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Spiritually Strengthening and Intellectually Enlarging Faculty: What Students Want

Spiritually Strengthening and Intellectually Enlarging Faculty: What Students Want. Faculty Center Brigham Young University. Background: Exemplary Faculty. Top 10% in each college (from student ratings) in both “learned a lot” and “spiritually inspiring”

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Spiritually Strengthening and Intellectually Enlarging Faculty: What Students Want

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  1. Spiritually Strengthening and Intellectually Enlarging Faculty:What Students Want Faculty Center Brigham Young University

  2. Background: Exemplary Faculty • Top 10% in each college (from student ratings) in both“learned a lot” and “spiritually inspiring” • March/April 2009: held focus groups with 30 who responded to our invitation (mix across colleges) • Video-recorded these 1.5 hour discussions • Developed summary of their “hypotheses” about their success (and their disagreements)

  3. Background: Student Survey on Teaching that is Intellectually Enlarging and Spiritually Inspiring • Third week of March to sample of 1200 • Sophomores and Juniors at BYU • 451 useable responses (28%) • 95% confidence level (+/- 3%)

  4. Regarding the classroom being intellectually enlarging and spiritually strengthening:

  5. Frequency of combining intellectually enlarging and spiritually strengthening:

  6. EVERY course at BYU should be both spiritually strengthening and intellectually enlarging

  7. Students: What Faculty Should Do

  8. Students generally favor spirituality in the classroom, but have a variety of opinions • “Spirituality is inseparably connected with intellectuality and one cannot learn without the Spirit. Missing our connection with the Spirit can lead us to a lack of ability to learn and succeed.” • “Some topics are just too hard to incorporate the Gospel into. For example, how does the Gospel relate to Calculus? One can only hear "God organized numbers this way" so many times.” • “Spirituality is very important, but in the classroom it should take the back burner. In a class setting it is very easy to get off track, and bringing up spiritual things often makes it hard to get through the class material, which in school is more important.”

  9. Student Responses: Most Important Faculty Characteristics The most important traits for faculty members who are both spiritually inspiring and intellectually strengthening are: - An example and role model of someone who lives the gospel - Show they believe in their students’ potential

  10. When Students Feel the Professor’s Love/Concern Students state that they feel a professor’s love and concern for them when: - The professor makes an effort to guide them in difficult assignments - Remembers their name - Makes self available for consultation and help - Gives clear and constructive feedback.

  11. Exemplary Faculty Issue: What is my Authority re Teaching Gospel? • Some were very concerned: I don’t have the authority to teach gospel or bear testimony • Others felt that we should be careful about both disciplinary and gospel “truth claims” • Most felt free to bring gospel up when it fits the flow of discussion

  12. Students are split re faculty spiritual authority • Faculty members teaching non-religion courses should not presume to be experts in spiritual things or speak with an authoritative voice about gospel subjects • 162 of 451 agree or strongly agree • 160 of 451 disagree or strongly disagree • 127 of 451 are on the fence

  13. Importance of Certain Activities • Students feel that these activities should be a part of a BYU non-religion course • Having discussions about how secular theories fit with gospel concepts • Having opportunities to talk with professors about secular theories outside of class • Prayer • Students strongly agree that professors should provide good examples of moral living.

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