ME. D'S NOTES ON TEACHING
Rev. Stanley L. Derickson Ph.D.
COPYRIGHT 2001

Chapter 7

We have some miscellaneous subjects to cover so we will skip around a little in this study.

FEEDBACK

Q. What do I mean by feed back? It is the information that you gain back from your students. It is very important information.

You can tell if they are tired - the droopy eyes or the uplifted eyes. You can tell by the closed eyes what is going on. The snappy eye can indicate they are about to get into trouble or they have just had a fantastic idea.

Body language is actually what we are talking about. We used to visit a girl that was in the state girls school. She came out one Sunday afternoon with her usual, I could care less attitude, and went through the usual, I'm the innocent one that they are persecuting. She was terribly disgusted one day because they had talked to her about body language. I listened and laughed my head off inside. She was describing herself to a T and she didn't even know it.

The way people sit and look quite often are a give away to their attitudes and thinking. Inattention is quite obvious to the teacher for it is quite often talking or passing notes.

All these things can help you adjust your teaching to the point where you can wake up the sleepers or interest the bored or draw in the inattentive.

How can you draw in the person that is not being attentive? Ask them a question. Use them for an illustration.

Keep your eyes moving to see what your students are trying to tell you.

In a classroom situation I see many things going on that ought not. Usually if there is no seeming distraction I won't worry about it. The next test usually teaches the goof off that they should have been studying.

There are many differences in how students learn. Some learn poorly by reading. Others learn poorly by listening. Now how do we apply this to our teaching? Just what application can this have for you?

Since reading has poor retention, possibly you should not include reading as a part of your study and teaching methods. NO! Incorporate it in with other things to bring a combination of skills to bear. Have them read and report. This will give a higher retention. Have them read and verbalize what they have read to someone or the class. Have them read and visualize what they have read.

The point to all this is, do not just assign one thing or use one method. Mix them up so that they are learning in more than one way.

If you have your student read a chapter then have him listen to it on a tape recording then ask him to view it on a filmstrip then require of him to tell the class of what he has learned and then to visualize or demonstrate the knowledge you will be able to expect 270% retention, correct? NO! However you can gain a lot of learning just by mixing your methods.

We can give some value of the different things related to learning in the manner of how much learning takes place.

1. Heard information is probably lest retained. LECTURES!

2. Visual characters are retained somewhat better than hearing. READING!

3. Next you have slides, overlays, objects and the like. These will assist retention better than just lecture. Moving pictures, be they film or tape, are next in order!

4. Exhibits or displays of a number of items or objects with descriptions alongside. Missionary tables would fit in here quite well.

5. Field trips involve the student in a manner so as to really stir within them much learning.

6. Demonstrations will bring the person to know the principle and it is easier to accept as valid. How many have been to a fair and seen someone demonstrating a veg-o-matic or some such food slicing machine? Aren't you impressed after you view some of this demonstration. That is why they do it and that is why they sell so many of the things.

The 20/20 program had a report on the craze of half hour commercials (infomercials). One of them was on the super duper hand mixer. They demonstrated all sorts of uses and blades and it was impressive. They then went to consumers to rate the thing. None were satisfied. When the report was over Hugh Downs grinned and said he had been sold by that very ad - he bought and the thing was a flop.

7. Dramatic participation can be great. Someone a number of years ago tumbled to the idea of an Old Testament walk through (the leader places different people around the floor as geographical locations then walk another person through the geography - possibly you could do the missionary journeys of Paul).

I recently wanted to have some students think of a sequence of items. I had no overhead nor blackboard so I had them visualize the first item to my right, the next behind me, the next to the left of me. I then filled in by having them visualize another item way down the room past the doors. I could tell from the feed back that they were really tracking with me even though I had no visual. They began to actually scan the blank wall to see the things I had placed there in their minds.

8. Staged experiences are fantastic teaching aids. The first semester of Bible College I had a professor that wanted to teach us a particular idea and as we gathered into the classroom his wife showed up with a loaf of hot - freshly baked bread and a large plate of butter with knives. He spoke to us of Christ the bread of life for a few moments then cut the bread and passed it around. I very seldom read or hear of Christ as the bread of life that I don't immediately think back to that freshly baked bread (and the aroma which preceded) it and the thought that Christ is our daily spiritual sufficiency.

9. Direct experiences allow the best learning experience. I do not recommend you try to find personal experience in this area that I'm going to tell you about, however it will illustrate what I am getting at.

My father came home one day when I was little and was telling my mother that he had stapled his finger accidentally and that it was really sore. I had played with the stapler at his office many times when I was there and the thought fascinated me to the point that I decided I needed to see how that would work. It did work quite nicely - it was somewhat bloody but that staple slipped into my finger so easily and nicely. Yes, the experience comes to mind even 40 years later at times when I pick up a stapler.

As a small child, I had two straight pins and was experimenting. I poked each into a different side of a wall outlet. ZAPPPP. I told mom that that thing bit me!

Those items earlier in our list help us learn but let me tell you if you really want to learn and retain, well try stapling your finger - NNOOOOO!!! Include some experience in your teaching if you can.

We won't get into audio visuals very deeply however you need to consider them as you think of your teaching in the future. Audio visuals are anything that produce sight images or audible sounds that will help teach.

These materials are available through

Your Sunday School suppliers
Libraries
Textbooks
Stores
Artists in your church
Film suppliers
Record and tape suppliers

Some of the materials that are available are:

Movies
Filmstrips
Tapes
Overlays
Books
Flannelgraph
Flip charts and pictures
Video tapes
Objects that they can touch
Field trips
CDROM
DVDs
Computer programs

Availability to you depends on your church's finances. If you want to use a lot of films you probably won't have the churches backing unless they think your class will greatly benefit.

Know your community and know what is available from free sources. Public libraries have many items of use to you available for nominal fees or free.

Other teachers may have materials or equipment that they would be glad to loan to you.

Public school systems in small towns sometimes will help by loaning or renting hard to find equipment.

The photocopier has greatly improved availability of visuals not available before. You can find many things in the library that you can copy for use later.

TEACHING STYLE

I don't think I've ever seen this concept and truth displayed more vividly than in fun chapel that students put on at the Bible school where I taught. The time was taken up by reenacting each of the professors teaching sessions. The students had done a very serious evaluation of each teacher and his style. The realization should have been hard for some of the professors.

Some have said that a person will teach as he was taught. Do you agree with this statement? It may not be true across the board however I have found it to be true very often.

The first college I attended had a faculty made up of basically Dallas Seminary graduates. Their students for the most part went forth teaching very much as did their teachers.

Indeed, one of those teachers was probably the teacher I have most patterned my style after if there was any patterning. He almost always went with discussion plus lecture method. I basically till this point in my life have done the same.

It would probably be of interest also to note that he was a maverick in the school in his methods. He loved to try what was new and the rest of the faculty was more reserved. I also love to try the new just to see if it will work in teaching.

Evidently the personality helps in the determination.

I have had other teachers that have impressed me with their methods and they also crop up in my methods at times.

CURRICULUM

Several ideas have arrived on the scene concerning curriculum in the public school system through the years. We need to see these to see where Sunday School Curriculum is at.

John Dewey came on the scene a number of years ago with a lot of thought on what good education was. He was reacting to the idea that science is taught as science and history is taught as history and was trying to bring a learning system that would be more exciting and effective.

He aimed at using the student's experiences and environment as much as possible to bring forth the learning. He stressed an interaction of the student with his daily environment.

You will find very few Christian educators that try to follow his ideas for he is one of the prime movers in the humanism that is in the public school system today. I may reject his humanistic values, but he certainly has a point. The student's surroundings and environment certainly affect their learning - as well as our relating their learning to their surroundings/environment will assist in their overall experience of learning.

INTERRELATED CURRICULUM

Some believe that you should mix the courses that are related. For example if you have New England history, you should include New England art appreciation as well as literature.
This system also stresses the placing of the student in a place where he has some ideas then problems are introduced and the student is to use his mind to solve the problem.

This is a good concept. It helps the student relate all the information together. Many colleges use this and it is built into their curriculum. At most colleges the first semester or possibly year set forth the basics, then the following semesters built on the first.

EMERGENT CURRICULUM

I would say this is the no curriculum plan. The curriculum was to emerge out of what was going on in the classroom. Basically as the student reacted to one thing the reaction was the new subject at hand.

TEACHING UNIT CURRICULUM

The teacher gives an outline of the course and the students fill in the gaps.

UNIT AS A FRAMEWORK CURRICULUM

This curriculum takes a topic and builds the lessons around that one topic. It is a method that is often build around a main theme of living. Sunday School conventions and large gatherings work this way. They have a central theme and then all seminars and meetings revolve around some facet of that theme.

RESOURCE UNIT CURRICULUM

The teacher structures the class with outline, bibliography, activities etc. and the student listens or reacts to the results.

Where is Christian education in these systems? Bible Institute, Bible college and Seminaries are mainly in the Resource system.

Many Sunday School publishers are into the experience thinking which, if done correctly, can be beneficial however it quite often degenerates into experience only learning which tends to leave the Word of God out.

Some sermons are the emergent variety. As the minister thinks through things the sermon kind of emerges along whatever line. JOKE!

Some Sunday School literature is in the correlated topic area. They will take a main theme such as the Holy Spirit and then teach topics which relate to the Holy Spirit such as fruit of the Spirit and Gifts of the Spirit.

The Christian Education curriculums on the market today major on getting the student through the major items of the Bible between the age of toddler and adult. There is a general sequence and thought pattern that is followed which produces this aim in the student.

The method of the teaching however often rests in the experience-oriented thought so as you select information to teach be sure that the material is fitting your/your church’s philosophy.

This has been aimed at the curriculum that will carry you through many years of materials.

As you begin to teach in a Sunday School or youth group or whatever might come along you need to set some thought on what your philosophy of education is going to be.

What are you trying to accomplish in your students lives? You have to know where you want to go in teaching before you can accomplish it. If you haven't any idea where you want to go you will be able to accomplish very little.

You need to set some goals in your teaching. What do you really want to achieve in this time of teaching with these particular students?

When you have your philosophy and goals set then you are automatically set in a certain direction. Then you can look at the curriculum available and select one that will take the student your direction. If you do not find a curriculum that suits your needs then possibly you should consider making up your own.

LEARNING

Let's talk a bit about learning.

Learning is a very illusive item to describe. Men have tried to explain it for years. It is an item similar to God. We can give many of the attributes but to describe the item itself is not possible.

Learning is the process by which we take external information and incorporate it into our memory banks. How this is done by a mass of flesh and blood is beyond the scope of our imaginations.

There are many thoughts as to how we learn and how we must teach to help the student learn. We need to look at some of these approaches to see if we can learn anything from them.

Some have suggested that as we are born we are a clean slate and that all that happens in and around us will be placed on that slate. As we progress in age and learning our memory fails in some areas and there are parts of the slate that are wiped clean for reuse with new material.

Learning is a combination of many items such as, past experiences, past learning, present experiences and present facts. The past experience and learning will control what is learned in the present.

Some have introduced the grid idea of learning. All new information is passed through the mind and it is compared to what is already there. If the new information is not understood it passes on into oblivion. If the information relates to a familiar fact, it may be understood and retained quite easily.

There are times when something is understood but actually misunderstood and as a result there is learning that takes place but it is learning that is incorrect information.

Remember the child that came home talking about the bear they sang about in Sunday School. "Gladly the cross-eyed bear.”

As a child I sang with great gusto the Christmas carols. One that I remember is "no crib for his head" It was years before I as an adult - saw the words and realized it was "No crib for his bed" - I had never thought about it - just sang it!

Once as a child I went to a wedding in a home. I ask my mother when they were going to bury the couple that had been married. My mother had no idea what I was talking about. I had the concept in my mind from some unknown place that when a couple was married they were placed in a chest of drawers and buried. Nothing grotesque - just that was the way it was.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU TEACH KIDS AND MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE THEM REPEAT BACK THE THOUGHTS YOU'VE BEEN SHARING TO BE SURE THEY ARE TRACKING WITH YOU.

Clear learning in the past will help to accept the clear learning of the present and future.

Remember the grid as you try to teach someone. If you are bringing up a subject that they learned of years ago then you might want to freshen up the image that they have on the grid so that the thought you are trying to convey will find acceptance via the sharp learning of the past.

I trust as you consider what has been covered you will think through these things in your preparation to teach God's people in the future.