Title

The Idea of Calling Presented in Light of High-Impact Practices in a General Education Course and Beyond

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

This article describes a course taught at a U.S. Christian college located in Pennsylvania that uses “high impact practices,” as described by Kuh and O'Donnell (2013), to educate students about calling. The course, titled “Created and Called for Community,” is required for all incoming first-year students in their second semester at the college and addresses three main topics central to the identity of the institution: Creation, Community, and Calling. Seven high-impact practices are instrumental in teaching about the nature of calling in this course. The influence of the course content is further enhanced by the campus environment and academic context in which it is offered. An identified weakness of the course is its lack of intentional connection to students' academic major and to other dimensions of life on campus. This criticism is addressed in the final section of the article, which focuses on the extension of the topic of vocation and calling throughout students' coursework, and particularly the selection of a major, and culminating in a capstone course during the final year of undergraduate studies. © 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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Originally published as:

Bechtold, J. I. (2017). The idea of calling presented in light of high-impact practices in a general education course and beyond. Christian Higher Education, 16(1–2), 79–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/15363759.2017.1249765

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