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  • Essay / Epistemological development - 1358

    Everything in education is influenced by the perspective of a biblical worldview, because to educate a child is to teach him to know and find the truth. According to Knight, "much truth exists outside the Bible, but no truth exists outside the metaphysical framework of the Bible." (2006, p. 226). Concepts from the Bible are used to provide a unifying basis for all subjects taught. The Bible also becomes the point of integration. All content knowledge is interpreted contextually with the Bible because God is the source of all truth and the unifier of all truth in Himself. The Bible can be compared to the leaven that permeates all matters. This gives meaning to all subjects and all subjects then give meaning to a child's life. Therefore, teaching from a biblical worldview provides an epistemological and interpretive framework that adds meaning to otherwise insignificant details. It becomes the central point that unifies our program. As Augustine says, we must seek to integrate our faith with learning, because “faith is the step of understanding and understanding is the reward of faith.” (Holmes, 2008, p. 27). Several quantitative studies have examined students' worldviews using worldview surveys such as the Nehemiah Institute's PEERS (2003). Fyock (2008), in his dissertation on the effect of an instructor's biblical worldview, gave high school students the PEERS survey before and after teaching from a teacher with a biblical worldview. Although it is an excellent measurement tool for assessing worldview, it is not epistemologically oriented and therefore would not be adequate for this research. PostmodernismIt is important to understand the postmodern worldview because its view of truth is contrary to that found in a work. .... middle of document ......reasoning will be used to understand and evaluate their internal motivations and bring greater coherence to their underlying assumptions. The individual can develop to the point of creating their own worldview, using self-reflection and metacognition to examine their worldview and each of its components, in light of their philosophical or theological beliefs. In this context, self-authorship does not imply that individual authors have their own salvation or their own truth regarding salvation. Rather, they discover the truth for themselves by critically examining their worldview and comparing it to the worldview discovered in the Bible, the source of ultimate Truth. As an individual develops through the stages of forming their worldview, different methods of acquiring and confirming their concept of truth will be important (Mansfield & Clinchy, 2002).