. You might be tempted to answer more than 1 question. Don’t. Keep it simple and doable. Just answer 1 question—then use your 1 answer.

Remember, the goal is not to have an answer. The goal is to use your answer to help your students connect what they study and creation-fall-redemption-restoration. Today.

Key idea: Understanding how you teach from a Biblical perspective helps your students understand and apply a Biblical perspective.
 
Meet 2 of your students:

• EunHae comes from a Christian home, is a pastor’s kid, and has always attended Christian schools. She didn’t reach her potential on your last Biblical perspective assessment, and she doesn’t seem to understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective.
• Thomas comes from a non-Christian home, has parents who work in the business world, and is attending a Christian school for the first time. He didn’t reach his potential on your last Biblical perspective assessment, and he doesn’t seem to understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective.

Question: How can you help EunHae and Thomas do better on the next Biblical perspective assessment?
 
Answer: By helping them understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective—which, in turn, helps them understand what Biblical perspective is and how to apply it.
 
Question: How can you help EunHae and Thomas understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective?
 
Answer: Simple. Just explain how you teach from a Biblical perspective. For example:

• When teaching short stories (like “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”), explain that you selected the stories because you want them to see that material possessions will never satisfy a person.
• When assigning groups, explain that God made us to work together—so that’s why you’re assigning groups.
• When asking essential questions (like “What’s wrong with the world?”), explain that you are asking questions because questions help them use God’s gift of thinking and because you want them to grapple with creation-fall-redemption-restoration.

Meet your students’ learning needs. Help your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective. Today.

You finish marking a recent assessment in which you asked your students to apply a biblical perspective. They did OK, but you want them to do even better. So, you decided to use the 5-step IDEAL process:

• Identify the problem and ask God for help
  
• Define the problem
  
• Explore ways to address the problem, pick one, and make a plan to address it
  
• Act
  
• Look at the results

(1) Identify the problem and ask God for help: Your students didn’t do as well as they could have on applying a biblical perspective. You pray about this.

(2) Define the problem: You review your students’ work again. You think, “These are bright kids. They can do better. I know they can. What can I do to help them?”

You decide to use class time to talk with your students about how effectively they applied a biblical perspective on your last assessment and to ask them how you can help them.

Toward the end of conversation, Chikara says, “I know you teach from a biblical perspective, but I guess I don’t understand how that works. I mean, you have us work in groups and learn parts of speech, but so do my friends’ teachers at schools that aren’t Christian. So, I don’t get how those things are part of Christian education. I think I could do better on applying a biblical perspective if I could better understand how you teach from a biblical perspective.” Tanya adds, “Yeah, that would help me, too.

You think, “How can they not understand how I teach from a biblical perspective?” But then you decide to really focus on what your students are saying: They “know you teach from a biblical perspective,” and they could do better on applying a biblical perspective if they “could better understand how you teach from a biblical perspective.”

Then it hits you, and you think, “What an opportunity! If my students better understand how I teach from a biblical perspective, they feel they’ll be able to more effectively apply a biblical perspective to course content.”

(3) Explore ways to address the problem, pick one, and make a plan to address it: You reflect on what you’re currently doing and about your students not getting it. You realize that while you have been teaching from a biblical perspective, you haven’t routinely and explicitly explained how you teach from a biblical perspective.

You realize that you probably need to explain how you use a biblical perspective when you think about lesson content, when you develop assessments, and when you choose instructional strategies. You realize, that during the last unit on parts of speech, for example, you had opportunities to explain:

• That language is a gift from God, so we should use it effectively.
  
• That when you asked “What is the significance of words?”, you could’ve made it more clear that you were really inviting your students to think about how they could use words to bring healing, peace, and justice to a sinful world.
  
• That you were giving your students an assessment on the parts of speech in an effort to help them effectively use God’s gift of language.
  
• That working in groups gives each student the opportunity to love their neighbors by helping them learn.

You decide that in the next 3-week unit on poetry, you will explain a minimum of 9 times how you use a biblical perspective regarding content, assessment, and instruction.

(4) Act: Your students are seated, the bell rings, and you say, “The other day we talked about how you applied a biblical perspective on a recent assignment. You shared that it would be helpful if I helped you better understand how I teach from a biblical perspective. So, that’s what I’m going to do during this unit. I’m going to explain how I’m using a biblical perspective. I’m doing this because I want you to more effectively apply a biblical perspective to what you study in my class. If it helps you, I’ll continue doing it. OK?”

(5) Look at the results: That’ll have to wait until you complete your unit. Meanwhile, you’re feeling good about explaining how you use a biblical perspective. You’re taking advantage of teaching opportunities God has provided for you.

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Teachers, to what extent does this describe your thinking? Principals, to what extent does this describe your teachers’ thinking?

My colleagues say they teach from a biblical perspective, but I don’t understand how that works. I believe them, but I don’t really get it. For example, they have their students work in groups and learn muscle names, but I don’t understand how this is part of Christian education. My non-Christian friends who teach also have their students work in groups and learn muscle names. What’s the difference?

If the above describes your thinking or the thinking of your staff, what are 5 things you could do to increase understanding of a biblical perspective of education? Pick one and implement it. Today.