The Value of Conviction: Reflections on motivating students and marketing courses
Presented at
Daystar University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)
March 19 and 21, 2014
Wow. I’m honored to have been invited to the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning because at the beginning of this year, I wasn’t sure I could handle any more disappointment regarding our department. I asked God to please give us at least some recognition for all we’ve done over the past six years, and I take this invitation as one of the many answers to my prayers. Looking back over the last few years, I now see that despite the difficult journey, God has done exceedingly more than we asked for. And although we remain uncertain, we the faculty are convinced that what we are doing is right, and that because it is right, God shall fight for us, and has been fighting for us. The battle belongs to the Lord.
The details about our session today indicated that I was supposed to address what to do when students think our courses are “ho-hum, boring and lackluster.” Actually, the attitude towards the courses offered by our department has been worse than that. Students have been thinking that our courses have no relevance to the working world. But they do not think that on their own initiative. Rather, they are echoing the message they have been hearing from others both within and outside the university. Besides hearing faulty advice on what is “marketable,” students also live in an environment where politicians, both in Kenya and worldwide, have attacked the arts as a waste of resources of higher education.
Presented at
Daystar University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)
March 19 and 21, 2014
Wow. I’m honored to have been invited to the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning because at the beginning of this year, I wasn’t sure I could handle any more disappointment regarding our department. I asked God to please give us at least some recognition for all we’ve done over the past six years, and I take this invitation as one of the many answers to my prayers. Looking back over the last few years, I now see that despite the difficult journey, God has done exceedingly more than we asked for. And although we remain uncertain, we the faculty are convinced that what we are doing is right, and that because it is right, God shall fight for us, and has been fighting for us. The battle belongs to the Lord.
The details about our session today indicated that I was supposed to address what to do when students think our courses are “ho-hum, boring and lackluster.” Actually, the attitude towards the courses offered by our department has been worse than that. Students have been thinking that our courses have no relevance to the working world. But they do not think that on their own initiative. Rather, they are echoing the message they have been hearing from others both within and outside the university. Besides hearing faulty advice on what is “marketable,” students also live in an environment where politicians, both in Kenya and worldwide, have attacked the arts as a waste of resources of higher education.
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