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Abstract

From the founding of the first tertiary institution in 1874, Seventh-day Adventist administrators and educators have grappled with the tension between faith and learning, a duality implicit in the sacred/secular curricula split in Seventh-day Adventist tertiary institutions today. This duality fails to represent the Seventh-day Adventist holistic life-view. The Higher Education Biblical Foundation Course Design Model developed by Cynthia Gettys and Elaine Plemons and published by The Center for Teaching Excellence at Southern Adventist University is a curriculum design model that can help mitigate this sacred/secular dichotomy and make scripture central to each course offered at Adventist colleges and universities. The Gettys/Plemons Course Design Model would be strengthened by incorporating the critical thinking framework developed by the late Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder available from the Foundation for Critical Thinking. The Paul/Elder Critical Thinking Framework is an integrated, systematic, and universal approach to the analysis and evaluation of criteria-based reasoning built upon three conceptual sets which together provide the most robust and integrated model of critical thinking currently available. Applying the Gettys/Plemons Course Design Model to each course offered can benefit Seventh-Day Adventist tertiary institutions by unifying the curricula on the Adventist Christian Worldview. Applying the Paul/Elder Critical Thinking Framework can benefit Seventh-Day Adventist tertiary institutions by providing explicit instruction for criteria-based thinking with a shared simple language across the spectrum of disciplines. Ellen G. White (1873) says that “[t]he truths of the divine word can be best appreciated by an intellectual Christian. Christ can be better glorified by those who serve him intelligently. The great object of education is to enable us to bring into use the powers which God has given us, in such a manner as will best represent the religion of the Bible and promote the glory of God” (p. 23). Merging the Gettys/Plemons Course Design Model with the Paul/Elder Critical Thinking Framework will help facilitate the Adventist ideals of making scripture the foundation and context of education while also developing students who are thinkers rather than reflectors of others’ thoughts.

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