# How Seminary is Changing for the Better



## Robin (Feb 9, 2006)

select excerpts:

In the past, seminary education was viewed as a necessary credentialing step before entering full-time ministry. Today, more students are interested in personal ministry development rather than credentialing for a specific ministry position. Their learning goal is to become better equipped to fulfill God's calling in their life whatever the ministry position. 

In response, seminaries are working more intentionally with students to help them process their calling and S.H.A.P.E., often in their first seminary class. Some seminary programs even help students evaluate what was learned in a course based on individual callings. 

A learner-focused approach
Research shows that adult learners prefer to engage the learning process instead of being passive participants on the receiving end of a knowledge dump. Not surprisingly, fully online programs that use a virtual "talking head" approach to learning are considered by students to be the less than effective. 

After all, the typical seminary student is no longer a 22-year-old straight out of college with little life experience. Seminary students today have maturity, perspective, and focus. Thankfully, more seminary programs are being designed to build on this maturity instead of ignoring it. .....

In this newer learning model, the seminary professor is viewed less as a repository of theological knowledge and more as a ministry development mentor or 
theological coach.

Sam Simmons, co-founder and vice president of learning design for Rockbridge Seminary

Seminaries are responding with a learner-focused approach to learning, where the "sage on the stage" becomes a "guide on the side." In this newer learning model, the seminary professor is viewed less as a repository of theological knowledge and more as a ministry development mentor or theological coach. 

Innovative curriculum designs
Curriculum design has long been a battlefield where theological departments were ready to go to war before giving up a few credit hours in a degree program to another academic department. These inter-disciplinary turf battles have produced seminary degree programs that look more like a patchwork of consensus rather than a meaningfully designed series of courses. ....


More details here:
http://www.pastors.com/article.asp?ArtID=8844

Robin


----------

