The Wonders and Challenges of Bible Education

Biblical figures play a central role in understanding the richness of the text and provide extraordinary educational opportunities for engaging students in meaningful discourse about its relevance for their lives. This course will focus on examining and analyzing Biblical characters, and give you access to different pedagogical techniques of teaching Bible in the classroom. We will learn about the challenges facing the Bible teacher today, as well as different philosophical, developmental, social, and psychological approaches to addressing those challenges. We will also learn different approaches to examining Biblical stories, including: exegetical, hermeneutic, historical, literary, and gender theory. We will examine and analyze the pedagogic skills to implement these different approaches inside the classroom. We’ll also cover analysis of different Biblical characters and stories, and hear from some experts in the field of Bible studies and Bible education. Using this knowledge, you will gain skills to use inside the classroom, and be able to examine and analyze different educational programs that teach Bible in order to see which best suit your approach and educational setting. If you want to teach Bible, this course is a helpful guide and overview to different approaches and techniques for doing so. Learning Outcomes: On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: 1. Students will appreciate challenges in teaching classical Jewish texts to school students 2. Students will acquire certain exegetical and literary skills to analyze selected Biblical passages. 3. Students will be exposed to a range of different approaches to presenting Biblical characters. 4. Students will examine a range of relevant developmental, social, and psychological theories that impact the teaching of the Bible. 5. Students will examine a range of educational programs that teach the Bible and will acquire tools to critically analyze these programs. 6. Students will produce a course project that will reflect their understanding of the various issues raised

• Explore the topic of children’s spirituality
• Know how the different standards and educational messages can be used when planning a lesson
• Analyze different approaches on how to present Biblical characters in order to understand how can be applied in the field
• To analyze different approaches on how to present moral education in order to understand how can be applied in the field of Teaching Bible

• No deep prior experience is required, but basic computer and internet skills are helpful
• Ability to read course instructions in English and complete short practice activities