Articles & Essays Archives - Page 3 of 3

Seeing Anew, Choosing Engagement, Reshaping Practice

This article was first published in The Christian Teachers Journal, vol. 21:2, May 2013. It offers an overview of some key themes that informed the design of the resources at www.whatiflearning.com I focus in particular on the idea of Christian practices and what they have…

David I. SmithMay 1, 2013

Articles & Essays Featured Language and Culture Learning

Shouting at your Neighbor: Why we Bother with Other People’s Languages.

This essay was published in 2012 in the book Practically Human: College Professors Speak from the Heart of Humanities Education edited by Gary Schmidt & Matthew Walhout (Grand Rapids: Calvin College Press, 2012, 133-145). It asks why we invest time and resources in learning other…

David I. SmithSeptember 20, 2012

Articles & Essays Voices from the Past

On Graced Learning: Can Schools be Beautiful?

What do beauty, prayer, imagination, and teaching have to do with one another? This piece explores the connections through reflection on a prayer and some related ideas from the great Didactic by John Amos Comenius (as well as some metaphors for nursing). It also continues…

David I. SmithMay 26, 2009

Articles & Essays Faith and Teaching Featured Language and Culture Learning

Christian Faith and Language Pedagogy

I came across a short piece that I wrote as a journal editorial a little over a decade ago. I think several of its themes are still pertinent. It was published as the editorial of the Journal of Christianity and Foreign Languages, since renamed the…

David I. SmithApril 10, 2008

Articles & Essays Language and Culture Learning

The Gift of the Stranger Revisited

What is hospitality and is it a good thing? My first full-length book, published in 2000, was The Gift of the Stranger: Faith, Hospitality, and Language Learning, co-authored with Barbara Carvill. This piece from 2006 is one of the couple of occasions when I have…

David I. SmithApril 1, 2006

Articles & Essays Reflection on Scripture

How not to bless the nations.

In Genesis 12 Abram is called to be a blessing to the nations. In Genesis 20 he is just the opposite, and the foreigner who was supposed to be pagan, lustful, and violent turns out to be the one who hears God's voice and has…

David I. SmithDecember 16, 2005

Articles & Essays Faith and Teaching Reflection on Scripture

Psalm 113: The Movie

This short reflection was published in Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought in 2005. More recently it served as the basis for designing a learning activity called Cosmic Zoom as part of the FAST project on faith and science teaching. A short film that aired…

David I. SmithJanuary 16, 2005

Articles & Essays Reflection on Scripture

Irony, Sovereignty and Cheeses

Why does the story of David and Goliath suddenly seem preoccupied with cheese? That's what I started wondering some years ago, and it led to this meditation on 1 Samuel 17. It was published in the Reformed Journal in June 2003, p.24. 1 Samuel 17:18…

David I. SmithJune 1, 2003

Articles & Essays Reflection on Scripture

Commentary: Luke 10:36

This brief commentary was published in the now discontinued British magazine Third Way in November 2000 (vol. 23, no.9, p.22). It still seems relevant as I post it here almost 20 years later and living in a different country. “Which of these three do you…

David I. SmithNovember 1, 2000