Teaching with Spiritual Impact: An Analysis of Student Comments Regarding High‐ and Low‐Rated Spiritually Inspiring Religion Classes

Abstract

We analyzed 2,621 written student comments to better understand themes which most contribute to religion classes being rated high or low in terms of the spiritual benefit students received from the class. From 2,448 religion classes taught from September of 2010 through April of 2014, comments from the top 61 (2.5 percent) and bottom 51 (2.1 percent) rated classes in terms of being “spiritually inspiring” were compared for emerging themes. The most frequent themes in higher‐ranked spiritually inspiring courses were (1) intellectually enlightening and (2) applied religion to life. In lower‐ranked spiritually inspiring courses the themes (1) class time was ineffective and (2) poor assessments were prevalent. We explore the practical implications from these and other findings.

Christ-enlivened practices: An action research investigation of shared meals in a higher education classroom

“…Hilton III et al’s research found most students view spiritual and religious outcomes as an essential part of their personal education and development and therefore lecturers should support a more comprehensive education. Classes that combine intellectual enlightenment with personal relevance and application will likely result in enhancing student spiritual outcomes (2016: 355). Conroy et al state, ‘[t]he full development of the young person’s academic [achievement] is important, but so is the social, the emotional, the personal, the spiritual’ (2013: 105 cited in Hilton III et al, 2016).…”

“…Classes that combine intellectual enlightenment with personal relevance and application will likely result in enhancing student spiritual outcomes (2016: 355). Conroy et al state, ‘[t]he full development of the young person’s academic [achievement] is important, but so is the social, the emotional, the personal, the spiritual’ (2013: 105 cited in Hilton III et al, 2016).…”