Since theological reflection was first developed to serve seminary students, it is no surprise that Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School considers theological reflection to be an integral part of a student’s Field Education requirement. (Field Education is usually a nine-month placement or internship in a congregation or ministry site for the student to gain experience in applying the skills she or he is learning in the classroom.) In fact, the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) states in their General Institutional Standards that “In a theological school, the overarching goal is the development of theological understanding, that is, aptitude for theological reflection and wisdom pertaining to a responsible life of faith.”

Vanderbilt describes their approach to field education and theological reflection in the following way:

Field Education is grounded in an action-reflection model of learning in which the lived experience (praxis) becomes the “text” from which we learn. We emphasize three dimensions of this learning process:

Doing:
We assume that there are particular skills, tasks or competencies in which a student wishes to become proficient, and Field Education offers an arena in which these things can be practiced and honed.

Being:
Our assumption is that ministry is as much about who we are as it is about what we do.

Thinking:
At Vanderbilt Divinity School we envision the task of theological education to be preparing women and men to be “Minister as Theologian.”

This action-reflection model mirrors the three aspects of reflection I discussed in my early post: culture/context (doing), story (being), and tradition (thinking).

You can read more about Vanderbilt’s approach here.