I’m currently teaching the Pastor’s Doctrine Class to our fifth and sixth graders. Since we have only a limited time, I’ve had to compress a few years of theological study into a few weeks of classes. The morning I was trying to cover the doctrine of the Trinity, I was particularly time conscious. Forty-five minutes for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit-it was laughable.
So I launched into a lecture. A lecture was efficient, I figured, considering I needed to get across a lot of information in a short time.
About five minutes into my inspired talk, however, one of the boys raised his hand and asked, “Can’t we draw?”
Draw! I thought. How can you ask to draw when there is so much to learn?
Later I caught myself. Sometimes I forget that if I don’t teach in such a way that the students actually learn something, I’m wasting my precious breath and their fidgety time.
That boy has the soul of an artist. He didn’t want to hear my carefully organized, beautifully delivered facts. He wanted to learn in the way God had made him. He had heard enough facts; now he wanted to put them into a drawing. He could appropriate the theology best by expressing himself on paper-his favorite and most effective way to learn.
My little drawing friend and I are separated by more than height and years. We are probably wired differently. I thrive on personal interaction. In most of the classes I teach, I’m usually thinking of ways to get people to discuss the subject. (My fellow team teacher contends I get sweaty palms if the class isn’t moving toward small-group discussion within the first twenty minutes.) But the young artist likes to draw.
Discovering Our Differences
As I began thinking about the different ways people like to learn-and do seem to learn more effectively-I noticed how so much is being said in educational circles about people’s different ways of perceiving reality. We’re inundated with “right brain, left brain” jargon. We hear that some people think with their feelings, senses, and emotions; others with facts and figures. Clearly we don’t all think-or learn-alike.
I was exposed to these educational truths at a national conference for Christian educators. It was an “Aha!” experience. Now I had a clear explanation of what I had observed. Finally research illuminated the reasons a variety of teaching methods are important-in fact, crucial-to the teaching ministry of the church.
Educators have found at least four separate learning styles, each with its own optimum teaching methods. Individual educational theorists label their quadrants differently, but I prefer the schema Bernice McCarthy outlined in The 4MAT System. She distinguishes four kinds of students: innovative learners, analytic learners, common sense learners, and dynamic learners. The following descriptions lean heavily on her work.
Innovative Learners
Innovative learners seek meaning. They learn as they listen and share ideas. For them, being personally involved in the learning process is important. McCarthy writes, “They are divergent thinkers who believe in their own experience, excel in viewing concrete situations from many perspectives, and model themselves on those they respect.”
As you might have guessed, I’m an innovative learner. We innovative ones like to participate in small-group discussions. We’re idea people, whose favorite questions are “Why?” and “Why not?”
Often we’re found in careers in the humanities, in personnel work or counseling or organizational development.
But I hate art projects. Don’t invite me to carve a bar of Ivory soap into a dove to represent the Holy Spirit. I’m not interested. It won’t look good. I’d think the whole idea is silly-unless we could sit around and talk about the process. Then I could get excited.
So put me into a small group at some point in the learning experience. Let me discuss with other learners the application of biblical truths. I want to talk about it and hear others’ opinions. I go crazy when a teacher just talks on and on. I want my turn to work with the idea or to get to know the teacher as a real person. Discussions, skits, small groups, drama, and interaction with others are the learning strategies from which I learn best.
Since I prosper in this kind of learning atmosphere, it’s hard for me to believe that not every student longs for that moment in class when he’s invited to move his folding chair into a circle.
I have to remember there are three other learning styles.
Analytic Learners
An analytic learner says, “Just give me the facts.” Analytic learners like to know the mind of the experts. For them, learning comes through thinking through ideas to form reality. They tend to have less interest in people than in ideas and concepts. They like to critique information and collect good data.
These are the people who love the traditional classroom. Straight lecture suits them well, as long as the lecturer is qualified. They are willing to do the memory work and lap up all the facts. It’s easy to like these students because they are happy to sit still and listen. Learners like these excel at creating concepts and models. They cluster in careers like math, research, the basic sciences, and planning departments.
Bob is an analytical learner. The fact that he’s an actuary should be the tip-off. When I suggest making big, colorful collages that depict the pressures society puts on twentieth-century Christians, he wants to hear what scientists say about current trends, what facts I’ve dug out of the most recent journals, and what predictions specialists make for the future. Forget the collage for Bob, unless it is adapted to appeal to his learning style.
To best teach the analytic learners, I’ve found I need to give them details, lists, technical information, and quotes from “the experts.” And if I keep it well organized, it makes it easier for them to transfer it intact into their notebooks!
They tend to frown when drama, art, or small groups are the order of the day. These techniques seem a waste of time to them-fluff when they are looking for information. One way around this problem is to supply them the data about learning styles. Once these folks know why the other teaching methods are necessary, they are more amenable to them.
Common Sense Learners
These people don’t want to talk about something; they want to do it. Nothing is more important for common sense learners than practical, hands-on approaches. Learning is filtered through the screen of usability. A “fuzzy idea” that they can’t take apart to see how it works makes them uneasy. You’ll often hear from them, “How does this work?” But they may actually resent being given answers. They would prefer to solve the problems themselves.
The common sense crew learns by testing theories in ways that seem sensible. As McCarthy says, “They edit reality.” Grown-up common sense learners can be found on Monday morning working as engineers, nurses, technicians, and physical scientists.
Eric, a common sense learner, doesn’t hesitate to help me understand how his type can learn best. He tells me, “Forget all that fancy jargon; just get down to what really works in life.” Actually he’s not that fond of being in a classroom at all. He’d rather “get on with it,” whatever it is. He wants to know what works, what you can do with it, and how it all fits together. With Eric, I can’t be nebulous. I have to be specific, and then let him try it out.
With people like this, I’m most effective when I give them something to design with their hands. I provide some factual data to massage and a problem to solve, then set them free on a project. And the best projects have some tie to “real life.”
If the Bible lesson is on stewardship, for example, the common sense learners would enjoy working on a project to pay the church bills. Give them a copy of the church budget, the income, and the possible ministry expenses. Then set them loose to plan, to experiment, and to solve the problem using their practicality.
Dynamic Learners
Dynamic learners want to discover truth themselves. Hidden possibilities excite them. Their favorite question: “What can this become?”
The world comes to people like these in rather concrete principles, but they process it actively and with flair. They don’t so much absorb reality as enrich it. People like this often seek careers in sales, action-oriented managerial positions, and marketing.
Marianne is creative and full of enthusiasm. If asked what she thinks of Sunday school, she’d tell you, “I’ve learned to put a mask over my boredom in the traditional classroom setting. I’d greatly prefer to have more action and challenge. Just don’t make it the same every Sunday.”
This group functions best by acting and then testing their experience. To best reach them, I need to make things happen in the classroom, to inject action into mere concepts. Dynamic learners need variety and flexibility, which makes them greatly adaptable to change.
Planning a lesson for folks like this may seem intimidating. Not many of us feel cut out to be ringmasters in a three-ring circus. However, many helpful resources, such as Marlene LeFever’s Creative Teaching Methods (see “Learning-Styles Resources” below), provide plenty of practical helps.
For a lesson on evangelism, I may charge the dynamic learners to design a strategy to reach a local apartment complex with the gospel. And I’d challenge them with the task of not only designing the plan but finding ways to bring it to reality. They don’t necessarily want the hands-on experience of printing the brochures or mapping the neighborhood (as the common sense learners would), but they would sure like to brainstorm the program design. This is a real task, one they would consider worthy of their enthusiasm and creativity.
Identifying Learning Styles
Why am I constantly surprised that people learn in different ways? And why am I apt to teach as if I knew nothing about learning styles? Probably because I naturally settle into teaching in my favorite learning pattern. It’s comfortable. It’s safe. And at least one of us in the classroom will like it!
But just as people finally “hear” the gospel when it is translated into their mother tongue, they best learn it when it is taught in their native style.
That’s why it’s important to identify my own style and the preferred styles for my students. It’s an eye-opener. Like the newlywed who’s shocked to find his way to hang a towel isn’t the way, students don’t dream that others perceive reality-and thus prefer to learn-in ways different from their own.
A number of easy, ten-minute tests are available for identifying learning-style preference. I’ve used the “Learning-Style Inventory” published by McBer and Company (see “Learning-Styles Resources” below). It gives me quick information about my learners, and it opens the students’ eyes to their vastly different preferences in classroom activities. Often students compare the results with surprise-an enthusiastic “I can’t believe it. You’d rather do that too?” or a skeptical “Really? How could you enjoy that kind of class?” But after we’ve all taken the test and compared our results, the class seems more willing to try new approaches.
Once I know what will work best for my students and decide to “invite everyone to the learning party,” to use Southern Baptist Mancil Ezell’s phrase, I have to find ways to ease new methods into classroom routines.
Making New Methods Work
It’s risky to try new methods. Frankly, I prefer the ones I’m good at. If I try something new, it may flop, and I’m not enthusiastic about flops. But unless I push myself into uncharted areas, I run the risk of never reaching the students with other learning styles.
But what about the class of adults who want only a weekly lecture? They insist that something as important as God’s Word should be studied seriously (translation: No learning activities allowed!).
Another objection: isn’t preparing for four kinds of people four times the work?
These are legitimate questions, and perhaps my own experience can answer them. I don’t immediately ask lecture-expectant students to tear paper cups into what they feel about the Council of Chalcedon. Introducing new techniques to a traditional classroom is best done gently. I start with rather nonthreatening suggestions-a work sheet done with a partner, a small-group question-and-answer session, a discussion for a few minutes, or brainstorming in a large group-nothing that can be interpreted by nervous students as potentially embarrassing.
Only when the group is accustomed to a few changes do I offer choices the class may interpret as unusual. Skits, group projects, art options, special research, or even individual study can be a breath of fresh air to those students who long to be invited to learn in their own favorite style.
I try to accommodate each of the four learning styles at some point in the lesson, but this is not an overwhelming task. When I plan, I keep in mind specific students in the class who best represent for me the various learning styles. Then I make sure there is something in the lesson that will appeal to each of those students. It may be the introduction or one of the options to explore the biblical data. Perhaps it’s the application. But somewhere in the lesson, I want each person to know the message is for him or her.
It takes a little additional planning. Sometimes I simply remember to take advantage of those extra options offered in the curriculum. I also find it helpful when I am planning the lesson to keep handy a long list of learning options to quickly remind me of the hundreds of methods I could employ.
A sample lesson could start with an agree-disagree activity. Then we could reassemble for a mini-lecture, after which the options for biblical study could include a dramatic re-enactment or a prepared question-and-answer sheet (with reference books handy).
With some practice, this kind of preparation becomes second nature. It doesn’t prove to be four times the work. My students and I see it as four times the fun.
A few other basic guidelines have helped me introduce new learning activities:
-Be upbeat. The line I use is this: “I know this is a new way of doing things and it may seem dumb to you, but do me a favor: humor me. Just give it a try. We’ll risk together. It just might help us see God more clearly.” If I give them the option to cooperate with me in the endeavor, it becomes their new toy, too.
-Move slowly. I aim at trying only one new idea a month. I don’t want to scare anyone away.
-Start small. The first teaching options I spring on a class are purposely not all that unusual. I wouldn’t start by using Play-Doh in an adult class. I’ve actually used it with great success, but only after we had learned to trust one another, and for a special reason-a lesson on being childlike. It’s best to start with activities I’m pretty sure the class will accept. One group may be yearning for drama and art; another might be more easily persuaded to begin with pencil-and-paper options. By offering options and seeing which are received with enthusiasm, a teacher soon develops a feel for what the class will accept.
-Offer choices. Some people will simply not want to participate, thank you. So I offer them a learning option similar to what they are accustomed to.
If I’m facing a traditional class that expects a lecture, I make sure part of the lesson is solid information: a film with terrific content, a report by a knowledgeable member of the class, a debate with sharp people on both sides, or a mini-lecture. To ignore the students’ desire for a lecture means to frustrate or even infuriate them. That’s not the learning environment I’m trying to create. So I’ll work to accommodate their expectations while broadening their horizons.
Potential obstructionists get their way, and I get mine. This win-win situation allows innovation to proceed with everyone reasonably happy.
In his grace, God has made each of us unique. At times, teaching a roomful of people who learn in different ways can be a frustration. But we can use that same uniqueness to enrich our classrooms. I saw this in my class not long ago.
There they sat-a plumber, a computer-software expert, and an engineer-enthralled with the Sunday school assignment. The morning’s topic was “God, the Holy Spirit.” The men were trying to show the interaction of the three persons in the Godhead. So they designed a mobile.
The mobile showed symmetry, perfect balance, and dazzling color. We all learned as they explained the things they had tried to depict about the Trinity. That mobile graced our classroom for many weeks.
I hadn’t expected these men to choose that learning option. I’d supposed they would go for the individual study or the group discussion. But once again I was taught that when people are given options in the learning environment, they not only learn but enjoy it.
Penny Zettler is minister of Christian education at Central Baptist Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
LEARNING-STYLES RESOURCES
How to find your learning style
Gregorc Style Delineator
Gabriel Systems, Inc.
Box 357
Maynard, MA 01754
(617) 897-6470
Learning-Style Inventory
McBer and Company
137 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 437-7080
Learning Preference Inventory
Hanson, Silver, Strong & Associates
Box 402
Moorestown, NJ 08057
(609) 234-2610
How to teach by learning styles
Learning and Teaching Style: In Theory and Practice
by Kathleen A. Butler, Ph.D.
Gabriel Systems, Inc.
Box 357
Maynard, MA 01754
(617) 897-6470
Creative Teaching Methods
by Marlene D. LeFever
David C. Cook Publishing Co.
850 North Grove Avenue
Elgin, IL 60120
(312) 741-2400
The 4MAT System
by Bernice McCarthy
EXCEL, Inc.
200 West Station Street
Barrington, IL 60010
(312) 382-7272
Teaching Styles and Strategies Manual
Hanson, Silver, Strong & Associates
Box 402
Moorestown, NJ 08057
(609) 234-2610
Teaching Students through Their Individual Learning Styles
by Kenneth and Rita Dunn
Reston Publishing Co., Inc.
1480 Sunset Hills Road
Reston, VA 22090
(703) 437-8900
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