editorial - andrews university · adventist education ®began looking for ways to increase the...

E D I T O R I A L

http:// jae.adventist.org The Journal of Adventist Education • January-March 2017 3

W E A R E D I G I T A L !

ThE JouRNAL of AdVENTiST EduCATioN® has transi-tioned to an all-digital format. We have alsotransitioned from a subscription model to a cost-based model, and from a five-times-a-year pub-

lication to a quarterly publication. This cost-based struc-ture allows us to provide the digital version of theJouRNAL to anyone who wishes to receive it, free ofcharge through the Apple App Store (ioS devices) andGoogle Play (Android devices). The print edition (par-allel to the digital version) will continue as a quarterlyproduction in divisions of the world church thatchoose to print and distribute the publicationlocally.

Changes in the ways readers accessprint (specifically magazines andnewspapers), the economics ofprint publishing and distri-bution, and our desireto fully achieve ourmission led to a se-ries of conversa-tions about how best toserve our worldwide read-ing audience. in 2013, in consul-tation with our Advisory Board andeducation stakeholders, ThE JouRNAL of

AdVENTiST EduCATioN® began looking for waysto increase the numbers of Adventist educatorsreceiving the publication. during 2014 and 2015, wecontinued to research and engage in discussions abouteffective ways to proceed. We came to the unanimousdecision that a digital publication would help us increasethe numbers of people receiving the JouRNAL worldwide.

for 77 years, the JouRNAL has served as a channelthrough which Adventist educators have collectivelyshared what is known about Seventh-day AdventistChristian education—its goals, aims, and values, re-search-based methods of instruction, and effective ap-proaches for assessing and planning for learning,1 and

it will continue to do so. As a print publication, it en-tered physical mailboxes of thousands of teachers acrossthe globe, and its content has effected change in thelives of students in thousands of classrooms. Past issuesof the JouRNAL have also been accessible online throughjae.adventist.org and circle.adventist.org. As a digitalpublication, however, current issues of the JouRNAL willbe readily accessible (for free!) to anyone who has a

mobile phone, tablet, or computer. We’re excitedabout the journey ahead and the technol-

ogy that helps us accomplish ourmission.2

A special october—de-cember issue of the

JouRNAL, publishedas a part of our

digital launch, con-tains information on

how to access the new JAEApp which is available from

the App Store (ioS) and GooglePlay (Android). if you have not al-

ready done so, download it now.We look forward to sharing this

new and dynamic format of ThE JouRNAL

of AdVENTiST EduCATioN with Adventist edu-cators worldwide!—ThE JouRNAL of AdVENTiST

EduCATioN Editorial Staff.

NOTES AND REFERENCES1. ThE JouRNAL of AdVENTiST EduCATioN Mission Statement:

http://jae.adventist.org/mission.htm.2. Voted at the 1976 Annual Council: “To request employing

organizations (conferences, academies, colleges, and universities)to provide The Journal of Adventist Education for all teachers atall levels,” both in NAd and overseas (Action of october 21, 1976,GC Committee Minutes, 76-400): http://documents.adventist archives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1976-10b.pdf, 40.

he literature on minority andindigenous children reportsthat those who move from onegeographic location to another,whether as immigrants, mi-grants, or refugees, often

struggle in school, if they have accessto education at all.1 in urban educa-tional settings, this struggle is morepronounced, as large numbers of chil-dren endeavor to attain the levels ofeducational achievement deemed nec-essary for their success.

Wealth, Education, and MinorityEducation

Worldwide, 263 million children andyouth are estimated to be unenrolled inschool, a large percentage of whom arefrom ethnic, linguistic, or religiousminorities and from low-income house-holds. Most of these live in sub-Saha-ran Africa, South Asia, and West Asia;and a disproportionate number aregirls.2 depending on the country andregion in which they live, educationalquality, outcomes, and resources varywidely for these children.3

Too often, schools in impoverished,urban, or isolated regions face anarray of difficulties.4 A disproportion-ate number of minorities or immigrantgroups attend lower-quality schools,5

and these schools tend to also haveless-experienced teachers.6 Migrantswith language barriers also tend to doless well in school, and few of theirteachers are bilingual.7 in the unitedStates (u.S.), in both public and pri-vate education, minorities are finding

B Y S H A W N A V Y H M E I S T E R w i t h L O U R D E S E . M O R A L E S - G U D M U N D S S O N

4 The Journal of Adventist Education • January-March 2017 http:// jae.adventist.org

Understanding, Serving, and Educating

T

STUDENTS IN URBAN SETTINGS

themselves with even less opportunityto interact with mainstream studentsthan in the past, which is not an en-couraging sign.8

Race and Poverty in the United StatesThe united States is a nation of

immigrants like few others, and thecontrasts between racial groups areoften stark.9 for example, almost halfof the children in the united Stateslive in low-income families; and al-most half of those live below thepoverty level. Approximately one-third of Caucasian and Asian chil-dren, but about two-thirds of African-American and hispanic children, livein low-income families.10 Poverty is apredictor, though not itself a causalfactor, of difficulties in education,and urban and rural centers tend tohave high proportions of students liv-ing in poverty.

urban schools are increasinglycomposed of poor children, many ofwhom are immigrants. immigrant chil-dren often suffer experiences similarto those of disadvantaged children.11

in addition, immigrant children needto acclimate to a new culture whilereconciling the loss of the only homethey may have known; some need toheal from emotional and physicalscars caused by having to flee a war-torn country, abuse, or harsh condi-tions as they leave their homes and ar-rive in another country.

The Council of the Great CitySchools, a large organization locatedin Washington, d.C., works withmore than 11,000 urban schools andsome seven million students in theunited States. Their statistics showthat nearly 71 percent of their stu-dents qualify for free lunch pro-grams—a service the u.S. Govern-ment provides to the poorest childrenin the country. forty percent are his-panic, 29 percent are black, and 19percent are white. English languagelearners constitute 17 percent of thestudent population.12 Educational sta-tistics, corrected for income level,

show that race still makes a differencein access to resources that ensure aca-demic achievement.

Immigrants and Educationhistorically, depending on their

country of origin, skin color, lan-guage, schooling, and perceived eco-nomic benefit, immigrants andrefugees have been either welcomedor considered a burden by the coun-try to which they are relocating. inmore recent times, as conversationsabout legal and illegal immigrationhave intensified worldwide, negativeperceptions have increased. Lookingspecifically at immigrant children inthe united States, the data show thatthey are more likely to be poor, tohave less-educated parents, and tohave more language difficulties thannative-born children. for example, in2007, 55 percent of immigrant chil-dren, compared to 41 percent of chil-dren of native-born citizens, were liv-ing in low-income families.13

Regarding levels of education, datafrom 2012 showed that “29 percent offoreign-born children with a foreign-born parent, 24 percent of nativechildren with a foreign-born parent,and 6 percent of native children withnative parents had a parent with lessthan a high school diploma or equiv-alent credential.”14 This is important,as the education level of the parentshas been found to be the single bestpredictor of a child’s educationalachievement.15

one-fourth (24 percent) of chil-dren (ages birth to 17) in the unitedStates today have at least one for-eign-born parent.16 This translatesinto a similar percentage of childrenin schools who have at least one par-ent born overseas,17 a number that ismuch higher in urban areas. in someof the more international cities, suchas New York, Los Angeles, andMiami, 50 to 70 percent of studentsare of immigrant heritage.18 And be-

cause of the nature of most cities,where those who have more moneymove to the suburbs, many of theurban schools have extremely highconcentrations of students of color,many of whom are immigrants fromlow-income families.

What Works for Immigrant Childrenfortunately, some schools have

achieved successes with these chil-dren and are beginning to under-stand what works. And what worksfor the urban poor in general is notso different from what works for im-migrant students living in urban cen-ters. The good news is that urbanchildren are just as capable of aca-demic success as students elsewhere.As one educator working in inner-city detroit explained, “while manylower-income kids of color requiredifferent kinds of schools to succeedthan do their majority middle-classsuburban counterparts, these stu-dents have demonstrated that theyare perfectly capable of strong aca-demic learning and moving on topost-secondary studies.”19

What follows is an analysis ofstrategies that work in urban schoolswith high poverty, high diversity, anda significant number of immigrantstudents. These principles or ap-proaches that have universal applica-tion are grouped around some of theunderlying causes of failure that mi-nority students may either bring withthem to the classroom or face uponarrival: issues with school adminis-tration, self-confidence, motivation,failure, curriculum relevance, andculture. if we can address these con-cerns, we can make school a muchfriendlier place for urban students,especially immigrants and minoritychildren.

Solve School Leadership Issues improving education for all stu-

dents begins with schools andschool leaders, not with the stu-dents, who are not to blame for their

5http:// jae.adventist.org The Journal of Adventist Education • January-March 2017

circumstances. urban school dis-tricts are notorious for having issueswith corruption, absentee teachers,and other administrative concerns.20

Leadership problems create a diffi-cult environment for all students,but more so for immigrants and chil-dren of color, who are often alreadyon the edge in a school system thatfrequently does not accommodatetheir needs. Leadership is key to en-hancing the schooling experience forimmigrant students. While Adventisteducation may do better than largepublic systems in the area of leader-ship, there is still room for improve-ment. here are a few areas for con-sideration:

A safe, orderly, well-disciplinedenvironment. Maslow’s hierarchy ofneeds makes the need for a safe en-vironment clear, but too oftenschool environment is not givenenough emphasis in urban schools.Safety and order are basic prerequi-sites for learning.21

Strong administrative leadership. ifstudents are to do well in school,they need to see an administrationfocused on their needs and possess-ing a clear understanding of how tohelp them learn.22 Many school re-formers include in this the ability tochoose teachers and terminate theones who do not do well.

Professional, caring teachers.Teachers of children in urban and un-derserved areas need to feel a senseof responsibility for their students,and also self-efficacy about their ownabilities.23 They need to participate instaff-development programs relatingto school improvement. Committed,caring teachers, ideally at least someof whom are from the students’ ownethnic group, have been found to bea key requirement for successfulschools.24

Build Self-Respect and/or Self-Confidence

Many minority and immigrant stu-dents, especially males, may not havehad good role models or positive expe-riences in the past.25 Past failures mayfurther deteriorate self-confidence inthe school setting.

Adult relationships and school fam-ily. Multiple studies in resilience litera-ture suggest that a sense of belongingis the only significant predictor ofschool success.26 it has also beenshown that relationships with teachersor school personnel can replace miss-ing family support and role models.27

finding ways of helping students be-long, such as advisory groups, is animportant part of helping at-risk stu-dents succeed. This allows for per-sonal advice on how to do well in life,not just in school.28 This is especiallycritical for immigrant students, whomay be exposed to the new culture forthe first time.29

Cooperative learning. The use ofcooperative learning structures isespecially powerful for urban minoritystudents.30 This may include peer tu-toring or other forms of working to-gether that build respect and team-work, rather than competition.31

Parental involvement. When possi-ble, parents should be encouraged toparticipate in school events and ac-tivities.32 however, immigrant parentsmay find this especially difficult.Language, education, and workschedules are significant factors;some may even feel inadequate, shy,or intimidated because of their mini-mal education background. Schoolscan encourage participation by pro-viding translators and translated re-sources for parents who do not speakthe language of instruction, and bylearning how the cultures repre-sented perceive the relationshipamong teachers, students, and par-ents. Schools can also engage thefamily and community through part-nerships, not only for apprenticeshipsor volunteering opportunities, men-

toring, or special interest clubs butalso for building stronger relation-ships among students, teachers, andparents.

Increase Motivationfor many students, the traditional

values of family, church, and schoolhave shifted to social and peer val-ues. This shift results in school beingirrelevant to students’ lives, and itmeans that the motivation to workhard and do well in school is lackingand needs to be overtly explained andinculcated.33 Motivation for some im-migrant students may be an evengreater challenge, depending on theirbackground. Thus, an increased em-phasis on nurturing interest is neces-sary to determine the reason for thelack of motivation. for some students,the underlying causes of lack of inter-est in school result from the negativeexperiences and traumas experiencedin their home country prior to relocat-ing. here are a few suggestions for in-creasing motivation:

Rhetoric. Talk to students aboutachieving success. for example, teachstudents about a work ethic by puttingup posters, slogans, and signs thatcommunicate tips for success. Showthem and help them experience the re-lationship between effort and achieve-ment by verbally recognizing theirhard work. for students whose par-ents did not go far in school, the onlyplace to get ideas about how to dowell in school and in life may be theclassroom.34

Religion. faith truly does motivateachievement. Contrary to the publicstereotype that Christians are less ac-ademically proficient than nonreli-gious people,35 students in Christianschools in general, and Adventistschools in particular, have tradition-ally done better than students inpublic schools.36 in reports from vari-ous studies, Adventist students notonly did well, they did better than


their ability level would have pre-dicted,37 suggesting that there is alink between religion and academicmotivation.

The study by Jeynes showedclearly that the achievement advan-tage of religious students over non -religious students holds whether ornot the children attend religiousschools.38 Thus, there is no supportfor the argument that religiousschools produce better results onlybecause they are small and private.Religious students who went to pub-lic schools still did better than theirnonreligious classmates.

Feedback. Like anyone else, stu-dents respond well to monitoringand feedback. Some researchers39 aretherefore urging teachers to do moreformative assessments in addition totesting, and less teaching. of course,what these researchers mean is thatstudents do better when they havemultiple opportunities to try some-thing, coupled with feedback on howwell they have done, ideally includ-ing time to make corrections beforetheir knowledge is subjected to grad-ing.

Incentives. School success takestime to achieve. While some feel thatincentives reinforce a “pay to per-form” attitude and should thereforebe avoided altogether, sometimes stu-dents need rewards along the way be-cause they have trouble waiting untilthe end of the semester to see theirprogress. And for those who are notmotivated by school, other types ofincentives or reinforcement may beneeded in the absence of the joy oflearning for its own sake. Providingappropriate incentives can help getstudents started on the path to suc-cess.40

Trust. Teachers must provide ampleevidence that they believe in their stu-dents.41 They should also design op-portunities and activities to build trustamong students.42 Peer mentoring pro-grams help students build confidenceand learn to be reliable in their re-

sponsibilities toward each other. Adultmentoring programs provide studentswith individuals in their lives who canlisten, encourage, and push them tosucceed.

Break the School Culture of FailureNot all immigrants experience fail-

ure or failing schools, but manyschools have low expectations of im-migrants and minority students, andover time, this can begin to affect stu-dents’ expectations for themselves.Curriculum and instructional ap-proaches employed by the schooloften perpetuate these expectations. insome schools, there is an overempha-sis on basic skills, which can stimulatefeelings of hopelessness regardingcatching up or doing well.43 English-language learners often are groupedwith weaker or slower students, eventhough their ability may be muchgreater than what they are able todemonstrate because of their lack of

vocabulary. Breaking the culture oflow expectations is possible, and thefollowing have proved effective in thisregard:

High expectations. Students whoare caught in a rut of failure often ex-pect teachers to lower the bar so thatthey can succeed. What they need,rather, is consistently high expecta-tions, along with creative ways tohelp them achieve appropriategoals.44

Scaffolded support for learning.Students lacking skills need supportto develop them. Computer-assistedinstruction can be used to supple-ment class instruction.45 Modeling,peer tutoring, and flipped classroominstruction are additional ways ofsupporting learning. Language learn-ers, regardless of language, will needeasier materials, with a lot of pic-tures, to help them build vocabularyand concepts in the different aca-demic fields.

Test-taking skills. Students who donot do well on standardized tests may


Not all

immigrants

experience failure

or failing schools, but

many schools have low

expectations of immigrants

and minority students, and over

time, this can begin to affect

students’ expectations for themselves.

need specific instruction in test-takingskills and activities to reduce test-tak-ing anxiety. Tests are notoriously cul-turally biased, and immigrant studentsare at a disadvantage when it comesto standardized testing, especially.Some schools simply emphasize alter-natives to testing,46 while otherschools choose to teach test-takingskills specifically, explaining thatdoing well on standardized tests re-quires a special kind of knowledgethat they might not get in their otherclasses but that is important toknow.47

Developing a specific skill. Scores ofbooks and movies have been madeabout individual school success storiesrevolving around students learning askill: chess, calculus, writing, or byparticipating in extracurricular clubssuch as Pathfinders where studentscan earn honors for developing spe-cific skills.48 The implication is that ifstudents can learn to do this one diffi-

cult thing, they will develop the self-discipline and commitment to do wellin other areas of their lives. it does notseem to matter what the skill is—thereseems to be some truth to the assump-tion. Success seems to break the cul-ture of failure.

Dismantling ability grouping. Abil-ity grouping, or tracking as it is oftencalled, where brighter students aregrouped together and given more chal-lenging course work and weaker stu-dents are grouped and given “easier”courses, is a problem for nearly allstudents. in some instances, poorer-performing students are steered earlyinto a nonacademic track. Trackinghas been shown to reinforce the cul-ture of failure, providing students whoneed the most help with the weakestteachers and removing peer-role mod-els of success.49 This will not motivateachievement or provide opportunitiesfor improvement.

Make the Curriculum Relevantin many parts of the world, the reg-

ular school curriculum not only oftenfocuses on events determined by themajority culture and rooted in thecountry’s colonial past, it also fre-quently shields students from learninghow to function in real-life settings,which at-risk students might not learnoutside of school.50 frequently, espe-cially in inner-city schools, the cur-riculum is watered down, so thatwhen students graduate from highschool, they are still nowhere nearready for college.51

Culturally appropriate content. Thecurriculum has to make sense to thestudents and prepare them for reallife. Textbooks need to include mul -ticultural images and stories, andspecific materials must be chosen toinclude students’ race and culture, es-pecially for immigrant students.

Bridging. Ross likens the curricu-lum to a bridge between where stu-dents are and where they need to beto attend college and get good jobs.Students need to be systematicallyexposed to the world of work, todifferent professions, and to the col-lege environment.52 This may happenthrough field trips, invited guestspeakers, apprenticeships, or othermeans.

Rigorous academics. The curricu-lum must bring urban students up tothe same level of performance as suc-cessful students in other contexts. fartoo often, although these students at-tend school, the quality of their educa-tion is inadequate.53 if anything, urbanminority students need to know morethan the more affluent majority stu-dents because they will inevitably en-counter some forms of prejudice andsuspicion about their abilities. Thesestudents need access to quality con-tent and resources, and they need toacquire the skills that will help themsucceed in the country in which theylive. The way to achieve this qual -ity may be uniquely tailored to the


In many parts of the

world, the regular school curriculum

not only often focuses on events determined by the

majority culture and rooted in the country’s colonial past, it also frequently shields students from

learning how to function in real-life settings.

strengths and weaknesses of the spe-cific students, but in the end, theymust be able to hold their own in theways that society measures success:on standardized tests, in the collegeclassroom, and on the job.

Breaking down the concept of “chil-dren of color.” Whitmire suggests thatblacks and hispanics need to betaught differently and not lumped to-gether as “children of color.” he ex-plains:

“At successful all-black schools,school staffs build cultures based onsocial justice and employ highly struc-tured curricula that emphasize verbalinstruction. . . .

“At successful hispanic schools,you are more likely to see a schoolculture based on connections to familywith teachers employing an unstruc-tured curriculum emphasizing visualinstruction.”54 This is a concept thatclearly needs further study and experi-mentation. in a highly diverse setting,we cannot afford to pretend that allstudents need the same things, givenwhat we know about learning stylesand multiple intelligences.

Appropriate language. English-lan-guage learners, typically immigrantstudents, may need different types ofmaterials than do those who speak thenative language(s). Poor readers mayneed a greater quantity of easier mate-rials with pictures that will help thembridge the gap from where they are towhere they need to be. Language iskey to school success, and improvinglanguage skills will often improveother skills, such as math.55 This is animperative for immigrant students.

Reduce Cultural ConflictMany students, especially immi-

grant children, find a large gap be-tween their home culture and the onethey experience at school. Becauseculture is rarely talked about—we pre-sume that everyone knows certainthings—minority and immigrant stu-dents are often expected to knowthings they have never heard, seen, or

experienced. Sometimes this gap ismore of a conflict, where school val-ues contradict values learned athome.56 Majority culture must not beset as the norm; standards can be ar-ticulated from universal values andprinciples for living such as fairness,equality, empathy, cooperation, andothers that have a place in most cul-tures.

Teaching culture overtly. Many mi-nority students do not come to schoolwith the set of social skills expectedfor a privileged-class lifestyle. immi-grant children often bring totally dif-ferent worldviews to their new homesand educational settings. Studentsneed to know that their own cultureis not bad but that they need to learna second culture in order to be suc-cessful in the mainstream job marketof their current environment. Becom-ing multicultural is a tool they canuse for success. According to dougRoss, “When you think about it, it’snot surprising that expecting poorchildren living in class-segregatedcommunities to flourish in a middle-class [privileged-class] world wouldrequire they be taught how to do itand given the chance to practice inreal middle-class education and worksettings. Schools that focus only onthe 3 Rs, and are not organized toteach such beliefs and behaviors,consistently fail to produce studentswho meet the broader community’sexpectations of graduation and post-secondary success.”57

Culturally appropriate teachingmethods and curricula. differing ap-proaches that favor the cultural prefer-ences of the students will meet withmore success than textbook methods.Schools cannot provide every childwith a teacher from his or her culture,even though evidence suggests thatthis is helpful to their progress.58 in-cluding celebrations of students’ cul-tures and guests from a variety of eth-

nic groups could at least help to in-crease the relevance for all learnersand, therefore, increase immigrantchildren’s interest in succeeding in anew environment.

Reducing prejudice. Celebrate thecultures that are found in your class-room. Provide opportunities for stu-dents to share their cultures with therest of the class. design materials andactivities to reduce racial and ethnicprejudice. discuss conflict and how todeal with it peacefully. Teach equityand social justice, and look for oppor-tunities to practice them both in theclassroom and in the community.59

ConclusionAs Christian educators, we need to

celebrate all learners and seek to edu-cate according to the immediateneeds of our students. As studentpopulations—especially in urban cen-ters—grow more diverse, schoolsmust become more culturally respon-sive. our schools must provide scaf-folding in areas where students expe-rience knowledge gaps and need tosucceed—language, computer skills,and math. Classrooms need to havegeneral-knowledge materials withlots of pictures, materials that cele-brate the cultures represented in theschool, and materials that are appro-priately designed for language learn-ers.

Schools must emphasize equityand cultivate an environment whereteachers and students develop bondsof trust and acceptance. They mustteach in interactive ways, engage par-ents and communities, and provideall students with access to meaning-ful and rigorous curriculum andlearning experiences. Adventistschools in urban settings must en-courage faith development, maintainhigh expectations for all students,and explicitly bring students’ diversebackgrounds and cultural resourcesinto the curriculum in purposefulways by tapping into students’ multi-ple ways of knowing and representing


the world. What works in highly di-verse urban settings is not so dif -ferent from what works in otherschools, but when students come toschool with multiple challenges, get-ting these things right can make allthe difference.

This article has been peer reviewed.

Shawna Vyh - meister, PhD, is aProfessor of Edu-cation at MiddleEast University inBeirut, Lebanon.She is an experi-enced teacher with

degrees in elementary education,teaching English as a second lan-guage, and curriculum and instruc-tion. Dr. Vyhmeister has taught at alllevels, and in multiple countries—Rwanda, Argentina, the UnitedStates, Kenya, and Lebanon. She hasauthored and co-authored several arti-cles and books.

Lourdes E. Mo -rales-Gudmunds-son, PhD, chairsthe World Lan-guages Depart-ment at La SierraUniversity, River-side, California,

United States. During her 40-plus yearsas an educator, she has taught Spanishlanguage and literature at AtlanticUnion College (Massachusetts, UnitedStates), Antillean College (PuertoRico), and the University of Connecti-cut, Stamford campus, United States.Although the focus of her research liesin the literatures of Spain and SpanishAmerica, she has been actively en-gaged with the Latino communities ofthe United States. Currently, she is on

�

the executive committee of ALCANCE,an organization that helps Latino Ad-ventist students access Christian edu-cation through mentoring and scholar-ships.

NOTES AND REFERENCES1. Mark Curtis, “A World of discrimina-

tion: Minorities, indigenous Peoples, and Ed-ucation,” in State of the World’s Minoritiesand Indigenous Peoples 2009, Preti Taneja,ed.: http://minorityrights.org/wp-content/ up loads/old-site-downloads/download-649-full-text.pdf.

2. According to the most recent reportfrom uNESCo, 61 million children of pri-mary school age, 60 million of lower second-ary school age, and 142 million of uppersecondary school age are out of school (uN-ESCo institute of Statistics [July 2016]:http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/ oosc-data-release-2016.aspx.

3. Curtis, “A World of discrimination,” 17. 4. Gary orfield and Chungmei Lee, Why

Segregation Matters: Poverty and EducationalInequality (January 2005), 4: http://www. civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/why-segregation-matters-poverty-and-educational-inequality/orfield-why-segregation-matters-2005.pdf.

5. organisation for Economic Coopera-tion and development, “Ten Steps to Equityin Education,” Policy Brief (January 2008):7: http://www.oecd.org/education/school/39989494.pdf.

6. Zvi Berkmen and Thomas Geisman,eds., International Handbook of Migration,Minorities, and Education: UnderstandingCultural and Social Differences in Processesof Learning (dordrecht, Netherlands:Springer, 2012), 16.

7. Kelvin M. Pollard and William P.o’hare, “America’s Racial and Ethnic Minori-ties,” Population Bulletin 54:3 (September1999): 43: http://www.prb.org/Source/ 54.3 AmerRacialEthnicMinor.pdf?q=543-minoritiesMichael.

8. due to wars and political unrest in var-ious parts of the world, many countries arenow receiving more refugees. for a discus-sion of this concern, see Curtis, “A World ofdiscrimination,” pages 13-15, where al-though some statistics are estimated, he con-cludes that we know little about the educa-tional status of the world’s minorities.

9. The data in this article are drawn pri-marily from studies done in the unitedStates, which has been tracking minority ed-ucation for quite some time. All nations have

a variety of people groups; however, re-search on these groups is not as complete oras readily available.

10. Yang Jiang, Mercedes Ekono, andCurtis Skinner, “Basic facts About Low-in-come Children: Children under 18 Years,2012,” National Center for Children inPoverty fact Sheet (february 2014): http:// www.nccp.org/publications/pub_1089.html.

11. Min Zhou, “Growing up American:The Challenge Confronting immigrant Chil-dren and Children of immigrants,” AnnualReview of Sociology 23 (1997): 65: http:// www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/zhou/pubs/ Zhou_GrowingupAmerican.pdf.

12. Council of the Great City Schools,“urban School Statistics”: http://www.cgcs. org/domain/24.

13. National Center for Education Statis-tics, “Statistics and Trends in the Educationof Racial and Ethnic Minorities” (May 2015):http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2015/2015144.pdf.

14. federal interagency forum on Childand family Statistics, “America’s Children:Key National indicators of Well-Being, 2013”(Washington, d.C.: u.S. Government Printingoffice), 8: http://www.childstats.gov/pdf/ ac2013/ac_13.pdf.

15. Suet-ling Pong and Nancy S. Landale,“Academic Achievement of Legal immigrants’Children: The Roles of Parents’ Pre- and Post-Migration Characteristics in origin-group dif-ferences,” Child Development 83 (2012):1545. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01790.x.

16. federal interagency forum on Childand family Statistics, “America’s Children.”

17. Pong and Landale, “Academic Achieve-ment of Legal immigrants’ Children,” 1, 543.

18. Alejandro Portes and Lingxin hao,“The Schooling of Children of immigrants:Contextual Effects on the Educational Attain-ment of the Second Generation,” CrossMark101 (2004): abstract, para. 2. doi:10.1073/ pnas.0403418101.

19. doug Ross, “urban Education: TheKids Are Alright . . . The Schools Aren’t: Les-sons Learned by an Ex-Politician in inner-City detroit,” Dome (September 16, 2010),para. 3: http://domemagazine.com/feat ures/cov0910.

20. david horowitz and John Perazzo, Gov-ernment Versus the People: The Four PoorestAmerican Cities (Sherman oaks, Calif.: davidhorowitz freedom Center, 2012), 36, 37.

21. W. huitt, “Maslow’s hierarchy ofNeeds,” Educational Psychology Interactive(Valdosta, Ga.: Valdosta State university,2007): http://www.edpsycinteractive. org/ topics/conation/maslow.html; Cotton, “Edu-


cating urban Minority Youth,” para. 1.22. Kathleen Cotton, “Educating urban

Minority Youth: Research on Effective Prac-tices,” School improvement Research Series(1999), para. 6.

23. ibid., para. 7.24. Thomas S. dee, “The Race Connec-

tion,” Education Next 4:2 (Spring 2004): http:// educationnext.org/the-race-connection/.

25. Mildred L. Rice Jordan, “Cultural Con-flicts in the urban Classroom: Black StudentAlienation and Academic failure”: http:// www.learningace.com/doc/1856329/2a58e2025, 6. Retrieved January 11, 2017; orangeCounty Public Schools Curriculum and Stu-dent Services, “Strategies for improvinginstruction for Black and hispanic Male Stu-dents” (June 2008), 3: https://www.ocps.net/ cs/services/initiatives/documents/Strategies%20document.pdf.

26. hersh C. Waxman, Jon P. Gray, andYolanda N. Padrón, Review of Research onEducational Resilience, Research Report No.11, Center for Research on Education, diver-sity, and Excellence, university of California,Santa Cruz (2003).

27. James Comer, Leave No Child Behind:Preparing Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’sWorld (New haven, Conn.: Yale universityPress, 2005).

28. Ross, “urban Education,” para. 7.29. See for example, Linda darling ham-

mond et al., Powerful Learning: What WeKnow About Teaching for Understanding(San francisco, Calif.: John Wiley and Sons,2008).

30. Cotton, “Educating urban MinorityYouth,” para. 18.

31. ibid., para. 21; see also some of theoriginal research in this area; for example,Robert Slavin and E. oickle, “Effects ofCooperative Learning Teams on StudentAchievement and Race Relations: Treatmentby Race interactions,” Sociology of Education54:3 (July 1981): 174-180; Robert Slavin andRobert Cooper, “improving intergroup Rela-tions: Lessons Learned from CooperativeLearning Programs,” Journal of Social Issues55:4 (Winter 1999): 647-663. doi:10.1111/ 0022- 4537. 00140.

32. Sonya douglass horsford and Toniaholmes-Sutton, “Parent and family Engage-ment: The Missing Piece in urban EducationReform,” The Lincy Institute Policy Brief, Ed-ucation Series No. 2 (August 2012): http:// www.unlv.edu/sites/default/files/24/Brief-Parent-Engagement-August2012.pdf.

33. orange County Public Schools,“Strategies for improving instruction,” 3, 7;Ross, “urban Education,” paras. 3, 4.

34. Ross, “urban Education,” paras. 8, 9.

35. William h. Jeynes, “The Effects ofReligious Commitment on the AcademicAchievement of Black and hispanic Chil-dren,” Urban Education 34:4 (November1999): 460. doi:10.1177/0042085999344003.

36. Adventist Today News Team, “Studyof Education outcomes Places AdventistSchools Significantly Ahead of PublicSchools,” Adventist Today (last modifiedApril 4, 2013): http://atoday.org/study-of-education-outcomes-places-adventist-schools-significantly-ahead-of-public-schools/; LarryBurton, “Adventist Schools,” in The PraegerHandbook of Faith-based Schools in theUni ted States, K-12, Thomas C. hunt andJames C. Carper, eds. (Santa Barbara, Calif.:ABC-CLio, 2012), 189–200; Jeynes, “Effectsof Religious Commitment,” 460.

37. Burton, “Adventist Schools,” ibid., 198.38. Jeynes, “Effects of Religious Commit-

ment,” 470, 476; See also CognitiveGenesis:http://adventisteducation.org/assessment/cognitive_genesis/overview for research onthe impact of Adventist education.

39. See Grant Wiggins, “Less Teaching,More Assessing: Learning via feedback,” Ed-ucation Update 48:2 (february 2006); henryL. Roediger iii, Adam L. Putnam, and MeganA. Smith, “Chapter one—Ten Benefits ofTesting and Their Applications to Educa-tional Practice,” Psychology of Learning andMotivation 55 (2011): 1-36.

40. for a discussion of testing of financialincentives, for example, see Roland G. fryerJr., “financial incentives and StudentAchievement: Evidence from RandomizedTrials”: http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/ fryer/files/financial_incentives_and_student_achievement_evidence_from_randomized_trials.pdf.

41. orange County Public Schools,“Strategies for improving instruction,” 6.

42. ibid.43. LaVada Taylor Brandon and Mary J.

didelot, Being Black in U.S. Urban Schools:No Assumptions (2003), para. 1; Jordan,“Cultural Conflicts in the urban Classroom,”para. 1.

44. Cotton, “Educating urban MinorityYouth,” para. 8; Ross, “urban Education,”para. 3.

45. Lindsay Lipscomb, Janet Swanson,and Anne West, “Scaffolding,” Emerging Per-spectives on Learning, Teaching, and Tech-nology, Michael orey, ed. (2004): http:// epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Scaffolding.

46. Bob Peterson and Monty Neill, “Alter-

natives to Standardized Tests,” RethinkingSchools (2011): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n7xTA91riZ3dmPbbSWMCorJfmvvvs7P-ubliVabyi5w/edit?hl=en_uS.

47. See, for example, Robert Slavin, Edu-cational Psychology: Theory and Practice(Boston: Pearson Education, 2011), 521.

48. Books and movies such as FreedomWriters, Stand and Deliver, Mad Hot Ball-room, Brooklyn Castle, and many more re-veal this pattern of crossover skills.

49. National Education Association, “Re-search Spotlight on Academic Ability Group-ing” (1999): http://www.nea.org/tools/ 16899. htm.

50. orange County Public Schools,“Strategies for improving instruction,” 12;Ross, “urban Education,” para. 3.

51. Ross, “urban Education,” paras. 3, 4.52. ibid., paras. 13, 14.53. Curtis, “A World of discrimination,”

17-19.54. Richard Whitmire, “Teach Black and

hispanic Students differently,” USA Today,last modified May 1, 2012, “Success in SanJose” section, paras. 4, 5: http:// usatoday30. usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-05-01/education-achievement-gap-blacks-hispanics/54668664/1.

55. diana Metsisto, “Reading in theMathematics Classroom,” in Literacy Strate-gies for Improving Mathematics Instruction,Joan M. Kenney et al. (Alexandria, Va.:ASCd, 2005): http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105137/chapters/Reading-in-the-Mathematics-Classroom.aspx; ArthurGlenberg et al., “improving Reading to im-prove Math,” Scientific Studies of Reading16:4 (June 2011): 316-340; William G. Se -cada, “Race, Ethnicity, Social Class, Lan-guage, and Achievement in Mathematics,” inHandbook of Research on MathematicsTeaching and Learning, douglas A. Grouws,ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 623-660.

56. Sara Expósito and Alejandra favela,“Reflective Voices: Valuing immigrant Stu-dents and Teaching With ideological Clar-ity,” The Urban Review 35:1 (Spring 2003):75.

57. Ross, “urban Education,” para. 15.58. dee, “The Race Connection,” para. 4.59. Several resources are available to

classroom teachers who desire to create awelcoming, empowering classroom. See“Classroom Resources,” Teaching Tolerance:http://www.tolerance.org/classroom-resources; “Tips for Elementary SchoolTeachers,” Understanding Prejudice:http://www.understandingprejudice.org/teach/elemtips.htm.


o our thoughts influence what we do and feel?As a teacher, i have always been interested in ex-ploring what contributes to the motivation andself-confidence of my students as they take on newtasks or learning opportunities. This interest led me

to eventually study to be a psychologist, which in turn intro-duced me to the research on the important role our thoughtshave on actions and emotions. often, these thoughts and mes-sages expressed from our inner voice happen without our evenrealizing it.

internal dialogue is known as “self-talk.” Siegrist1 de-scribes self-talk as a person’s inner speech, either aloud orwithin his or her own thoughts. This inner voice, which canbe positive or negative, is often a subtle running commen-tary in people’s mind, reinforcing and confirming personalperceptions and beliefs about themselves and/or the worldaround them. Positive self-talk helps people to feel goodabout themselves and increases motivation and feelings ofcompetence. Negative self-talk tends to bring people down,leading them to give up or become overwhelmed with badthoughts. Consequently, the negative self-talk generated byeach of our students is potentially one of the most detrimentalsources of criticism they will ever have to face, especially

since such self-dialogue is constant and often goes un-challenged.

Although i was unaware of the importance of self-talkas a third-grader, i do remember being affected by it. i hadjust moved to a new school, and the teacher announcedshe would be putting the class into different reading groupsthe next day based on how well we read. i took my readingbook home to practice with my mom. i wanted to be in the“best” reading group because i knew one of my new friendswould likely be assigned to that group, too. i liked readingwith my mom. She listened well and gave me suggestions onhow to improve my reading. “Take a breath after each periodto pause a bit,” she would say, or “Please reread that partwith a sad voice because the boy in the story is sad.” hercompliments came readily. “Great job. You are such a goodreader!” she would encourage over and over, as i drank it allin. The following day when my teacher told me that she en-

joyed how well i read, i remember thinking, “of course i’m agood reader. Even my mom told me that!” from then on, formany years to come, positive self-talk about my reading skillscame easily to me.

But the opposite is also true. Negative messages we tellourselves as children may also affect us, especially if they go

B Y N A N C Y J . C A R B O N E L L


D

S E L F - T A L K :

Friend or Foe?

unchallenged. for example, i rarely batted well in softball andoften got to first base only after four balls and a “walk.” Manytimes, though, my “impatience” led to a “STRiKE ouT!” callfrom the umpire. if i got up to bat when the bases wereloaded, i would hear my teammates’ voices of doom: “oh no,she’s up to bat!” while simultaneous squeals of delight em-anated from the opposing team!

on these occasions, my self-talk went like this: “oh, no! Whyme?” “i can’t hit the stupid ball far enough!” “We’re going tolose because of me!” “i can’t bat!” “i hate playing ball!” i wasdefeated before even going up to bat because my negative self-talk made me my worst critic! i would repeat over and over “ican’t bat. i hate softball” and avoided playing softball as best icould . . . that is, until highschool when an affirmingphysical education teacherhelped me change my self-talk. her support helpedme begin to tell myself,“She believes in me. Give itanother try.” And so i did.in 12th grade, by the endof october, i became thepitcher of our senior soft-ball team! This illustrationreveals how easily one canget stuck by focusing onone’s negative self-talk,which can erode self-con -fidence and self-esteem,thereby impeding motiva-tion to try anything!

Let’s pause here a mo-ment to explore the possi-bility that a person really isterrible at softball, math, orpublic speaking. Rarely is anyone good at everything! in fact,it would be ineffective and unhelpful to avoid recognizingthe truth. So how does one decide whether his or her nega-tive self-talk is true or not, and if true, what makes it de-structive? Negative self-talk is particularly damaging whenit keeps us mired in feelings of failure. While it may be im-possible to consistently engage in positive internal dialogueduring challenging times, intentionally working on limitingthe use of negative self-talk and focusing rather on one’sstrengths is important and a better use of mental energy. iwould suggest becoming intentionally aware of one’s self-talk, assess what evidence supports it, seek outside feed-back, and then focus on what strengths can move us for-ward.

Good use of self-talk would have guided me to recognizemy deficits in softball, while also identifying my strengths.for example, “i’m not great at softball and dislike playing it,but i am a great cheerleader for my friends who are playingon the field.” Another example would be “i may sing badly,but i can give a great speech!” This kind of self-talk focuseson the things one can do well.

Importance of Self-TalkThe early work of researchers in this area2 suggested that

positive self-statements and images are so powerful that theyhave positive effects on stored knowledge of self; they preparea person to engage in future positive behaviors. Conversely,negative self-statements and images have deleterious effectson stored knowledge of self and stimulate subsequent nega-tive behaviors.

Self-talk starts in the early years of childhood and comesnaturally to everyone. our private talk messages stem fromthe beliefs we develop about ourselves throughout our life-time, assimilated from the way we interpret messages fromothers (parents, siblings, relatives, classmates, teachers,

bosses, etc.). By inten-tionally listening to yourown self-talk, you canevaluate how you seeyourself. do you likeyourself? do you tend tofeel defeated before eventrying? do you feel con-fident? do you see your -self as a winner or aloser? Each of us uses in-ternal dialogue to assesswho we are, how otherssee us, how we see our-selves, what we feel wecan or cannot do, howwell we do things, whatdecisions we will make,and whether or not weare valued. it’s like aninner critic that neverstops—constantly affect-ing our actions and deci-

sions. it is important to stay in tune with the tone of thesemessages and the way we appraise ourselves.

Research suggests that self-talk is key to how people ap-proach life and deal with life’s challenges. it can increase mo-tivation, reduce stress, alleviate fears, improve one’s perform-ance in sports and competitive activities, and increase feelingsof self-competence and self-esteem.3

A study by Kross et al.4 suggests that how one positivelyself-talks is also important. When we self-talk using the firstperson pronoun “i,” we are usually talking about our per-sonal emotions and emotional self. however, positive self-talk that seeks to provide a call of action or directive is mosteffective when it promotes self-distancing, either by “self-talking” using a second-person pronoun (“You will do fine.”)or third-person pronouns (“She will do fine.”) when refer-ring to self. They suggest that self-distancing appears to helppeople cope not only with depression and anger related toruminating over the past but also with social anxiety sur-rounding the future. in short, to achieve motivational changeand drive, self-talk using the second- or third-person pro-nouns is most effective.


Self-Talk in the Bible—Elijah one Bible story that illustrates the power of self-talk is found

in 1 Kings 18 and 19, where God asks Elijah to go up and con-front King Ahab, Queen Jezebel, and her 450 prophets of Baal,in order to see who is more powerful, Baal or the God of israel.After a long, grueling day of watching the prophets of Baalshouting and pleading unsuccessfully to their god, Elijah stepsup to take his turn, prays a simple prayer to God and zap! Abolt of fire from heaven instantly consumes the sacrifice, whichhad been drenched in water. And as a bonus, no sooner hadElijah asked God to end the three-year drought, the skies “grewblack with clouds, the wind rose, (and) a heavy rain startedfalling” (1 Kings 18:45, NiV).5 Great day for Elijah and all ofGod’s followers! God’s power was manifested for all to see!

one would think Elijah would say to himself, “Wow! WithGod for me, who can be against me?” however, soon after thisgreat triumph, Elijah is prostrate with fear because “powerful,”scary Jezebel is on her way to end his life! As he flees to thedesert to hide from her, he expresses his own death wish bysaying, “‘i have had enough, LoRd. . . . Take my life’” (1 Kings19:4, NiV). This does not make sense to any of us looking on!how can Elijah, one minute, experience God’s great power andomnipotence, and the next, run scared? What’s going on?

This is a good example of how negative self-talk can lead usto depressive thoughts and to the conviction that we are doomedfor failure even when we have the resources standing by to helpus succeed! Most likely, Elijah’s inner talk went something likethis: “She’ll find me and rip me apart! i won’t be able to defendmyself! i’m alone, and she has many soldiers to fight for her!Run!” Even though Elijah was standing in the “rains” of God’salmighty power, his negative self-talk overwhelmed him.

Self-Talk in Schools Vygostky,6 one of the first educators to point out the im-

portance of self-talk, described how generally, in young chil-dren, this occurs in an overt fashion. As children develop, thedialogue becomes more internal as it forms a part of theirdaily experience and existence, even though it is often unseenby onlookers. Self-talk can be instrumental in anticipating re-jection, disapproval, embarrassment, helplessness, hopeless-ness, and feelings of rejection in children. Those who displaymeasureable negative affectivity, anxiousness, and depressiveself-talk may struggle academically if the symptoms are notproperly identified and addressed. in fact, clinical trials haveshown that negative self-talk can serve as a predictor for twodisorders found in approximately 10 percent of children today:anxiety disorders and depressive disorders.7

As educators, we can apply self-talk to our school commu-nity. As discussed above, self-dialogue can be positive or neg-ative, so it’s necessary to teach our students that positive self-talk is uplifting, encouraging, motivating, and inspiring whilenegative self-talk is stunting, anxiety producing, adverse, anddestructive. identifying the self-talk our students use offers usa glimpse of whether the messages they repeat about them-selves are helpful. Children are often unaware of the runningdialogue in their heads or the power of this type of talk. help-ing them tune in to their self-talk can help them better regulate

these messages in a way that benefits them, whether it becalming themselves in an anxious moment or stopping self-de-feating talk such as “No one likes me, and i have no friends.”

Many researchers believe that what happens to us in life isthe primary cause of why we feel angry, hurt, stupid, rejected,stressed, or anxious. Thanks to the work of Albert Ellis, AaronBeck, and daniel Meichenbaum,8 world-renowned psychother-apists whose professional work highlighted the need to inten-tionally explore one’s thinking, we now know the importanceof eliminating negative thinking in order to respond and/or be-have in a more functional way. unchecked, negative self-talkcan impede motivation and future successes and affect how weinterpret events in our lives. for instance, let us say that Jake9

is bringing his girlfriend Susan a gift, an album from one of herfavorite artists. She sees him ap-proaching and says to herself(self-talk), smiling, “hetruly likes me. he remem-bered my birthday, andi’m special to him.”how will Susan reactto the gift? Whatevershe does, we know itwill most likely bepositive, right? But, onthe other hand, if shehas been told byfriends that Jake andAmanda were seen hold-ing hands and texting eachother, she might think to her-self, “That creep! he knows ifound out that he’s been flirting withAmanda, and now he bought this album to appease me!? We’refinished!” how will she respond to him now? Most likely, verynegatively! Even if he says to her, “But i like you and want tobe your boyfriend,” if Susan continues to believe he’s playingher, nothing will change her mind or her reaction.

Now, whether or not Susan becomes depressed will alsolikely depend on her self-talk. Let’s say she tells herself, “i’mno good. i’m not as attractive as Amanda—no wonder he likesher better,” then most likely this will reaffirm her feelings oflow self-esteem and unattractiveness and possibly lead herinto depression. if, however, she tells herself, “i’m glad ifound out now what he’s like. i deserve better,” then she willmost likely get over the event more quickly and move on. Yousee, it is often not really the event that affects our feelings butrather what we believe and tell ourselves about what happensto us that shapes our feelings.

Steps to Better Self-TalkMaking friends out of foes—negative self-talk—takes in-

tentionality, consistency, and perseverance. here are five stepsthat will help teachers with this task personally and in theirclassrooms:

1. Start with yourself as a person, as a teacher. What isyour self-talk like?


“I’m no good. I’m not as attrac-tive as Amanda—

no wonder helikes her better.”

2. Tune in to the self-talk of your students and help themdevelop awareness of how this shapes their attitudes. is self-talk their friend or their foe?

3. implement activities that guide students’ self-talk to thepositive, productive, and empowering end of the spectrum.

4. Surround yourself with positive energy.5. find a resource in God and contemplate how valuable

he regards you and your students to be.Step one. Start with yourself. What is your self-talk like?

Think about what triggers your positive or negative self-talkduring the day. Keep a journal. it will be easier to help yourstudents identify their self-talk if you have gone through theprocess yourself.

Step one is not just about identifying your self-talk messagesbut also about projecting your best

talk outward. intentionallywork to make your class-

room an affirming place.Watch for opportunitiesto affirm what yourstudents are doing.did you see one childhelp another? Affirmthat, as well as thestudent. “Jon, i likedhow you helped Sam.You are so thought-ful.” did you observe a

student studying quietlyat her desk? Walk over

and affirm her. “Nikki, i seehow quietly you are reading at

your desk. Great job. You know how touse your time wisely.” Become the role model they need to seehow it is done.

Studies suggest that statements made by significant others inthe lives of children and young adults have an influence on help-ing them develop a better self-concept and healthier self-talk.10

According to harter,11 these significant others are the children’sparents, teachers, classmates, and close friends. When teachersmake a conscious effort to model positive feedback to their stu-dents, this contributes positively to their helpful self-talk.

Children who reported that significant others talked posi-tively to them appeared to have higher positive self-talk andlower negative self-talk than children who stated that signifi-cant others said negative things to them.12 Researchers Craven,Marsh, and debus report that children will actually internalizethe positive feedback they receive from teachers, such as “Youdid well on that spelling test, congratulations,” and use this toinform their personal self-talk (“i am good at spelling,”) andto confidently complete similar tasks in the future. from theseself-statements, children create self-concepts that describe theirskills and impact their interests. Burnett13 calls this the “powerof positive” because the teacher is improving the school envi-ronment by increasing the number of positive self-statementsin the classroom and creating a healthier learning environment.

Additionally, students copy what they see. if they observe

that a teacher treats others with patience, respect, and kind-ness, they will be inclined to do the same. Teachers must keepin mind that what they say, how much they say, how they sayit, and to whom they say it can greatly influence a child’s es-timation of self-worth and also affect how students treat oneanother. if, for example, students see that their teacher dislikesBrandon and finds him annoying, they will likely develop thesame attitude. The opposite is also true: if the teacher’s atti-tude toward Brandon is one that recognizes him as a valuedmember of the class, they will tend to do the same.

Step two. observe and listen to your students’ inner talk tofind out what they are telling themselves. Sometimes they willexpress their feelings out loud. if students are engaging in pos-itive self-talk, they are more likely to say “i can do this,” “i’llgive it a try,” “i am liked,” and “i have good friends” (to namea few). This self-talk will most likely lead to their trying harderto memorize their multiplication tables, to sound out difficultvocabulary words, or to cope better when friends rebuff them.if students’ self-talk is negative, you will hear statements suchas “No one likes me,” “i’m stupid,” “i can’t do it,” or “i’llnever get this.” This could indicate that such children are de-pressed because they believe they have no friends, or feel over-whelmed by problems they feel incapable of solving.

Another way to pick up on your students’ negative internalmessages is to observe their behavior. for example, are they notturning in homework, eating alone at lunch, or not playing withothers during recess? Ask them why they are not turning in theirhomework or tend to be alone as well as what they are thinking.

finding ways for students to identify and become aware ofself-talk messages can help them change the ones that drive themtoward failure. Activities such as keeping a writing journal of thethoughts that help or don’t help them, or discussing the topic inclass after reading a story (such as The Little Engine That Could)are great ways to develop such self-awareness. Presenting caseexamples or watching movie clips and then having the studentsidentify and discuss the self-talk of the people in the story willalso help to demonstrate the effects of one’s inner dialogue.

After such discussions, encourage students to write abouttheir personal struggles and look for insights into the self-talkthey use every day. Ask them which negative dialogues theywould like to change into more positive ones. These exercisesand discussions will help them learn to pay attention to thethoughts that cause the emotions they feel.

Remember, self-talk often occurs at a low level of awarenesssince our attitudes and beliefs develop throughout our lives,and it often results from the feedback we receive from lovedones, teachers, and friends. Recognition is the main task dur-ing the early steps. if students don’t recognize what kind ofself-talk they use, the negative messages will continue to dom-inate, depriving them of the positive self-dialogue that can helpthem cope, stay motivated, and feel good about themselves.

helping students to identify and modify their self-talk will alsohelp them to effectively regulate their emotions,14 which can helpreduce impulsiveness and enhance self-control. This enablesthem to introduce other people’s perspectives into their privatespeech and to incorporate multiple perspectives into their socialand emotional problem solving, which can affect their self-con-


“I’m glad I foundout now whathe’s like. I deservebetter.”

cept,15 enhancing their empathyand understanding of otherpeople’s viewpoints. The abilityto successfully modify negativeself-talk appears to be a goodpredictor of one’s emotional in-telligence.16 Emotional intelli-gence can be defined as theability to monitor one’s ownand other people’s emotions, todiscriminate between differentemotions and label them appro-priately, and to use emotionalinformation to guide thinkingand behavior.17 Strengtheningabilities to join intelligence, em-pathy, and emotions to en-hance thought and understand-ing of interpersonal dynamics iscritical to developing emotionalintelligence.18

Step three. implement activi-ties in the classroom that guideself-talk toward the positive, pro-ductive, and empowering end ofthe self-talk spectrum. Educatestudents about the dangers ofnegative self-talk and how toovercome it. Some examples of such activities include the fol-lowing:

• Create a unit on the importance of self-talk, and have thewhole class identify the difference between positive self-dia-logue and negative self-talk. The unit can be integrated into theelementary and secondary curriculum, as either a stand-alonemodule or a supplement in subjects such as religion or health.

• devise topical lessons and themes for the month usingcatchy phrases such as “deleting defective files,” “Positiveuploads,” “Stomp out Mind Viruses fast” or “Think Posi-tive!” (or invent your own).

• Write and have the students act out a play that demon-strates the power of self-talk, and then have the students makepreparations to present the skit for students in earlier grades.

• initiate classroom discussions on how to pick out themessages that are detrimental to our internal dialogue and re-place them with positive ones.

• Create a game where students pair contrasting negativemessages with positive ones.

• find ways to encourage the whole class to watch out fornegative self-talk and turn it around. Be a role model.

• Say something negative, and then correct it. for example,if a teacher makes a mistake and calls a child the wrong name,the teacher could say “i’m so forgetful!” and then add, “Waita minute. Sometimes i make mistakes, but i keep trying to dobetter.”

• have students share ways they have used self-talk to helpthemselves overcome difficult tasks or situations as they happen.

• Address these issues at Parent Teacher Association (PTA)


meetings or Parent Night. Getthe students’ families and theschool family working on thistogether.

inserting positive self-talk asquickly and concretely as possi-ble and replacing negative self-talk are key. finding ways tohave your students practice shut-ting off the negative words byactually telling themselves to“SToP” the thought is a great self-talk activity to practice through-out the day. in psychology, thisis a technique called “thoughtstopping.” it has been shown tohelp one snap out of the negativecycle one can get into.19 The ear-lier our students can cut off theseattitudes, the better. Model howto do this. for example, tell themthat if they catch themselves say-ing “i’ll never pass this test,”they should immediately rejectthe negative thought and replaceit with a statement that is morerational and accurate. for exam-ple: “i can pass if i prepare my-

self adequately for the test,” or “i’m no dummy. i’ve passedmany tests before.” or “i can do this. i will start preparing rightaway.” Not only are these thoughts more truthful, but they alsodisplace the negative attitude with more productive, helpfulones. Provide students with lists of negative messages and worktogether to identify positive answers to them.

Engaging in these activities and others you continue to createwill not only contribute to a more affirming and supportiveclassroom environment but also help students blossom with thepositive spirit generated by positive self-talk. These activitieswill also help children who do not receive many good messagesfrom other people and teach them how to develop them.

Step four. Cultivate and nurture a positive atmosphere through-out the school. discuss how to be a positive, uplifting friend andwhy negative self-talk is a “downer.” discuss how friendships cansupport either positive or negative self-talk, and role-play howthis happens and what it looks like. Schedule a week when every-one is asked to search for and find positive, uplifting messages insongs and music and have them share them in class, telling whythey think the message is a positive one. Create a unit with thefollowing assignments: identify positive uplifting messages inbooks, music, and other media and share them with classmates.After a discussion, ask the students to take a few moments to de-scribe the positive thoughts these books led them to experience.Brainstorm other forms of entertainment in which one could en-gage daily that would produce positive energy.

Step five. As Christians, we believe we can find a new resourcein God, which can also improve our self-talk. Thoughts such as“i’m no good” can be transformed to “God loves me and i’m valu-

As Christians, we believe we

can find a new resource in God,

which can also improve our

self-talk. Thoughts such as “I’m

no good” can be transformed to

“God loves me and I’m valu-

able” (per John 3:16). Or mes-

sages of “I’m alone and have

no one” can be replaced with

words of comfort from Christ

who tells us, “‘I will not leave

you as orphans; I will come to

you’” (John 14:18, NIV).

able” (per John 3:16). or messages of “i’m alone and have no one”can be replaced with words of comfort from Christ who tells us,“‘i will not leave you as orphans; i will come to you’” (John 14:18,NiV). Teachers can add these beautiful thoughts to any lesson onself-talk. Paul’s thoughts, when understood in the context of theimportance of positive self-talk, take on a whole new meaning:“finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble,whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whateveris admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—thinkabout such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heardfrom me, or seen in me—put it into practice.” “And the peace ofGod, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heartsand your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:8, 9, 7, NiV).

have discussions in class about how to treat and interactwith others, keeping in mind that we are all God’s children.discuss ways we can be uplifting and positive in our Christianwalk, identifying how Christ did this while he was on Earth.

By practicing these steps, teachers and their students willget into the habit of thinking positively. Be patient. it maytake many weeks or months to refute the repertoire of nega-tive messages. identifying this kind of “self-indoctrination,”challenging it, and replacing it with healthier self-talk presentsthe same sort of challenge as breaking any entrenched habit.it may take a lot of work, but in the end, it is well worth it.Teachers will be amazed as these strategies will help improvethe spirit of love and support in their classrooms, leading tohealthier, happier, more positive, and productive lives forthemselves and their students.

.


Nancy J. Carbonell, PhD, is a Professorin the Department of Graduate Psychologyand Counseling at Andrews University,Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States.A licensed psychologist, Dr. Carbonell alsomaintains a part-time private practice inthe Berrien Springs area. She has pub-lished in the areas of family life, race rela-

tions, and the power of self-talk. Her research interests includeunderstanding diversity, the effect of values and beliefs on mul-ticultural relations, and the ethical training of counselors.

�

Psychology: The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions,”American Psychologist 56:3 (March 2001): 218-226; Eric L. Garland etal., “upward Spirals of Positive Emotions Counter downward Spirals ofNegativity: insights from the Broaden-and-Build Theory and AffectiveNeuroscience on the Treatment of Emotion dysfunctions and deficitsin Psychopathology,” Clinical Psychology Review 30:7 (November 2010):849-864; Jeremy T. Goldbach and Jeremy J. Gibbs, “Strategies Employedby Sexual Minority Adolescents to Cope With Minority Stress,” Psychol-ogy of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity 2:3 (September 2015):297-306; divya Kannan and heidi Levitt, “A Review of Client Self-Crit-icism in Psychotherapy,” Journal of Psychotherapy Integration 23:2 (June2013): 166-178; Christopher R. d. Wagstaff and John Leach, “The Valueof Strength-Based Approaches in SERE and Sport Psychology,” MilitaryPsychology 27:2 (March 2015): 65-84.

4. Ethan Kross et al., “Self-Talk as a Regulatory Mechanism: howYou do it Matters,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 106:2(february 2014): 304-324.

5. Bible texts in this article credited to NiV are from the holy Bible,New international Version®, NiV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011by Biblica, inc.® used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

6. Lev S. Vygotsky, Thought and Language (Cambridge, Mass.: MiTPress, 1962). Vygotsky’s work was originally published in 1934.

7. E. Jane Costello, et al., “Prevalence and development of Psychi-atric disorders in Childhood and Adolescence,” Archives of General Psy-chiatry 60:8 (August 2003): 837-844.

8. Albert Ellis, “Rational Psychotherapy and individual Psychology,”Journal of Individual Psychology 13 (January 1957): 38-44; Albert Ellis,Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors: New Directionsfor Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books,2001); Aaron T. Beck, Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders(New York: Plume, 1979); Meichenbaum, Cognitive-Behavior Modification.

9. Names used are pseudonyms.10. Paul C. Burnett, “An investigation of the Social Learning and

Symbolic interaction Models for the development of Self-Concepts andSelf-Esteem,” Journal of Family Studies 2:1 (April 1996): 57-64; Paul C.Burnett, “Children’s Self-Talk and Significant others’ Positive and Neg-ative Statements,” Educational Psychology 16:1 (March 1996): 57-67.

11. Susan harter, Manual for the Social Support Scale for Children(denver, Colo.: university of denver, 1985).

12. Rhonda G. Craven, herbert W. Marsh, and Raymond L. debus,“Effects of internally focused feedback and Attributional feedback onEnhancement of Academic Self-Concept,” Journal of Educational Psy-chology 83:1 (March 1991): 17-27. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.83.1.17.

13. Paul C. Burnett, “Children’s Self-Talk and Academic Self-Con-cepts: The impact of Teachers’ Statements,” Educational Psychology inPractice 15:3 (1999): 195-200.

14. Philip C. Kendall and Muniya S. Choudhury, “Children and Ado-lescents in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Some Past Efforts and CurrentAdvances, and the Challenges in our future,” Cognitive Therapy andResearch 27:1 (february 2003): 89-104.

15. Alain Morin, “Self-Talk and Self-Awareness: on the Nature ofthe Relation,” The Journal of Mind and Behavior 14:3 (Summer 1993):223-234; Alain Morin, “Possible Links Between Self-Awareness andinner Speech: Theoretical Background, underlying Mechanisms, andEmpirical Evidence,” Journal of Consciousness Studies 12:4, 5 (April/ May 2005): 115-134.

16. Ann-Marie R. depape et al., “Self-Talk and Emotional intelli-gence in university Students,” Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science38:3 (July 2006): 250-260. doi:10.1037/cjbs2006012.

17. Andrew Coleman, A Dictionary of Psychology, 3rd ed. (London:oxford university Press, 2009).

18. John d. Mayer, Richard d. Roberts, and Sigal G. Barsade, “humanAbilities: Emotional intelligence,” Annual Review of Psychology 59 (Jan-uary 2008): 507-536. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.59. 103006. 093646.

19. Richard owen Lightsey, Jr., Edward Johnson, and Paul freeman,“Can Positive Thinking Reduce Negative Affect? A Test of Potential Me-diating Mechanisms,” Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy 26:1 (february2012): 71-88. doi:10.1891/0889-8391.26.1.71.


NOTES AND REFERENCES1. Michael Siegrist, “inner Speech as a Cognitive Process Mediating

Self-Consciousness and inhibiting Self-deception,” Psychological Reports76:1 (february 1995): 259-265.

2. Michael Bruch, Victor Meyer, and Edward S. Chesser, “The Roleof Evaluative Self-Schemata in Self-Talk: Some Predictions and Explo-rations,” Scandinavian Journal of Behaviour Therapy 16:4 (January1987): 149-166; donald Meichenbaum, Cognitive-Behavior Modification:An Integrative Approach (New York: Plenum, 1977); Max R. uhlemannand Sharon A. Plater, “Effects of Self-Statements and Coping Strategieson Adaptational outcomes of Stress,” Canadian Journal of Counsellingand Psychotherapy 24:1 (January 1990): 3-16.

3. Barbara L. fredrickson, “The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive

or many people, the thought ofvisiting the doctor (or a schoolnurse) might generate feelings ofnervousness, anxiety, or evenfear. Whether a medical office islocated in a high-rise office build-ing, a small clinic in a developing

country, or in a room next to the prin-cipal’s office, the possibility of beingoverwhelmed by the impending visit isthe same. Why is this so? Can anythingbe done to improve the interaction be-tween medical professionals and pa-tients? What role might schools have in

teaching children how to communicatewith those who provide med ical care?

Research clearly indicates thatphysicians and patients achieve betteroutcomes when they communicate ef-fectively with each other, and whenpatients actively participate in theirown care.1 Not only are patients (andproviders!) more satisfied, but adher-ence to prescribed treatment improves,complications are fewer, and healthoutcomes more positive. Both the Ac-creditation Council for Graduate Med-ical Education (http://www. acgme. org) and the Association of AmericanMedical Colleges (http://www.aamc. org) have formally recognized the vital

role of interpersonal communicationbetween medical personnel and pa-tients. despite overwhelming evidenceof its importance, not all health-careproviders are great communicators,and many people are unsure of how toactively participate in their own healthcare—either because they don’t knowhow to do so or because they fearbeing labeled as being a difficult pa-tient. Not only do people struggle todo what is best for their health, theymay also find it difficult to interactwith medical personnel.

These patterns begin early in life;

B Y L E S L I E R . M A R T I N


to Be Effective Partners in Their Own Health Care

F

Helping Children

thus, to ensure greater engagement,teaching children how to interact withmedical professionals from an earlyage makes a good deal of sense. Thisarticle outlines a practical frameworkfor understanding what drives engage-ment in personal health and providesspecific recommendations for helpingchildren and teens to develop theirskills in these areas. The suggestionsare classroom-centered, but many areapplicable to the home environmentas well; teachers and other personnel(e.g., guidance counselors, schoolnurses) are encouraged to work withparents to determine the most appro-priate ways to target particular chil-dren or groups.

one reason people experience diffi-culties in interacting with cliniciansis their conviction that they have littleto contribute to the medical encounter.Because they lack formal training inthe health professions, they thinkthey have no important knowledge toshare. indeed, it can be challenging todialogue with a specialist. Adding tothe problem, medical interactions areoften rushed, occur in unfamiliar envi-ronments, and may involve new con-cepts and jargon. Patients may be dis-tracted by uncomfortable experiencessuch as that awkward paper gown orstresses associated with the proce-dures themselves.

These anxieties are often more pro-nounced in children,2 whose distressmanifests itself in various ways, in-cluding crying, aggression, and lack ofcooperation3 and other behaviors thatinterfere with the delivery of medicalcare and reveal the unpleasantness ofthe experience for the young patient.But because of the empirical evidenceregarding the benefits of good commu-nication and relationships in medicalcare, it is important to find ways toencourage active participation by pa-tients in the health-care experience.This starts with knowing how to com-municate effectively with health-careproviders, as studies show that activeengagement is important, even forchildren.4

Learning these communicationskills early in life may be easier thanlearning them later on. Children as

young as 2 years old can communicatesome of their own health-care needs,5

and data indicate that information pro-vided by older children and teenscombined with observations fromtheir parents can help medical profes-sionals improve care.6

Childhood experiences are associ-ated with later life outcomes, as pat-terns are set and habits learned—thisis true in many areas, includinghealth.7 Numerous studies show thathealth habits related to things likediet, exercise, and dental hygiene startvery early in life,8 but little researchhas focused specifically on the early

vation—simply knowing what to doisn’t enough; they must also want todo it. Third, they need strategies thatcan help them to overcome barriersand achieve the goals that they haveset for themselves. Let’s examine eachof these in a bit more detail.

InformationThe first required element—infor-

mation—contains two parts: givingand receiving. Even adults can find itchallenging to provide succinct andaccurate information to doctors, nursepractitioners, or others who queryabout symptoms—yet getting that in-


establishment of good health-steward-ship in the context of the medicalencounter itself. What can we do toinstill these crucially important com-munication and self-advocacy skills?What techniques are most relevant foryoung people, and how can we bestmodel and teach them?

Information, Motivation, and StrategiesJust like anyone else, children need

three specific things in order to changehealth behaviors.9 first, they need in-formation—if they don’t understandwhat they should be doing, it will bealmost impossible for them to dothose things. Second, they need moti-

formation is imperative for these clini-cians. As with most things, verbalizinginformation about one’s health getseasier with practice, and “normaliz-ing” these types of exchanges willgenerally make them less anxiety-pro-voking. in addition, having an appro-priate vocabulary to use is useful.Therefore, the following recommenda-tions may be useful for teachers,school nurses, and parents alike:

1. Provide students with correctnames for body parts and functions,rather than creating imaginary labelsas “stand-ins” for proper terminology.

2. When students ask questionsabout body parts and/or functions,provide simple, straightforward, age-appropriate answers; do not discour-

As with most things, verbalizing information

about one’s health gets easier with practice,

and “normalizing” these types of exchanges will

generally make them less anxiety-provoking.

In addition, having an appropriate vocabulary to

use is useful.

age questions or convey embarrass-ment/anxiety when discussing thehuman body.

3. Target information to the stu-dent’s developmental level. for exam-ple, studies show that children age 5and below know what medicine is butidentify it by shape, color, and taste.Starting around age 6, children arelikely to begin recognizing brandnames and identifying the therapeuticrole of the drug (e.g., a “cough medi-cine”). from about the age of 10, chil-dren can understand more complexexplanations of medications and theiruse.10 Thus, a question from an ele-mentary-age child about why she orhe has to take a medication will usu-ally involve simple explanations ofhow the medication will help thebody, while the same question froman adolescent will require a more de-tailed discussion about prognosis andlikely outcomes in the presence andabsence of the medication.

4. use available resources to en-hance students’ knowledge as well asyour own (see Box 1 on page 22). Aparticularly good online resource isNemours’ kidshealth.org—this Web-site has resources for parents, chil-dren, and teens that include age-ap-propriate medical dictionaries, games,quizzes, movies, tips, and recipes. Ma-terials are available in English andSpanish. other excellent resources arehttp://healthychildren.org (for par-ents) and http://cdc.gov/family/kidsites (for teens and families). Makingyoung people aware of credible onlinehealth resources and using them as apart of school health curricula are im-portant for fostering health literacy.11

Because anxiety levels are oftenhigh during a visit to the doctor’s of-fice, medical terminology may be lessfamiliar, and encounters may happenquickly; absorbing the informationone receives during a medical interac-tion can also be challenging. Perhapsthe most important preparation is tohelp children feel comfortable askingquestions and admitting when some-thing is unclear (this is frequently dif-ficult for adults to do, as well). The

following technique will enable chil-dren to feel more comfortable askingquestions:

• insert an unfamiliar word into arole-play, encourage questions aboutthe meaning of the word, and thenpositively reinforce the queries.Strengthening skills is importanthere—the role-play need not alwaysbe health related.

• When children feel comfortableseeking information, broaden the prac-tice to include other challenges, suchas unclear answers or rushed re-sponses.

Keeping track of important bits ofinformation can also be difficult, somemory aids are useful. here aresome recommendations for helpingchildren become good consumers ofinformation:

1. discuss what will likely happenduring a visit to the doctor. if basicmedical equipment is available (e.g.,tongue depressors, a stethoscope, ablood-pressure cuff), these can beused to demonstrate or even “prac-tice” the visit. With appropriate per-missions, some of the more anxiety-provoking aspects of the visit (e.g.,vaccinations) may also be addressed.inviting the school nurse and/or an-other medical professional to theclassroom for this discussion may beespecially helpful—they can sharetheir expertise, and through the inter-action mitigate the anxiety some stu-dents may be feeling.

2. help the children to formulatetheir questions ahead of time; thesecan be written down and shared withthe clinician; older children and teenscan take the list along as a reminder ofwhat to ask. Teachers or school nursesmay want to provide parents or othercaregivers with guidance on develop-ing a list of questions or concerns forvisits about special medical issues. inall cases, children should be encour-aged to be open with their doctors.There are no “bad” or “dumb” ques-tions; if the child has a concern or ifsomething is confusing, this is valid,and his or her query is warranted.

3. Taking notes during a medicalencounter (or immediately after, if it isimpossible to do during the interac-

tion) is a useful strategy for older chil-dren and adolescents. Even jottingdown a few key words can make a dif-ference. if this is not feasible, the doc-tor can be asked to provide a printoutsummarizing the visit and his or herrecommendations.

MotivationPeople usually know what they

want—what they find motivating—better than others do. Children are nodifferent in this regard. They havestrong preferences, so finding the rightgoals and the right rewards can dra-matically improve health outcomes.12

Talking to children and adolescentsabout their interests and concerns canprovide key insight into what drivestheir behaviors; not only is this usefulfor parents, teachers, and health-careproviders to know, but when youngpeople learn to recognize these inthemselves and to channel their ener-gies, the resulting motivation is pow-erful.

Teachers, guidance counselors,school nurses, and other trusted adultsserve as key role models for students.Showing them what engagement inone’s own health looks like by model-ing good behaviors may be more pow-erful than anything you can say. hereare some tips for motivating youngpeople through modeled action:

1. Make healthy food selectionsyourself and discuss these choiceswith students. Students notice whatthe adults in their lives eat—cafeteriachoices or what a teacher or adminis-trator packs in a sack lunch can pro-vide an example of healthy eating.discussions of good choices can alsobe informally incorporated into othertopics, both inside and outside theclassroom (e.g., sharing the detailsof a holiday meal or a newly foundrecipe).

2. Preparing healthy foods—whetherfollowing a recipe or creating a uniqueconcoction—can be both fun and edu-cational. This is perhaps more easilyapplied at home, but can also be incor-porated into the classroom through sim-


ple projects related to holidays or otherspecial events. depending on the facili-ties available, a more extensive applica-tion may be possible in home econom-ics and health classes (with more“homework” required when onsite fa-cilities are lacking). data suggest thatteaching about food as part of the for-mal curriculum has an impact well intoadulthood.13 in all classroom activitiesinvolving food, be alert to ensure stu-dent well-being—including teaching fire

safety, avoiding burns, checking for al-lergies, and so on.

3. Try incorporating “shopping” ac-tivities in the curriculum, taking careto focus on positives and avoidingovert criticism of family food choices.Encourage parents to include theirchildren when shopping for groceriesand even allow them to choose somehealthy options for the family.

4. To model good communicationwith health-care personnel, encourageparents (perhaps through a handout orthe school newsletter) to allow chil-dren to accompany them to somemedical appointments, such as for an-nual flu vaccinations. This allows chil-dren to see important adults in theirlives interacting in a proactive and en-gaged way with clinicians.

StrategiesKnowing what to do, and even

being motivated to do it, is notenough. People need strategies to helpthem succeed. one proven strategy formaking changes to behavior involvesbreaking things into small, easilyachievable tasks.14 Not only does thispermit careful monitoring of progress,but it also enables one to experiencesuccess more quickly (thereby enhanc-ing self-efficacy, the sense that one is“able to” do something, an importantpredictor of future success).15 here aresome ideas for helping students to cre-ate manageable health-behavior goals:

1. Ask children to choose a devel-opmentally appropriate, specifichealth behavior (e.g., eating at leastthree servings of fresh produce perday) that they would like to incorpo-rate into their lives, or a target healthindicator that they’d like to achieve(e.g., being able to run a mile in lessthan eight minutes). Then, divide thetask into several parts. for example,for a child who doesn’t eat manyfruits or vegetables, it might makesense to first eat a single serving offresh produce per day before movingon to two, and eventually three. if achild currently takes 12 minutes to runone mile, setting a target of improvingby 30 seconds per week might feel lessoverwhelming than thinking about theneed to shave four whole minutesfrom one’s time. Children should beinvolved in setting the size of thesteps, showing them how to take re-sponsibility for the choices that willinfluence their health.

2. Encourage record-keeping andvisual displays. having things writtendown makes everything feel more con-crete, and being able to see progress inthe form of boxes checked off, stars on


a chart, or lines moving upward on agrid can be rewarding. Mobile tech-nologies that help with record-keepingand self-monitoring are gaining popu-larity. Although there are not yetstrong data to indicate their efficacy,researchers emphasize that if thesetechnologies are useful to an individ-ual, they will probably increase moti-vation.16

3. Reinforce goal attainment in ap-propriate ways. Sometimes simplyachieving the goal is reward enough,but with some goals (or some people),an external reward is more effective.17

Be sure to keep the rewards consistentwith the goals—rewarding healthy eat-ing with an ice-cream cone is probablynot a good idea.

it can sometimes be hard to keeptrack of what one is supposed to bedoing. Prompts and reminders can,and should, be incorporated into theenvironment to minimize failures dueto simply forgetting. Teachers and par-ents can help students to monitor theirbehaviors and progress more effec-tively. here are some ideas:

• Encourage children to put thingsin places where they will be seen andremembered. for example, keeping ex-ercise shoes near the door or healthysnacks on the top shelf of the refriger-ator can be an easy way to reinforcetarget behaviors.

• Teach children to use remindernotes—they can write their own andput them where they will be mosthelpful. for example, put a Post-it®

note on the bathroom mirror (“don’tforget to floss!”) or a sign on the bed-side table, “do deep-breathing exer-cises before bedtime!”

• incorporate record-keeping tech-nologies into classroom instruction. Asmentioned previously, technologiesnow exist that can help people keeptrack of health behaviors and that makerecord-keeping fun—teachers can incor-porate data from these devices into thecurriculum, such as by using pedome-ter data in a mathematics class or tokeep track of classroom competitions ina physical-education class. Researchersare developing apps to encourage ad-

herence to all sorts of activities frommedications to healthy lifestyles. Someof these apps are very specialized, suchas the ones being developed for pedi-atric transplant patients at Boston Chil-dren’s hospital.18 They aim to tailorthem to different age groups and med-ical issues—in fact, some will eventu-ally adjust to the user as his or herneeds change. Keep your eyes open forhigh-tech tools like these!

• Encourage children to partner

with friends. Sharing goals can helpmotivate—peers can remind, applaudsuccess, and motivate through compe-tition. Sometimes they can do allthree, but peers can also make nega-tive, distracting comments. for thisreason, it is important for teachers topromote positive communication bymodeling for children appropriateways to share encouragement.


Nemours KidsHealth.org: Nemours has age-appropriate resources such as games,

medical dictionaries, quizzes, movies, tips, and recipes for parents.

Children: http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/?WT.ac=t2p_tab)

Children and young adults: http://kidshealth.org/en/kids/?ref=p2k_tab

Miscellaneous topics: how the body works, staying healthy, nutrition and fitness,

and emotions and behavior: http://kidshealth.org/en/teens/?WT.ac=k2t_tab

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): This Webpage lists several

CDC and U.S. Federal Government health Websites specifically geared toward chil-

dren, teens, and families: http://cdc.gov/family/kidsites

Lebonheur Children’s Hospital Surgery Preparation Resources: Tips for preparing

children and families for surgery, including a five-minute video about the surgery

experience from the perspective of a child. Other tips include using pictures, books,

stuffed animals, or toys to help children understand procedures; visiting the hospi-

tal prior to surgery to familiarize children with the environment; and maintaining a

routine: http://www.lebonheur.org/kids-health-wellness/practical-parenting/

blog-entries/2014/07/preparing-your-child-for-surgery-age-appropriate-tips.dot

Talking With Children About Health: Resources on how to communicate with sick

children, get children to take medicine, tips on going to the doctor and dentist, and

a child-friendly medical dictionary; as well as insights on what children experience

and how to communicate with them: http://www.pbs.org/parents/ talking with

kids/health/

Quick Tips Slide Show: Helpful strategies for talking/listening to, and caring for

children. Includes suggestions such as acknowledging how the child feels, offering

choices, and helping the child anticipate what will happen and express anxieties

and fears: http://www.pbs.org/parents/talkingwithkids/health/ preview/ quick

preview_5.html

Print and Picture Books to Help Prepare Children for Medical Procedures:Adventist HealthCare Recommended Books: http://www.adventisthealthcare.

com/ services/pediatrics/books/#.VxZtrfkrJaQ

Vanderbilt University Medical Center Books for Children About Hospital Stay orIllness: http://www.childrenshospital.vanderbilt. org/ guide.php?mid=9648

Little Parachutes Picture Books to Help Children With Life Changes: http://

www. littleparachutes.com/subcategory.php?sid=25

Box 1. Helpful Resources for Talking to Children About Health Care

We read in 1 Corinthians 6:19 and20 (RSV)19 that “your body is a templeof the holy Spirit within you. . . .Youare not your own; you were boughtwith a price.” This emphasizes thehigh value that Christians, and Sev-enth-day Adventists in particular,should place on maintaining healthybodies and our responsibility to carefor these temples. But, althoughhealth and physical-education classesare a part of most curriculum plans,educators often eat badly, sleep andexercise too little, and don’t bother tosearch for information about how theymight improve their health. Teachers,counselors, and school nurses have avital role to play, helping to instillthese values in students from an earlyage—not only through creative in-struction, but also by modeling goodhealth behaviors.

Adventists recognize the more fa-miliar parts of the health message—eating a plant-based diet, avoidingharmful habits such as smoking, andso on. But we may overlook the im-portance of engaging in medical deci-sion-making and working with ourhealth-care providers to make the bestchoices for ourselves as individuals.Many of us don’t practice dialogingwith our doctors. We may swallow ourquestions. We may be passive ratherthan active participants. however, thisneed not be true for the next genera-tions. We can begin early to teachchildren how to be engaged partnersin their own health care, and in thisway, bring them closer to fulfilling theduty of stewardship over their bodies,the temple of the holy Spirit.


Leslie R. Martin,PhD, is a Professorof Psychology at LaSierra Universityin Riverside, Cali-fornia, UnitedStates. She com-pleted her doctor-

ate at the University of California,Riverside, and is a Fellow of the West-

�

ern Psychological Association. Dr.Martin has authored and co-authoredseveral articles in the areas of healthpsychology, social psychology, and per-sonality.

NOTES AND REFERENCES1. debra L. Roter and Judith A. hall, Doc-

tors Talking With Patients/Patients TalkingWith Doctors: Improving Communication inMedical Visits, 2nd ed. (Westport, Conn.:Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006).

2. Colleen Lacey, Marsha finkelstein, andMegan Thygeson, “The impact of Positioningon fear during immunizations: Supine VersusSitting up,” Journal of Pediatric Nursing 23:3(June 2008): 195-200; Mark Lumley, BarbaraMelamed, and Linda Abeles, “Predicting Chil-dren’s Presurgical Anxiety and SubsequentBehavior Changes,” Journal of Pediatric Psy-chology 18:4 (August 1992): 481-497.

3. Lumley, Melamed, and Abeles, “Pre-dicting Children’s Presurgical Anxiety andSubsequent Behavior Changes,” ibid.; dyn-nette hart and Elizabeth Bossert, “Self-re-ported fears of hospitalized School-agedChildren,” Journal of Pediatric Nursing 9:2(April 1994): 83-90; Paul Jacobson et al.,“Analysis of Child and Parent Behavior dur-ing Painful Medical Procedures,” Health Psy-chology 9:5 (January 1990): 559-576.

4. Arlene Butz et al., “Shared decisionMaking in School-age Children WithAsthma,” Pediatric Nursing 33:2 (March2007): 111-116.

5. Cristina Nova, Elena Vegni, and EgidioA. Moja, “The Physician-Patient-Parent Com-munication: A Qualitative Perspective on theChild’s Contribution,” Patient Education andCounseling 58:3 (September 2005): 327-333.

6. Gordon h. Guyatt et al., “Children andAdult Perceptions of Childhood Asthma,” Pe-diatrics 99:2 (february 1997): 165-168.

7. Neal halfon and Miles hochstein, “LifeCourse health development: An integratedframework for developing health, Policy,and Research,” Milbank Quarterly 80:3 (Sep-tember 2002): 433-479.

8. howard S. friedman et al., “Stabilityof Physical Activity Across the Lifespan,”Journal of Health Psychology 13:8 (November2008): 1092-1104; Vera Mikkila et al., “Con-sistent dietary Patterns identified fromChildhood to Adulthood: The CardiovascularRisk in Young finns Study,” British Journalof Nutrition 93:6 (June 2005): 923-931;Robert Malina, “Tracking of Physical ActivityAcross the Lifespan,” President’s Council onPhysical Fitness and Sports Research Digest3:14 (September 2001): 1-8; dorthe holstand Annemarie A. Schuller, “oral health in aLife-course: Birth Cohorts from 1929 to 2006


in Norway,” Community Dental Health 29:2(June 2012): 134-143.

9. Leslie R. Martin, Kelly B. haskard-Zolnierek, and M. Robin diMatteo, HealthBehavior Change and Treatment Adherence:Evidence-based Guidelines for ImprovingHealthcare (New York: oxford universityPress, 2010).

10. Christina de Maria, Marie-ThérèseLussier, and Jana Bajcar, “What do ChildrenKnow About Medications? A Review of theLiterature to Guide Clinical Practice,” Cana-dian Family Physician 57:3 (March 2011): 291-295.

11. Saud f. Ghaddar et al., “Adolescenthealth Literacy: The importance of CredibleSources for online health information,”Journal of School Health 82:1 (January2012): 28-36.

12. Martyn Standage et al., “PredictingStudents’ Physical Activity and health-related Well-being: A Prospective Cross-do-main investigation of Motivation AcrossSchool Physical Education and Exercise Set-tings,” Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychol-ogy 34:1 (february 2012): 37-60.

13. A. Worsley et al., “does Schoolhealth and home Economics Education in-fluence Adults’ food Knowledge?” HealthPromotion International (August 2015):http://oxfordjournals.org. doi:10.1093/ heapro/ dav078. Accessed december 2015.

14. Martin et al., Health Behavior Changeand Treatment Adherence; Thomas Boden-heimer, Connie davis, and halsted holman,“helping Patients Adopt healthier Behaviors,”Clinical Diabetes 25:2 (April 2007): 66-70.

15. Martin et al., Health Behavior Changeand Treatment Adherence, ibid.; Albert Ban-dura, “Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying The-ory of Behavioral Change,” Psychological Re-view 84:2 (March 1977): 191-215.

16. Lora E. Burke et al., “Current Scienceon Consumer use of Mobile health for Car-diovascular Prevention: A Scientific Statementfrom the American heart Association,” Circu-lation 132 (August 2015): 1-57; Leslie R. Mar-tin and V. E. haro, “Adherence Technologiesand Treatment Engagement,” in W. o’dono-hue, L. James, and C. Snipes, eds., PracticalStrategies and Tools to Promote Treatment En-gagement (New York: Springer internationalPublishing, 2017).

17. Martin et al., Health Behavior Changeand Treatment Adherence.

18. Tripp underwood, “improving MedicalAdherence in Kids? There’s (Going to Be) anApp for That,” Thriving—Boston Children’sHospital’s Pediatric Health Blog (July 2012):http://childrenshospitalblog.org/improving-medical-adherence-in-kids-theres-going-to-be-an-app-for-that/. Accessed June 20, 2014.

19. Bible texts credited to RSV are fromthe Revised Standard Version of the Bible,copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971, by division ofChristian Education of the National Councilof the Churches of Christ in the u.S.A. usedby permission.

hat is a Seventh-day Adventist college or university?1

What are its defining traits? These are crucial ques-tions. it is all too easy for the current of secular so-ciety to buffet a school, tug at its moorings, and di-lute its unique mission and identity. Peer pressurecan affect institutions as well as individuals.

over several decades, i have had the opportunity to interactwith many Adventist colleges and universities. As i reflect onthese experiences, certain distinctive traits begin to emerge, aspecial character that reflects constituency priorities and that con-veys a certain authenticity as a Seventh-day Adventist institution.

These defining characteristics seem to be embedded in sixkey commitments, crucial areas around which the educationalcommunity can rally and in which important developmentscan take place (see figure 1).

Commitment to Intentionalityin a Seventh-day Adventist college or university, there

is a core commitment to intentionality. The board oftrustees and the administrative team purposefully focus onhow the institution might best fulfill its God-ordained mis-sion, how it might develop and implement a distinctiveSeventh-day Adventist identity, and how it might con-tribute in meaningful ways to the strategic priorities of thegospel commission.2

Based on this reflection, they develop and periodicallyreview the guiding documents of the institution, includingits statements of mission and vision, which then serve asthe foundation for strategic planning, assessment, and con-tinuous improvement.

While the administration and the board of trustees play a

B Y J O H N W E S L E Y T A Y L O R V


ADVENTIST COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY?

What Is the

Special Character

of an

W

leading role, it is vital that all stakeholders be involved in cast-ing the vision of the institution. This ensures that the strategicinitiatives upon which the college or university embarks arethose that emerge from shared values and understanding. inthis process, however, leadership serves as both catalyst andfacilitator. This involves listening carefully, asking questions,building bridges, encouraging partnerships, providing supportsystems, and focusing on the assessment and evaluation ofoutcomes in the fulfillment of mission.3

Based on this reflection and with input from the variousstakeholders, leadership develops a strategic plan in har-mony with these goals, a plan that is not merely updatedonce a quinquennium but also provides a dynamic windowto the future. The intent is to continuously and consciouslyenhance institutional efficiency and effectiveness in fulfill-ing mission through strate-gic initiatives and system re-design.

A commitment to inten-tionality also implies that theboard and the administrationthoughtfully assess emergingtrends in higher education,maximizing those that areconsistent with the Adventistphilosophy of education4 andthat align with mission, whileproactively anticipating andmitigating trends that pose athreat to the institution andthe implementation of mis-sion.5

overall, the commitmentto intentionality seeks to fos-ter a strong culture of institu-tional reflection, planning,and assessment that leads todata-driven decision-making.it results in a school config-ured by design, an institutionadvancing with mission-focused intent.

Commitment to ExcellenceA Seventh-day Adventist college or university promotes

and affirms excellence in teaching and learning. This in-volves advancing whole- person development,6 promotinghigh-level thinking,7 forging strong links between theory andpractice,8 and employing authentic assessments.9 it calls forthriving programs, cutting-edge fields of specialization, anengaged learning community, a robust core curriculum thatconveys institutional identity and values across disciplines,and a global perspective, all operating within a strong faithcommitment.

Excellence in an Adventist school cultivates a biblicalworldview throughout courses and programs,10 as well ascocurricular activities, with a goal of forming Christlike char-acter and of connecting knowledge to its Source.11 This is ev-

idenced in teachers who approach disciplines from a biblicalperspective. it is seen in faculty and staff who engage studentsin faith conversations and who pray with students and withone another. it is found in programs of study that incorporatekey beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church,12 as these in-tersect with the various disciplines.

A commitment to excellence also creates a setting, withinthe context of faith, in which research and creative endeavorare nurtured and recognized.13 This includes promoting col-laborative faculty and student research, as well as providinggrant-writing support to facilitate external funding. it furtherorients scholarship so as to make meaningful contributionsto the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and soci-ety. overall, the commitment to excellence develops an insti-tutional culture that prioritizes continuous quality improve-

ment and focuses on essentialoutcomes as the key meas-ures of excellence.

Commitment to StewardshipA commitment to steward-

ship seeks to ensure that thecollege or university is finan-cially sound and that institu-tional resources are directedin support of mission. Thisincludes developing strategiesthat contribute to financialresilience, prioritizing thebudget in harmony with insti-tutional goals, and identifyingeffective strategies that resultin increased giving to theschool. it implies periodicallyconducting an efficiency andeffectiveness analysis of thevarious areas of the institu-tion, including the academicprograms.14

Stewardship involves car-ing well for the young people of the Seventh-day AdventistChurch.15 The college or university consequently develops andimplements strategies that will allow it to serve an ever-increasing proportion of Adventist young people, taking intoaccount institutional capacity and points of optimal financialreturn.

in the whole-person paradigm, a focus on stewardship pri-oritizes an institution-wide emphasis on health and well-ness.16 This includes the promotion of a healthy lifestylethroughout the academic programs and student services. itincorporates the provision of health and wellness facilities andstaff that highlight the institution’s commitment.

An Adventist college or university also exercises responsi-ble care for the institutional environment. This includes de-veloping, renewing, and expanding campus infrastructure sothat it fulfills the expectations of a quality educational insti-tution, in accordance with the institution’s strategic plan. it


Figure 1. Key Commitments That Exemplify the SpecialCharacter of a Seventh-day Adventist College or University

Faith

Frame

Community Engagement

Excellence Stewardship

Intentionality

also involves moving the school toward a “green campus,”with the goal of advancing the institution as a leader in sus-tainable resources and stewardship of the environment.17

Commitment to CommunityA Seventh-day Adventist college or university is committed to

forming a supportive, caring community where individuals feelthat they are valued, loved, and respected. Venues are createdfor leadership, faculty, and staff to connect with one another andwith students, and for students to interact and collaborate, espe-cially with students from other disciplines and programs.18

Throughout the various areas of the institution, faculty,staff, and students sense that leadership is accessible and will-ing to listen. This is the case because administrators have es-tablished a priority of conversing and consulting, of listeningto and learning from the school’s principal stakeholders. To thisend, leaders establish consultative forums that meet periodi-cally to provide informal, open-ended input. These forums in-clude groups of students, faculty, and staff, as well as alumniand individuals in the immediate community.

As noted so far, shared vision is based on shared understand-ing. for this to develop, however, it is necessary for adminis-trators to nurture relationships and engage in conversations tounderstand the background, strengths, needs, and dreams ofthe various entities and individuals within, as well as thoseclosely connected to the institution. As a result of these inter-actions, certain themes begin to emerge—themes related to theinstitution’s identity, positioning (where it is and where it wants

to be in relation to its goals), and planning (how it might reachthese goals). These themes are then incorporated as key ele-ments in the strategic planning process.

The commitment to community also affirms diversitywithin the biblical framework and celebrates its contributionsto the college or university family.19 it fosters cross-culturalsensitivity and understanding and seeks to develop a robustinternational and multiethnic community of scholars. it alsoprovides for the exercise of a biblical concept of freedomwithin the framework of institutional identity and mission.20

As a corollary, administrators endeavor to build capacitythroughout the institution. This involves providing opportu-nities for professional development and personal growth. italso includes the development of leadership within the insti-tution through mentoring and succession planning.

The ultimate aim is building community for the fulfillmentof mission. When a cohesive community becomes focused onfulfilling mission, significant results are attained.

Commitment to EngagementWith engagement as a priority, leadership, faculty, staff, and

students strive to expand the presence and reputation of thecollege or university in the local community, as well as region-ally and internationally, in a mission-directed way. To this end,the institution identifies and implements strategies to meet theneeds and add value to the surrounding community and to itsbroader constituency. it organizes and hosts professional con-ferences and church-related events. it promotes Adventist edu-


• McCoy, Terrell. Why They Must Go: ABiblical Mandate for Seventh-day AdventistEducation. Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, 2011.

• Nelson, Andrew, and Reuben Man-alaysay. The Gist of Christian Education(1971). Available at http://education.gc.adventist.org/documents/Gist%20of%20Christian%20Education%20Nelson%20Manalaysay.pdf.

The following resources, among others,highlight what other Christian faith-based in-stitutions are doing to define and maintaintheir religious identity, particularly in highereducation:

• Astley, Jeff, Leslie Francis, John Sulli-van, and Andrew Walker, eds. The Idea of aChristian University: Essays on Theology andHigher Education. Milton Keynes, England:Paternoster, 2004.

• Beers, Stephen., ed. The Soul of a Chris-

• Knight, George R. Myths in Adventism:An Interpretive Study of Ellen White, Educa-tion, and Related Issues. Hagerstown, Md.: Re-view and Herald, 1999.

___________, “Redemptive Education PartI: A Philosophic Foundation,” The Journal ofAdventist Education 73:1 (October/November2010): 4–21: http://circle.adventist. org// files/jae/en/en_covers/jae20 107 3010419.pdf.

___________, “Redemptive EducationPart II: Implications of Philosophy for Advent-ist Education,” The Journal of Adventist Edu-cation 73:1 (October/November 2010): 22-37: http://circle.adventist.org//files/jae/en/ jae201073012217.pdf.

___________, “Redemptive Education PartIII: Implications of Philosophy for AdventistEducation, Continued,” The Journal of Advent-ist Education 73:1 (October/November 2010):38-59: http://circle.adventist.org// files/ jae/en/jae201073013823.pdf.

Further readings on the distinctive natureof Seventh-day Adventist education includethe following:

• Anderson, Shane. How to Kill AdventistEducation (and How to Give It a FightingChance!). Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Her-ald, 2009.

• Bietz, Gordon, and Steve Pawluk. Sev-enth-day Adventist Higher Education in NorthAmerica: Theological Perspectives and Cur-rent Issues. Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press,2012.

• Gregorutti, Gus. “Adventist Higher Edu-cation in the 21st Century: Trends and Re-view of Its Purpose.” In The End from the Be-ginning: Festschrift Honoring Merling Alomia,edited by Benjamin Rojas, Teofilo Correa, LaelCaesar, and Joel Turpo. Lima, Peru: Universi-dad Peruana Union, 2015, 377-392.

Recommendations for Additional Reading

cation in partnership with other Seventh-day Adventist schools,colleges, and universities, contributing to a systems approachwithin Adventist education.

With a commitment to engagement, institutional leadershipwidens avenues for students, as well as faculty and staff, to en-gage in witness and service activities in local settings and be-yond. Academic administration fosters service learning in coursesand programs, while various entities within the institution pro-mote volunteer service and community engagement through avariety of formats.21 As a result, graduates understand that thepurpose of life is to make a difference for God in the world.

institutional leadership also endeavors to meet constituentneeds through offering both formal and informal programs andcourses. This implies conducting market surveys of needs andinterests, as well as holding conversations with church leader-ship, especially that of the constituent fields. it may also suggestexploring innovative approaches for educational delivery.

overall, a commitment to engagement affirms that theeducational institution is a strategic partner in fulfilling theglobal mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Commitment to Faithin a Seventh-day Adventist college or university, the over-

arching priority is the commitment to faith. Thus, leadershipupholds Scripture as the highest standard of the institution.22

faith is presented as the foundation for all disciplines andcourses, the rationale for each initiative and program. Leaderspray fervently that the Spirit of God might pervade the cam-

pus and direct each activity and decision.23 The result is aninstitutional community that seeks to fulfill the gospel com-mission and that upholds the beliefs and practices of the Sev-enth-day Adventist Church.

Throughout the institution there is an intentional and com-prehensive focus on spiritual life. With the input of faculty,staff, and students, a spiritual master plan is carefully de-signed, implemented, evaluated, and frequently updated.24

The focus is to strengthen faith through active spiritual pro-gramming and by involving students in spiritual leadership.The desired outcome is for students, as well as faculty andstaff, to deepen their relationship with Christ,25 commit them-selves to the study of his Word,26 experience life transforma-tion,27 and engage in the mission of the church through wor-ship, witness, and service.28 in essence, the school focuses onthe formation of disciples, and, in turn, disciple-makers.

in their commitment to faith, leaders ensure that each areaof the institution aligns with the distinctive, faith-focused mis-sion of the school and, by extension, of the Seventh-day Ad-ventist Church. Together, the institutional family explores andextends ways to nurture faith through teaching and learning,as well as through creative and scholarly activities. ultimately,the spiritual and moral character of the institution is held asthe defining measure of its success.29

Conclusionin order to fulfill its God-given purpose and effectively serve

its constituency, a Seventh-day Adventist college or university


ary 2012): 28-43. doi:10.1080/15363759. 2012. 624444.

• Glanzer, Perry, P. Jesse Rine, and PhilDavignon. “Assessing the DenominationalIdentity of American Evangelical Colleges andUniversities, Part I: Denominational Patron-age and Institutional Policy,” Christian HigherEducation 12:3 (May 2013): 181-202. doi:10. 1080/15363759.2013.785871.

• Hulme, Eileen E., David E. Groom, andJoseph M. Heltzel. “Reimagining ChristianHigher Education,” Christian Higher Education15: Nos. 1, 2 (January 2016): 95-105. doi:10. 1080/15363759.2016.1107348.

• Rine, P. Jesse, Perry Glanzer, and PhilDavignon. “Assessing the DenominationalIdentity of American Evangelical Colleges andUniversities, Part II: Faculty Perspectives andPractices,” Christian Higher Education 12:4(July 2013): 243-265. doi:10.1080/ 15363759. 2013.805996.

ership: Strategies for Making a Difference inChristian Higher Education. Abilene, Texas:Abilene Christian University Press, 2012.

The Christian Higher Education journalalso provides relevant reading on the topic ofthe distinctive mission and traits of Christiantertiary education. See, for example, the fol-lowing articles:

• Davignon, Phil, Perry Glanzer, and P.Jesse Rine, “Assessing the DenominationalIdentity of American Evangelical Colleges andUniversities, Part III: The Student Experience,”Christian Higher Education 12:5 (October2013): 315-330. doi:10.1080/15363759.2013. 825127.

• Dosen, Anthony J. “Maintaining Eccle-sial Identity in Christian Higher Education:Some Thoughts from the Catholic Experi-ence,” Christian Higher Education 11:1 (Janu-

tian University: A Field Guide for Educators.Abilene, Texas: Abilene Christian UniversityPress, 2008.

• Carpenter, Joel, Perry L. Glanzer, andNicholas S. Lantinga, eds. Christian HigherEducation: A Global Reconnaissance. GrandRapids, Mich.: W. B. Eerdmans, 2014.

• Dockery, David S., and Gregory AlanThornbury, eds. Shaping a Christian World-view: The Foundation of Christian Higher Ed-ucation. Nashville, Tenn.: B & H Publishing,2002.

• Eaton, Philip W. Engaging the Culture,Changing the World: The Christian Universityin a Post-Christian World. Downers Grove, Ill.:InterVarsity Press, 2011.

• Holmes, Arthur F. The Idea of a ChristianCollege. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W. B. Eerdmans,1987.

• Litfin, Duane. Conceiving the ChristianCollege. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W. B. Eerdmans,2004.

• Longman, Karen A., ed. Thriving in Lead-

NOTES AND REFERENCES1. While this article focuses on higher education, much of the frame-

work presented is not entirely unique to colleges and universities butmay also find application in secondary, and perhaps elementary, schools.

2. Matthew 28:18-20.3. fulfilling mission in an Adventist college or university links plans

and action to the mission of the institution, as well as to the mission andstrategic priorities of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, with a specialfocus on the redemptive purpose of Adventist education. The mission ofthe Seventh-day Adventist Church may be found in the denomination’s of-


must develop a special character. it must be distinctive by design.30

in this process, as we have noted, certain commitments are key.in sum, the board of trustees, the administration, and the ed-

ucational community at large must intentionally define theunique focus of the institution and clarify those defining charac-teristics that will set it apart from other institutions, public or pri-vate. The institution as a whole must commit to a spiritual un-derstanding of excellence, where scholarship, teaching, andlearning are Christ-centered, Bible-based, student-connected,and socially applied. The college or university must be a placewhere resources are focused on mission, where community isdeveloped, and where the institutional family is engaged in wit-ness and service.

overall, an Adventist college or university must be a placewhere faith is affirmed,31 where students are taught not onlyabout God but by God.32 it is insufficient for young people inan Adventist school to simply prepare for a profession or a ca-reer. They are candidates for heaven. Consequently, a Seventh-day Adventist college or university must provide young peoplewith an education that is consistent with faith—that aligns withbiblical principles and values, that develops a biblical world-view, and that forms character to endure the test of time.33

Authentic Seventh-day Adventist education is distinctive.As Seventh-day Adventist educators and leaders, we mustvalue the genuine above the counterfeit, the true over a pre-tense. Will our students be taught of God? Will they be edu-cated for eternity? our choices today shape tomorrow.


John Wesley Taylor V, EdD, PhD, is As-sociate Director of Education at the GeneralConference of Seventh-day Adventists in Sil-ver Spring, Maryland, United States. He isthe liaison for the Inter-American Division,the South Pacific Division, the West-CentralAfrica Division, the Northern Asia-PacificDivision, and the Middle East and North

Africa Union Mission. He has taught at all levels—elementarythrough graduate—and has served at several institutions aroundthe world: Montemorelos University (Mexico), the Adventist In-ternational Institute of Advanced Studies (Philippines), and An-drews University and Southern Adventist University (UnitedStates). He may be reached at [email protected].

�

ficial statements, “Mission Statement of the Seventh-day Adventist Church”(october 13, 2009) at https://www.adventist.org/en/information/official-statements/statements/article/go/-/mission-statement-of-the-seventh-day-adventist-church/and “Reach the World: Strategic Plan 2015–2020,” avail-able at https://www.adventistarchives.org/reach-the-world-doc.pdf.

4. See “Statement of Seventh-day Adventist Educational Philosophy,”available at http://education.gc.adventist.org/publications.html, as wellas a special issue of The Journal of Adventist Education 73:1 (october/ November 2010) focusing on the philosophy of Adventist education,available at http://jae.adventist.org.

5. Significant trends may include, among others, increasingly diversestudent bodies, an expansion of the modalities used in delivering edu-cation, expectations regarding financing opportunities, as well as theincreasing secularization of higher education in contemporary society.

6. Luke 2:52, for example, states that Jesus Christ developed in fourareas—“in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (NiV)—in essence, a whole-person development. in this vein, Ellen White wrote,“True education means more than the pursual of a certain course ofstudy. it means more than a preparation for the life that now is. it hasto do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence pos-sible to man. it is the harmonious development of the physical, the men-tal, and the spiritual powers. it prepares the student for the joy of servicein this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world tocome” (Education [Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1903], 13).

7. When teaching, Jesus would often ask his students, “‘What doyou think?’” (e.g., Matthew 17:25; 18:12; 21:28; 22:42). Ellen White alsoemphasized the importance of high-level thinking: “Every human being,created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that ofthe Creator—individuality, power to think and to do. . . . it is the workof true education to develop this power, to train the youth to be thinkers,and not mere reflectors of other people’s thought” (True Education[Nampa, idaho: Pacific Press, 2000], 12).

8. in Christ’s parable of the house built on a rock contrasted withthe structure built on sand (Matthew 7:24-27), the key was that onebuilder put knowledge into practice. See also Matthew 7:21.

9. See Proverbs 24:23; John 7:24; 2 Corinthians 10:12; and 1 Thes-salonians 5:21.

10. See, for example, 1 Corinthians 2:12; 10:31; 2 Corinthians 10:5;and Colossians 3:17.

11. Character formation is highlighted in passages such as Ezekiel44:23; Micah 6:8; Philippians 4:8; and 2 Peter 1:5-7. God as the Sourceof knowledge and truth is affirmed in Proverbs 2:6; 9:10; daniel 2:21;John 1:17; and Colossians 2:2 and 3, among others.

12. Key beliefs such as Creation, The Nature of humanity, The GreatControversy, The Sabbath, Stewardship, Marriage and the family, andThe Second Coming of Christ may be incorporated. for an overview ofthe 28 fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, seethe Beliefs page on the Seventh-day Adventist Church Website athttps://www.adventist.org/en/beliefs/.

13. Throughout the Bible, we find examples of research (e.g., Numbers13:17-20; 1 Chronicles 26:31, 32; Esther 6:1; Job 29:16; daniel 1:12-16;9:2; and Acts 17:11), as well as research principles (e.g., Job 8:8; Ecclesi-astes 7:25; Matthew 7:7). Scripture also presents cases of creative en-deavor (e.g., Exodus 2:3, 4; 31:1-5; 1 Kings 3:16-28; Matthew 13:52; Mark2:4; and Luke 19:4). Ellen White highlighted the importance of creativethought: “As you work, devise, and plan, new methods will continuallypresent themselves to your mind, and by use the powers of your intellectwill be increased” (“Go Ye into All the World,” Review and Herald [June11, 1895]). “Whatever may have been your former practice, it is not nec-essary to repeat it again and again in the same way. God would have newand untried methods followed. Break in upon the people—surprise them”Evangelism ([Washington, d.C.: Review and herald, 1946], 125).

14. Efficiency factors include the resourceful utilization of finance,personnel, and facilities, among others. Effectiveness is reviewed interms of product quality and contribution to mission.

15. As leaders and educators, we must confront the question,“Where is the flock that was entrusted to you?” (Jeremiah 13:20). un-less otherwise designated, all Scripture passages in the article and end-

notes are cited from the holy Bible, New international Version®, NiV®Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, inc.® used by permission.All rights reserved worldwide.

16. See 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20; 10:31; and 3 John 2. Ellen Whitewrote, “When students leave college, they should have better healthand a better understanding of the laws of life than when they enteredit. The health should be as sacredly guarded as the character” (ChristianEducation [Battle Creek, Mich.: international Tract Society, 1894], 194).

17. At Creation, Adam and Eve were commissioned to serve and pre-serve the planet and all that was in it (Genesis 2:15). This is a divineassignment that has never been rescinded (see also deuteronomy 20:19;John 6:12; and Revelation 11:18). The Seventh-day Adventist Churchhas issued official statements regarding the Christian responsibility ofcaring for the environment, such as the 1995 environment statementavailable at https://www.adventist.org/en/information/official-statements/statements/article/go/0/environment/.

18. A particularly important dimension involves the creation of com-munity for first-year and transfer students, with a goal of enhancingstudent retention.

19. Ellen White wrote: “There is to be unity in diversity. This isGod’s plan, the principle which runs through the entire universe. inGod’s wise arrangement there is diversity, and yet he has so relatedeach part to others, that all work in harmony to carry out his one greatplan in extending the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom hehath sent” (Letter 71, 1894). “in the work of soul saving, the Lord callstogether laborers who have different plans and ideas and various meth-ods of labor. But with this diversity of minds there is to be revealed aunity of purpose” (Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students [Moun-tain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1913], 531); see also Manuscript 67, 1897,paragraph 8; and Manuscript 71, 1903, paragraph 5.

20. When an orchestra performs a work, there are three liberties in-volved: first, the instrumentalist does not play mechanically, but ratherhas a certain freedom to perform as a professional musician. That liberty,however, must fall within the freedom of the conductor to indicate whento begin and end and, most importantly, how to in-terpret the work. The liberty of the conductor, how-ever, respects and operates within the third free-dom, that of the composer who incorporated intentin creating the composition and who expects thatmessage to be faithfully conveyed. Similarly, in aneducational setting, there are three fundamentalliberties: that of the student to learn, of the teacherto teach, and of the institution to fulfill its mission.

21. See Matthew 10:8; 22:37-39; John 13:12-16,34, 35; Acts 20:35; 1 Corinthians 13:2, 3; Galatians5:13; Ephesians 4:28; Philippians 2:4; and 1 Peter4:10. Ellen White emphasized: “The true object ofeducation is to fit men and women for service”(Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 493).“Students . . . are not to look forward to a time,after the school term closes, when they will dosome large work for God, but should study how,during their student life, to yoke up with Christ inunselfish service for others” (ibid., 547).

22. “To the law and to the testimony! if theydo not speak according to this word, it is becausethere is no light in them” (isaiah 8:20, NKJV).Scripture taken from the New King James Ver-sion®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. usedby permission. All rights reserved. See alsodeuteronomy 12:32; Matthew 4:4; 2 Timothy3:16, 17; 2 Peter 1:19.

23. The presence and work of the holy Spirit isessential. Christ stated, “‘But the Advocate, theholy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name,will teach you all things and will remind you ofeverything i have said to you’” (John 14:26).

24. Spiritual Master Planning: A Short Guide

may be found at http://education.gc.adventist.org/documents/Spiritual%20Master%20 Planning%20Short%20Guide.pdf.

25. See hosea 11:4; Mark 3:14; John 15:4; James 4:8; and Revelation3:20. Referencing this saving relationship, Ellen White wrote: “[R]edemp-tion . . . is the object of education” (Education, 16). “The all-importantthing should be the conversion of their students, that they may have a newheart and life. The object of the Great Teacher is the restoration of theimage of God in the soul” (Fundamentals of Christian Education [Nashville,Tenn.: Southern Publishing, 1923], 436); see also Education, page 30.

26. See Psalm 119:105; John 5:39; 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17; and 2 Peter1:19. Ellen White affirmed: “The word of God is the foundation of all trueknowledge” (Christian Education, 82). Similarly, “The Bible should bemade the foundation of study and of teaching. The essential knowledgeis a knowledge of God and of him whom he has sent” (The Ministry ofHealing [Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1905], 401); see also Testi-monies for the Church, volume 6 (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press,1948], 198); Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, pages 204 and206; and Fundamentals of Christian Education, page 451.

27. Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 5:17; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians4:23, 24; Colossians 3:10; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 2:6.

28. 1 Chronicles 16:29; Psalm 95:6; isaiah 43:10; Matthew 5:13-15;18:20; 22:38, 39; 28:18-20; Galatians 5:13; and hebrews 10:25.

29. Ellen White observed, “if you lower the standard in order to securepopularity and an increase of numbers, and then make this increase acause of rejoicing, you show great blindness. if numbers were evidenceof success, Satan might claim the pre-eminence; for, in this world, his fol-lowers are largely in the majority. it is the degree of moral power pervad-ing the College, that is a test of its prosperity” (Christian Education, 42).

30. See recommended reading list on pages 26 and 27.31. Psalm 78:4 to 7, for example, states: “We will tell the next gen-

eration the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wondershe has done. . . . Then they would put their trust in God.”

32. isaiah 54:13. See also John 6:45; 2 Corinthians 5:20; and 1 Peter 4:11. 33. Psalm 144:12.


dventist colleges and uni-versities feel great pressureto attract more students inthe ever-increasingly com-petitive environment of

higher education. As they seek todistinguish themselves through ac-creditations, awards, and success offaculty, a new tool for showing a com -petitive edge has emerged: rankings.Various news outlets and Websites

rank united States (u.S.) and interna-tional universities.

This article reviews these rank -ings and some of the implications forAdventist colleges and universities.Therefore, two basic questions guidethis analysis: first, do rankings reallymeasure quality? And second, shouldAdventist institutions use these rank-ings to maintain and increase enroll-ment? Responding to these questionsmay have strategic implications forstrengthening Adventist higher edu-cation.

The Almighty Rankingsover the past two decades, there

has been an increasing trend to clas-sify and rank higher education, andthese classifications and rankingsevaluate a wide variety of character-istics such as quality academics,cost, campus diversity, location, andresearch opportunities. This trendstarted in the united States with U.S.News and World Report (USNWR),1

and similar ranking systems havespread nationally and internation-

B Y G U S G R E G O R U T T I


and Universities and theAlmighty Rankings

COLLEGESAdventist

A

ally. The first one to launch interna-tional comparisons was the instituteof higher Education of Jiao Tonguniversity in Shanghai, China, alsoknown as The Shanghai Rankings,which publishes the Academic Rank-ing of World Universities (ARWU).other examples are the Times HigherEducation Rankings (2004) and theQS Stars University Rankings (2010).2

Recently, the U.S. News and WorldReport has also created its own ver-sion of “World-Class universities.”While the organization of theserankings varies in regard to the crite-ria they use, research productivity isa predominant measure in most ofthem.

These rankings have had a pro-found influence and a global impactamid a wide spectrum of reactions.3

first, they have been assumed to beaccurate measures of a good univer-sity.4 Second, academic institutionsuse rankings to promote themselves.Third, policy makers have usedrankings to advance policies, allocat-ing more funding for institutionsthat engage in knowledge innovationto produce more jobs.5 Several gov-ernment assessment policies havestressed research productivity as adefining characteristic for flagshipuniversities that strive for prominentpositions.6

Now, back to the first question,can existing rankings be valid toolsfor assessing a university’s quality?What are some of the inconsistenciesof these rankings?

Challenges of Existing Rankingsit is important to clarify that rank-

ings and evaluation are different con-cepts, although they are intercon-nected. When a university is assessed,it is measured against a set of bench-marks that an organization, such asan accrediting body, agrees to use forquality control. Academic programswithin a university or the universityon the whole may meet the assessedstandards at varying degrees along apass-fail continuum. Many of the eval-uation indicators are qualitative andthus intended to guide institutionscontinuously toward complex views of

quality. Rankings also set quantitativeindicators that allow comparisons ofsimilar institutions. These benchmarksare combined into an index to rank in-stitutions on a scale that can range, forinstance, from 0 to 100.

Although rankings may be usefulin determining how well institutionsperform regionally or even interna-tionally, they are controversial andfar from being neutral. What kindsof indicators are used to rank univer-sities? Tables 1 and 2 show a globalview of parameters and their powerwithin two very influential rankingscales.

in the case of ARWU (Table 1),most of its benchmarks are highly as-sociated with research. unfortu-nately, several studies have revealedimportant inconsistencies in the waycriteria are chosen,7 as well as inac-curacies in some indicators.8 univer-

sities may rank very differently de-pending on indicators and the weightgiven to each of them. The TimesHigher Education Ranking and the QSStars University Rankings are alsovery much oriented toward research,using it as their main quality indica-tor, although they have also addedteaching, among other factors.

in the American context, the U.S.News and World Report also has alarge set of undergraduate rankingsthat are different in many ways fromthe international ones. As shown inTable 2, research is not consideredin ranking institutions. The wholeranking system hinges on reputa-tion, selectivity, resources for facultyand students, graduation and reten-tion, and alumni connection to theuniversity.

Choosing and setting up qualityindicators can be a problem for exist-


Table 1. Criteria and Indicators for the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)*

Criteria

Quality of education

Quality of faculty

Research output

Per capitaperformance

Total

Indicator

Alumni of an institution winning Nobel

Prizes and Fields Medals

Staff of an institution winning Nobel

Prizes and Fields Medals (Not including

Peace and Literature Prizes)

Highly cited researchers in 21 broad

subject categories

Papers published in Nature and Science(With different weights for order and

repetition of affiliation)

Papers indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded and Social Science Citation Index

Per capita academic performance of an

institution (the weighted scores of the above

five indicators divided by the number of full-

time equivalent academic staff)

Code

Alumni

Award

HiCi

N&S

PUB

PCP

Weight

10%

20%

20%

20%

20%

10%

100%

*Developed from Academic Ranking of World Universities Methodology Webpage http://www.shanghairanking.com/ ARWU-Methodology-2012.html.

Continued on page 33


* Developed from the ranking indicator weights table in Robert Morse and Eric Brooks, “Best Colleges Ranking Criteria and Weights,” U.S. News and World Report, September 12, 2016,http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2014/09/08/best-colleges-ranking-criteria-and-weights.

Ranking Category

Undergraduate academic

reputation

Student selectivity for fall

2013 entering class

Faculty resources for 2013-

2014 academic year

Graduation and retention

rates

Financial resources

Alumni giving

Graduation rate

performance

Total

Category WeightNational & Regional

Univ.; National &

Regional Colleges

22.5%

12.5%

20%

22.5%

10%

5%

7.5%

100%

Sub Factor

Peer assessment survey

High school counselors’ ratings

Acceptance rate

High school class standing in

top 10%

High school class standing in

top 25%

Critical Reading and Math

portions of the SAT and the com-

posite ACT scores

Faculty compensation

Percent faculty with terminal

degree in their field

Percent faculty that is full time

Student/faculty ratio

Class size, 1–19 students

Class size, 50+ students

Average graduation rate

Average freshman retention rate

Financial resources per student

Average alumni giving rate

Graduation rate performance

Sub FactorWeightNational

Universities &

Colleges

66.7%

33.3%

10%

25%

0%

65%

35%

15%

5%

5%

30%

10%

80%

20%

100%

100%

100%

Sub FactorWeightRegional

Universities &

Colleges

100%

0%

10%

0%

25%

65%

35%

15%

5%

5%

30%

10%

80%

20%

100%

100%

100%

Table 2. Criteria and Indicators for Undergraduate Ranking Through USNWR*

ing university models, since rankingsreflect current patterns in tertiary ed-ucation, and these patterns may notalign with the mission of the collegeor university. This is not wrong if itis presented as one possible optionand not as “the” model for postsec-ondary education quality. Why not?Several reasons, which include thefollowing:

1. Is this possible for all? Althoughuniversities should promote and de-velop research, not all them have theresources to produce the most citedand selective journals or Nobel Prize-winning faculty, since that goal re-quires well-equipped and well-fundedinstitutions. This is doable for univer-sities that publish scholarly books orvarious journals in English, own themost advanced labs and researchequipment, attract a wide range of thebest national and international re-searchers and students, and have astrong institutional commitment to theapplied sciences. how many institu-tions match such a description? Evenin the united States, a front-runnercountry in rankings, only a few uni-versities can really compete for the toppositions.9

2. What about different models ofeducation? There are thousands oftraining institutions that will not de-velop a mission that is oriented or de-signed to contribute through researchand scientific discoveries. is that in-correct or falling short? it all dependson the model and purposes of the in-stitution. Adventist universities aregood examples of institutions whosemissions don’t totally align with whatrankings consider critical. Althoughresearch universities have a vital rolein today’s economy and social climate,one may ask, is it possible and afford-able for all Adventist universities toengage in these research-intensive ac-tivities? in addition, one major prob-lem with rankings is that they tend tofacilitate institutional isomorphism(copying one another) over universi-ties that don’t fit into this model andthus rank lower.10 This has importantpractical implications that may blursome of the purposes of Adventisthigher education.

3. What about other indicators ofperformance? Most influential rank-ings don’t take into account commu-nity engagement, learning outcomes,and graduates’ impact on society, tomention a few. These are very impor-tant components that reflect universi-ties’ missions. While universities areundoubtedly places that prepare pro-fessionals who can contribute to theirdisciplines, they should also strive toinstill in their students the valuesthat will impact their communities,improving them through not only dis-coveries but also technological inno-vation. Kronman11 argues that thevast majority of universities in theunited States have lost the dimensionof “the meaning of life.” That is, theyhave become professional trainingschools disregarding other importantaspects of education, such as incul-cating spiritual and moral values.Many of the institutions that do notappear in any ranking contribute totheir communities in countless un-classified ways.12 for instance, theyfunction as social “equalizers” bygiving opportunities to poor and un-dereducated students to become mid-dle-class professionals. Like manyother small institutions, Adventistuniversities fulfill this role.

it is important to underscore thatin many cases, organizations that re-port rankings are built as businesses.for example, magazines such as U.S.News and World Report sell more ads,get more exposure, and attract moreexternal funding as they attract theattention of students, parents, anduniversities. institutions search forways to differentiate. Parents and stu-dents, concerned with the tuitionthey are about to pay, are looking forindicators that would enable them tomake the best decision or, as fre-quently expressed, investment. Rank-ing managers know this and workhard to respond to these concerns.The strategies seem to work, at leastfor now.

How to ReactWhat can Adventist colleges and

universities do to handle these power-ful forces? in order to respond to theseincreasing demands for evidences ofquality, it is important to put rankingsinto perspective and see how they re-ally affect institutions in relation to (1)students’ decisions and (2) institu-tional strategy.

Students’ decisions. The AmericanCouncil of Education (ACE) recentlyreleased a comprehensive study13 thatmakes it possible to observe differentpatterns of students’ decision-making,and this can help colleges and univer-sities develop proactive strategies.Some of the key findings are summa-rized as follows:

1. Type and quantity of studentsusing the rankings. The report showedthat according to some early studies,rankings were important for studentsfrom high-income families with Asian-American backgrounds, and whoseparents have college degrees. Thesestudents were high achieving, tendedto apply to several institutions, andwere more likely to attend selectiveuniversities. So, the most-qualified ap-plicants were more prone to search fortop-ranked institutions. This researchconfirms that selective and wealthy in-stitutions attract students who matchtheir profile.

however, in a recent study seekingto determine how influential rankingsare, the higher Education Research in-stitute at university of California(uCLA), Los Angeles, revealed thatonly about a quarter of students re-ported that rankings were very impor-tant to them. in addition, the ACE re-port quoted several studies showingthat of the 70 percent of high-achiev-ing students who checked rankings,only about half of them made deci-sions based on them. it seems noteven the majority of the brightest stu-dents are really guiding their choicesaccording to the highly visible rank-ings.

2. What drives students’ decisions?Although rankings and prestige havean influence, the ACE report under-scores the importance of educational


Continued from page 31

aspirations, involvement and commu-nication with parents, peers, net-works, and financial aid offered atuniversities in informing students’ de-cisions about where to enroll. This isalso true for low-income students whorepresent a significant percentage ofthose who enroll in many Adventistuniversities.14 This group was morelikely, according to the study, to makea decision and to enroll in a schoolbased on family support, high schoolcounselors, university representatives,and information obtained throughpublications and Websites. for thisgroup, cost and location were crucialfactors in selecting a university. Thesame was true for highly qualifiedlow-income students from various cul-tural and racial backgrounds. Theavailability of information and strongcommunication with prospective stu-dents seemed to be central to their en-rolling in a program.

in short, as the ACE report asserts:“Based on newly updated data fromthe higher Education Research insti-tute (hERi)—rankings are not a driv-ing factor in student decisions onwhich institution to attend, and areeven less relevant for students fromlow-income backgrounds. More salientinfluences include family involvementand encouragement, peer and othernetworks, and school- and highereducation institution-based resources,including those that are semi-cus tom -ized.”15

it is clear that rankings do help in-stitutions, to some degree, to attractand enroll students. however, as de-scribed above, other important factorsmay be significantly more influential.This gives Adventist colleges and uni-versities a window of hope.

Institutional strategy. is there anyvalue for Adventist education inthese rankings? how might collegesand universities benefit from them?institutions may ponder this questionfrom at least three broad perspec-tives, namely: (1) accepting rankingsas an accurate measure of quality;(2) rejecting rankings as irrelevant;

and (3) evaluating them carefullyand using their results in responsibleways. The first and second optionsdenote a lack of understanding ofhow rankings work and influencepeople and institutions. The third op-tion provides a wiser approach. Thismeans that while universities maynot agree with all the indicators andthe overall results, they can judi-ciously utilize them as marketingtools. Schools can thus improve theirrank or position by endorsing a pro -

active strategy to advance some indi-cators that are aligned with their in-stitutional mission. for instance, im-proving graduation and retentionrates (see Table 2) is an importantrating factor in the USNWR and alsorepresents a very positive outcomefor any college. The same is true ofalumni giving and expansion of re-search. other indicators may be morecontroversial, such as selectivity. for


The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) http://www.shanghairanking.com/

First published in June 2003, ARWU was created by Shanghai Jiao TongUniversity to compare China’s universities to international competitors. Sixranking indicators include the number of Nobel Prizes and Field Medals won byfaculty and staff, highly cited researchers, articles published in journals such asNature and Science, number of articles indexed in a Science Citation Index—Ex-panded, and per capita performance of a university. ARWU introduced the fieldof global comparisons rankings and is published and copyrighted by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, an independent organization.

QS World University Rankingshttp://www.topuniversities.com/qs-world-university-rankings

QS World University Rankings®, launched in 2004, publishes annual rankingsfor the top 600 universities in the world. Four key indicators include research,teaching, employability, and internationalization (international faculty and stu-dents). The rankings are governed by an independent, international advisory.

Times Higher Education World University Rankingshttps://www.timeshighereducation.com/

The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, founded in2004, ranks the world’s global universities across key indicators such as teach-ing, research, international outlook, reputation and more. THE, first publishedfrom 1971 to 2008 as Times Higher Education Supplement (THES), and since2008 as THE, is published by a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Interna-tional.

U. S. News and World Report (USNWR)http://www.usnews.com/rankings

Compiled by the editors of U.S. News and World Report®, this magazine pub-lished the first ranking of undergraduate programs in 1983. Expanded to includerankings of medical, engineering, law, and business schools, USNWR providesone of the most widely circulated and well-known college and university rankingsystems. Raters include presidents, academic deans, and admissions officers.

Box 1. Examples of College and University Ranking Organizations

example, in the united States, everyinstitution wants the best possiblestudents, but screening them basedmainly on ACT and SAT scores maynot be quite fair. Alternative andcomplementary practices can pro-duce better results in the long run ifthe goal is to serve the Adventist con-stituency. in the end, this is an insti-tutional choice.

Another practical way for institu-tions to use rankings to their advan-tage is by reporting on brochuresand webpages any aspect of anawarded or ranked program thatshowcases the unique characteristicsof the institution. This is also usefulfor schools that are unable to getranked in an overall position througha ranking system. Likewise, the useof different types of rankings derivedfrom a wide range of quality criteriais beneficial. in other words, what isnot visible here may be visible overthere!

in addition, universities can de-velop unconventional strategies to“counterbalance” some of the negativeperceptions fostered by rankings.Through a Webpage and/or promo-tional brochures, for instance, institu-tions can describe how rankings aredeveloped and the criteria they use toassess quality. This will enable themto explain and promote the “plus” fac-tors inherent in Adventist higher edu-cation. Some institutions may advancethis as a key strategy. it can be called“in-addition quality criteria” for poten-tial students. Some potential areasschools may want to emphasize are asfollows:

1. Purpose. The mission of Advent-ist education is not only to preparepeople for employment and economicsuccess but also to inculcate a Chris-tian worldview. Adventist educationdoes not reject the spiritual dimen-sion of learning because it is difficultto measure scientifically. it exposesstudents to every element of realityand seeks to develop well-roundedpersons who embrace a biblicalworldview cultivated through experi-ences such as chapel services, semi-nars, church services, worship serv-ices, small classes, and personal

attention from professors. To success-fully embrace and decide to integrateinto their lives what the Bible en-dorses, students need a personal rela-tionship with God. The ultimate goalis redemptive. in this process of de-veloping character, young peopleembrace values that impact theirsubsequent professional practices andlifestyle. Accordingly, Adventistschools offer their students guidancein integrating their personal and pro-fessional values. Thus, the purpose ofAdventist education can be equatedto helping students to develop aworldview that influences all of theirpersonal and professional dimen-sions. Public universities also look forways to impact their students, but thefocus tends to be on humanistic ap-proaches that lead to an overempha-sis on research and professional prod-ucts as the future for students andsociety. Adventist higher educationoffers a significant difference!

2. Curriculum. Secular universitiesintegrate literature and knowledgewith materialistic approaches, whichmeans that the guidance conveyed bysacred books, such as the Bible, hasbeen neglected due to the focus onscientific and humanistic arguments.however, these works should be stud-ied as a source of wisdom for life. inthe Adventist college or university,the curriculum blends science andfaith in a complementary way ratherthan excluding any legitimate sourceof information. Also, faith is inte-grated into all subjects taught withinthe curriculum, providing studentswith multiple opportunities to growin their understanding of how faithimpacts their decisions and choices.involvement in academic and co -curricular activities reinforces thecentrality of a student’s personal rela-tionship with God. This approachhelps students to become wiser, im-pacting their personal lives and pro-fessional growth. Ellen White empha-sized this saying, “The strength ofour college is in keeping the religiouselement in the ascendancy.”16

Through curriculum, Adventist col-

leges and universities have the oppor-tunity to create environments wherestudents can experience the renewalof mind and can understand and actbased on biblical assumptionsthrough a personal relationship withGod.

3. Teaching. faculty members playa key role not only through what theyteach but also through what they rep-resent in their own lives as activeChristians. Thus, professors must em-body the institutional mission to avoidsending double messages to studentswho are seeking role models based onliving examples. They should mentorand counsel students throughout thelearning processes, helping them toadjust to real life and encouragingthem to give their hearts to Christ. Atthe same time, these professors oughtto be highly regarded professionalswho contribute to their specific profes-sional and academic community andfoster academic excellence in their stu-dents.

4. Students. Most students recog-nize the importance of a spiritual di-mension of their lives and want to en-hance it through interactions withinstructors, friends, and cocurricularexperiences such as worship andchapel services offered by their collegeor university. higher education en-ables students to modify their under-standing of personal and professionalneeds and to adjust to new challenges.All this happens in the context of thedisciplinary field they have chosen,enriching their future career perform-ance. Students should leave the uni-versity with a clear sense of personalmission based on a biblical worldviewand a commitment to service withintheir professions. This will give gradu-ates a moral backbone that is essentialfor current society and the economy,as well as an involvement with thegos pel commission.17

5. Interaction with culture. Advent-ist colleges and universities muststrive to position themselves as re-gional, national, or even internationaladvocates for a proactive vision of theparadigm they embrace. By producingpositive changes in students and com-munities, universities become organi-


in different levels of Adventist educa-tion. His research agenda includes is-sues such as faculty research productiv-ity, assuring quality, and comparativestudies of higher education. He has au-thored several articles, chapters, andbooks and is currently pursuing a sec-ond doctorate in higher education atthe Humboldt University in Berlin, Ger-many. His email address is ggregoru@ andrews.edu.

NOTES AND REFERENCES1. U.S. News and World Report (USNWR)

began its annual college ranking in the early1980s. for more information, see “AboutU.S. News & World Report,” U.S. News &World Report: http://www.usnews.com/info/features/about-usnews?int=a60f09.

2. Times Higher Education World Univer-sity Rankings and QS Stars University Rank-ings were partners, but they split in 2010,and QS Stars has started its own classifica-tion.

3. Simon Marginson and Marijk van derWende, “To Rank or to Be Ranked: The im-pact of Global Rankings in higher Educa-tion,” Journal of Studies in International Ed-ucation 11:3/4 (fall/Winter 2007): 306-329.doi:10.1177/1028315307303544.

4. E. Anthon Eff, Christopher C. Klein,and Reuben Kyle, “identifying the Best Buysin u.S. higher Education,” Research inHigher Education 53:8 (december 2012):860-887. doi:10.1007/s11162-012-9259-2.

5. Andrejs Rauhvargers, Global UniversityRankings and Their Impact: EUA Report onRankings (Brussels: European university As-sociation, 2011).

6. Anthony f. J. van Raan, “fatal Attrac-tion: Conceptual and Methodological Prob-lems in the Ranking of universities by Bib-liometric Methods,” Scientometrics 62:1(2005): 133-143.

7. Robert B. Archibald and david h. feld-man, “Graduation Rates and Accountability:Regressions versus Production frontiers,” Re-search in Higher Education 49:1 (february2008): 80-100. doi:10.1007/s11162-007-9063-6; John f. Burness, “The Rankings Game:Who’s Playing Whom?” The Chronicle ofHigher Education 55:2 (September 2008):A80; James E. Eckles, “Evaluating the Effi-ciency of Top Liberal Arts Colleges,” Re-search in Higher Education 51:3 (May 2010):266-293. doi:10.1007/s11162-009-9157-4.

8. Mu-hsuan huang, “A Comparison ofThree Major Academic Rankings for Worlduniversities: from a Research Evaluation

Perspective,” Journal of Library and Informa-tion Studies 9:1 (June 2011): 1-25.

9. Ellen hazelkorn, Rankings and the Re-shaping of Higher Education: The Battle forWorld-Class Excellence, 2nd ed. (Basingstoke,GBR: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

10. Gustavo Gregorutti, Following thePath from Teaching to Research University:Increasing Knowledge Productivity (Newcas-tle, u.K.: Cambridge Scholars Publishing,2011).

11. Anthony T. Kronman, Education’sEnd: Why Our Colleges and Universities HaveGiven Up on the Meaning of Life (Newhaven, Conn.: Yale university Press, 2007).

12. for more details, see Catherine Ram-pell, “Top Colleges for Producing GraduatesWho Make the World a Better Place,” TheWashington Post (September 11, 2014):https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2014/09/11/top-colleges-for-producing-graduates-who-make-the-world-a-better-place/?utm_term=.e954a45f99a1.

13. The Cooperative institutional Re-search Program (CiRP), part of the higherEducation Research Council, has conductedthe most comprehensive, empirical nationallongitudinal study of American higher edu-cation, collecting data from over 1,900 insti-tutions, 15 million students, and more than300,000 faculty, since 1973 (Lorelle L. Es-pinosa, Jennifer R. Crandall, and MalikaTukibayeva, Rankings, Institutional Behavior,and College and University Choice Framingthe National Dialogue on Obama’s RatingsPlan [Washington, d.C.: American Councilon Education, 2014]).

14. ibid., 2.15. ibid.16. Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the

Church (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific PressPublishing Association, 1948), vol. 5, 14.

17. George R. Knight, “Adventist Educa-tion and the Apocalyptic Vision, Part ii,” TheJournal of Adventist Education 69:5 (Sum-mer 2007): 4-9.

18. Gregorutti, Following the Path.


zations that have scientific and socialimpact. ultimately, these institutionsbecome a counterculture that seeks toinfluence all dimensions of human en-deavor.

All of these are some of the realcontributions that most Adventistcolleges and universities make andmay, in many cases, go unnoticed bypotential students and constituents.So, with examples and cases to illus-trate the “in-addition quality crite-ria,” institutions can better demon-strate quality.

Final ThoughtsAlthough the number of rankings

is growing and these comparisonsare impacting Adventist colleges anduniversities all over the world, thereis also evidence that institutions candevelop their own models and strate-gies for attracting new students. Thepressure to “fit in” is great and candistort the essential paradigms andmission that provide the rationale foroperating a college or university,such as the ones operated by the Ad-ventist Church.18 There is a need tomake explicit how rankings canserve as strong and strategic market-ing tools to connect with prospectivestudents. Perhaps the biggest chal-lenge Adventist colleges and univer-sities face is to know precisely howto deal with pressures to “align” withthe dominant trends and remain rele-vant without compromising their es-sential features.


Gus Gregorutti,PhD, is Professorof Leadership andHigher Educationat Andrews Uni-versity in BerrienSprings, Michigan,United States. Dr.

Gregorutti has taught and worked asan administrator in several countries

�

ythagoras, born on the Greek is-land of Samos in the sixth centuryBC, devoted his early life to travel-ing and learning. he studied withMesopotamian astronomers andtraveled to Egypt, where he

learned mathematics from the priests.it is speculated that he made it as faras india, bringing together the mathe-matical findings from these diversecultures. he is credited for providingthe first proof of the Pythagorean The-orem, which relates to the side lengthsof a right-angled triangle.

Pythagoras’s experience is a testa-ment to how mathematics can tran-scend otherwise competing worldviews.in my own experience (currently ap-proaching the completion of my doctor-ate in mathematics), i’ve studied withmathematicians on three continentsand with colleagues representing nearly

every major worldview and religion.The mathematics community takesgreat pride in how our ancient disci-pline has been a meeting point for indi-viduals throughout the world.

Consequently, we may be temptedto believe that since mathematicaltruths appear independent from one’sreligious commitment, there is littlemotivation for a person of faith to inte-grate his or her faith with the study ofmathematics. history, though, tells an-other story. Pythagoras developedquite a following of disciples, who

formed a religion around mathematics,believing numbers to have divine fea-tures, especially those with interestingmathematical properties. Plato, thegreat Greek philosopher who influ-enced so much Western thought, mademathematics central to his ontologyand epistemology, believing that math-ematical objects were eternal entitiesand that studying them was the bestway to draw the soul toward truth.1

And it was no accident that many laterphilosophers and theologians, such asPascal and descartes, doubled asmathematicians. Kant made Euclidiangeometry so fundamental to his theoryof knowledge that the discovery ofnon-Euclidian geometry the followingcentury, despite being a purely mathe-matical discovery, posed a greaterchallenge to his arguments than anyphilosophical critique.2


in the Light of Eternity:

Toward an Adventist Understanding of Mathematics

Anthony Bosman

P E R S P E C T I V E S

P

M A T H E M A T I C S

Why the interest of philosophersand theologians in mathematics? Be-cause of their interest in understandingthe nature of reality (and how humanbeings can come to a knowledge of re-ality), and because mathematics hasdemonstrated itself to be the most reli-able tool in studying the natural world.More than that, though, mathematics isunique because it appears to offer cer-tainty in the form of proof. Scientifictheories and historical study, whilehelpful, remain open to revision, whilemathematics alone appears to groundtruth on irrefutable deductive proof.

Mathematics and AdventismEnter Adventism. At the heart of

Adventism are radical claims about thenature of reality and the Source of trueknowledge. We’ve built a global educa-tional system that teaches students tolearn in the light of eternity: to makeGod’s revelation in Scripture the foun-dation of their learning, to understandthe natural sciences as testifying of amajestic and loving Creator, to see his-tory as leading to a great climax inChrist’s return, to value the humanbody as the temple of the holy Spirit,and to discover the joy of service.

What of mathematics? how does Ad-ventism speak to this subject? We oughtto seriously wrestle with this question;in fact, we’re commanded to: “‘Love theLord your God . . . with all your mind’”(Matthew 22:37, NKJV).3 “All” includesmath, especially for those of us whospend a great deal of time studying andteaching mathematics.

The mathematics standards for Ad-ventist education include the goal to“help students learn to see and reflectGod’s image while developing profi-ciency in different aspects of mathe-matics” by coming to “recognize Godas Creator and Sustainer of an ordereduniverse.”4 Noble goals, but what doesbeing made in God’s image or recog-nizing God as Creator have to do withmathematics? indeed, until we answerthat question and are able to make itclear in the minds of students, can we

really consider mathematics educationpart of Adventist education?

There are two ways we commonlythink about mathematics. The first isto treat it as merely a useful tool forbeing productive in society and appre-ciating the structure of the createdworld. Scripture commands us to paytaxes and points us to the heavens tosee God’s glory on display—sincemathematics is essential to these tasks,we conclude that we’ve integrated thediscipline. indeed, mathematics is anincredibly useful tool for these tasks,but what value does this leave forstudying mathematics in its own right?

for instance, Pierre de fermatclaimed that there exist no integers a,b, and c that satisfy the equation an

+bn=cn where n > 3 (there aremany solutions for n=2 such as32+42 =52). After 300 years of failedattempts to prove this theorem of fer-mat, mathematicians finally suc-ceeded. is this accomplishment valu-able in itself? or does this workremain devoid of meaning until onecan apply the mathematical result tounderstanding some natural phenome-non? And how do we answer the stu-dent who asks why mathematics is soadept at explaining the natural world?

The second approach attempts toanswer the question of why we shouldvalue mathematics by sweeping mathe-matics in with the natural sciences,suggesting that mathematical objects,such as numbers, sets, and functions,are just as much a part of God’s cre-ation as are rocks, trees, or galaxies. dowe want our students to think of num-bers as a part of God’s creation? if so,do we teach that God created the inte-gers first, then the rationals, followedby the irrationals? What about theimaginary numbers? The Adventistmathematics standards appear to en-dorse this view when they include thegoal of teaching students to appreciate“God’s gift of the number system.”5 Re-ferring to the number system as “God’sgift” leads students to believe God es-tablished the Peano axioms, the foun-dation of arithmetic, just as surely ashe gave the commandments to Moses.

Are we committed to that position?Perhaps God himself is a mathe-

matician! Galileo suggested God cre-ated the universe using the language ofmathematics, and hence mathematicalobjects are really the thoughts of Godor objects existing in the mind of God.This can be seen as a theistic repackag-ing of Plato’s view that mathematicalobjects exist among the eternal, un-changing “forms” that can be accessedby properly trained reasoning. ButChristians would do well to give somethoughtful consideration before em-bracing this view, for the New Testa-ment rejects reason as sufficient meansto discern God’s thoughts.6 do we wantto teach that mathematical proof is ameans for us to access God’s mind?

in the rest of this article, i offer in-sight into how i’ve come to under-stand the nature and value of doingand teaching mathematics from an Ad-ventist perspective. i must admit,many of these are still live questionsthat i fully expect to continue engag-ing with throughout my life. Myprayer is that this article will help togenerate some meaningful dialogueand future scholarship. ultimately, ihope to see a generation of studentswhose faith in Christ serves as a moti-vation to seriously study mathematicsand whose enjoyment of mathematicsstrengthens their love for God.

Mathematics and Realitydespite the rich history of mathe-

matics, we are still without a historicalconsensus regarding what mathemat-ics is or why it works. Many havetaken the view of Godfrey hardy that“mathematical reality lies outside ofus, that our function is to discover orobserve it, and that the theoremswhich we prove, and which we de-scribe grandiloquently as our ‘cre-ations,’ are simply our notes of our ob-servations.”7 Certainly, we often speakof mathematical objects as if they arereal objects that exist somewhere, butthis view introduces the very hardquestions of where this mathematical


reality actually exists and why logicalproof is our means of observing it.

others, especially more recently,have argued that mathematics is lesslike the natural sciences and more likethe arts; that is, mathematical theo-rems aren’t discovered, they’re cre-ated. This allows us to understand KarlWeierstrass’s statement that “the truemathematician is a poet.”8 While cap-turing the sense of creativity present inproducing modern mathematics, theidea that mathematics is entirely ahuman construct faces some seriouschallenges that are well communicatedby Eugene Wigner in his remarkablepaper The Unreasonable Effectivenessof Mathematics in the Natural Sciences.first Wigner observes, “The greatmathematician fully, almost ruthlessly,exploits the domain of permissible rea-soning and skirts the impermissible.That his recklessness does not leadhim into a morass of contradictions isa miracle in itself: certainly it is hardto believe that our reasoning powerwas brought, by darwin’s process ofnatural selection, to the perfection

which it seems to possess.”9

in creative endeavors, especiallythose undertaken by a large number ofpeople, it is important to have a clearmap of where one is going. We pro-duce blueprints and models beforebuilding skyscrapers. But it appearsmathematics has been a reckless addi-tion of rooms and floors that, ratherthan producing incoherence, hasconsistently yielded results that thescientific community describes as sur-prisingly elegant and beautiful. forinstance, there was no guarantee thatthe risky move of extending the realnumbers to the complex numbers bydefining i=√—1 would enrich the field.And yet, rather than lead to a logicalcontradiction, it made possible the dis-covery of beautiful and altogether sur-prising relationships, such as Euler’sformula eiπ+1=0. it is difficult toavoid the impression that such rela-tionships are just waiting to be found.

Wigner went on to make the casethat not only is mathematics surpris-

ingly internally coherent, but it is un-reasonably good at explaining the nat-ural world. he noted that althoughmathematics may have been quitegrounded in physical problems cen-turies ago when there was little dis-tinction between a mathematician anda physicist, beginning in the 19th cen-tury, mathematics became an abstractdiscipline, quite detached from theworld the mathematicians inhibited.for instance, complex numbers arewidely considered essential for mod-ern formulations of quantum mechan-ics, although the introduction of i wasmade entirely independently of natu-ral consideration.

or consider Euclidean geometry,which was built up from a foundationof five intuitive axioms that were verymuch grounded in the physical world.Mathematicians long struggled toshow that the fifth axiom, which dealswith properties of parallel lines and ismore complicated than the rest, was alogical consequence of the first fouraxioms. however, they eventually dis-covered that it is logically independentfrom the other axioms and could bemodified without contradicting theother axioms.

hence, simply out of curiosity, inthe 19th century they did preciselythat. The result is what we call non-Euclidean geometries—descriptions ofspace that seem altogether counterin-tuitive. The common consensus wasthat the mathematicians were justplaying games and that there was noreal-world use for this work, but the20th century’s discovery of relativityand the curvature of space-time re-vealed that non-Euclidean geometry isprecisely what we need to best de-scribe our universe.10

Reflecting on this history, and sev-eral other similar episodes, Wignerconcluded, “The miracle of the appro-priateness of the language of mathe-matics for the formulation of the lawsof physics is a wonderful gift whichwe neither understand nor deserve.”11

Wigner’s mystery is threefold: Whyare we capable of doing mathematics,why is there a deep structure to the


universe, and why does mathematicsexplain this structure so well? here, theChristian worldview is particularly wellsuited to provide a compelling frame-work to make sense of these miracles.

Mathematics and CreationWe begin with Creation. As theoret-

ical physicist and theologian J. C. Polk-inghorne explains, “if the world is thecreation of the rational God, and if weare creatures made in the divineimage, then it is entirely understand-able that there is an order in the uni-verse that is deeply accessible to ourminds.”12 This explains why so manypioneers in modern science and math-ematics, such as Newton, understoodtheir faith to be the great motivationfor the work they were doing. MorrisKline, in his history of mathematics,argues that they were acting from thatconviction that “God had designed theuniverse, and it was to be expectedthat all phenomena of nature wouldfollow one master plan. one mind de-signing a universe would almost surelyhave employed one set of basic princi-ples to govern related phenomena.”13

Recognizing the value that the doc-trine of Creation has had in advancingthe mathematical sciences, it is pru-dent to review the Creation account inhopes of better understanding the na-ture of mathematics. Genesis openswith God creating the world, giving itstructure, and moving it from a stateof confusion to one of order. After hu-mans—both male and female—aremade in the image of God, they arethen given a mandate to participate increation: to extend creation (“‘Be fruit-ful and multiply’”) and rule over thecreation (“‘have dominion’”; Genesis1:28). God creates animals, Adamnames them; God creates a garden,the first couple are told to cultivate it.Thus we find a picture of human anddivine cooperation in caring for andextending creation.

in our brief survey of the philoso-phy of mathematics above, we notedthat there is good reason to think of

mathematics as a process of both dis-covery and creation, although eitheraccount faces challenges on its own.The Genesis image of humanity beingcreated to care for a garden serves as arich model to resolve this tension. Agarden is both discovered and created.The plants present existed in naturealready, but the way in which they arebrought together, arranged, and culti-vated reflects the creativity of thehuman gardeners.

A similar story can be told of math-ematics: We begin with ideas that ap-pear very naturally within God’s cre-ation, and then, as image-bearers, weinteract with creation by rationally ex-tending these ideas. having beenmade in the image of the one whomade the cosmos, we quite expectsome form of correspondence betweenthe mathematical notions we developand the structure we discover in thenatural world, but we also expect ourmathematics to reflect the people andsocieties that developed them.

Mathematics thus resists beingclassified as either a natural science ora creative art because it is both. The19th-century mathematician LeopoldKronecker reportedly believed that“God made the integers, all the rest isthe work of man.”14 however wechoose to frame it, we should teach

our students that the ability to domathematics is part of what it meansto be made in the image of God. inthis sense, it is an incredibly powerfulGod-given gift, but the development ofmathematics also reflects human cre-ativity. The theorems of higher mathe-matics were not present before thefoundation of the world; rather, hu-manity has been gifted freedom inhow we extend the field via the math-ematical definitions we choose and ax-ioms we fix, just as a musician hasfreedom in the songs he or she writes,while still respecting fixed rules.

Some have sought to make a dis-tinction between pure and appliedmathematics, and while such a dis-tinction of terms proves useful attimes, it is rather difficult to draw thatdividing line. As we noted above, amathematician may pursue a line ofstudy simply to satisfy mathematicalcuriosity, but often the notions he orshe develops are later realized to beprecisely the tools needed to describesome natural phenomena. My ownarea of mathematics research, knottheory, was completely pure for nearlythe first century of its development,but in recent decades, a number of un-


In the mathematics community, we often

regard the discovery of a great theorem as a

means of immortalization; instead, Christian

students should be taught that such in-

tellectual accomplishments are to be laid in

reverent awe at the feet of the One who

alone has immortality. Rather than producing

pride, mathematical discovery ought to

lead the individual to worship.

expected applications to biology andphysics have been discovered. Thetruth that a mathematician seeks sim-ply for its beauty or elegance is seento occupy and describe creation, bear-ing witness to creation’s good Creator.

But, one may ask, must mathemat-ics find an application to the naturalworld to be considered valuable? hereagain, Genesis’s garden is helpful.Bearing fruit was not the only purposeof its trees—they are also described asbeing beautiful (Genesis 2:9). Beautywas valued in God’s original creationindependent of any utilitarian pur-pose. humanity was designed to domore than just survive; our gardensgrow both fruit to feed us and flowersto be enjoyed. Similarly, the value ofmathematics can be found in both itsusefulness and its beauty.

Mathematics and EternityA picture is beginning to emerge of

how mathematics draws us back toour beginnings, reminding us of ourrole as image bearers of a good Cre-ator. A proverb of Solomon states, “itis the glory of God to conceal a matter,But the glory of kings is to search outa matter” (Proverbs 25:2). Elsewhere,Solomon reminds us that eternity hasbeen placed on the human heart (Ec-clesiastes 3:11). in studying, learning,and searching out those concealedthings and being exposed to fields ofnever-ending discovery and develop-ment, the desire for eternity is awak-ened in the human heart. Mathemat-ics, in particular, seems to endearhumans to the hope of eternity.

The New Testament closes with thevision of Christ restoring creation innew heavens and a new earth. here it isrecorded that the glory of God will illu-minate the city, and the kings of theearth will bring their glory into the citywhere Christ dwells with his people(Revelation 21:23-26). While glory is abroad term, one of the few other refer-ences to the glory of kings in Scriptureis found in Solomon’s proverb recordedabove. Thus, it seems we have here avision of an eternity of God-glorifyingstudy, discovery, and creative pursuits

of humanity. in the mathematics com-munity, we often regard the discovery ofa great theorem as a means of immor-talization; instead, Christian studentsshould be taught that such intellectualaccomplishments are to be laid in rever-ent awe at the feet of the one whoalone has immortality. Rather than pro-ducing pride, mathematical discoveryought to lead the individual to worship.

Ellen White reminds us, “We maybe ever searching, ever inquiring, everlearning, and yet there is an infinitybeyond.”15 This never-ending learningshe offers as a vision of the world tocome: “heaven is a school; its field ofstudy, the universe; its teacher, the in-finite one. A branch of this school wasestablished in Eden; and, the plan ofredemption accomplished, educationwill again be taken up in the Edenschool.”16 does this mean that we willbe doing calculus in the new earth?While we should stop short of suggest-ing that our modern conventions andformulations of the discipline will beemployed in paradise, students shouldbe taught that mathematics is a vitalpart of the eternity of God-glorifyingstudy for which they were created.

Mathematics and EducationThrough the lens of faith, mathemat-

ics is far more than just manipulatingsymbols. Rather, it is an image-bearerstepping into his or her role of being aco-creator with God. Thus, teachingmathematics is more than just helpingstudents learn how to perform algo-rithms or manipulate symbols. i’vecome to think of chalkboards andwhiteboards as windows into eternity,hoping my lectures will awaken stu-dents to the sense of endless discoveryand co-creation for which they were cre-ated. Teaching mathematics is abouthelping students recognize their trueidentities, incredible worth, and theawesome place they occupy within theuniverse. Mathematics testifies to the re-ality that we’re not here haphazardlybut were designed to discover and ex-tend creation while appreciating its

beauty. And mathematics teaches us tolong for the eternity where we’ll be ableto continue our education in the pres-ence of the one who formed us in love.

While anticipating eternity, mathe-matics also teaches valuable lessons ofcharacter. over the last few years, i’veintentionally introduced my students toCarol dweck’s research on growthmindset.17 dweck uses this term to referto the different ways students viewtheir intelligence and hence respond tosuccess and failure. on the one hand,students who believe intelligence isfixed—you’re either born as a “mathperson” or not—tend to interpret theirpoor performance on a math activity asevidence that they are incapable ofmastering the material. on the otherhand, students who are taught to un-derstand that intelligence is somethingthat one can develop—like a muscle—tend to interpret poor performance asindicators of what further steps theyneed to take to master the material.

in my calculus courses, i’ve addedthe course goal of having students de-velop a growth mindset: i give them op-portunities to recover some credit by re-working missed homework problems, toteach them to learn from their mistakes;i meet with students after the first mid -term and ask them to bring correctionsto their missed problems; and i use aflexible grading scheme that allows stu-dents to recover if they persist afterpoor performance on a midterm.

i’ve seen this make a profound dif-ference for numerous students, such asSarah.18 She enjoyed vector calculusbut became discouraged because shefound it challenging. After she had re-ceived poor grades on both of hermidterm exams, she began to disen-gage from the class. i met with her,and we discussed how to use thosesetbacks as learning opportunities. To-gether we formed a study plan. As aresult, she finished the course with thehighest grade on the final exam. Ayear after taking the course, she sharedwith me her ongoing excitement overthe classes she was taking in the math-ematical sciences. Students such asSarah who belong to demographics un-


derrepresented in mathematics are es-pecially at risk to opt out of mathemat-ical studies after initial failures. Thus,teaching a growth mindset is especiallyimportant because it teaches at-riskstudents to persist and go on to makevaluable contributions to mathematicsand society.

Beyond persisting in mathematics,students who cultivate a growth mind-set develop traits of character thattransfer to every sphere of their lives.As Christians, we understand this char-acter growth to have an eternal value:“We also glory in tribulations, knowingthat tribulation produces perseverance;and perseverance, character; and char-acter, hope” (Romans 5:3, 4).

finally, although anticipating therestoration of God’s good creation, weare constantly reminded that there issomething seriously broken in this pres-ent world. Mathematics, like art, cangive individuals glimpses of the worldto come, but if we’re going to takeJesus’ call to service seriously, we mustgo a step further and actually addressthe suffering of this present world.

Enter the great applicability ofmathematics. i’ve developed a growingburden to inspire and challenge mystudents to employ their training to ad-dress the great want of the world inwhatever life course they pursue, be itas educators, engineers, medical pro-fessionals, lawyers, or even mathemati-cians. in one calculus course, for in-stance, after teaching a number ofmethods of integration, i set aside aweek for students to work on projectsthat applied these skills to variousother disciplines. They discovered nu-merous opportunities: for pre-med stu-dents to analyze blood flow and car-diac output, for business majors tostudy consumer surplus, for engineersto explore hydrostatic pressure, and formathematically curious students towrestle with the paradox of Gabriel’shorn. Thus, beyond just letting the stu-dents practice the skills of the course in

an engaging way, i used the projects toguide them in recognizing that the endof education is the joy of service, inboth this world and the world to come.

While the problem-solving methodsand results of mathematics exist inde-pendently of one’s worldview or reli-gious commitment, there exists an im-portant role for Adventist educators toteach their students to let their faithinform the way they view the natureand purpose of mathematics. incredi-bly, this can transform the subject intoa perpetual testimony of the great planof redemption—from Creation to eter-nity—and remind students of theiridentity as image-bearers, inspiringthem to worship an awesome Creator.Moreover, mathematics can equip thestudent for an eternity of usefulChristlike service. “in the highestsense the work of education and thework of redemption are one.”19


Anthony Bosman, MS, is currentlycompleting his doctorate in mathemat-ics at Rice University in Houston,Texas, United States, having earned hisbachelor’s degree from Stanford Uni-versity in Stanford, California, UnitedStates. His area of research is low-di-mensional topology, the study ofshapes and surfaces up to continuousdeformation. In particular, his researchfocuses on knots and links. He hastaught a number of undergraduatemathematics courses, enjoys workingwith math enrichment programs to getsecondary school students passionateabout mathematics, and serves as aleader in campus ministry.

NOTES AND REFERENCES1. Plato, Republic, trans. G. M. A. Grube,

revised by C. d. C. Reeve (indianapolis:hackett Publishing, 1992).

2. Morris Kline, Mathematics and theSearch for Knowledge (New York: oxforduniversity Press, 1985).

3. unless stated otherwise, Bible quota-tions in this article are quoted from the New

�

King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 byThomas Nelson. used by permission. Allrights reserved.

4. office of Education, North Americandivision, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Pre-Algebra: 2012 Secondary Mathematics Stan-dards in Seventh-day Adventist Schools, 2, 3,accessed May 10, 2016: http://adventisteducation.org/downloads/pdf/nad_mathematics_prealgebra_2012.pdf.

5. “Numbers and operations,” http:// adventisteducation.org/ downloads/ pdf/Elementary%20Math%20Standards% 20Num bers% 20and %20operations.pdf.

6. 1 Corinthians 2:14, NLT. Scripture quo-tations credited to NLT are taken fromThe Holy Bible, New Living Translation,copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. used by per-mission of Tyndale house Publishers, inc.,Carol Stream, illinois 60188. All Rights Re-served.

7. Godfrey h. hardy, A Mathematician’sApology (Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge uni-versity Press, 1967), 123, quoted in MorrisKline, Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty(New York: oxford university Press, 1980),322.

8. Karl Weierstrass, quoted in Kline,Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty, 324.

9. Eugene Paul Wigner, “The unreason-able Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Nat-ural Sciences,” in The Collected Works of Eu-gene Paul Wigner, ed. Jagdish Mehra, vol. 6,Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses (NewYork: Springer-Verlag, 1995), 534-549. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-78374-6_41.

10. The curvature of space-time is in-significant enough that the classical Euclid-ean geometry we teach in high school stilldoes an excellent job of describing local phe-nomena.

11. Wigner, “The unreasonable Effective-ness of Mathematics,” in Mehra, The Col-lected Works, vol. 6, 549.

12. J. C. Polkinghorne, Science and Theol-ogy: An Introduction (London: Society forPromoting Christian Knowledge, 1998), 73.

13. Kline, Mathematics: The Loss of Cer-tainty, 52.

14. Eric Temple Bell, Men of Mathematics(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986), 477.

15. Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Heal-ing (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific PressPublishing Association, 1905), 431.

16. ___________, Education (MountainView, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1903), 301.

17. Carol S. dweck, Mindset: The NewPsychology of Success (New York: Randomhouse, 2006).

18. Names used are pseudonyms.19. White, Education, 30.


B E S T P R A C T I C E S A T W O R K

magine walking into your first classof the fall semester, and your pro-fessor explains that you and yourclassmates will jump right into thework of creating a public-relations

(PR) plan for a real nonprofit organi-zation. That’s exactly what happenedto david deemer and Stefani Leeper1

when they walked into Patricia Max -well’s fall 2015 public-relations princi-ples class.

A new professor at union Collegein Lincoln, Nebraska, Maxwell teachesseveral communication and social-media classes in which she endeavorsto teach her students by giving themnot just theoretical but also practicalknowledge. She has spent many yearsas a public-relations professional,most recently as director of marketingand communication technologies for

Catalina island Conservancy in LongBeach, California.

Maxwell has worked and volun-teered for a number of nonprofit or-ganizations over the years, from LosAngeles, California, u.S.A. to SanMartin, Guatemala. “one thing alwaysremains true—nonprofits generally donot have the resources to accomplishall they want and need to do,” Max -well said. “Working with these organi-zations can be very rewarding.”

in the summer, as she prepared forher classes, she began making connec-tions with nonprofit organizations

around Lincoln, including ConstruCasa, Lincoln interfaith Coalition, Lin-coln Peacemakers, and domesti-PuPS,and many were open to allowing stu-dents to help them develop a public-relations plan.

Maxwell set high goals and feltconfident that her students couldachieve them—including adding realvalue to nonprofits’ communicationprograms by producing professional-quality work that met a real need.“The students absolutely reached thegoals i had envisioned,” Maxwell ex-plained. “The PR principles class thisfall gave three Lincoln-based organiza-tions the added boost of talent andtime to accomplish some key tasksleading to brand awareness and en-gagement with their audiences.”

Megan Wehling Patricia J. Maxwell

Partnerships


to EnhanceStudentLearning

Forming

I

Taking on the Real Worlddavid deemer, a senior biomedical

science major, teamed up with RoxiPeterson, Michael Brautigan, andKristi Tucker to work with ConstruCasa, a nonprofit that builds homesfor impoverished families in Guate -mala. They set out to increase aware-ness among older audiences whomight be interested in supporting theirefforts. To build awareness, deemerand his group submitted an article forpublication in Nebraska Magazine(The university of Nebraska’s alumnimagazine) featuring CEo Jim Pittengerand university of Nebraska Lincolngraduate student Kye Kurkowski.

Even though this project was givento them the first day of class, deemersaid that the team determined thepath of the project, which taught himthat life is thrown our way every day,and we can’t always prepare for it.“There’s a lot to be said about learn-ing to make adjustments as you go,”he said. “i think this class taught us todo that and to be comfortable in thatenvironment.”

Projects like these often prove to bevery time-consuming. “This class isvery involved, and in order to do well,you must invest time and energy intoyour team and your project,” deemersaid. “overall, it was a challengingand rewarding experience, and i’mglad i was able to take part in it.”

Stefani Leeper teamed up with An-thony Gann and Rachel Lozano towork with domesti-PuPS, a nonprofitthat organizes community serviceswith service and therapy dogs. Thisteam grew the organization’s Twitteraudience and edited a promotionalbrochure. “i feel my team contributedby helping the owner of domesti-PuPS realize that the business needs alarger social-media outreach, whichcan be easily accomplished by simplyhiring a business or communicationsstudent as an intern,” Leeper ex-plained. her favorite part of the classincluded the final presentation, not

because it signaled the end of the se-mester but because the students wereto dress professionally and presentthemselves as business people as theypresented the work they had donethroughout the semester.

The team met with the organiza-tion on a regular basis to discuss ex-pectations and give updates. Regulare-mail communication helped to keepthe project on track. They also got tomeet some of the puppies training tobe service dogs. “This was probablythe most fun meeting we had, as wewere able to ‘forget’ about our job andfocus on the purpose of it, the servicedogs,” Leeper explained. “We wereable to hold the puppies and pet them.Although the experience lasted for lessthan 10 minutes, it was a nice, relax-ing experience that we enjoyed as ateam.”

Making an ImpactAccording to Maxwell, each team

made a lasting impact on the organi-zation they served. “Every organiza-tion reported that the quality of workby union College students in this classwas excellent,” she said.

one of the other class teamsworked with the Lincoln interfaithPeacemaking Coalition. “our commit-

tee would not have been able to reachany of the organizations and youngergenerations without their facebookand Website designers,” said MarthaGadberry, the director of the coalition.“The analytics were invaluable. Theirneed for information forced us tofocus on our message and project.They taught us valuable lessons onthe use of a variety of technologies inpromoting our project.”

Chris Blake, chair of the coalition,agreed. “Partnering with union Col-lege communications students helpedthe interfaith Peacemaking Coalitionby envisioning, enlightening, and em-powering,” he said. “We feel 30 yearsyounger! The media technology acces-sibility and products they providedwere a Godsend. i highly recommendworking with union College emergingmedia students.”

“The most immediate and obviouseffect of the work by the union Col-lege students was to get an articlepublished in the university of Ne-braska alumni magazine, whichreached a wide audience. We are cer-tainly hopeful that it will generate sig-

The Journal of Adventist Education • January-March 2017 http:// jae.adventist.org 44

The first year, students were appointed

to teams based on their self-identification

of skills and interests. The second year, job

descriptions were provided, and the team

leaders selected those students with the

skills and interests they needed for the

project. Instructors can monitor this selec-

tion process to ensure each student is

part of a team.

nificant interest in Constru Casa,” saidJohn Lothrop of that organization.

Both students were thankful for thechance to pursue a real public-rela-tions challenge.

“Patience and communication arethe keys to life and success in thisclass,” said Leeper.

“This project may be difficult, butif you persevere, the outcomes are re-warding,” said deemer. “You get outof this class what you put into it.”

Helpful Tips for Teachersforming partnerships to enhance

student learning takes careful prepara-tion. here are a few helpful teachertips provided by Patricia Maxwell:

Teacher Tip 1: Carefully screen theorganizations. Some questions to con-sider:

• have they worked with and men-tored students in this age range be-fore?

• What are the expectations of theorganization?

• do these expectations align withcourse goals and outcomes?

Teacher Tip 2: Let teams form or-ganically. The first year, students wereappointed to teams based on theirself-identification of skills and inter-ests. The second year, job descriptionswere provided, and the team leadersselected those students with the skillsand interests they needed for the proj-ect. instructors can monitor this selec-

tion process to ensure each student ispart of a team. Also, let students selectthe organization that they want towork with from a list of possible proj-ects.

Teacher Tip 3: Use frequent evalua-tions. Self, peer, and supervisor evalu-ations are essential to the workplace,and learning how to participate in thisprocess is a work-related skill. onecommon approach is the 360 evalua-tion process.2 Students evaluate theirteammates at three different timesduring the semester, receive evalua-tion feedback from the nonprofit part-ners, and also complete self-evalua-tions. Encourage students to talk


One of the author’s PR teams worked to promote a local nonprofit organization called Domesti-Pups. The team helped revise a promo-tional brochure and promoted several awareness and fundraising events for the organization. Left to right: Rachel Lozano, Anthony Gann,and Stephanie Leeper.

about performance-related issues withone another in a productive and posi-tive manner. The experience buildscommunication skills they need towork in teams on the job.

Teacher Tip 4: Request feedbackfrom organizations. Ask for feedbackfrom participating organizations atleast twice during the semester. Workwith partnering organizations to createfeedback forms that will meet theneeds of both entities—the class andthe organization. At the completion ofthe project, invite the partnering or-ganizations to provide students with aformal endorsement of the work com-pleted.

Teacher Tip 5: Grades reflect per-formance, just like in a job. Each indi-vidual’s grade is made up by theevaluations provided by peers whoworked on the project plus the totalgrade assigned to the team by theclass, organization, and teacher, thendivided by 2. This keeps the grade“fair” for those who are carrying thebulk of the teamwork and encouragesall of the team members to contributeto the work equally.

Teacher Tip 6: Network constantly.This might be easier said than done,depending on your personality, butuse every opportunity to meet leaders

of businesses and nonprofits, as wellas city administrators to tell themabout your program and to ask themwhether they’d like to participate. forexample, one organization created aninternship after i (PJM) talked aboutthe talents and skills my studentscould bring to their mission.

Teacher Tip 7: Let it be. it’s hardsometimes, but let the teams do thework and experience the result of thatwork, be it “good” or “bad.” Guideand encourage, but let this be theirproject. Remember Psalm 32:8: “i willinstruct you and teach you in the wayyou should go; i will counsel you withmy loving eye on you” (NiV).3 �

Megan Wehling, BA, completed herbachelor’s in English at Union College,Lincoln, Nebraska, United States, inMay 2016. Her ultimate career goal is towrite and edit. This article is adaptedfrom “PR Class Provides Services forLocal Nonprofit Organization” origi-nally published in the Mid-Americanunion outlook 37:6 (June 2016): 24,25. used with permission.

Patricia J. Maxwell, MBA, is Assis-tant Professor of Communication atUnion College. She has more than 20years of industry experience in market-ing and communication for nonprofitorganizations and institutions ofhigher education.

NOTES AND REFERENCES1. Names used with permission.2. instructors, students, and partners can

use the information provided by 360 evalua-tions to gauge how well the project is pro-gressing and what changes might need to bemade. See harriet Edleson, “do 360 Evalua-tions Work?” Monitor on Psychology 43:10(November 2012): 58: https://www.apa.org/ monitor/2012/11/360-evaluations.aspx.

3. holy Bible, New international Ver-sion®, NiV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984,2011 by Biblica, inc.® used by permission.All rights reserved worldwide.

The Journal of Adventist Education • January-March 2017 http:// jae.adventist.org 46

Members of Patricia Maxwell’s Fall 2015 PR class pause for a group photo. Front row, left to right: Roxi Peterson,Michael Brautigan, Professor Maxwell, and David Deemer. Second row, left to right: Kristi Tucker, Rachel Lozano,Helen Maijub, Aria Bodden, and Misha Darcy. Third row, left to right: Stephanie Leeper and Anthony Gann.

Campus Compact has a variety

of resources that can help in course

preparation (http://com pact.org/

resource-posts/), as well as gen -

eral guidance on how to build effec-

tive community-academic/univer -

sity partnerships (http://com

pact. org/ resource-posts/ how-to-

do-well-community-academic

university-partnerships/).

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