ICS Symposia Series

FACETS OF FAITH FORMATION
Tradition, Development and Character in Religious Education

Institute for Christian Studies & vrije universiteit

Prof. Siebren Miedema, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Education, and Professor of Religious Education, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
"The Role of Tradition in Religious Education"

Drs. Gerdien Bertram-Troost, PhD candidate, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
"The Concept of Development in Religious Education"

Dr. Doug Blomberg, Senior Member in Philosophy of Education, Institute for Christian Studies
"Virtues and the Formation of Character"

Monday November 7th 2005, 3:30-5:30p.m.
Institute for Christian Studies, 229 College St., 2nd Floor
Followed by Refreshments

Gerdien Bertram-Troost (1979) received her MA in Developmental and Educational Psychology from Leiden University in 2003 with the highest distinctions. Since February 2003 she is appointed as Ph.D-student at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and is affiliated with the Hendrik Pierson Chair for Christian Education in the Department of Philosophy and History of Education of the Faculty of Psychology of Education. Dr. Simone de Roos and Prof. Siebren Miedema are her supervisors. Gerdien's theoretical as well as empirical research project is about 'Religious identity development of adolescents in secondary schools'. The aim of the research is to find out more about (school)factors and processes which influence religious identity development of pupils. This information can be helpful in discussion on how to give shape to Religious Education.
Gerdien is the co-editor of two edited books in Dutch, and has published a couple of articles in journals and books.

Siebren Miedema (1949) is Hendrik Pierson Professor for Christian Education and Professor of Educational Foundations and Dean of the Faculty of Psychology of Education. He is also Professor of Religious Education in the Faculty of Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is the editor and author of forty books and has published numerous articles and chapters dealing with religious education, pragmatism, critical pedagogy, hermeneutical pedago­gy, early childhood education, philosophy of the social sciences, and methodo­logy in Dutch, German, English, Turkish, French and Japanese.
At the moment his main research topic in religious education is religious identity formation of young children and youngsters.

Doug Blomberg, PhD (Sydney), EdD (Monash), FACE, is professor of education. Blomberg has been involved at all levels of Christian schooling for thirty years, as an administrator, classroom teacher, curriculum consultant, board member and teacher educator. He served as founding Principal of the Institute for Christian Education in Australia from 1979. In 1991, he was appointed a Fellow of the Australian College of Education for his contribution to the theory and practice of Christian schooling. In 1991-1992, Blomberg was a member of the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship team that produced A Vision With A Task, and Educating Christian Teachers for Responsive Discipleship. As well as editing the former book, he edited and contributed to Reminding: Renewing The Mind in Learning, and Humans Being:Essays Dedicated to Stuart Fowler. He has also published many articles in professional and academic journals and other volumes. After serving part-time as professor of education at ICS from 1997-2000, he took up a full-time appointment in 2003, with the added responsibility of coordinating the Institute's distance education program. Blomberg's current research centres on the implications of a biblical perspective on wisdom for schooling; he recently completed the manuscript of a book entitled Wisdom and Curriculum: Christian Schooling After Postmodernity and plans to follow this with volumes on teaching, learning and worldview.