Dr. Marti MacCullough, is chair of the Department of Teacher Education at Philadelphia Biblical University in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.
What does worldview integration look like? I have coined some names for three possible models for biblical integration: parallel model, interpersonal model, and integrating core model. Identify the integration model represented by the dialogue of each of the following Christian school teachers who were asked the question, "Do you practice biblical integration?" Then decide which of the three models you practice. This article addresses the third model, the integrating core model.
- Oh yes, I biblically integrate. Anytime a student has a question that relates to both the subject and the Bible, I answer the question and share a little sermon with the class. You really don’t need to plan for integration if you are an integrated person!
- Integrate? Well, truthfully, I don’t think that knowledge from various subject areas needs to be unified. Each subject stands on its own and is its own authority. I teach social studies, not Bible. Spiritual knowledge is for the family and the religion teacher. Of course I begin most classes with prayer. It’s a great way to get the kids quiet!
- You bet I plan for worldview integration just as I plan the curriculum for other important learning outcomes. I find that using subject-to-subject integration and some of the suggested enrichment activities often helps me to design activities that lead to having the students process new material in light of biblical answers to life’s biggest questions. Biblical truth is the integrating center.
The authentic Christian school teacher must include biblical worldview integration in the design of the curriculum. It cannot be just a nice thing to talk about, to espouse on Back-to-School Night, or to include in the school brochure. It must be the element that answers the question, What can a Christian school education do for my child that a good Christian home, a good church, and the local public school—all working together—cannot do? Above all, it must be planned!
What is integration? A standard dictionary definition is "to incorporate into a larger unit: bringing together into a larger whole." The concept of bringing together into a larger whole will help us immensely in examining what it is we need to do as we design the Christian school curriculum for worldview integration. Integration is not substituting a Bible devotional for a solid teaching of the subject!
A working definition could be "teaching the subjects of the Christian school in such a way that students develop a biblical worldview out of which to think and act." This definition presupposes that there is a teaching approach essential for promoting worldview integration. And the use of this definition requires an understanding of the term worldview. In his book The Universe Next Door, James Sire (1997) describes worldview as "a set of presuppositions (or assumptions) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously) about the basic makeup of our world." J. P. Moreland (2001) gives the following definition for worldview: "A worldview is a set of beliefs a person accepts, most importantly, beliefs about reality, knowledge, and value, along with the various support relations among those beliefs, the person’s experiences and the person himself."
It is the role of Christian parents and educators to help young people examine concepts and misconceptions in light of God’s perspective found in His Word. It is our task to bring together new information from such subjects as science, math, social studies, language arts, and the visual and performing arts—that is, knowledge found in every area of human inquiry. Then we must align that information with God’s perspective in order to help our students not only view life coherently and biblically but also ultimately hold firmly to a personally accepted biblical philosophy of life.
In the integrating core model, we begin with a whole, the integrating core—a set of beliefs about the world and life. We then move to new knowledge, skills, and attitudes from various subject areas. And as we return to a larger whole, our worldview grows. It is enhanced, appreciated, enriched, and clarified as it is compared with contrasting views. It allows us, within the limits of human learning, to come to view life and learning as a unified whole. Because it begins with a core, this model answers the question, What do I do when there is clear conflict between knowledge sources? The integrating core, which is made up of biblical truths, is the standard. Integrity, or wholeness, is the goal!
Element One of Worldview Integration: Biblical Answers to Life’s Biggest Questions
I use the seven questions that form a framework for cataloging worldviews, found in James Sire’s book The Universe Next Door (1997). These questions include the three issues considered in philosophy: metaphysics (ultimate reality, existence, and being), epistemology (knowing), and axiology (values). Different worldviews answer these questions differently:
- What is really real? What is prime reality? (metaphysics)
Possible answers: (a) God, (b) matter, (c) energy, (d) some impersonal force
Biblical view: God is.… He exists. Psalm 90:2 says, "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God," and Genesis 1:1 reads, "In the beginning God." What kind of God is He?
- What is the nature of external reality, the world around us?
Possible answers: It is (a) real, (b) designed, (c) created, (d) orderly, (e) sustained, (f) an illusion, (g) here by chance, (h) chaotic
Biblical view? (What would you say?)
- What or who is a human being?
Possible answers: A human is a (a) machine, (b) sleeping god, (c) naked ape, (d) person made in the image of God
Biblical view?
- Is there life after death? What happens to a person at death?
Possible answers: (a) extinction, (b) transformation, (c) some higher state
Biblical view?
- How do we know? Why is it possible to know at all? (epistemology)
Possible answers: (a) Humans are made in the image of God. (b) Evolution is responsible for our ability to think. (c) Thinking is a survival tactic. (d) We can’t really know anything for sure.
Biblical view?
- What is the basis for morality? How do we know what is right and wrong? (axiology)
Possible answers: (a) It is determined by the culture. (b) It is determined by human individual choice alone. (c) God’s character is good, right, and just; He is the standard.
Biblical view?
- What is the meaning of human history?
Possible answers: (a) What goes around comes around. (b) It is to make a paradise (utopia) on Earth. (c) It is to realize the purpose of gods or God.
Biblical view?
A teacher who wishes to design integrative activities in the curriculum must not only examine biblical answers to these worldview questions but also understand other worldview answers and identify them in textual material. Using seven or so key worldview questions makes the task manageable.
The next study for the teacher is to ask which of these worldview questions is the focus of the subject area, lesson, or unit at hand. For example, I find at least four biblical truths that have core value status in science: (a) God exists, (b) God designed and created, (c) God sustains, and (d) We owe Him thanks (worshiping the Creator rather than the creation).
In discussion of worldview questions, we must note that Bible teaching in a Christian school should focus in part on biblical truths or concepts that answer these questions. Bible curriculum should address worldview issues as often as possible. For example, in a study of the life of Joseph—who endured ups and downs, good times and difficult times—students can read to find out Joseph’s perspective on times of struggle. Joseph said to his brothers, who had sold him into slavery, "[Y]ou meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20, NKJV). Joseph lived the biblical truth of Romans 8:28, reflecting his worldview. Good Bible teaching will enhance worldview integration! The authentic Christian school teacher, therefore, is not only a Christian but also one willing both to study God’s Word seriously and to articulate the Christian faith in worldview terms.
Element Two of Worldview Integration: Interactive, Engaging Lessons
Students must be engaged mentally and challenged to use prior knowledge to connect to new knowledge. They also need to fit this new knowledge into their meaning schemes in such a way that they can store and retrieve it for use in real life and not just for regurgitation on a test. I encourage the use of subject-to-subject and subject-to-life integration activities such as those often included in the curriculum guides under the title of enrichment, expansion, or processing activities. These activities are a tremendous help in engaging students’ minds and in developing worldview integrative experiences.
Element Three of Worldview Integration: Processing Activities, the Heart of Worldview Integrative Teaching
Basically, three types of processing activities may be planned as part of a good lesson. These are student activities rather than teacher talks:
- Correlation: What in the lesson today or in this unit correlates, associates with, or fits together with a biblical answer to one of life’s major questions?
- Correction: What in the lesson today or in this unit needs to be evaluated in light of a biblical answer to one of life’s biggest questions because it appears to conflict with what we know clearly from God’s Word?
- Continued Study: What in the lesson today brings up a question in the mind of the student for which there is no immediate answer from either the subject area or the Bible? This processing experience is an opportunity for further study together.
Element Four of Worldview Integration: Assessment Activities
Worldview assessment is designed to find out if students connect, relate, and make sense out of the new material in light of the integrating core. Just as we assess any kind of learning to find out if the student has processed and conceptualized well, we must also assess biblical integration. We can conduct assessment through tests or other means such as portfolio artifacts, projects, papers, and performances of various kinds.
The only way to develop the skill for planning worldview integration is to begin doing what we understand and to ask God for wisdom in bringing together knowledge from any domain with knowledge from His Word. It takes more than desire to accomplish the task. It takes planning and hard work. But it is eternally worth it!
Worldview Integration: A Key Teaching Tool
Activities, Sample Plan & Resource List
Illustration One: The Scarlet Letter (Literature)
During a unit on The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of my student teachers created an activity that required students to chart the three worldviews developed in the novel: romanticism, represented by Hester Prynne; legalism, represented by the Puritan group Hawthorne described; and Christian theism, represented by Reverend Dimmesdale. The chart organized quotations that indicated worldview beliefs related to the story line.
Students were asked to study the chart and draw conclusions. This was both correlative and corrective because students compared their own worldview to one of the three. Students also determined which worldview was in line with the perspective of Joseph in Genesis 50 and why they thought so.
Illustration Two: Entropy (Science)
In a high school science textbook, I found an interesting rendition by an artist of a box of scrambled letters being converted over time to a box of ordered words. The artist was attempting to show that disorder can result in order if given enough time in a system open to the energy of the sun. The artist felt it necessary, however, to include a hand organizing the letters in the box. The text commented that regardless of the appearance by the hand of some outside force directing the process, not many scientists believed in this supernatural component. I used that one picture and text to create an activity designed to explore why some scientists do not believe in design or direction by an outside force—God—to explain life. Why, then, did the artist sense a need to illustrate that point by providing a hand in the box? Creator—Designer—God! Information theory and design theory were the target connectors.
Illustration Three: Indian Boy (Second Grade Reading)
One of the stories in our second grade reader was about a little Indian boy who had been born sickly. He could not go to regular school. He was homebound. In the story, his grandfather tells him that his Indian name means "strength," and he tells the boy to repeat his name over and over and all will be well. It was a beautiful story of a grandfather’s love. However, at the end of the story, the classroom teacher was encouraged to have the students take note of the last line: "Isn’t it wonderful that we have the gift of language to talk to ourselves in the time of need?" I asked the kids what they thought about that. This was planned integration! One little boy raised his hand and said, "When I get hurt or when I am sick, I don’t talk to myself. I talk to God." A good discussion on prayer followed.
This activity was a corrective! To correlate, I asked the class what they might do to encourage and show love and care for a child who was homebound. Their suggestions were implemented with a real child who had been ill for several weeks. Compassion and care are key characteristics of Christlikeness.
Illustration Four: Dinosaurs (Science)
An experience that led my class and me to a very interesting investigation illustrated continued study. In the course of my discussion with gifted middle schoolers, one of them said, "This book says that 70 million years before man walked on this planet, dinosaurs died out. The Bible says that on the sixth day of Creation all beasts and creeping things and man were created. How do you explain that?"
I did not have an answer, but I challenged my group of gifted students and myself to study the reptile family and the Bible. What a surprisingly wonderful month of activities followed! These activities were continued study. I wanted my students to appreciate that God created dinosaurs and that they are among His great creative accomplishments.
Resource List
Beane, James A ., ed. 1995. Toward a coherent curriculum: The 1995 ASCD yearbook. Alexandria,
Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum.
Kessler, Rachael. 2000. The soul of education: Helping students find connection, compassion, and
character at school. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum.
Moreland, J. P. 2001. The integration of worldview and vocation. Paper presented at the ACSI
Leadership Academy, 23–27 June, in Portland, Oregon.
Sire, James W. 1997. The universe next door. 3d ed. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.
Worldview Integration: Integrating Core Model
(This is not a complete lesson plan. It is an example of integrative activities to weave into a lesson.)
Age Level: This concept is taught in a variety of ways at many levels. These are just examples, some at the elementary level and some at the secondary level.
Subject Area: Science
Unit: Photosynthesis—the food-making process in plants
Concept—food for the planet
Includes a review of the water cycle and the gas (air) cycle
Unit Concept: All life (human and animal) depends on plant life for food. Plants make their food using both the provisions found in the creative order provided by the Creator and the process He designed.
Unit Skills: various, depending on age level
- experimentation
- using a control plant
- operational definitions (What will be the test or criteria we use to prove that food is present or not present in the plant leaf?)
- making and testing hypotheses
- drawing conclusions and predicting
- using conclusions "in society" (authentic situation)
Unit Objective: The student will be able to explain how human and animal life depends on plant life for food by connecting the water cycle, the gas cycle, the energy source (the sun), and food. He/she will be able to defend why we owe God thanks for life.
The Four Elements of Worldview Integration
Element One: Biblical worldview presuppositions, or beliefs, related to science and thus to this concept
God exists.
God designed and created the process of photosynthesis.
God sustains the source of food, which sustains life.
His creatures owe Him thanks for their daily provisions.
Element Two: Interactive, engaging lessons
Element Three: Planned student activities—ongoing processing of new information by using prior knowledge and belief system
A. Correlation: Correlation is a connecting, fitting in, relating process. What do we know about the source, the design, and the sustaining function (laws of nature) of the sun, the rain, and the exchange of gasses in the air? Humans breathe out carbon dioxide for plants, while plants breathe out oxygen for humans.
From science we know: Your lesson or unit as prior knowledge fits here.
From God’s Word we know:
- God made the sun, and He holds it in place by the "word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3).
- God provides the process and sustains the water cycle (He sends the rain).
- God provides the process and sustains the gas cycle (He gives us breath).
- We owe Him thanks for food and therefore for life.
(Can you find Scriptures to affirm these beliefs?)
Next: Design an activity to "correlate."
The teacher plans an activity to allow students to connect the above.
For example:
- Draw or show on a paper plate several items such as meat, vegetables, and bread. Ask the students: Where do we get our food?
Some possible answers:
- plants,
- plants and animals,
- farmer,
- store
Ask the students: Where do plants get their food? (Listen for misconceptions)
Answer (will be developed in your lesson): Plants make their own food.
Ask the students: How? Let’s find out now.
Follow with experimentation (an engaging lesson).
Key question this activity introduces: Where do we ultimately get our food?
- After the experiment and observation, write the elements necessary for photosynthesis on the chalkboard or overhead transparency (sun, rain/water, air/CO2).
Ask students to read Isaiah 55:10 to find out who or what is responsible for providing the resources for plants to make food. Require them to give evidence from the reading.
Research activity: Using the Bible, a concordance, a Bible dictionary, a CD-ROM, and other sources, find references to the sun, rain, and air as they relate to food. Have students draw a conclusion. Write an explanation, develop a chart, create a bulletin board, or make a mobile depicting God’s involvement in the essential elements needed for photosynthesis. Examples could include the sun (Genesis 1:16), rain (Matthew 5:45), air (Acts 17:25), and connection to food (Psalm 65:9–11 and Isaiah 55:10).
Try integration yourself: Select a grade level and create a student processing activity for this topic at that level.
B. Correction: Conduct ongoing evaluation (critique) that is based on some standard, in this case the Word of God. What do you do when there is a clear contradiction between a biblical worldview answer and a source such as a text or film? One example follows:
- The textbook material for this lesson at the sixth-grade level says that the sun "is the ultimate source of energy." Ask the students to define ultimate. Discuss ultimate.
Ask the students: Can you think of any reasons for not calling the sun the ultimate source of energy?
Correction: The God who made the sun is the ultimate source of energy, or power.
- What might be the result of the incorrect belief that the sun is the ultimate source? It may lead to worshiping the creation—the sun—as the ancient Egyptians and some groups of American Indians did.
Next: Design an activity to "correct."
You may use subject-to-subject integration to foster worldview integration:
Social studies: Find a paragraph in a social studies book that describes the ancient worship of the sun god RA. Have the students read the paragraph you have copied and answer the question,
Why do you think that these people worship the sun?
Possible answer: They knew the sun was essential for life, but they did not know the God who made the sun and who keeps it in its path (Psalm 19).
Try integration yourself: From the above seed idea, design an activity for your grade level.
Language arts: Use a poem in which the moon is given credit for rain and for food.
Ask the students: On the basis of their poem, what do you think these people believed? (The moon is responsible for rain and food.)
Poem: New Moon
New moon come out, give water to us
New moon thunder down, give water to us
New moon shake down, give water to us
Hunger is bad
Hunger is like a lion
Hunger is bad
It makes us eat locusts
Notice the integration of literature and social studies with science. Subject-to-subject integration is a very important part of worldview integration. It opens many doors.
Activity: Have students read Romans 1:25: "who exchanged the truth of God for the lie [they had known the truth] and worshiped and served the creature [creation] rather than the Creator." Write a sentence or two that clearly tells why a Christian does not worship the sun or the rain.
Tell the students: Many people who rain-danced, or worshiped the sun, did so because they did not know the God who made the sun or sends the rain. Many intelligent people do not know God. (Do you see an opportunity here to discuss world missions and/or the importance of understanding people who do not hold to a biblical view of the world?)
God forbids His people to worship the sun, the moon, or the stars. That practice was detestable to Him, as we can see in Deuteronomy 4:19 and 2 Kings 21:2–3. (Do you see an opportunity here to create an activity to contrast astronomy and astrology?)
C. Continued Study: If applicable, explore a question not explicitly answered in God’s Word or by science. Leave the question open and continue to investigate and learn. Such questions were not identified in this lesson unless the integrative activities created questions.
Element Four: Assessment of Internalization
The following demonstrate integration:
- The concept of photosynthesis and related facts are stored in the memory and connected to other subjects and to the student’s integrating core beliefs—a biblical worldview. Knowledge is unified and whole.
- Photosynthesis is connected to the water cycle. Students appreciate rain, and they are thankful for God’s design.
- Photosynthesis is connected to the exchange of gasses in the air. Students are thankful for and care for plants that breathe by giving oxygen for humans and animals. They are also thankful that we contribute carbon dioxide, and they are thankful for God’s design. As stewards, they know they need to take good care of plant life and the environment.
- Photosynthesis is connected to the food on students’ plates (real life—authentic integration).
- Photosynthesis is connected to sustained life and God’s role in it all. Students believe they owe God thanks for food that keeps them alive. They are thankful to God, "who gives food to every creature" (Psalm 136:25–26).
Next: Design an activity to promote and assess internalization, connection, or integration.
Elementary example:
Activity to respond to the following situation: A new boy in our school does not give thanks to God before he eats his meal. He doesn’t understand why we do. Explain to him (in writing) how the food we eat is related to the Creator and why we owe Him thanks. Use your science knowledge from this unit. The new boy really loves science.
Junior high or high school example: Poem or Psalm (song)
Write a psalm, poem, or song that begins this way: "Give thanks to the God of heaven, who gives food to all."
The poem must include the scientific details about the process of photosynthesis. Use the water cycle, the gas cycle, and the energy source in order to show your understanding of how these relate to the process and the giving of thanks to God (at least three verses).
With younger children you can write a class song to the tune of "God Is So Good."
Ask the children to create verses that go with the unit. A picture chart that allows them to draw the elements will help them relate each part.
God is so good
God is so good
God is so good; He’s so good to me
Examples: He give us food ... (verse one)
He sends the rain ... (verse two)
He made the sun ... (verse three)
He gives us air ... (verse four)
. . . He’s so good to us.
Print the song and use it as a reminder before lunch on several days.
Notice the integration of language arts, art, and music with science as you develop a view of knowledge as a whole with the integrating core, biblical answers to life’s biggest questions. Worldview integration! That’s what it looks like!
An Approach to Worldview Integration 6.1