Master's Recital

Master's Recital

Spring 2020

Welcome to the Master's Recital!

For information on why we do the master's recital, see Why the Master's Recital.

If you are signed up for the online recital, the tasks will begin showing up here over the next couple of days, and you can complete them at any time between now and May 15th.

Course Overview

As part of our accreditation requirements, we must collect data to demonstrate that what we set out to teach you at the beginning of the program has some relationship to what you know and are able to do here at the end.  We use this data to refine how and what we teach and to improve the Iliff educational experience for students to come. In many other theological schools, this data is an extensive written portfolio of each students' work from throughout their degree program that they discuss with a committee at the end, or a final thesis or senior capstone project.  However, we believe that for a professional degree program, a more performed kind of knowledge is important to demonstrate integration and the capacity to take your theological education into your future working contexts.

For that reason, we created the masters' recital. The recital assesses Iliff's curriculum, not you, the student.

Each year we identify different areas of the curriculum to assess.  This year we are primarily assessing 1. the skills necessary for theological education that we introduced into Interdisciplinary Seminar, and 2. the skills we worked on in IPD and V&O. One of the tasks is done in a small group, the other as individuals. In each case we are watching your perform this task and asking: "What do they do well as a group or as an individual?  Where do they struggle to shine?"

Because this data has a serious role in our ongoing curricular revision, we hope that you will do your best so we can see what you can really do.  But, do your best in a spontaneous (although readable to your colleagues) way, so we can see what you can do on your feet, so to speak. The entire recital should take 90-120 minutes.

Any questions?

Thanks for helping us continue to make an Iliff education relevant and quality for generations of students to come.

Welcome, Graduates!  Congratulations on making it to the end (or near end) of your degree program.

Please read the Why the Recital page (link above) before completing these tasks. You have 2 tasks; each has its own discussion page, below. Post your responses by hitting "Reply" beneath the task in each discussion page. One task is a small group project (you have been randomly assigned to a group), the other you complete as an individual. These tasks are meant to be performed "live and in real time" as much as possible.  That is to say, we are not expecting additional external research or preparation. We want to see what the education you have already completed allows you to do. The whole recital should take between 90-120 minutes. We will be looking at what you all are able to do well and what you struggle with as an individual and as a group, not assigning grades to particular posts.  However, because we do use this data for future curricular revision, it will be helpful if you do your best, so we can see what you have learned. Think of this as Iliff's not-so-standardized testing to see how our curriculum is functioning to produce student learning . . . our work as educators is what is being tested through these activities.