On March 31, Isaac Calvert, professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, led a discussion at the Inspiring Teaching Workshop sponsored by General Education. The conversation focused on the Doctrine and Covenants and what it helps us understand about teaching and learning.
Calvert shared how through study and faith all learning is sacred. God can assist with learning, he explained, to turn the experience into something other than what it would have been if God wasn’t involved.
The discussion focused on three basic truths taught in the Doctrine and Covenants that can help BYU professors teach.
- The nature of truth described in the Doctrine and Covenants
- The preconditions for the attainment of truth
- The “eminently perishability” of truth as described in the Doctrine and Covenants
According to Calvert, the Doctrine and Covenants describes truth in two ways: propositional and ontological. Propositional is knowledge of things as they are. For example, these are things that can be written down and verbally shared. Ontological is the truth you can be. This truth is seen as the fulfillment of propositional truth.
Calvert shared how Jesus Christ is the light of truth. Christ taught us he is truth, and we need to become like him. We need to become truth. The Doctrine and Convents talks about how we can know and be truth, and this has implications for how BYU instructors approach their teaching.
Watch the workshop to learn what it means to be truth, how to be truth, and how to teach students to be truth instead of just knowing truth.