Issue Home Volume 11: Issue 4

Incorporating Jesuit Pedagogy into Teaching
William P. O’Brien, S.J.
Assistant Professor
Department of Theological Studies

Since entering the Society of Jesus in 1991, I have noticed a certain trend in some pedagogical circles to abstract principles from Jesuit texts and apply them in contexts for which their author, Saint Ignatius, never intended them. For instance, the idea of presenting the dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises or the structure of the Constitutions apart from the life and ministry of Jesus Christ renders these documents practically meaningless.

That said, certain other Jesuit writings do lend themselves to classroom applications. First and foremost among these, the Ratio studiorum (1599) offered Jesuits a “reasoned plan” for educating both their own members and “externs” who believed in the Jesuit enterprise. For a detailed study of this text, readers will want to consult the offerings of our Institute for Jesuit Sources (IJS), located in Jesuit Hall, and the publications of our historians, notably Father John O’Malley. Here, I will suggest only one principle from the Ratio, that of the “usefulness of review” (repetitionis utilitas) which the Jesuit pedagogues developed as a way to help students learn [Ratio 252].

Having presented material to my students, I often feel that I have fulfilled my responsibility as a teacher. Once exposed to the material, they have the responsibility to go over it on their own. The early Jesuit professors took a much more proactive approach, constructing class sessions with a mind to revisiting subjects over several days and with a variety of methods. One of the more controversial methods involved pitting students in competition with one another and offering prizes for the most successful.

In my classroom, I have engaged the principle of repetition by finding numerous ways to present the same material to my students, especially at the introductory level. Lecture, textual analysis, PowerPoint, and test review all have helped me go over the same subject matter with them two or three times, to the end of helping them learn. While critics may find this attitude patronizing, I see it in particular as a way to protect younger students who have not yet learned how to deal with their new-found freedom at college. Note that this attitude means reframing the educational enterprise in terms of learning, rather than teaching.

Last updated 04.28.09