Faith integration
is essential to the mission of all programs at Christian colleges and
universities. As educators, we are not
only challenged to equip our students with a Christian worldview, but also a
view of our discipline that is distinctly Christian. As an academy, we have written numerous
articles on styles of Biblical integration, methods and tools to achieve
integration, and case studies on results of integration (Dupree, 2015; Kaak,
2016). Yet despite a wealth of research on faith integration, faculty lack
validated scales to help in our assessment (Smith, 2005; Holder, 2006; Kaak,
2016). As part of this, our current
means of assessment do not consider all of the aspects of the attitudes related
to the Christian commitment of the individual.
In this session,
participants learn about a research study focused on undergraduate business
majors resulting in the development of the Christian Commitment Index which
measures students’ commitment level to the Christian faith while attending a
Christian college or university. The study was conducted with 705 participants
across 12 CCCU institutions. Findings indicate that higher scores on the CCI
corresponded to more appreciation of faith instruction in their major and
integration of their faith in their work after graduation.
Session
participants will also engage with authors related to these, and additional,
significant findings of the study and explore their various faith integration
methods relative to those expressed by institutions engaged in the research
study.
Finally, since
biblical integration efforts aim toward helping students grow in their faith,
should not their individual faith commitments be considered our work? Join us
as we explore this critical aspect of our teaching.
Adele Harrison and Wendy L. Martin