United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities : 2001 Seminar
Project Report
Excerpt:
One of the strengths of United is its intentional openness to diversity within the student body. A challenge that grows out of this commitment is to honor students' diverse callings and gifts while maintaining consistent standards of academic achievement and preparation for ministry. This is most clear in the Master of Divinity degree, which includes a benchmark in the program known as the Integrative Exam. Designed around a paper drawing on the student's contextual parish experience, the exam is designed to test a student's ability to do contextual analysis, issue analysis drawing upon appropriate coursework, and present an appropriate response by which that issue might be addressed within the described context. Two issues often arose in the Integrative Exam process. First, the process had originally been an integral part of a course; as it was moved out of the course and became more individualized through the years, students were left to write it primarily on their own. They were encouraged to work with their advisor, but even this process varied greatly. Secondly, there was little structure given to students in the developing and writing of the Integrative paper. Some students were able to examine an issue, review their overall coursework, and develop highly integrative papers. Others found themselves required to do a task for which they felt under-prepared.
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Excerpt:
One of the strengths of United is its intentional openness to diversity within the student body. A challenge that grows out of this commitment is to honor students' diverse callings and gifts while maintaining consistent standards of academic achievement and preparation for ministry. This is most clear in the Master of Divinity degree, which includes a benchmark in the program known as the Integrative Exam. Designed around a paper drawing on the student's contextual parish experience, the exam is designed to test a student's ability to do contextual analysis, issue analysis drawing upon appropriate coursework, and present an appropriate response by which that issue might be addressed within the described context. Two issues often arose in the Integrative Exam process. First, the process had originally been an integral part of a course; as it was moved out of the course and became more individualized through the years, students were left to write it primarily on their own. They were encouraged to work with their advisor, but even this process varied greatly. Secondly, there was little structure given to students in the developing and writing of the Integrative paper. Some students were able to examine an issue, review their overall coursework, and develop highly integrative papers. Others found themselves required to do a task for which they felt under-prepared.
Recognizing the complex challenges that have arisen through the years of using the Integrative Exam as a way to determine a student's progress towards both an academic degree and readiness for ministry, the core issue United chose to address was that of integration. As identified at the Lexington Seminar, United Seminary's issue in teaching and learning focused on institutional transformation to better foster integration in its various dimensions for all United Seminary students in ways that take account of diverse locations. The initial question addressed in the project was, what do we mean by integration, and what might be a more effective academic approach to facilitating and assessing integrative abilities in students? Although integration is important for all degree students, the primary focus of this project was students in the Master of Divinity and Master of Religious Leadership, as it is these two degrees that currently use the Integrative Exam.
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