TransformLivesTeach is a dedicated YouTube channel with links to many more helpful videos than are listed below!
Identifying with Those Who Suffer (20:33 mins). David Smith encourages the Wheaton College community to identify with those who suffer by praying with them rather than praying for them.
Tom Wright
The Classroom and the Kingdom of God (9:43 mins). This video presents the key ideas that inform the What if Learning approach. Introduced by Trevor Cooling, it features Tom Wright talking about the kingdom of God and goes on to show how this theology can impact what happens in the school classroom.
A Humanist and a Christian debate education (16:21 mins). Trevor Cooling (Professor of Christian Education at Canterbury Christ Church University) in debate with Andrew Copson (CEO of the British Humanist Association) about Christian involvement in schools.
Is there a place for God in Education? (14:47 mins) The Royal Society of Arts and Theos bring together an expert panel for a debate about this question. The panel members are: Canon Dr Ann Holt OBE, formerly an advisor at the Department for Education; Andrew Copson, British Humanist Association; Dr Joyce Miller, RE Council of England and Wales; Professor Trevor Cooling, Canterbury Christ Church University, and author of the Theos report – Doing God in Education; and Dr Mohamed Mukadam, former Chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools. The debate is chaired by Sheena McDonald, writer and broadcast journalist.
Trevor Cooling
Teaching Christian Beliefs (3:43 mins) Professor Trevor Cooling, Director of the National Institute for Christian Education Research, was the keynote speaker at the Chelmsford Diocese Church School Leaders’ Conference on 25 April 2013. In this video, Trevor is in conversation with Ralph Meloy, Communications Director of Chelmsford Diocese.
John Shortt
Teaching for Shalom (31:52 mins) This is a keynote lecture that I presented at the European Conference of Christian Education in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, on 25th September 2014. The theme of the conference was ‘Christian Education in Europe to 2020’ and the lecture was presented under the title ‘How can we lead our schools and pupils as we approach 2020’. Click on ‘2014/2016’ on the conference page and you will find my lecture listed. You can also download a PDF of the text from this page. I recommend the other lectures – especially the one by Gert-Jan Segers, member of the Dutch parliament.
Is Talk of ‘Christian Education’ Meaningful? (42:07 mins) This is a Professorial Lecture I presented at Liverpool Hope University on 4th June 2015. The accompanying slides are not visible in the video but if you would like to have them along with the text of the lecture, contact me through this website and I will give you access to them.
James K A Smith
Defined by our Loves (2:21 mins) This is one of a series of short videos in which James K A Smith of Calvin College talks about his books ‘Desiring the Kingdom’ and ‘Imagining the Kingdom’, writings that have major implications for our thinking about Christian teaching and learning. Some of those implications are brought out in a recent book edited by James Smith and David Smith (both of Calvin College but no relation!) entitled Teaching and Christian Practices.
Education as a Garden of Delight (58:58 mins) David Smith, Director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, shows how the Scriptures and the western tradition of education have considered education in many ways like cultivating and enjoying a garden.
Christian Pedagogy and the Gaps in the Wall (24:04 mins) is a lecture by David Smith at the National Institute for Christian Education in Sydney, Australia.
Stories! (44:57 mins) This is a presentation by Mark Roques, Director of RealityBites, at City Church, Leeds. His concern is to help us to think of story-telling in a different way and he explains how we might be able to share our story of faith in a way that isn’t cheesy but natural and easy. The vision of RealityBites is for “innovative communication of the Christian faith”.
Sir Ken Robinson
Changing Education Paradigms (11:41 mins) Talking of innovative communication, the RSA Animate series of videos is surely a good example! This one is adapted from a talk given at the Royal Society of Arts by Sir Ken Robinson on the occasion of his receiving the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin Medal. Although there is no explicit reference here to faith (apart from a brief mention of Jesuit education), there is much food for thought for Christians interested in the Big Picture. The full lecture can also be viewed through the RSA website.
Beth Green
Belief in the absence of faith in the classroom (29:23 mins) A seminar series entitled ‘Dangerous Ideas in Education’ took place at Liverpool Hope University in the 2013-2014 academic year. Dr Beth Green presented this seminar in June 2014. She was then Director of the National Centre for Christian Education at the university and is now program director for education with the Cardus think tank in Hamilton, Ontario.
Teaching as Contemplative (43:18 mins) John Sullivan, Professor Emeritus at Liverpool Hope University, presented this seminar during the ‘Dangerous Ideas in Education’ series at the university. Professor Sullivan proposes a re-appropriation of contemplation as a central and necessary feature of teaching. He summarises the three parts of his lecture as follows: “First, I acknowledge the active dimension of teaching, often requiring immediate decisions, unpremeditated and rapid responses, practical competence and necessary compromises in the midst of complex pressures and competing expectations within and beyond the classroom. Second, various connotations of contemplation (within the context of teaching) are identified and commented upon. Third, I indicate some of the ways that a contemplative approach to teaching can offer a valuable counter-weight to some contemporary cultural assumptions about education and teaching”.