980 research outputs found
Sort by
Missional Psychotherapy:A Hermeneutic of Mental Health Care in Christian Counseling
No full textIn response to the call for integrative scriptural competence (Hathaway, 2021), missional psychotherapy offers a nuanced counseling approach that incorporates the spiritual dimensions of missio Dei (the mission of God) with human experiences to promote spiritual growth, holistic well-being, and personal transformation. Anchored in a Christian worldview that portrays God's redemptive work and the concept of missio Dei, this therapeutic approach acknowledges the individuals' calling to participate in God's work in the world. In this paper, we examine the theoretical foundations, practical applications, and potential benefits of missional psychotherapy as a therapeutic intervention, emphasizing its connection to missional hermeneutics. At the heart of this approach lies the foundational application of clients' spiritual beliefs into the therapeutic process, validating their inherent worth and purpose as part of God's grand narrative. We propose an existential missional paradigm for Christian counseling that facilitates this application by guiding clients through four tasks: personalizing, locating, engaging, and applying God's story to their lives. This framework accentuates the importance of connecting clients with their spiritual roots and the global Christian community, while maintaining sensitivity to their cultural context. The implications of missional psychotherapy transcend individual healing, as it cultivates a spiritually integrated approach to mental health care that concurrently facilitates personal transformation and active involvement in God's mission. The inclusion of fictionalized case examples illustrates the practical application of each task and demonstrates the adaptability of missional psychotherapy in addressing a wide range of psychological concerns and spiritual struggles
Enhancing and advancing the understanding and study of dreaming and memory consolidation: Reflections, challenges, theoretical clarity, and methodological considerations
No full textEmpirical investigations that search for a link between dreaming and sleep-dependent memory consolidation have focused on testing for an association between dreaming of what was learned, and improved memory performance for learned material. Empirical support for this is mixed, perhaps owing to the inherent challenges presented by the nature of dreams, and methodological inconsistencies. The purpose of this paper is to address critically prevalent assumptions and practices, with the aim of clarifying and enhancing research on this topic, chiefly by providing a theoretical synthesis of existing models and evidence. Also, it recommends the method of Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR) as a means for investigating if dream content can be linked to specific cued activations. Other recommendations to enhance research practice and enquiry on this subject are also provided, focusing on the HOW and WHY we search for memory sources in dreams, and what purpose (if any) they might serve
Threshold Connections: Engaging trainee teachers in collaborative curriculum research to explore Threshold Concepts within secondary school science disciplines.
No full textThis chapter explores the pedagogical potential of investigating secondary school science curricula through the lens of the Threshold Concept Framework (TCF). A cohort of trainee secondary school science teachers in England worked collaboratively to co-construct their understanding of threshold concepts in A-level sciences based on their individual perceptions and experiences. Findings are presented thematically through the voices of the participants as they explored their subject disciplines and discussed and debated what they considered to be threshold concepts. Themes emerged which are argued here to be inter-disciplinary Threshold Epistemes, concepts that are not the difficult content areas identified as troublesome but constitute more abstract ideas which are fundamental to thinking as a scientist within and across sub-disciplines. These are ways of understanding, and/or systems of ideas. Threshold Epistemes identified and discussed here are: models, scale, randomness and language. This chapter further argues that the process of engaging with the TCF as a theoretical framework has potential to be pedagogically productive for teachers and pupils
Risk, Rights, Responsibilities and Resilience: Considering practical ways of supporting children’s resilience
No full textThis chapter explores children’s resilience in relation to risk, rights and responsibility. This chapter considers how current surplus safety and a caretaker focus on children’s rights, with limited opportunity for responsibility, have eroded children’s opportunities for real risks and real rights, restricting children’s self-efficacy, autonomy and ability to manage and handle challenge. These are key skills needed for developing resilience. This chapter discusses the role of the adult and implications for practice and concludes by drawing these threads together and presenting recommendations for future practice, aimed at supporting children’s resilience through real rights, real risk and real responsibility
Contrasting Approaches to Managing the Debate on Same-Sex Blessing and Same-Sex Marriage in New Zealand and Australia: Applying Insights from Jungian Psychological Type Theory
No full textIn October 2022 the Church of England commissioned an examination of the impact of the debate on same-sex blessing and same-sex marriage within other Anglican Churches. The examination involved a literature search, an original survey among key informers and a general internet search. This paper draws on the general internet search to contrast the impacts in New Zealand and Australia. Drawing on Jungian psychological type theory, this analysis employs the contrasting decision-making functions of feeling (concerned with subjective interpersonal values) and thinking (concerned with objective logical analysis). The data suggest that the feeling approach dominant in New Zealand, which prioritized offering space and time for those of differing opinions to meet together, reported more positive outcomes than the thinking approach dominant in Australia, which gave greater priority to adversarial debate
Ways of reflecting on trauma and adversity:Reading Psalm 90 through the lenses of feeling and thinking
No full textIn the wake of biblical trauma scholarship that identifies how traumatic experience has shaped biblical literatures and the Psalms in particular, interest has emerged in the potential therapeutic role of Psalm 90 in Christian-framed trauma therapies. Drawing on the SIFT approach to biblical hermeneutics, the present study tests the extent to which feeling types and thinking types read Psalm 90 differently. These two readings present different challenges working with this Psalm in trauma therapy
We need to talk about AL: has academic literacies designed the pedagogy out of Learning Development?
No full textAcademic literacies (AL) research has made significant contributions in both scope and depth to understandings of student writing and the meaning of literacy across higher education. It has been particularly impactful on thinking in Learning Development. However, researchers and practitioners both within and external to the AL movement have struggled to clarify the relationship between AL and pedagogy. English for Academic Purposes (EAP) researchers have highlighted the lack of a workable AL pedagogy, whilst AL researchers maintain that the model represents a design space or heuristic for thinking about practice in context, rather than a source of pedagogic prescriptions. In this theoretical discussion, we elaborate concerns with the structural coherence of the AL model, its social constructivist underpinnings and evidence base, and the impact of its ideological orientation on the pedagogy we derive from it. Underpinning these critiques is a suspicion that the social constructivist epistemology which AL uses to pinpoint weaknesses in the models of literacy/writing which it subsumes cannot generate a practical pedagogy. We argue that these structural and ideological tensions in the AL model help to explain confusion over its interpretation and implementation. We speculate that a singular focus on social constructivist derived theory, though well-intentioned, does more to reinforce a particular ideological commitment than to enhance student learning
The ostensible originality of ungrading
No full textThis article contributes to the emerging literature about ungrading within Higher Education across disciplines in the anglosphere. The piece offers a critical take on the apparent originality of ungrading practices. Such practices appear on a spectrum, from minor adjustments to summative grades by alternating the numerical with the alphabetized form or vice versa, to replacing grades on a module via oral and/or written feedback. Whilst ungrading may prima facie appear original, contrary to the claims of many of its contemporary proponents, this critical discussion argues that it does not involve sufficient reflection upon the telic aims of the university apparatus; namely, in the awarding of a classified degree or Grade Point Average, nor upon the implicated role of the educator, in a manner befitting genuinely transgressive practice. To supplement the growing research on ungrading, this article argues that adopting game theory may help sharpen future ungrading practices to be more critically reflective, and perhaps original
How does the social unrest of 2020/21 affect the teaching of Religious Education? Findings of a European study on the effects of the Covid-19 period
No full textThe Covid-19 pandemic brought various issues such as social cohesion, social inequalities, climate change and racism to the forefront. Religious Education (RE) teachers were confronted with questions as to how and if they respond to such issues in their teaching. This study investigates the research question How do RE specialists see the effects of social issues on RE in a challenging time? using the data analysis of a 2022 European qualitative study, which explored what Covid-19 revealed to RE specialists about their subject. Regarding the effects of social unrest, a frequency analysis of social issues identified in the survey responses is provided, followed by analysis and discussion of perceived effects of social issues on RE. Conclusions relate to commonalities and differences across responses and their potential contributions to discourse concerning understandings of RE