Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Content

Topics will include:

• Scriptural and theological foundations for Christian teaching on illness and dying
• Understanding of the human person evidenced in the Church’s rites for the ill and dying
• Theologies of illness and dying found in Pastoral Care of the Sick and parts of the Order of Christian Funerals
• The role of Christian prayer and ritual at times of serious illness and the end of life
• Practical application of the prayer and ritual options found in Pastoral Care of the Sick and parts of Order of Christian Funerals and the conditions for their use
• Appropriate ministers for the celebration of the rites
• The ministry of pastoral carers during serious illness and the process of dying
• The role of the Christian community in the pastoral care of the sick, the dying and their loved ones
• A critical evaluation of contemporary attitudes toward and practices surrounding illness and death, in light of the theology enshrined in the Church’s rites.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

The unit is normally offered in intensive face-to-face mode which enables students to interact directly with the lecturer and fellow class members as they consider carefully structured and sequenced unit materials designed to support the achievement of the unit’s learning outcomes. In face-to-face class sessions students are provided with the opportunity to learn with experts in liturgy and prayer and to work collaboratively in groups to discuss key principles and critically analyse their application to specific practical examples; identify and assess their own presuppositions and current perceptions regarding liturgy and prayer in pastoral care settings and how these might change in light of exposure to unit content; and engage in practical activities which enable them to reflect critically on key unit content, analyse and integrate new information with existing knowledge, draw meaningful new connections and then work individually to apply what they have learned in assessment tasks. Assessment tasks are integrated into the unit as appropriate to the mode in which it is offered (i.e., students may prepare and present an assessment task during the intensive week; if the unit is offered in a different mode – e.g., fully online, in-class presentation assessments may be replaced with different equivalent tasks appropriate to the mode of learning). Assessment tasks are designed to provide a variety of opportunities for students to demonstrate their achievement of the unit’s learning outcomes and to enable them to go beyond the unit materials presented during the face-to-face classes so that they can engage in analysis and research tasks which require them to apply the knowledge they have gained through exposure to the unit’s lectures, tutorials, reading, analyses and exercises.

The intensive face-to-face learning mode requires students to attend class sessions and interact actively with the lecturer and fellow class members during those sessions to learn, assimilate and begin integrating key concepts covered in the unit; and sometimes to work in small groups to prepare and offer presentations in class. Following the class, students are expected to work independently to synthesise and embed concepts, information and principles covered during the class sessions through follow-up reading, individual research, writing and submission of assessment tasks.