Received: 8 November 2021 Revised: 17 February 2022 Accepted: 7 March 2022

DOI: 10.1111/teth.12605

TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ACTION

Reflections on course design and Islamic

education

Reem Javed PhD Candidate

Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley,

California, USA
Abstract
In this paper, I discuss the impact of a course design class
Correspondence
on my development and use of a syllabus for a class titled
Reem Javed, PhD Candidate, Graduate
Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, USA. Islamic Education. In Course Design the professor taught
Email: rjaved925@gmail.com graduate students like me how to think and plan as a
teacher. In my discussion, I share how student- and
context-centered pedagogy, at the core of thinking and
planning as a teacher, manifested effectively in the pages of
my syllabus and in the space of my classroom, demonstrat-
ing that the pedagogical insight and practices I learned
speak to the needs and demands of today's classroom.

KEYWORDS
action-reflection pedagogy, context-centered pedagogy, course
design, Islamic education, student-centered pedagogy

1 | L E A RN I N G T O T E A C H

I had the opportunity to take Course Design1,2 for the first time in the spring of 2013. It was my second semester as
a doctoral student at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), and while I did not know too much about what my life
as an academic would be like after graduation, I did know that I wanted to teach students. In the summer of 2012,
immediately before I began the doctoral program, I completed the online Islamic Teacher Education Program offered
through the University of Toronto (ON) Institute for Studies in Education.3 This program brought my attention to
the importance of not simply knowing your subject area or discipline, but also knowing how to teach it. When I heard
about Course Design in my first semester doctoral class, Seminar on Interdisciplinarity, I was interested and excited

1
Course titles are not usually italicized in the body of a paper. I have chosen to italicize, however, in order to make the name of each individual course
prominent in the discussion of the paper.
2
As a student at the GTU, out of personal interest, I took Course Design twice as well as attended an abridged one-day seminar, by the same name,
through the school's professional development program. Both semesters the class was different because the students were different, which I discuss in the
body of the paper. My personal goal was to really learn the art of course design well, which is why I took Course Design twice; and I did well both
semesters.
3
This program no longer exists. The founder of the program, Professor Nadeem Memon, has moved to Australia, and information about him can be found
at the following link: https://people.unisa.edu.au/Nadeem.Memon.

Teach Theol Relig. 2022;25:35–44. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/teth © 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 35
36 JAVED

to continue learning about this distinction between learning and designing a course to optimally teach what you have
learned yourself.
In addition to taking Course Design, I was specifically excited to take this class with Professor Judith Berling. In
my first semester class with her, Seminar on Interdisciplinarity, I had already noticed many unique aspects of her
teaching style, which manifested again in Course Design. Course Design was held in a small conference room with a
long rectangular table, and while there was a small dry erase board in the room near the head of the table, the pro-
fessor rarely ever wrote anything on it. Instead, she would sit at various locations along the rectangular table, never
at the head, often indiscernible from students. Writing on her lined yellow notepad intermittently, she would primar-
ily converse, laugh, and enjoy the class with us. There were regular assignments, readings, presentations, and a large
final project in the class as well. However, every piece of the class was building on the previous, and the entire
orchestration of the class brought all the pieces together in perfect harmony. This layer of harmony was cast over a
group of eleven doctoral students, each of whom had different family, educational, and work backgrounds as well as
vastly different dissertation projects underway. While I had taken many classes in previous college programs, there
was something special about the artful manner in how the pieces of the class came together while also honoring
each student's uniqueness. The opportunity to learn how such a class came to fruition, from the conductor herself,
was something to look forward to each class session.
Course Design began in the spring of 2013 with a Moodle4 course page which Professor Berling prepared and
made available to students, weeks before the official start date of class. Students at many levels benefit from this
type of preparation from the professor, but especially graduate students who have several commitments, along with
family and work; the professor was always aware of the needs and concerns of her students. Along with the syllabus
and other supporting documents, the course page offered a day-to-day schedule of the semester, and the first
assignment was to prepare introductions to be shared both through Moodle and in person on the first day of class.
The prompt for the first assignment was as follows: What draws you to teaching? Share an example of excellent teach-
ing that has inspired you. What made it so memorable and effective? Each of the eleven students responded to the
prompt by (or close to) the requested 5 pm deadline, the evening before class. The chain of responses, available to
all enrolled, were filled with heartfelt reflections about learning and teaching, and the energy of the online conversa-
tion was mirrored in class on the first day of the semester. In-person conversations additionally brought new insight
to what each student had written online, and the exchanges between students and professor helped build a commu-
nity whose members would continue to grow and learn together throughout the semester. It was clear that we, as
students, mattered. Our interests, our experiences, and our dissertation projects—It all mattered. Our professor
wanted to know each one of us beyond details that appear on a resume or CV. In that first class session, we addition-
ally talked about our most influential teachers, what we hoped to gain from the class, and what syllabus we would be
designing over the course of the semester.
Conversation from the first half of our three-hour class became a foundational backdrop for our next discussion:
factors shaping course design. The springboard for this discussion was a handout, by the same name, in which
Professor Berling detailed the five following factors that impact course design: the teacher, the students, the depart-
ment, the institution, and society.5 These five factors were additionally symbolized by a drawing of a flame, with the
innermost flame or level representing the teacher. As our minds were being warmed up to start the design of our
own individual class syllabi, we were gently being asked to consider what factors we would be prioritizing in the
design. This was a particularly important point: Course Design was a class on how to think and plan as a teacher, not
necessarily on teaching strategies (Berling, 2015). Often when a teacher designs or redesigns a course, it is a replica-
tion or amalgamation of the teacher's own experiences in undergraduate and/or graduate programs; and, as we were
learning, while this was an important consideration in the design of our course syllabi, it was not the only factor that
could or should be considered. The innermost flame of the course design factors handout did represent the teacher;

4
Moodle is an online learning platform.
5
See Appendix A for handout adapted from Course Design.
JAVED 37

however, her/his own experiences in school were to inform, not dictate, the outcome of the course syllabus project
while also considering the other four factors. How? Through individual reflection and group conversation about
questions such as the following: What is your philosophy of education? What do you know about your potential stu-
dents? What can you assume about them? What would be most relevant to the students? Do students learn better
through conversation or lecture? What are the expectations of the department and institution? How can the content of
your syllabus be connected to societal, national, and/or global events? This is an abridged set of the contemplative ques-
tions that were to percolate in our minds after the initial session. In the meantime, we moved forward to the next
pieces of class.
To me, the theme of student-centered teaching, maintaining students as a focal point while designing our syllabi,
was appearing over and over again in Course Design, echoing at multiple levels. This theme manifested in how the
professor invited regular conversation online and in-class, putting a great deal of importance on our experiences as
students. It appeared in our discussion of the course design factors handout. It also appeared in the common read-
ings that we did for class, which included excerpts from the following: Howard Gardner's Intelligence Reframed, Mary
Belenky's Women's Ways of Knowing, Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, bell hooks' Teaching to Transgress,
Kenneth Bruffee's Collaborative Learning, as well as Professor Berling's Understanding Other Religious Worlds: A Guide
for Interreligious Education. Each of the readings opened a deeper window into understanding students in terms of
learning styles and/or diversity dynamics in the classroom. We were, however, not simply asked to read the excerpts,
but rather, present these readings to the class in creative, collaborative ways. The class divided into small groups
(3–4 students per group), coming together around topics such as intelligence theory and diverse learning styles
(Howard Gardner's work), for example, and designed a class session for peers, inspired by the topic and its associated
readings. Inspiration for specific activities in these class sessions also came from mini-discussions we had been hav-
ing in tandem, where we collectively discussed various topics in education such as student learning outcomes
vs. class objectives, student expectations vs. institutional expectations of a syllabus, Bloom's taxonomy,6 and grading
rubrics. The group presentation sessions, thus, were an opportunity for us to weave together the different pieces of
class, teach our peers, and invite their assessment of the class session. The questions raised by the course design fac-
tors handout in the first class session also continued to percolate in the mind, and the syllabus project was the place
all would come together.

2 | S E L E C T I N G TH E S Y L L A B U S

The design of a course syllabus, along with significant explanation of the design, was the primary project for the
class. In the spring of 2013, when I took Course Design for the first time, I designed an introductory, freshman semi-
nar class for a local liberal arts college. In the fall of 2014, when I took Course Design for a second time, I designed a
graduate level course titled Islamic Education7 for MA students at the GTU. For my reflections on the detailed devel-
opment of the syllabus, I will focus on Islamic Education, as I had the opportunity to both design and teach the
course.
In the fall of 2014, there were four graduate students (including me) enrolled in Course Design, and we would
meet with Professor Berling every week for a three-hour class session in a chapel room with dark wood and a large
circular table. The professor, again, would sit at various locations around the circular table, conversing and laughing
with us. In the design of the class, student participation was significant, and the class, of course, was different from
spring 2013 because this group of students was different; individually and collectively, each had her/his own

6
Bloom's Taxonomy was developed by the educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom in the 1950s. It is a set of three models, each model hierarchal in
nature, used to determine educational goals varying in degrees of complexity. A good synopsis of Bloom's Taxonomy, its history, and its objectives can be
found at the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching website: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/.
7
For clarification, when I refer to the course Islamic Education, I capitalize both words in the title of the course; when I refer to the topic or subject of
Islamic education, I only capitalize the first word.
38 JAVED

experiences and insight about teaching and learning to share with the learning community. Professor Berling also
introduced new common readings which included authors such as Elliot Eisner, Laurette Bristol, and Henry Giroux.
In her selection of these readings, she consulted with her colleague Professor Boyung Lee,8 modelling the collabora-
tive nature of teaching and learning she emphasized for her students. Thus, while the large pieces of the class (such
as common readings, themed group presentations, and syllabus project) were the same, the content of each piece,
however, was different, but equally rich, just like my first experience with Course Design.
The syllabus project, both semesters, was introduced in the first session of class. Our first task for this project
was to research, write, and present a context report to the class. What was a context report, and why was it impor-
tant? The context report involved researching the institution for which we intended to write the syllabus, answering
questions such as the following: What was the name of the institution? Where was it located? What was the institution's
mission and vision? What was the student demographic? Through the context report, the professor was guiding us
through a more detailed engagement of the considerations and questions raised earlier in the semester. For my sylla-
bus project, why did I want to teach Islamic Education? Returning to the course design factors handout and reflecting
on the innermost flame, the teacher, it was important for me to select a topic that was particularly important to me
and one which I felt well prepared to teach. My own doctoral work led me through significant research of women in
Islam as well as Islamic education, both of which I initially considered for the syllabus project. However, I then
needed to put my background and interests in conversation with the other course design factors so the design of
the syllabus would be a good fit for MA students, specifically MA students at the GTU. As a doctoral student at the
GTU myself, I had some information about the school in connection to my doctoral program and area of study. How-
ever, MA students and doctoral students have separate programs and different degree requirements; thus, it was
important for me to formally research the school, with a focus on MA students. I navigated through the GTU website
carefully, noting several details about the number and demographic of MA students, types of degree programs, and
the mission and vision of the school. The GTU, a consortium of predominantly Christian schools, also hosts several
centers of distinction; of these centers, the Center for Islamic Studies (CIS) at the GTU was of particular interest to
me as it conferred the MA degree in Islamic Studies, the discipline under which Women in Islam or Islamic Education
could potentially appear. I further navigated through the CIS website, carefully reading through years of course list-
ings offered through the center. Women in Islam came up in several course descriptions, and there were also two
courses that were completely devoted to this topic. However, there was no mention of Islamic education in any
course description, nor was there a class by this title. Of my two possible choices, I started leaning towards Islamic
Education for my syllabus project; as a course, Islamic Education would offer students a unique treatment of Islam,
different from existing courses at CIS, and it would fulfill their degree requirements. I further asked the acting direc-
tor of CIS if students would consider taking a course on this topic; he said it would be well-received. It was addition-
ally important for me to consider the overall focus on interreligious dialogue at the GTU and the possibility that MA
students from a variety of programs may decide to take the course. This last point was discussed extensively when I
presented my context report to my classmates, around the circular table that semester; and it was an important con-
sideration as I developed my syllabus.

3 | D E S I G N I N G TH E S Y L LA B U S

While the syllabus project was introduced in the first class session, the context report was formally assigned in the
second class session; and we were given a few weeks to complete this task. The common readings and in-class dis-
cussions on various educational topics then came into the foreground while we independently researched our cho-
sen institutions for the syllabus project. A few weeks into the semester, after my classmates and I collectively
discussed each student's context reports, we were then cleared to move forward with our syllabus projects. While

8
Professor Boyung Lee has now moved to Iliff School of Theology, in Denver, Colorado, where she is Dean of Faculty and Professor of Practical Theology.
JAVED 39

the selection process was extensive, it was also reflective of the importance of a student- and context-centered ped-
agogy. One size does not fit all (Berling, 1998), and every learning experience needs to be tailored to the specific
institution/organization and especially the students.
Now, moving to the development of the syllabus, how did I infuse what I learned in Course Design into the
design of my syllabus? While it is not possible for me to discuss every aspect of the design, I will focus on a few
select points. First, with an overall focus on students and optimal student learning, how would I design a syllabus
when the students had not yet enrolled in the class? The context report and the associated class discussion were
beneficial in addressing this challenge, helping me make reasonable assumptions about the possible student demo-
graphic. Based on GTU MA student enrollment, I learned that classes taught by doctoral students, such as myself,
tend to be small—ten students at most, with three to five students on average. Professor Berling, as a member of the
class discussion, also shared her experiences as mentor/co-teacher for doctoral student-led courses, speaking to the
commitment and skill level of MA students. Additionally, my classmates that semester, coming from at least three dif-
ferent faith backgrounds as well as several ethnic backgrounds, helped me tailor the interreligious component of the
class through group reflection and conversation on questions such as: As a GTU MA student of Christian background,
would you take Islamic Education? Why? What would you expect from such a class? What types of readings would you
expect? What topics would you expect to be covered? Would you appreciate an experiential component? As we discussed
these and many other related questions around the circular table that afternoon, I took note of my classmates'
insightful comments and infused their considerations into the design of my syllabus.
Speaking further to the elements of the design, I will split this discussion into two parts: First, I will speak to a
few specific elements of the design when I initially prepared my Islamic Education syllabus for Course Design in fall
2014; then, I will speak to additional considerations I made when I put the syllabus to use, in fall 2015, a year after
the initial design.
To begin, every syllabus has several sections on the policies and procedure of the course as well as those of the
institution/organization. In consideration of a mature MA student population, I began several such sections with a
sentence in which I shared my reasoning behind the policy or procedure, rather than simply stating it. For example,
under “Class Attendance,” I wrote the following: Class is enriched by the experiences of students and the discussions
they bring to class. Therefore, students are required to attend class. Similarly, under “Preparation for Class Sessions,” I
wrote the following: Prepared students bring insight and depth to course material and class conversations. Students are
expected to prepare for each class session. In addition to connecting to a mature student audience through the lan-
guage of the syllabus, I included a detailed day-to-day plan of class sessions. As mentioned earlier, graduate students
can have many commitments, including family and work, and a detailed class schedule on the first day of class
(or earlier) affords them the ability to easily weave together their school schedule with commitments external to
school. I modelled my day-to-day plan after the examples set forth in Professor Berling's syllabi for the various
courses I had taken with her. Through Course Design, she not only awakened us to the importance of such a plan,
but also provided a model through the syllabus of Course Design itself.
Moving now to the content of Islamic Education, I also offered students two options for the final project on the
syllabus. The first option was a traditional paper on a Muslim educator or concept in Islamic education, and the sec-
ond was a creative syllabus project in which students could potentially experiment with the content of the class and
immediately apply their understanding of class material in a practical way. Why was this important? Again, MA stu-
dents, as more advanced students, they may want to experiment with what they were learning in Islamic Education,
and I was leaving that decision to them. I also planned to include student voice as part of course content and offer
generous feedback to students. This intention was reflected on the syllabus with several Moodle forums scheduled
throughout the course of the semester. Forums would offer students the opportunity to share their thoughts and
comments on course material and discussions, as well as make connections to their own individual faith backgrounds.
As an example, early in the semester schedule, I had a forum titled “Parallels” listed on the syllabus. On the student
version of the syllabus, I simply listed the title of the forum, but on the teacher version of the syllabus, I had the fol-
lowing questions I was planning to ask: Are there parallels between the concepts we are learning and concepts in your
40 JAVED

own faith tradition? If so, what are they? What are the most striking similarities? What are some differences? Are the simi-
larities (or differences) significant? How? Feel free to write and share beyond the questions listed here. With each poten-
tial student response to a forum such as “Parallels,” my intention was to offer generous feedback as emphasized in
Course Design's student-centered focus and as modelled by the professor. Professor Berling was regular and gener-
ous in her responses, and in the three courses I took with her, and as her advisee, this type of feedback helped me
personally as a student to learn and grow. I knew first-hand the value of professor feedback, and my goal was to
offer the same to my students.
Before moving to the in-class use of the syllabus, there is one final element of the design I would like to discuss:
my decision to begin Islamic Education with a discussion based on a lecture by another GTU professor, titled “The
Five Media Pillars of Islam.” Why? This was an important decision in consideration of the outermost flame of society
on the course design factors handout. While Muslims only comprise 1.1% of the total U.S. population
(Mohamed, 2018), they often have center stage on various news outlets and social media platforms. Due to this dis-
proportionate, often false, representation of Muslims, the words Islam and Islamic education bring up certain images
in the minds of many people in the United States, including students. However, many do not know that Islamic edu-
cation, at its heart, resembles character or virtue education, and that was the focus of my class. However, I could not
begin there; I did need to acknowledge where my students would be in consideration of society. Therefore, I
addressed these images directly through five media frameworks9 (Jiwa, 2020, pp. 70–76) as detailed in the “The Five
Media Pillars of Islam” lecture, which I became familiar with as a GTU student myself. By doing so, my intention was
to meet my students where they may be in their understanding of Islam, deliberately and intentionally address the
rhetoric about Muslims, and then put that material aside and focus on the core content of the class. The pervasive-
ness of inaccurate rhetoric about Muslims in society necessitated the inclusion of this lecture; otherwise, questions
and thoughts associated with the inaccurate rhetoric about Islam would prevent students from maximally benefiting
from the actual content of the class.

4 | I M P L E M E N T I N G T H E SY LL A B U S I N TH E C O U R S E

Turning to the in-class use of the syllabus, I had one student who enrolled in April 2015, several months before the
start of the fall semester. As mentioned previously, graduate student-led courses at the GTU have enrollment
between three to five students, and while I had one student, neither Professor Berling nor the Dean were concerned
about this. It was my decision whether to teach the class or not, and I decided that I would. Why? One-on-one learn-
ing can also be beneficial for both the student and teacher; it creates a space for even more specific student-centered
pedagogy. The student, himself, was interested and initiated an email conversation with me through Professor
Berling. Upon receipt of his email that spring, I put into practice what I learned in Course Design: I asked him about
his interest in the course, his background (school, work), his faith, and his familiarity with Islam and Islamic education.
He was happy to have this conversation. Based on what he shared about his familiarity with Islam and his reasons for
taking the class, I additionally added sections on the Quran (the primary religious text in Islam) as well as Hadith (body
of secondary religious texts in Islam). As the semester got closer, he continued to be the only student enrolled, and at
that point I solidified the additional sections on Quran and Hadith which I added per our email conversation in the
spring. Otherwise, my syllabus stayed very much the same as when I originally designed it in fall of 2014.
At the official start of the fall semester, when the student reconnected with me prior to the first class session, I
additionally asked him to take the VARK questionnaire,10 which I had become familiar with through my readings and

9
According to Professor Munir Jiwa, the five frames through which media often portrays Islam are: (1) 9/11, (2) Terrorism and violence, (3) Muslim women,
veiling, and sexual minorities, (4) Islam and the West, and (5) The Middle East.
10
VARK is an acronym for visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic. The VARK questionnaire was developed by Neil Fleming and is available here: https://
vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/. Howard Gardner's work is an expansion of Fleming's work, and information about Gardner and his books is
available here: https://www.howardgardner.com/.
JAVED 41

group presentation of Howard Gardner's work in Course Design. This questionnaire provided me with information
on my student's learning preferences and style, which we discussed in class on the first day; this was another oppor-
tunity to further tailor the class to him. Also, that first day, the student himself expressed interest in an experiential
component of prayer. In fall 2014, when I was designing the syllabus, the possibility of an experiential component
did come up in discussion with my Course Design classmates when we were talking about context reports around
the circular table. However, while I made a note at the time, I did not actually include formal prayer in the design of
my syllabus. Why? Learning about religion and spirituality through books and class discussion can be different than
learning about religion and spirituality through prayer and meditation, with the latter a more personal experience.
For that reason, as well as the Islamic principle of no compulsion in religion,11 I decided that I would not include an
experiential component in Islamic Education unless the request came from students. In this case, the student did
himself make this request on the first day of class, and then I introduced prayer. How did I introduce prayer? I pre-
pared a handout with two short prayers, both typed in Arabic as well as English. At the start of each class session, I
would read the Arabic of the first prayer, and he would read the English; and at the end of each class session, I would
read the Arabic of the second prayer, and he would read the English. Both prayers had universal messages, and we
recited them in this manner the entire semester. The universal messages connected with course content, and as the
teacher, I would make those connections clear for him. The addition of two sections to my original syllabus, the
VARK questionnaire and related considerations, as well as the inclusion of prayer, were a few ways in which I
exercised the practices of student-centered pedagogy, including student voice and student requests into the design
of the course.
An additional consideration I made in Islamic Education was based on a specific discussion from Course Design,
a discussion I remembered from the first time I took the class in spring 2013. In a group conversation on teaching
moments, Professor Berling shared how she turned a campus tragedy at Indiana University, where she was teaching
at the time, into a teaching moment on Daoist non-action. In that incident, a student had died in a drunk driving acci-
dent and had killed several other people as well. Understandably, the students in her class were overwhelmed by the
event. In consideration of this tragedy, she led a fruitful and healing class discussion on the following: “Would a
Daoist let a friend drink and drive? What would ‘non-action’ mean in that situation?” (J. Berling, personal communi-
cation, February 22, 2016). The professor, thus, took a local tragedy and turned it into a teaching moment for her
students. On an international scale, the semester I was teaching Islamic Education, an ISIS attack took place in
Paris. I, similarly, turned this international tragedy into a teaching moment. How? I read a short book myself about
the incorrect theological and jurisprudential principles of ISIS,12 listened to several interviews and discussions by
people knowledgeable on this topic, and then devoted a class session to this tragedy, focusing specifically on the
miseducation of ISIS, its leaders and followers. The student certainly had questions about this tragedy, and we were
able to discuss it as well as connect it to the larger picture of the class.
As the semester progressed, I was happy with our class, the student, and our conversations; he was regularly
prepared and participatory. Towards the end of the semester, I devoted the last two weeks of class to gender and
Islamic education. The GTU coincidentally, at that same time that semester, hosted a one-woman play by a Muslim
woman, Rohina Malik, titled Unveiled.13 In light of this school event, I decided to make one more change to my origi-
nal syllabus. I had seen the play myself the year before at the Religious Education Association (REA) conference in
Chicago, and I could vouch for the veracity of the content and the presenter; and I made attendance and reflection
of the play an assignment for the student, while also reducing another assignment, motivating him to fully engage
this opportunity. I connected this assignment to the five media frameworks discussed earlier in the semester, with
the goal of further fostering a healthy understanding of Islam and educating my student, in this case, specifically

11
There is no compulsion in religion in Islam. This religious principle is from verse 2:256 in the Quran. Additionally, I share a short commentary on this verse
and religious freedom by Professor Ali Ataie, a Muslim Biblical scholar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-5h-L0e3Gg.
12
The book I read in preparation for this discussion was Refuting Isis: A Rebuttal of its Religious and Ideological Foundations by Shaykh Muhammad Al-
Yaqoubi.
13
Information about the playwright Rohina Malik and her play Unveiled are available at the following link: https://rohinamalik.weebly.com/.
42 JAVED

around the topic of Muslim women. Additionally, the goal of this assignment was to learn how to utilize reputable
local resources in self-educating about Islam, a skill that I prayed he would carry beyond the class. There can often
be a great deal of information about Islam available, however, not all of it is accurate. The questions of the Moodle
forum associated with the play were also designed to help him explore the atmosphere around the play as well as
make connections to class content: Who was the performer? Who was in the audience? What was your experience of
watching the performance? Did anything in the play remind you of what has been discussed in class or in the readings?
The student provided a very insightful response and indicated that he benefited from the experience of the play. It
was clear that he had taken interest as he himself shared information about another local lecture on Muslim women
and Hadith, taking place in nearby San Francisco. While I made his suggestion an optional assignment, due to the
final days of the semester, it was wonderful to see the student connecting to class content and making those con-
nections beyond our discussions in class. The semester of Islamic Education certainly was a beneficial semester for
me, and I pray my student benefited as well.

5 | R E F LE C T I N G O N T H E C O U R S E

With the reflections above, I share how Course Design impacted, influenced, and directed the development of my
syllabus for Islamic Education. Designing the syllabus thoroughly through the various assignments of the syllabus
design project made it easy to further tailor Islamic Education to my student as well as take advantage of events and
occurrences that took place when I taught the course. As graduate students, doctoral candidates, and professors, we
are often called to teach diverse groups of students in an ever-increasing diversity of learning institutions. However,
most doctoral programs do not necessarily prepare graduate students to teach others. Course Design offered gradu-
ate students (like me) a unique opportunity to unpack who they themselves are as students and consider their own
pedagogical development and tendencies, while also researching the context and needs of a specific student popula-
tion at a specific institution where they would like to teach post-graduation. While my paper and the appendix offer
readers insight and many strategies into the process of designing and implementing a student- and context-specific
course, I would encourage individuals to additionally seek out a complete course not simply on teaching, but how to
specifically think and plan as a teacher. Learning how to think and plan as a teacher allowed me to stay true to the
mission and vision of student- and context-centered pedagogy, helping my student to maximally learn in consider-
ation of the world around him.

RE FE R ENC E S
Berling, J. (1998). Getting out of the way: A strategy for engaging students in collaborative learning. Teaching Theology and
Religion, 1(1), 31–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9647.00006
Berling, J. (2015). Lessons from the front lines: Preparing doctoral students for teaching [Unpublished manuscript]. Department
of Interdisciplinary Studies, Graduate Theological Union.
Jiwa, M. (2020). Reflections on Islamic studies in an interreligious context. In N. Syed & H. Hadshell (Eds.), Critical perspec-
tives on interreligious education: Experiments in empathy (pp. 66–85). Brill Rodopi. https://brill.com/view/title/56542
Mohamed, B. (2018, January 3). New estimates show U.S. Muslim population continues to grow. Pew Research Center.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/03/new-estimates-show-u-s-muslim-population-continues-to-grow/

How to cite this article: Javed, R. (2022). Reflections on course design and Islamic education. Teaching
Theology & Religion, 25(1), 35–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/teth.12605
JAVED 43

APP E NDIX A: HANDOUT—FACTORS SHAPING COURSE DESIGN

I have adapted this handout from the class Course Design, IDS 6016, at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,
California, with permission from the professor (J. Berling, personal communication, April 26, 2021). I have simply
formatted the content and image for inclusion in the journal.
Level One: The Teacher (Innermost flame or level: Blue)

• Subject matter
• Gifts and Preferences/Constraints (Not everyone can handle all approaches)
• Values (Philosophy of education)
• Particular interests and passions (Love of the material)

Level Two: The Students (Color of flame or level: Yellow)

• Level of background coming into the course

• Learning skills (What can you assume? What must you develop?)
• Specific cultural, personal, experiential backgrounds
• Motivations for taking the course/openness/resistance to course material required?
 Marginal elective, unrelated to major/purpose? Convenience of time slot (no particular interest)? A passion for
some aspect of the material?
• Life circumstances
 Age? Married? Families? Commuters? Working part- or full-time?
 How much time for studies/class preparation? Competing pressures?
• Cultural location (age, etc.)
 Who are the students?
 What is their world?
 What is real/important to them?
• What is relevance/interest of course material to them individually and as a group? Of course, skills?

Level Three: The Department (Color of flame or level: Orange)

• Is the course part of a major? If so, what is the structure of the major, and how does the course fit in? How many
students are majors?
• In introductory course: Is the course intended to attract majors? To be the one-time course in religion/theology?
• Does the department have ideals/expectations about courses?
 That they involve a certain amount of writing?
 That they be multicultural?
 That they involve more than one religion?
 That they include readings by women or other groups?
 That readings and subject matter reflect student demography?
• Is the course taught by more than one faculty? If so, are there expectations of a “common” syllabus?
• How does the course complement other courses in the department?

Level Four: The Institution (Color of flame or level: Orange)

• Does the larger institution have expectations of the course?

• Does it meet a general education requirement? If so, which one?
44 JAVED

 What particular expectations does this add to the course?

• Does it see courses in religion/theology as central to the institution? As simply one of the humanities?
• Does the institution see your course as carrying some burden (e.g., the institution's addressing of value issues, or
teaching writing and communication skills, or teaching skills of understanding other people)?

Level Five: The Society (Color of flame or level: Orange)

• Are there factors in the culture (local or larger) which shape expectations and views of your course? E.g., if you
are teaching in the “Bible Belt,” there will be one set of expectations, and at UC Berkeley, quite another.
• How are publics (alumni of the school, parents, friends and family of students) likely to respond to the substance
and approach of your course? Is your material at all controversial or sensitive?
• Are there ways to address culturally significant issues in the context of the course (e.g., How would you have
addressed September 11 events had you taught the course in that semester)?
• What historical and cultural forces shape you as teacher, students as learners, and publics who view the
institution?
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