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Standards & Assessment

Academic Standards

The Institute for Worship Studies upholds a high standard of academic excellence. The faculty commitment is to “excellence in teaching.” The students’ standards of learning follow the guidelines of the best practices of other federally recognized schools.

All faculty in charge of a course module must have an earned doctoral/terminal degree (Ph.D., Th.D., D.Min., D.M.A., M.F.A.). Candidates accepted into the D.W.S. program must have earned a graduate degree, such as M.Mus., M.A., M.M., M.C.M. or M.Ed., or the equivalent Masters degree. Candidates accepted into the M.W.S. program must have earned an undergraduate degree, such as B.A., B.S., B.M., B.M.E., B.F.A., or the equivalent Bachelors degree with a minimum of 120 hours of earned credit.

Grading Standards

IWS works with the following grading scale categories. As course instructors/supervisors/mentors of students, we grade your course projects with these four categories in mind.

ABCD
(A) Superior
(A-)Excellent
(B+) Very good
(B) Average, good, or satisfactory
(B-) Passing, acceptable
(C+) Below the acceptable standard for a master’s or doctoral degree
(C, C-) Deficient work in the degree program
(D) Very deficient, unacceptable work

Any doctoral student who receives two or more final course grades of C+ or lower may proceed to the thesis course (DWS 801) only by repeating these courses for academic credit and must achieve a grade of B or higher in these repeated courses. Any doctoral student who, for personal or academic reasons, chooses not to complete the thesis is eligible for the Advanced Graduate Certificate in Worship Studies (A.G.C.W.S.), assuming that the four core doctoral courses have been satisfactorily completed.

Project Evaluation

In evaluating course projects, we consider two particular areas: content and elements of style. Pay close attention to both.

Project Content

Are you doing research on the appropriate graduate level?

  • Depth of research and scholarship
  • Use and documentation of sources
  • Critical analysis applied
  • Assumptions questioned

Are you intellectually engaged with the subject matter and its complexity at hand?

  • Insights expressed
  • Questions raised
  • Familiarity with different views
  • Adequate integration of materials

Are you conveying passion and interest, and do you “own” your position or point of view?

  • Transparency of self
  • Creativity applied
  • Demonstration of ownership of the project
  • Elements of Style

Are you demonstrating writing skills on a master’s or doctoral level? Are you expressing your thoughts as coherently and as clearly as possible? Is your writing engaging, focused and lucid?

  • Grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and paragraph structure
  • Flow of thought and argument
  • Clarity of expression
  • Articulation of focus, theme, and claims
  • Use of guidelines by Turabian 7th Edition

Program Outcomes

M.W.S. and D.W.S. Outcomes

The Master of Worship Studies and Doctor of Worship Studies programs ask students to reflect on worship through biblical, historical, theological, missiological, and cultural disciplines. Students are expected to demonstrate methodological skills for studying worship and ministerial skills of Christian worship in their context. The M.W.S. and D.W.S. also have outcomes unique to each program. Details:

Degree Program Learning Outcomes

Doctor of Worship Studies

  1. Biblical foundation of Christian worship
    The student will understand, as well as demonstrate the ability to articulate and evaluate, worship rooted in and declaring the story of the Triune God as expressed in the Scriptures.
  2. Historical development of Christian worship
    The student will understand, as well as demonstrate the ability to articulate and evaluate, major trajectories in the practice of Christian worship through culture and time for use in assessing current expressions of Christian worship.
  3. Theological reflection on Christian worship
    The student will understand, as well as demonstrate the ability to articulate, a scripturally rooted, historically informed Christian theology of worship to guide the planning and evaluation of Christian worship.
  4. Cultural reflection on Christian worship
    The student will understand, as well as demonstrate the ability to articulate and evaluate, ways in which culture informs and shapes expressions of Christian worship, past and present.
  5. Missiological reflection on Christian worship
    The student will understand, as well as demonstrate the ability to articulate and evaluate, the centrality of God’s mission, with respect to the Church’s worship, founded on the scriptural revelation of the Triune God.
  6. Methodological skills for studies in Christian worship
    The student will demonstrate the ability to research, evaluate and articulate concepts related to Christian worship, using scholarly materials (primary and secondary) and the theological action-research methodology.
  7. Ministerial skills in Christian worship
    The student will understand, as well as demonstrate the ability to articulate, implement and evaluate, key concepts related to Christian worship in a particular setting.


Master of Worship Studies

  1. Biblical foundation of Christian worship
    The student will understand, as well as demonstrate the ability to articulate and evaluate, Biblical evidence for worship as participation in the story of the Triune God.
  2. Historical development of Christian worship
    The student will understand, as well as demonstrate the ability to articulate and evaluate, the historical development of Christian worship practices and theology.
  3. Theological reflection on Christian worship
    The student will understand, as well as demonstrate the ability to articulate and evaluate, the role of theology, philosophy and epistemology in Christian formation.
  4. Cultural reflection on Christian worship
    The student will understand, as well as demonstrate the ability to articulate and evaluate, the role of contextualization in engaging God’s people in the dialogue of worship.
  5. Missiological reflection on Christian worship
    The student will understand, as well as demonstrate the ability to articulate and evaluate, the centrality of God’s mission with respect to the Church’s worship, including its global dimensions.
  6. Methodological skills for studies in Christian worship
    The student will demonstrate the ability to research, evaluate and articulate concepts related to Christian worship, using scholarly materials, as well as apply them to the spiritual life of the believer, with an emphasis upon the planning of corporate worship.
  7. Ministerial skills in Christian worship
    The student will demonstrate the ability to integrate and evaluate MWS course objectives within a local ministry context through specific, intentional and strategically supervised efforts.

Spiritual Formation Objectives

The faculty, administration, and staff have worked hard to create a special community at the Institute for Worship Studies, with an end of Spiritual Formation in mind. As a part of the accreditation process, we developed and clarified Spiritual Formation Objectives to explain what we hope to accomplish in the spiritual lives of our students.