The Master’s Programme Learning and Innovation, track: Christian Education, will start in September 2024 with a new group of international students. If you want to deepen your knowledge and skills for Christian education, you are welcome to participate. By following this programme experienced teachers, principals, school leaders or people working in educational aid organizations will become teacher leaders.
Rahel Huby is from Indonesia, Papua. She is a teacher at a Christian Teacher College in Papua. She is in her second year of our Learning and Innovation Master’s programme: track Christian Education. “Joining this master’s programme has been a tremendous blessing for me personally but also for the place where I work.”
Rahel says: “At my college we focus on moulding our students to be examples of Christ as well as professionals in their field as teachers in the remote areas of Papua. I personally experienced a change in my perspective on what I do as a Christian teacher in a Christian School.”
She explains: “For example, I began to question myself about what I had been doing that I previously thought was normal, as now I look at my students with a fairly deep view, which is that I am given an important task in shaping their future. So, I do not play around when it comes to their character growth, where I must first be an example in my words and deeds.
In this master’s programme, I am also given the opportunity to innovate together with the internal change team, which is facilitated through this master’s programme, which is very supportive by thinking and working together in the development of our school, in training our students to become teachers who have the principles of Christian values and become qualified teachers.”
The weekly online classes were very helpful, in Rahel’s opinion. “It was an opportunity for us to study with the lecturers but also an opportunity to be able to discuss our learning progress with other friends. However, sometimes the internet connection is quite challenging for me, coming from a place like Papua. Sometimes, I get a little stressed because I don't manage my time well due to the workload and all the coursework, but I enjoy it.
Therefore, I think in this case it is very important to manage time as well as possible. I really appreciate the lecturers in this master’s program. They are very supportive, encouraging and always willing to help when needed. They make the atmosphere so cozy that I feel comfortable and motivated to learn in this community, it feels like a family. My friends are always supportive and ready to help.”
Are you Christian and do you work in a Christian school but you doubt if this master’s is for you? Don’t, says Rahel. “Do you have a great desire to make the world around you better with your contribution? Where the people you touch experience a change in their character and relationship with God but also reach their best potential in fulfilling God's calling in their lives? Then this master's program is the right answer to your longing, believe me.”
Rahel is doing an innovation that focuses on how to help supervisors in delivering feedback by focusing on students' personal strengths so that it can improve their quality in becoming teachers. “I deliberately chose this topic because we always see the shortcomings in our students as mistakes that need to be corrected, so there is no time and thought at all to see the good things that they already have.”
Start of Master’s in 2024
We intend to have a new cohort starting the Master’s programme every two years, with the next cohort starting in September 2024. You can register from November 2023. It is also possible to take individual modules as Short Courses. You can find more information here.
