The Philosophy of Servant Teaching

In this episode, Rob and Jared introduce the topic of "Servant Teaching". They discuss the philosophy behind servant teaching as well as provide the biblical basis for being a servant teacher. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. Visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. 

We define servant teaching as “empowering learners by removing barriers, building on their unique strengths, and providing opportunities to succeed.”
Everyone has a philosophy of education that is born from their personal philosophy. Consider questions like: What’s real? What’s right, and how do we know it’s right? What do we do with it? 

You have a philosophy of education, and whether you have thought about it extensively or not at all, we are here to help you! 

Ultimately, our goal is to make the implicit, explicit. We define implicit as “what we do because it’s the way we’ve always done it or seen it done.” Explicit: those things we do because we’ve thought about why we’re doing it. 

Practically speaking, we need to begin with three things: 

1. We need to seek wisdom (James 1; Proverbs 4:7) 

2. We need to ask ourselves, “why do I do what I do?” (The 5 Whys) 

3. We need to ask others 

This concept of “Servant Teaching” is really the underpinning of what we do at the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University. It is our “lens” by which we see things, especially our philosophy of education. 

Resources from today’s episode: 

The 5 Whys