Episode 6 - Living Your Faith: A Strategy for Integrating Biblical Principles into Everyday Life

In this episode of "Faith Meets Academia," Dr. Reynolds explores the intersection of biblical teachings and educational theory using Bloom's Taxonomy. He discusses how this well-established framework can transform our understanding and application of scripture into actionable steps, helping us live out our faith more fully each day. From addressing the challenges of applying faith in everyday life to enhancing our ability to think critically and interactively about spiritual teachings, this episode offers valuable insights for anyone looking to deepen their spiritual practice through structured learning. 

After listening this episode, you will be able to (a) understand and use Bloom's Taxonomy to integrate biblical teachings into daily life, (b) develop actionable strategies for applying scriptural principles to everyday challenges, and (c) Set specific, measurable goals to assess improvements in applying these strategies over time.

OUTLINE 

1. Introduction/ Learning Objectives
2. Overview of Bloom's Taxonomy
3. Challenges of Living Faith
4. Using Bloom's Taxonomy to Deepen Faith Application
5. Scriptural Insights and Practical Applications
6. Interactive Learning and Metacognition in Faith Settings
7. Call to Action for Community Engagement
8. Pronouncement of the Priestly Blessing 

Key Resources/ References 

• Bloom's Taxonomy 
• Bloom's Taxonomy: The Ultimate Guide 

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DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely my own and do not reflect or represent the positions, policies, or opinions of my employer, any organization or academic institution with which I am affiliated. This podcast is a personal initiative, and is not connected to my official/ formal duties and responsibilities as a university professor.

Transcript

Welcome to Faith Meets Academia, Biblical Foundations for Scholarly Pursuits. I'm your host, Dr. Adrian Reynolds. Thanks for joining me on this transformational journey where the sacred and the scholarly converge.

As a university professor and ordained minister, I stand at the intersection of educational innovation and biblical wisdom. Are you tired of having to separate your spiritual calling from your academic profession? If so, you've found your community.

In this community, we use biblical principles to illuminate our scholastic endeavors. In this community, we leverage academic concepts and theories to magnify the reach and impact of our spiritual gifts. Yes, your faith and your scholarship can forge a mutually sustaining partnership.

I'm here to help you bridge the gap between your academic work and your spiritual journey.

Hello! Welcome, welcome back to Faith Meets Academia, Biblical Foundations for Scholarly Pursuits. I'm so excited that you have joined me again today. We're already on episode six: “Living Your Faith, a Simple Framework for Integrating Biblical Principles Into Everyday Life.” 

After listening this episode, you will be able to use a simple, but highly impactful evidence-based framework known as Bloom's Taxonomy to help you translate Biblical insights, principles, scriptures into your day-to-day life. After listening today's episode, you'll also be able to use or help your students use Bloom's Taxonomy to overcome the fear of asking questions, particularly in group settings.

Okay, so let's begin. One challenge that people of faith face daily, I think, is that of applying the principles of their faith to their everyday lives. Essentially putting theology into practice.

After attending weekly gatherings, services or events and participating at your place of worship this past week, what lessons did you learn and how have you used these lessons to live a more fulfilling, meaningful life or help impact the lives of others? Yes, church feels great when you hear that choir in perfect harmony and when you hear that testimony of deliverance that resonates deeply with you or when you hear the preacher quoting your favorite scriptures and using catchphrases like, quote, setback is a set up for a comeback, end quote, until you leave the four walls of that supportive community of believers and you are by yourself struggling to figure out how to get set up for the comeback to overcome the setback. Yeah, you did the church thing, had a mighty good time, but now have to confront reality.

How do you use the word of God to conquer just everyday challenges, everyday common challenges? And I know you wanna make this connection, right? I know you really want to make this connection.

I mean, who wouldn't? But in order to do that, it'll take some work that goes beyond Revelation 22:14, which says, “Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city.” I say go beyond Revelation 22:14 because yes, the word of God is our starting point, right?

But in order to experience its power, we have to put it to work. Simply telling someone you need to or you have to apply the word of God to your life just doesn't work either. Why?

Well, because living your faith is not as simple as a Nike slogan. Just do it, right? I'm sure you know that slogan, right?

Just do it. If life were only that simple, then we would all achieve our goals or whatever it is that we truly intend to do. So according to Revelation 22, 14, there's clearly a blessing in the doing, but the question is, how do we actually get to the point where we're doing what we're supposed to be doing?

Think about that. I think I know what's missing for you. Here's what's missing for you.

You have no framework to get to this doing phase. No holistic framework. I say that because you're integrating God's word into your life, goes a little beyond applying it.

And that might sound strange to you, but you'll understand. Stick around a little bit longer and you'll understand. You're integrating God's word into your life goes far beyond applying it.

Bloom's Taxonomy, this framework, helps to make this clear. Check it out in the show notes. You might want to open up that link, so I could walk you through this.

There are two key steps that come before applying and three steps that come after it. You can't apply what you don't know or haven't really understood. Are you looking at the framework?

Make sure you're looking at it right now. There is a way out. Yes, if you're struggling to make connections between scriptures and real life, I mean, any scripture, any scripture, any book of the Bible, right?

Bloom's Taxonomy can help you do that. Yes, of course, this is where Faith Meets Academia. You can use Bloom's Taxonomy to assess the extent to which your faith-based principles are connecting with your real life experiences.

Here's the bottom line. If the word of God is going to truly work for us, it must transcend theological debates and academic inquiry. It has to become a living force that shapes our daily actions, a living force that guides our decision-making.

It has to become a living force that shapes our interpersonal interactions. Yes, this connection has to be made. Let's take a look at James, the first chapter, verses 22 through 25: “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

So what is Bloom's Taxonomy? It is an educational framework that was first developed by Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues in 1956, and later revised in 2001. It classifies learning objectives, learning objectives meaning what the learner should know and be able to do, whether it's after a workshop or presentation, a lesson, et cetera.

So it classifies learning objectives into six different levels of complexity. As you can see, based on the model, that I have referenced in the show notes, going from the base of the triangle all the way to the top, we have remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. From a teaching standpoint, the goal is always to move learners toward higher forms of thinking or higher cognitive skills, right?

That would be the top three levels of analyze, evaluate and create. Without, of course, undermining the importance of the first three levels of remember, understand and apply as key foundational elements in the learning process. As educators, when we're planning a lesson, a workshop or presentation, we use Bloom's Taxonomy to help us create clear, concrete learning objectives.

Objectives that are often referred to as SMART objectives. SMART and being an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. So here's an example of a SMART objective.

By the end of this week long chapter, students will be able to describe the process of photosynthesis, including how sunlight, carbon dioxide and water are converted into glucose and oxygen after labeling these components on a diagram with at least 80% accuracy. All right, so that's an example of a SMART objective using Bloom's Taxonomy as a framework to ensure that our students are achieving the learning outcomes that we want them to achieve. Now here's a test for you.

What levels of Bloom's Taxonomy does this objective address? Right, drum roll. And the answer is you could take some time to figure it out, right, or pause while you figure it out.

So the levels that that objective best describes would be knowing and understanding, knowing and understanding. Now keep in mind that an objective that is framed using Bloom's Taxonomy could address multiple levels of the framework at the same time. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

It could address multiple skills at the same time.

So in this case, the objective addresses the level of knowing in Bloom's Taxonomy, because it's basically asking the learner to recall factual information, right? How does it address understanding? Well, it addresses understanding since it's asking the learner to produce a description in their own words with at least 80% accuracy, which if successfully accomplished, would indicate a basic understanding of the content.

Here's another example of a two-part smart objective using biblical content. Part A. By the end of this two-hour workshop, participants will be able to analyze the contrasting perspectives on learning or studying presented in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 12, and 2 Timothy 2.15.

Now, your task is to go and read those scriptures. I love this one.

I love these objectives, all right? Part B. They will then use their findings to create a study schedule.

This one is good.

They will then use their findings to create a study schedule that balances effective studying with physical and spiritual well-being. And you know what I really like about this? I'm gonna be using this specific objective to develop a future podcast episode.

I can't say when it's gonna come out, but it'll be coming soon.

Here's a challenge for you. What cognitive skills or levels of Bloom's Taxonomy does this objective seek to address? This objective as in the one that we just covered, both parts, A and B.

In your podcast app, whether you're using Apple Podcasts, Spotify, you name it, there is a section for reviews. Go to that section, type a review, go to that section, submit a review. It doesn't have to be lengthy, right?

Submit a review. I know you have been learning a lot from listening to these episodes. Please share, submit a review, and also tell me your response to the question.

What cognitive skills or levels of Bloom's Taxonomy does this objective seek to address?

Here's another point that I'd like to make. Although the original intent of Bloom's Taxonomy was to craft actionable, measurable learning objectives, I use it quite frequently to help students improve their metacognitive awareness or their thinking about their own thinking and learning and studying. So for example, in coaching students, I would often pull up Bloom's Taxonomy, this framework, and I would ask, in my attempt to learn more about the student's approach to learning and to encourage critical self-reflection, I would often ask a question such as, when it comes to your approach to studying, which one of these levels best describes you?

And then the student might say something like, analyzing and evaluating are the areas where I'm most effective, but when it comes to recalling or memorizing information, I really struggle with that. And from a theological standpoint, you could ask a similar question, such as, when it comes to your use of and integrating the word of God in your everyday life, where do you see yourself in this framework? As a learning coach, I've also found Bloom's Taxonomy to be helpful in developing students' question asking or inquiry skills.

It's important to consider this question.

Why do some learners ask lots of questions while others don't, particularly in group settings?

And to find the answers to this kind of question, sometimes we forget to ask those who matter most, and that is our learners, our students, or in faith-based communities, the members or congregants. So at various points throughout my career, both in my one-on-one coaching sessions and in the classroom learning environment, I've often asked students, what is your hesitation or concern when it comes to asking questions in class? Interestingly, their first response is almost always the same, and that is, I don't wanna look stupid in front of everybody else.

That's a direct quote, by the way. I'm sharing verbatim what students have stated to me over the years. Now, as a result of this face-saving move, if you will, by our learners, can you imagine how many learning opportunities are missed?

Now, some may say, yeah, well, it's a confidence issue. Okay, so how do we build that confidence? Too many educators are simply telling their learners or encouraging them or just encouraging them to ask questions.

They may, they might even say, there is no such thing as a stupid question. But then they fall short of teaching the skill of question asking, which is precisely what is needed to build the confidence to ask questions. Now, I'm not talking about simply how to use interrogatives per se, like who, what, when, where, why, how, you know, that kind of stuff.

The adult learners I work with are fully capable of doing that, right? Here's the bottom line. Students don't want to appear to their peers as if they have any knowledge gaps.

They want to appear to have already learned. Now, to change that mindset, we must be more intentional as educators about creating a learning environment where curiosity is celebrated and questioning is seen as a sign of engagement and interest rather than a lack of knowledge. You may notice a similar concern among members in your faith-based community or at work in terms of this hesitation, this fear of asking questions in group settings.

There's a way to overcome or address this fear of not knowing using Bloom's Taxonomy. And here's how, it's an approach that, as an educator, you may have mastered.

However, among our students, it's not common, unfortunately, and here it is. It's a simple but effective strategy that would require some deliberate, intentional, well-structured practice activities in order to be mastered or used appropriately.

As with learning any new skill, right?

Okay, so here it is. The learner, broadly speaking, it could be a student in a classroom setting, a member of your congregation, right? The learner could preface the question by first stating what they already know, then ask what they really want to know.

Here's an example of how that would work. A member of your congregation approaches you and says, in Matthew chapter seven verses seven and eight, Jesus says, ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

However, in reality, I don't receive everything I ask for, and I don't find every opportunity I'm looking for.

Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose. I think that's just how life is, right?

So, is there a deeper meaning or interpretation of the scripture I'm missing?

Now, let's analyze the framing of this question. First off, what levels of Bloom's Taxonomy are most pertinent here?

There are three levels that I believe are addressed. First, analyzing. So, the individual is examining the scripture to compare its literal meaning with their personal experiences.

They're breaking down this text to understand its various components and implications when things don't quite align with the expected outcome, that is, not always receiving, for example, what is asked for.

Then there is evaluating. They're judging the applicability of the scripture based on their own personal experiences and expected outcomes, which involves assessing the scripture's relevance in light of their observed reality.

In other words, exploring whether an alternative interpretation may provide a more accurate understanding.

And lastly, the question reaches into the application level of Bloom's Taxonomy as well.

And that means taking the interpretations or understandings developed from the analyzing and evaluating stages and seeing how they can be implemented or understood in the context of everyday life. In my estimation, Bloom's Taxonomy is one of the most underutilized frameworks in educational theory. In the sense that its utility has been primarily limited or restricted to crafting learning objectives.

But hopefully, based on this episode, you've been exposed to multiple ways in which it can enrich and illuminate our spiritual and academic lives. From developing learning objectives to creating opportunities for self-reflection to asking questions, Bloom's Taxonomy presents us with a structured approach to transform theoretical knowledge into actionable faith. And this, I believe, will impact our personal growth and help us build stronger relationships.

As we continue to bridge, as we continue to build bridges between our faith and academia, I encourage you to share this podcast with like-minded friends or colleagues.

Thank you for your continued interest and support. I leave you with Numbers 6, verses 24 through 26.

The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee, the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.