Mentoring for Student Wisdom

TWU Faculty Retreat, August 2015

Bill Badke

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

Academia has long been devoted to content.

But content these days is providing diminished returns:

“Today’s information world has killed off the scarcity of knowledge.  Anything I need to know I can find on the Internet or some fairly accessible database.  If I need an expert to explain something, I can find one on YouTube.”

William Badke, “Students as researchers: The faculty role.”

http://williambadke.com/StudentsasResearchers.pdf

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

Meanwhile, our students struggle with critical thinking, the ability to optimize their knowledge base, and their skill to handle information effectively.

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

Students want to be engaged.They want a sense of belonging.They want a guide.

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

An ancient model for student engagement may be as relevant today as it was in the past:

The Discipleship model.

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

Disciples begin as strangers in their master’s world:

“Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?”Mark 8:17, NIV

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

While disciples learn facts, their main task is to learn their teacher:

“It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters.” Matthew 10:25

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

Here is the distinction:

The content-based professor wants students to learn the material.

The discipleship-based professor wants students to model their teacher.

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

It’s all about expertise:

Expertise is embodied content, content that lives through the very being of the expert.

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

We are not professors because of what we know (Wikipedia knows more than you do).

We are professors because we know what to do with what we know.

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

Jesus’ disciples learned from him, not just because he was a fountain of knowledge, but because he could teach them how to live with the knowledge he was imparting.

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

The Old Testament concept of wisdom in reference to artisans is a great help here.

“Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest.” Exodus 28:3

- - CDל, ָּכ ֶאFל ֵּבIDר KַדM Dְּת MֶאKְּתCDה יְו IֵמMָּכKַח , , -KַחD רְו IDֶאְּתTיְו ל Tֵמ ֶאWֶׁשFUר , ַחCָּכMֵמCהלIֵּב - ֶאKהWרYן; י IַדMְגTDֵּב DֶאFְּת MָעCֶׁש]ְו ְו- לTי-- YנְוWהKָּכMל YְוUֶׁשMD .לMַקKַד

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

Wisdom as embodied knowledge is the ultimate goal of education. What you can do with what you know is far more important than mere knowing.

Students need to leave our courses believing that they can “use this stuff,” that they understand how to live it, how to use it to advantage.

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

How can we accomplish this?

Jesus makes a perfect model. He taught in relationship with the world in which his disciples lived, focusing on showing how things work in the Kingdom of God.

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

A historian teaches students how to evaluate events, primary sources and competing explanations.

A sociologist teaches students how to make sense of social structures, events and movements so that explanations lead to understanding and action.

A scientist teaches students how to critique methods, findings, and patterns of scientific understanding.

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

Some suggestions:1. Figure out alternate means for students to

acquire basic content.2. Invite students into your discipline by showing

how it works – the structure of its knowledge base, the culture within which it functions, and its methods.

3. Teach through narrative (e.g. trace the history of the development of an idea; stage a competition among various views on an issue; model critiques of the literature.)

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

Make doing the discipline a priority1. Strategically design research projects to

develop student skills with handling information and using critical thinking.

2. Facet assignments so that students do them in a series of smaller exercises, each of which gets your comments and approval before students move on to the next part.

3. Spend a lot of classroom time problem solving. Model critical thinking and draw it out from your students as well.

Mentoring for Student Wisdom

Why bother?

1. We are in an age that values expertise over knowledge. Student expertise is a crucial educational value.

2. We are teaching student how to live, not just what to know. Mentoring them to model our way of knowing teaches them how to live.