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

Chapter 8

LEARNING

Let's talk further about learning.

We have suggested that 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 to learn. We need to look at some of these approaches to see if we can learn anything from them.

We know that learning takes place at least from birth.

Illustration:

Consider the baby that cries and the mother that attempts to stop the crying - how does the mother act? Usually she checks the diaper then sees if the child is hungry. Imagine the following sequence.

BIRTH
THUMB SUCKING
CRY
CRY/ CHOW
CRY/CHOW/WOW
CRY CHOW/WOW
CRY CHOW
CRY
CRY/SCREAM/CHOW
CRY SCREAM/CHOW
CRY SCREAM CHOW
CRY SCREAM CHOW/WOW
CRY SCREAM CHOW WOW/CRY SCREAM CHOW WOW
CRY SCREAM/POW
CRY SCREAM/POW
CRY/POW
SMILE
SMILE/CHOW
SMILE/CHOW/WOW
SMILE/CHOW
LEARNING!

We are not even sure when learning begins. Some have toyed with the idea of pregnant mothers reading to their babies. They have placed mini microphones next to the ears of a very small fetus and the sound is identical to the external sound with a slight muffle to it.

Very small fetuses can scream if air passes their mouths when they are in pain. A doctor that was aborting a small fetus heard one of these screams, and he determined that he would never do another abortion.

There have been mothers that have read to their child and they seem to be very sharp children after birth. Hopefully we will see some research on this subject in coming years.

Imagine the impact it might have if you ladies were to do your Bible reading out loud while pregnant.

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.

There are three types of learning that we need to look at briefly.

1. NATURAL

This is the learning that comes from just observing what is going on around the child. The words they pick up, the bad habits they pick up etc. This was well illustrated a few years ago in a commercial against smoking. The commercial pictures a man and his young son out for some air by the lake. The dad reaches down and picks up a rock - the son does the same - the dad skips the rock across the surface of the lake - the son does the same - the dad sits down by a tree - the son does the same - the dad reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pack of cigarettes and pulls one out and lays the pack on the ground - as the dad lights his cigarette the son takes the pack and pulls out a cigarette.

2. INFORMAL

This is the learning that comes from mom and dad teaching as they go along. Tying shoes, feeding themselves, potty training, keeping their room clean, not biting and hitting one another, etc.

The public schools are realizing how much learning can be accomplished in the early years and are trying to get children into the public system at age three. This is being accomplished slowly but you can count on it happening. They now are using Preschool as a tool to get the children into the system at four.

This is where learning may be getting sidewise to some of our children. If the parent and those around the child are constantly telling them they don't know or don't have time for their foolish questions, soon the child will get the message that they are dumb and shouldn't ask questions. They may also go elsewhere for their answers.

There is a tremendous built in desire to learn and question. We as parents and teachers should be open to feed those open minds all that we can find to feed that is of good content.

3. FORMAL

This is that training that they gain from school, Sunday school and all other types of learning situations.

You might want to analyze your homes and churches to see what surroundings your kids are growing up in.

The child in a home where study, books, magazines, newspapers etc. are important will naturally come away with the idea that learning is important.

In my home growing up education seemed to be unimportant though I found out later in life that both my folks had gone to college. My brother and I skimmed through high school. God called me to the ministry and I knew that I would need to attend college - that certainly was not my idea! My wife and I did not push education but books and college were in our children's young lives. Our three children all have gone to college.

One other illustration might be of use. The older Kennedy's began when their children were young to teach them at the dinner table. The folks would post articles from newspapers on a board and all children were responsible for discussing the article at the dinner table. We all know the effect of that on the Kennedy children.

On the other hand if you have video games, TVs, vcrs etc. they will soon realize that the in thing to do is have fun on the end of a transistor.

Maybe that may help us understand how to furnish a classroom in our Sunday school.

Lawrence Richards suggests a simple method of teaching that is of interest and we will throw it in here.

The HOOK, BOOK, LOOK, TOOK, method.

You hook their interest by picking up on some need in their life and telling them you have an answer.

You take them to the book or the Word of God.

You help them look into the book and find their answers.

You then help them take that answer to themselves to care for their need.

There are a number of theories we can look at and they fall within three main schools of thought.

Let us look at some of these theories and schools of thought.

We must understand that there are numerous theories of learning and all are the theories of men that have observed the process of learning in others, thus all theories are based on the possibly flawed observations and assumptions of their inventor.

There are basically three schools of thought:

1. Learning as connection:

As the student goes through a series of steps and arrives at a pleasing end there are a series of connections made within the nervous system. These connections if repeated will always bring pleasant feeling in the end. The repetition is needed to solidify the series of connections in the nervous system. After awhile these connections become somewhat permanent and the item is learned.

It is the linking of stimuli to certain responses.

This might relate to the cry scream idea. As the cry wow comes into play the child has learned through connections that have been made and the approach to getting food is set until it is reset.

The stimuli of hunger can be seen as an indicator for the response of cry. Food at that point reinforces the baby's thought patterns.

2. LEARNING AS WHOLENESS IN EXPERIENCE

This line of thinking sees learning as a series of experienced situations in which the learner experiences, and perceives the situation and then he understands what is going on and this understanding is called insight.

An example might be that of a child in the kitchen that has never known the heat of boiling water. He places his hand into the water and quickly perceives that the boiling water caused great pain. He might well perceive that kitchens are painful, so you might want to sit down and explain that the only problem was placing the hand in the water.

Students learn in the same manner at times. They are asked to read a packet of information. They decide they won't do it when asked to but will get to it sometime future. The next class period they come and find a quiz over the material on their desk. They perceive, or understand that they should have done as they were told.

3. LEARNING AS REASONING AND CREATIVE EXPRESSION

This line of thinking attempts to go a step further than the first two.

The first two are true but fall short of all that learning is.

The third school of thought sees the student as taking whatever is going on and using their own mind and abilities, reasoning through it all and coming to conclusions that they act on. They then express that which they have learned.

It takes into account the Christian aspect of man and realizes that we are a spiritual being and learning within the framework of not only the scientific discoveries, but also we are knowledgeable of God's estimation of man as a whole and man as an individual.

We function on the scientific as well as the revealed knowledge from God.

For centuries learning was the presentation of material for memorization and regurgitation. The student would memorize and then recite back the information.

To a point this is still used in some schools for some items of learning.

Then in the mid-19th century the thought of reducing ideas to the smallest possible information for presentation to the student. The student would take that idea and relate it to their knowledge and hopefully assimilate the new information. In mathematics the student is taught to add then subtract then multiply, then how to divide.

Some believe that 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 understand and retained quite easily.

This thought is often called the Grid system.

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 asked my mother when the couple just married would be buried. 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.

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.

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. This theory is called the slate theory.

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 by new material.

Others believe in the reward/punishment theory. Most teachers operate in this area. You forget to study for a test. I give you a zero. You study for the test. I give you a 100! The natural desire is to receive the reward and avoid the punishment.

The additive theory has the idea that you should do a lot of memorizing to add to your store of knowledge that you will use someday.

The being told theory is used my many parents. You might see this in the child that is told that the fire will hurt them. Some will learn from this and be satisfied. Others will just have to learn for themselves.

My father came home from the office one time years ago and told my mom that he had accidentally stapled his finger. Being the questioning young boy that I was, decided I wanted to see what that would feel like.

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW PAINFUL THAT IS? I'm sure that if my father had told me how painful it was, that I would have believed him!

Others hold to the step by step theory. The idea of taking one step at a time and introducing the theory before the practical. The theory is often forgotten long before the practical is achieved.

Then there is the automatic transfer of training theory. Ideas and learning from one situation at times are transferred into other learning situations of similar nature.

Example: You have been asked to read something in my class and you fail to do so and fail a quiz the next day due to your not reading the assignment. That learning experience may transfer into one of your other classes when the teacher asks you to read a certain item. You may well have learned that reading is the wise choice.

There is the thought that learning is painful. This idea is that the harder that a person works, labors, sweats and strains over an item the more he will learn. This is often the case, however unfortunately not always.

Learning is pleasant is the opposite of the above in idea, however the results quite often are not that great!

Some conclusions:

Some feel that learning is permanent. May I suggest - hogwash! I have forgotten most of what I have learned. I go through notes I covered and passed tests on 15 years ago and I don't recognize the material as having ever been covered.

Indeed, I don't remember some things that I have personally studied. One day after a chapel session my wife came to me and said - "Isn't that great - the speaker today agrees with you." I asked what she was talking about. She pointed to her Bible and there was a note she had made several years prior from one of my messages that agreed with what the speaker had said about the passage. I at the time of the speaker covering the text thought that he had a good interpretation, not remembering that I had ever studied the text.

The Gestalt theory follows the thinking that unless the teacher understands the whole of the child then they cannot teach the child properly. The whole has the idea of in physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and all other aspects of the child. To teach - understanding only part of these is to not teach properly.

This is why it is important to know a little about the characteristics of the age group that you are working with. This is why it is important to know what is going on at home, and at school. This is why it is important to know the spiritual condition of the child.

The stimulus-response theory understands that there are certain things that can be taught by using stimuli. The Russian Pavlov discovered that if he rang a bell, and fed a dog the dog would salivate. After awhile he found that if he rang the bell with no food that the dog would salivate.

Indeed, we can do the same thing to ourselves. If you shine a light in the eyeball and ring a bell, the pupil will grow smaller. Over time you can stop using the light and ring the bell and the pupil will react.

Indeed, is this not what habits are. We do a certain item when a certain stimuli is given and we later on continue without the stimuli.

There is some truth to this thinking, yet there is little real evidence from humans that it works for learning. The research is done with animals and not humans.

For the Christian teaching in a church situation to not understand the public school system methods is to not understand how to teach their students. The public system is anti-God, based on humanism and funded by the riches of the government. You on the other hand teach God, individual responsibility and are on a very limited budget most likely.

Don't forget that the public system is also teaching Darwinism as truth.

To boil it all down into one phrase that you might remember, Know all that you can about your students, know all you can about your subject, know all you can about your God, know all you can about teaching, and know that you will do the best that you can!