Author Archives: igalindo

About igalindo

Israel Galindo is Professor and Associate Dean for Lifelong Learning at Columbia Theological Seminary.

What Bruner said

Posted on May 11, 2007 by igalindo

In 1966 Jerome Bruner, Harvard psychologist and educator, wrote: There is a dilemma in describing a course of study. One must begin by setting forth the intellectual substance of what is to be taught, else there can be no sense … Continue reading →

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You learn what you need at the time you need it and not before

Posted on May 10, 2007 by igalindo

I often start my workshop presentations by saying, “Don’t take notes. It won’t help you.” (in fact, I start out most of my seminary class sessions that way). I tell the participants to trust themselves to learn what they need … Continue reading →

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Teaching concepts

Posted on May 9, 2007 by igalindo

Concepts are some of the most powerful components of learning. In fact, concepts attainment is necessary for deep understanding—if you don’t grasp the concept, you don’t really understand. This is a challenge in teaching in part because most people don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in children, Christian Education, teaching | 1 Comment

How NOT to explain things

Posted on May 8, 2007 by igalindo

In a previous post (“On metaphors, analogies, and rigid thinking”(April 20th, 2007) I wrote about the limitations inherent in metaphors. I stated that while metaphors can be helpful to introduce a concept we do people a disservice in leaving them … Continue reading →

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Putting the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble

Posted on May 7, 2007 by igalindo

I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a couple of church leaders who wanted to “mobilize” their church members into ministry. They wanted to turn around the situation in their church (common to many congregations) where 20% of … Continue reading →

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How’s your focus?

Posted on May 5, 2007 by igalindo

How good are you at multiple object tracking? Here’s an interesting little vision test from the University of Guelph website. This is from Dr. Lana Trick, Associate Professor of Psychology at Applied Cognitive Science department. See how well you can … Continue reading →

Posted in bowen family systems theory | 4 Comments

Critical?

Posted on May 4, 2007 by igalindo

Someone asked me, “How do you know when you are being critical and when you are pointing out errors?” When I asked her to clarify what she was asking she thought for a moment and said, “I’m wondering about how … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

On belonging and membership

Posted on May 3, 2007 by igalindo

Recently some pastors were challenged by my description of how my former church handled membership. As a “covenant community” church there was no “voting” on membership. You became a member of the congregation by entering into covenant with the congregation … Continue reading →

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How to turn your thesis (dissertation, D.Min. project) into a book

Posted on May 2, 2007 by igalindo

In the past two weeks I’ve had three conversations with people wanting to “learn how to write.” In a future blog I may compile some thoughts about that since the conversation comes up regularly (and the other day, a former … Continue reading →

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The enduring concepts

Posted on May 1, 2007 by igalindo

I recently had a conversation with a couple of professors from other seminaries about our Christian education (C.E.) curriculum at BTSR. One was in the midst of creating an M.A. program in religious education and the other was in the … Continue reading →

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