As Sunday school teachers, it can be a great help to recognize the different ways that children learn. Think about your own learning experiences. How do you learn new things? What works best for you? And what doesn’t work very well when you are trying to learn something new? After you have given some thought to this, ask someone else the same questions. They may not give the same answers. Two important facts are clear:
- Not everyone learns exactly the same way.
- Some instructional methods that are more generally effective than others.
Try an experiment
Here are three situations that require you to learn something new. Several different ways of learning are offered with each one. Which way would you prefer to learn in each situation? Take a minute to decide for yourself and then, perhaps at your next Sunday school teachers meeting, ask your fellow teachers to do the same thing. Compare the results. Almost certainly some learning patterns will emerge. These ought to be taken seriously when it comes to planning Sunday school lessons, because our children are not so very different from us in the ways that they learn.
Teaching and Learning: What works for you?
Situation 1:
You want to take up sailing as a hobby, but you need to learn how to sail. Rank the following ways to learn from 1 to 6, depending on how well each would work for you. (1 = my best way to learn; 6 = my worst way to learn).
—— Attend lectures on sailing.
—— Get on a boat and try it yourself.
—— Read an instruction manual on how to sail.
—— Watch a video on how to sail.
—— Use a computerized simulator (virtual reality).
—— Work with an experienced sailor who shows you the ropes.
Situation 2:
You need to learn (relearn?) how to do fractions. Your job demands it and education was definitely wasted on the young when you had to learn this in the sixth grade! What learning method would work best for you and be remembered longest? Rank the methods from 1 (best) to 4 (worst).
—— Bake a cake (using measuring cups, spoons, etc.) or build a model airplane (using rulers, scales, etc.).
—— Go to night school and let a teacher show you how to do fractions on the blackboard.
—— Read a math book.
—— Read a math book and do several practice problems.
Situation 3:
You want to improve your understanding of what the Bible teaches about the devil. What method would work best for you? Rank the methods from 1 (best) to 6 (worst).
—— Attend a Christadelphian lecture on the devil.
—— Do a personal Bible study, using a concordance and taking notes.
—— Keep up with the daily Bible readings for a couple years.
—— Listen to a set of audio classes on the subject.
—— Read a pamphlet on the devil.
—— Teach an interested friend whose major problem is an understanding of the devil.
On two different occasions, I asked groups of Sunday school teachers to participate in this experiment. They read the three situations and ranked the learning methods offered in each one. They worked individually and then we compared the results. The main points were confirmed: (1) individuals vary in the ways they learn, and (2) some learning methods are more generally appealing than others.
A closer look
Situation 1. There are a lot of critical skills and cause-effect relationships involved in sailing. By far the majority of individuals said they would prefer to work with an experienced sailor if they wanted to learn how to sail. Beyond this, working under simulated sailing conditions and watching a “how to” video came in quite high on their lists. Attending lectures or reading the instruction manual appealed to only a few, very few! Practically everyone agreed that they would eventually have to get on the boat and do it themselves if they were going to master the process, but it was felt that there were too many pitfalls and personal risks involved to make this their initial learning method.
What does this tell us? To be sure there are a few academics in any group of people. They are the ones who can learn almost anything by listening to lectures and studying textbooks. They are excellent passive, reflective learners. But most of us need to see it, experience it, and do it for ourselves in order to learn. We need active, participatory learning methods. And having an experienced mentor who can guide us through the hands-on processes can be of enormous value.
Let it be added, however, that a person must want to take up sailing before any learning method will be of real value to them. The learning methods we are thinking about in this article do not address the issue of motivation.
Situation 2. For many people, doing fractions won’t be as much fun as sailing. It is more conceptual, more abstract, and demands some exacting thought processes that we might prefer to avoid. But it’s a bit like learning to sail in the sense that there are certain rules that must be mastered in order to do it in a hands-on way. Don’t be surprised to find out that a majority of people want a mentor here, too, and they want real experience working with fractions as a basis for long-term learning. The one-two choices of our Sunday school teachers were: “Bake a cake … build a model” and “let a teacher show you how”. The more academic approaches to learning came in dead last on this one, too!
Again this tells us something. Let a master show his learners how it’s done, and then let the learners do it for themselves. Immerse the “doing” in real-life situations. This is exactly the way Jesus taught his disciples to preach the kingdom of God. As recorded in Luke, he selected his class of prospective preachers.
“And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;” (Luke 6:12-13).
Later in Luke he showed them how to preach the kingdom in very practical ways.
“And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him” (Luke 8:1).
And subsequently he sent them to do it themselves.
“Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick” (Luke 9:1-2).
As soon as possible, we need to show our children how to learn and do the things of discipleship and then give them relevant contexts in which to practice these things for themselves. Telling them about the things of the Truth is vitally important to be sure, but it may not, by itself, be enough to produce real learning.
Situation 3. In this situation we deliberately focus attention on a demanding Bible subject: the devil. The responses of the teachers again showed some clear preferences. The one-two choices for improving their understanding of the subject were: “Do a personal Bible study” and “Teach an interested friend”. Once more, the level of learner participation in these processes is very high. It only assumes that somewhere along the line they have learned how to do their own personal Bible study.
Can we bring these findings to bear on the way we teach Sunday school?
Some implications
- We need to see ourselves as mentors of our children and not simply dispensers of information. This means having their interests at heart seven days a week and keeping in touch beyond the regular Sunday school time. It means modeling the discipline of discipleship in our own lives for them to see and emulate. It is particularly important that we show an enthusiasm for learning and obeying the ways of God, so that our children may be infected with the same enthusiasm. We teach our children who we are.
- We need to teach Bible stories as more than just information to be “learned”. We need to look for the essence of the stories — the lessons of discipleship that God has built into them — and focus attention on these lessons. Sunday school needs to be an ongoing training ground with practical how-to-live instruction coming out of the lessons. It is this that will give the lessons lasting value.
3) We need to give the children opportunities to practice the Truth skills that are found in each Sunday school lesson. This will almost certainly become an active, hands-on process rather than a passive one. To be sure, as much as their mental capacities allow, they will need to be shown how to do some level of Bible study as they get older, and they will need to be given opportunities to apply these skills for themselves. But along the way they must also glean from their lessons and put into practice such things as prayer, obedience, cooperation, service, walking in faith, living the fruit of the spirit, submitting their wills to the higher authority of God, avoiding temptation, and on and on. As their mentors, we need to plan instruction that shows them how these are done and helps them put these discipleship skills into practice. If they are going to learn how to sail, they need to be shown the ropes and then allowed to get into the boat and use them.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One