Rodney J. Marshall, Ed.D., Editor-in-Chief at Confluence Courseware and interim Headmaster at Fortis Academy, describes how a classical Christian education, using the liberal arts, is the vehicle through which we transmit faith, values and an intellectual heritage to a new generation of Americans. ...
As an educator I hope you'll find the following resource useful. At Confluence Courseware, one of our free offerings is a unique Resources and Search website. Our Humanities search uses the top 40 (and growing) reputable websites curated into a custom Google search to help students and teachers find reliable sources from the web while avoiding unnecessary clutter and sites that aren't at least peer reviewed. Visit our Humanities resource site here: http://resources.confluencecourseware.com/ I'd like to share a little bit about us as well: Confluence Courseware is a boutique digital curriculum company reviving the Western intellectual tradition by providing concierge publishing services to teachers and professors...
A great tool to assure a syntopical approach to learning is Mortimer Adler's work The Great Ideas, and his collection of essays which divide Humanities education into the pursuit of understanding 102 Great Ideas. For more information please visit: The Center for the Study of the Great Ideas The Great Books Foundation Paideia Active Learning Center We suggest students research more on these websites concerning the “Great Ideas,” Mortimer Adler, “paideia learning” strategies and why a philosophical approach is for everyone. These sites also give a general overview of the importance of a liberal arts education for all. In his academic career, Mortimer...
Syntopical thinking, also known as synthesis, is the touchstone of a liberal arts education and syntopical reading is the most important type of reading in the Humanities so that we may form the most informed evaluative positions about the works that we explore. In fact, according to Bloom’s taxonomy, synthesis, evaluation and creation are usually considered among the highest level critical thinking skills that we aspire to in education. For more information, please visit Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognitive Levels We recommend students research more on the levels of cognition and notice how analysis, synthesis, evaluation and creation are some of the higher level...
There are seven (7) important components to each of the interrelated Great Ideas that animate Confluence Courseware. Here are the seven (7) stages students will go through in each chapter or pedagogic unit to garner a deeper, more analytical, synthetic and evaluative understanding of class materials and to personalize student learning: Pre-Learning Reflection Syntopical Learning Great Idea Core Text Readings Online Research Project Based Learning: Socratic Discussion or Essay Assignment Post-Learning Reflection Suggestions for Further Learning Following is an overview each of the seven (7) components of the interrelated Great Ideas that animate Confluence Courseware: Pre-Learning Reflection The first step in the Syntopical Course Guide for each of the...
Syntopical Course Guides, made to accompany required textbook or other required primary readings in this courseware, are intended to guide students in a fruitful interaction with other course materials and lectures. It is the belief of Confluence Courseware that, above all else, one’s education ought to be personal. This is one of the main reasons the courseware is asking students to use this courseware—it is the fundamental way in which teachers can help assure that students’ educational experience is composed not only with the acquisition of fact and information, an appreciation and recognition of fundamental great works that have shaped...
Confluence Courseware suggests appropriate interpretive and analytic questions in order to facilitate great classroom conversations (virtually or face-to-face) as well as prompts for academic essays and project-based learning experiences in an effort to provide a truly interdisciplinary, liberal arts education. As such, this digital courseware is organized around the principles of the Paideia method (from the Greek paidos meaning “upbringing”) which incorporates three aspects of learning: the Socratic conversation, lecturing or didactic teaching, and experiential learning. This pedagogic method focuses on building a strong foundation of basic skills, thinking skills, and personal qualities that can be used for the learner’s...
Syntopical thinking, also known as synthesis, is the touchstone of a liberal arts education and syntopical reading is the most important type of reading in the Humanities so that we may form the most informed evaluative positions about the works that we explore. In fact, according to Bloom’s taxonomy, synthesis, evaluation and creation are usually considered among the highest level critical thinking skills that we aspire to in education. For more information please visit Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognitive Levels. Instructions: Please research more on the levels of cognition. Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above. A great tool...
We live in a hyper-connected age; ours is a technology saturated society of instantaneous messaging, vast networks of streaming information and a deluge of images that give a vertiginous tinge to life and leave an overwhelming sense of relentless acceleration. Yet, for all of the allure of our digital devices and the promise of continual connectivity, something is missing. Since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, when the hope of a machine-aided utopia first took root, idealists and inventors alike have promised that technological advances would bring productivity and efficiency to the workplace, automation of distasteful, burdensome tasks and an...
A liberal arts education, as a general concept, involves integrative learning—transdisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary study—through history. Such an inquisitive and broad approach to education produces well-rounded, better educated and happier, more fulfilled human beings. Many individuals throughout time, from Socrates to present, have suggested that a liberal arts education is one of the highest pursuits of humankind. In today’s world the liberal arts are usually best studied through integrative explorations in the humanities. According to the Association of American Colleges and Universities: “Integrative learning is an understanding and a disposition that a student builds across the curriculum and co-curriculum, from making simple...