Undergraduate Education Associate Dean Chip Oscarson hosted an Inspiring Teaching Workshop, “Seeking the Virtuous through General Education,” on February 24, 2025. The workshop provided an opportunity for faculty to consider how they can help their students become more Christlike.
Oscarson opened with a claim—BYU provides another dimension of preparation for students by having them study the gospel. “What I want to argue for today is that there’s another dimension of preparation that’s going on. One of the things that consistently shows up in Doctrine and Covenants, is the link between education and sanctification,” Oscarson said.
Chip Oscarson led professors in a discussion question at the Inspiring Teaching Workshop.
Professors discussed the relationship between sanctification and the commands to study things above the earth and under the earth, languages, peoples, things that were and are to come, is a pursuit to Christ.
Oscarson provided three ways students can learn by study and by faith:
- The exercise of agency
- Relationships
- Transformation
Oscarson stated students need:
- to choose to seek truth,
- to build a covenant relationship that is transformational, and
- to remember repentance is intended to change us.
“This is the challenge of General Education—to work in this space, and try to find a way to help students not just engage a breadth of knowledge, but a change in who and what they are,” Oscarson said.
The discussion shifted toward intellectual virtues. A few professors shared an inspiring educator in their lives, and the virtuous qualities they possess. Attendees conversed about the virtues their class discipline cultivates, and what professors can do in their classes to help students better understand and reflect upon the virtues students are developing.
“If we think about our classes, if we think about what we’re doing, we can get so much more out of what we do in helping our students to become new creatures and to become something different. To become better disciples of Christ and better servants in the kingdom,” Oscarson said.
Click below to watch the full workshop given by Oscarson