Walking the Land Teaching the Book of Joshua through Spatial-Kinesthetic Teaching Strategies in the Undergraduate Setting

Abstract

Outdoor Class Day changes the usual undergraduate learning space into an outdoor experience. It provides a “visual-spatial” and “bodily-kinesthetic” way to introduce students to the land of the Bible as well as the book of Joshua. Students follow their instructor around the campus, visiting locations on campus which are re-imagined through role-play and visual association as parts of the biblical land and the story of Joshua 1-8. Research into Howard Gardner’s “visual-spatial” and “bodily-kinesthetic” “intelligences” suggests they are not separable intelligences or styles of learning, but the terms provide helpful descriptors of the dynamics and benefits to active learning out of doors, including decreased abstraction of the biblical text, increased sense of the relevance of academic biblical study, increased memorable integration of the material, and increased religious literacy.