Christian Education for Life —
Using Prayer for Problem Solving

 

This page has information about a talk by me (Craig Rusbult, PhD, during life on a road less traveled)
for a conference – January 27, 2018 – of Southern California Christians in Science,
which is a local chapter of the American Scientific Affiliation.

 

Below is information about two Detailed Outlines for my talk, and its Abstract.

 

Two Detailed Outlines:

1.  a Web-Page Outline at the beginning of my left-side page about Using Prayer for Problem Solving — "quickly-and-clearly explains what IS and ISN'T being proposed by me, to avoid misunderstandings."  It's an expanded version of the Abstract (below) and a condensed version of my left/right pair of web-pages.     {if you have a small-screen cell phone, or an iPad that cannot cope with left/right iFrames, the two single pages are Using Prayer for Problem Solving (the basics) and (in more depth) Pray so you can Love More Effectively}

2.  a PowerPoint Outline will be used during my talk, and it has extra details (that aren't in the Web-Page Outline) because it doesn't include links for "more" in other parts of my two web-pages;  instead, it will be more self-contained.   {available in PDF and [later] as a Web-Page}

I.O.U. – I'm continuing to revise the Web-Page Outline, as explained at the bottom of this page.

 

also - the HomePage for my website about Education for Problem Solving


Abstract:

 

Christian Education for Life — Using Prayer for Problem Solving

Broadly defined, a Problem is any opportunity to "make things better" in any area of life, so Problem Solving includes almost everything you do.  And in everything you do, God wants to help you improve your problem-solving effectiveness, for the purpose of pursuing His goals and (usually) your goals.  How?  When you pray, God can help you improve in many ways, including...  your understandings of God, yourself, and other people;  your compassion for others;  your love for God and people, actualized in your attitudes, relationships, and actions;  your wisdom in making decisions about actions;  the results of your actions, the overall effects on all life-situations, for others and yourself.

In every area of life, your prayers can be beneficial in many ways, when...  God provides insights and guidance, through Holy Spirit, to help you think better, and transform your character;  you pay attention to your process of problem solving, by asking "can I think better in creatively generating ideas, and critically evaluating ideas?" and "what is the best use of my time? (i.e. what should I do now, and later, trying to make things better?)" and, with empathy & self-empathy, "what do they want? what do I want?  how might we achieve a better win-win result?" and other process-questions;  you pause for relaxing interludes that can be naturally refreshing.

As one aspect of students' education for life, we can show them the many benefits they will receive when they ask God to help them improve every part of their problem-solving process, as throughout each day they are creatively Generating Ideas and — by comparing Predictions & Observations (made in Mental Experiments & Physical Experiments) with each other, and with their Goals for a satisfactory Problem-Solution — are critically Evaluating Ideas, using creative-and-critical cycles (Generate and Evaluate, Generate and Evaluate,...) of Design Thinking, often using cycles of "Plan, Do-and-Observe, then Re-Plan, Do-and-Observe,..." to learn more from their experiences in life.

{for more information: educationforproblemsolving.net/prayer – which is the page you're now reading}


 

Here are links to information about my other recent presentations:

for the annual California STEM Symposium in 2014, 2015, and 2016,

    Build Bridges between Engineering and Science to Improve NGSS Practices

    Improve Diversity and Equity with Transfer-Bridges for Problem Solving

    Use a Process-of-Inquiry to teach Principles-for-Inquiry

for the annual conference of the American Scientific Affiliation in 2016,

    Education for Critical Thinking – Schrodinger’s Cat in a Multiverse?

 


 

Which outline(s) should you read?

I recommend reading the Web-Page Outline first.  But I also say “read both, if you want to invest the time, plus the Abstract below.”

I think both outlines are worth reading, because each is interesting-and-useful in different ways.  The first part of my PowerPoint Outline (Slides 1-18) is closest to “what the talk was” because halfway thru my 30 minutes, I stopped “lecturing” after the questions in Slides 17-18, and with lively Q-and-A (that was mainly C-and-R, Comments-and-Responses) we discussed ideas for the rest of the time.  But by itself the Web-Page Outline is shorter, and — if you also click links for "more" — it's more complete, with many additional details.

I.O.U. – I've mostly finished my revising of the PowerPoint Outline.   Now I've begun working on the Web-Page Outline (and the web-sections it links to for "more") because I was developing new ideas while writing the PowerPoint Outline, and I'm beginning to include these in my two web-pages.  Until this "including" is finished, I'll continue posting revised versions and changing the most recent posting-time (now it's February 5, 5 pm) so you'll know if there is a newer version.