How can the Bible Teacher do better Bible Teaching? Unlock the answer in this article of John O`Brian. It makes no difference if the aim of the education is scientific truth or Bible Teaching. How adults achieve the education is what interests us here.
With the conditions of the world as they are, Adults are seeking answers to life problems through education. For some, the seekers may not realize their true motives. The educational experience that is being sought out is for the express purpose of making sense of the condition of the world and the students place in it. Some of this education is sought for Spiritual yearnings or well being; and for others, education is for maintaining ones’ maturity or achieving maturity.
Before you become a better Bible Teacher you must answer the question: How do adults learn? If there is a pattern involved in adult learning, can this system of facts and knowledge aid the “would be” teacher?
First:
The following is what we think we know about adult students. Adult student are adults who, of course, learn or want to learn. Individuals are usually considered adult when they reach “maturity” in life; or rather, a certain level of maturity.
Adults become “learners” when they decide to expand their possibilities in life or explain their situation in life.
You, as their teacher, must have an understanding about what makes a purposive student tick.
The teacher must understand who is sitting in the classroom listening to him. The teacher must understand who they are on the inside.
These individual learners in the classroom before you are seeking out learning experiences that deal with the cause or effect that directly affects their lives.
Their learning experience will be entirely under their control. Their motivation to learn is voluntary on their part, not pushed or forced upon them by the teacher. No one is treating them like a child and direction them to learn something. These individuals are long past external control of this kind. They would not be there if they were not motivated to learn. Motivation in learning is a strong factor in adults. It was their choice to come to the classroom and listen to you.
They may be motivated by a yet undefined spiritual awareness, as in the case of Bible studies, a feeling of not being complete, as in self improvement, a social failure as in life changing events such as divorce. Maybe they understand the cycle of life. Some adults say they learn for the sake of learning. What they are really saying is they have an undefined dimension in their lives and want to put a face on it. The teacher might want to focus on the motivations of the students facing them in the classroom.
Your consideration may enable you to present the material more efficiently and in a more interesting way. The student is there because they want to be there. Make their attendance worth their while.
People are more likely to believe something if they arrive at the idea themselves. Arriving at the idea you are presenting to them will come through the study of the media of which you recommend or suggest or point to. Media includes the internet, books, newspapers, and even their own past experiences. Adults want to learn a skill or acquire knowledge that they can apply pragmatically to their immediate circumstances.
Nothing is more pragmatic than bible studies. If they did not want some life changing knowledge from you they would not attend your class. They are establishing a trust relationship with you. Through this relationship, they stand to gain something. They want to gain something from you.
They are seeking out learning experiences to deal with an important situation facing them in their lives, whether it is a job crisis or a spiritual crisis, improvement in personal relationship or if it is an realization of the fact that their grasp on life is not secure. They are wanting to know who they are on the inside.
Adults are striving to grasp new information. Once the information is presented, by a trusted teacher, adults will look at how to integrate new ideas with the “old ideas” already within them.
Re-evaluation of long help ideas is forced on the adult learner when the Information from a trusted source conflicts sharply with what is already held to be true. Re-evaluation of the old material is integrated more slowly. It is a slow process. It also forces an examination of their trust in you the teacher.
Giving instruction means helping adults to learn. This involves far more than lecturing or presenting information. It involves instructing for results. Powerful, highly effective instruction will result in learning that adults can apply to their lives.
Present the information so that there is an overlap with what has already been presented. Fast-paced, complex or unusual learning situation interfere with the absorption by the learner of what is meant to be learned.
Adults tend to compensate for being slower in learning tasks by being more accurate and making fewer trial-and-error ventures. Do not expect Adult learners to be fully excited about the survey course. Adult learners would rather to zero down one an idea or concept and make it their own.
Survery courses tend to have no real application to their lives. If the material is to be accepted, it must be able to be intenerated into the frame of reference of what is already known by the student. If their frame of reference is a faulty one, then the teacher must build the students trust.
Information that counteracts the students established frame of reference is not quickly absorbed.
As a teacher, be aware that you must pace the presentation to fit the individual or individuals being taught. Be slow rather than fast paced. Be simple rather than presenting complex concepts all at once, wholesale. Give them a background they can build on.
Usually being more thoughtful, adults usually are more accurate in processing concepts because they being more thoughtful make fewer trial-and-error mistakes.
Education you provide will be applied to serious life changing actions. In this light, errors are taken personally.
The teacher needs to know if the concepts presented or ideas developed are in conflict with the adult student. You, as the teacher must do your best to know your student.
The adult learner is the one who is in charge of the learning. Instructors do not have the power to implant ideas or to transfer skills directly to the students. They can only suggest and guide the student. The will be accepted by your student depending on the amount of trust between the two of you.
As the teacher, it is your primary responsibility is to manage the process through which adults learn. This process is based on trust. Students must be encouraged to use their own judgment and decision-making capabilities
Instructors have responsibility to make decisions, give guidance, and act as a resource for the students. It is up to the learners to determine whether the ideas presented are acceptable and can be incorporated into lives. Instruction is not passive endeavor for the instructor. The instructor makes it possible for learning to happen by attacking the problem with his whole heart. Take the heart out of teaching and there is nothing left.
The adult learner have the need to be self-directed. They will judge for themselves what is good for them and what is not. For them, this is what being in control is.
One of the many psychological definitions of "adult" is : One who has achieved a self-concept of being in charge of their own decisions and living with the consequences. Or; other words, making one bed and laying in it. This is true of the classroom setting. Instructors are helpers in acquiring knowledge but the “learning is up to them.
The best teacher is one who is alert to this principle of adult learning: Adults will enter the classroom having a deep need to be self-directing and take a leadership role in the learning.
Adult students comes to the classroom with a lifetime of experience. Each student will have different experiences from others. Some of the conclusion drawn from these experiences will be out of correspondence with reality. Bad judgments, misconceptions, preferences and biases are all based on based on misinterpreted experiences.
Not many people want to sit back and listen to a teacher go on and on about the subject Keep this in mind for your classes Try to reach adult on all levels of learning experiences. Try to present a classroom situation that probes all levels of learning design.
Studies show that over a period of five days, learning retention is as follows:
Adult learners are motivated by what they need to know and the deadline when they need to know it. They have a need to know how the instruction will help them. The teacher needs to address these statements:
Here is the way you can make use of the information, in a practical way.
This is how it will help you be a better Bible Teacher .
What else can you to facilitate learning in your classroom?
Do not limit your personal contact with your students. If you do, you will limit their learning; and, you will ruin their classroom experience. If you are in the habit of limiting personal contact with your students; then, this does not speak well for you. You either have a bad attitude or an inflated self image or both. If you belittle the students question or do not respond at all, both of you are done.
Failure on your part in providing examples will be the forerunner of your failure as a Bible Teacher. When the student makes a mistake and respond with personal critical remarks, you are inhibiting them; and , may make them feel stupid for the effort.
Immediately reinforce correct responses. Remember that for long term and life changing retention of the knowledge being present must be meaningful to the students.
Learn to judge the students progress by the way the student responds to question. How the student perceives the lesson will be reflected in the answer. The job of the teacher is not finished until the student retains the knowledge presented in the lesson. Retention of the information presented by the teacher will be in a linear relationship to the meaningfulness of the information to the student.
It is required to do a good job, that the student can interpret and apply the information. If the student did not learn the material well, they will not retain it well... Retention by the student is directly affected by their amount of effort put forth during the learning process. The classroom must be comfortable forgot about long winded lectures.
Adults have something real to lose in a classroom situation. The loss could be self-esteem. The loss could be harm to the ego. You are asking the student to risk trying a new behavior in front of peers. Be careful with all that you as the teacher says and does in the classroom. Do not cause harm.
You as the teacher must take the time to clarify and articulate all your of them expectations before getting into content. The instructor can assume responsibility only for his or her own expectations, not for those of students.
Your adult student will bring a vast amount of life experience into the classroom. Learn about these experiences and make use of the knowledge. Adults can learn well and much from dialogue with their peers and from dialogue with you.
Adult education is a large task. It is not easy. Done correctly it carries great potential for success. This result requires a great responsibility by the Bible Teacher. You need to be aware of:
This is needed to give prospective to the classroom instruction.
1. The adult student naturally prefers self-direction. To take advantage of this fact, the teacher must present questions, along with direction to answers, rather than to transmit knowledge. This is an active process.
2. Adults' bring with them a lifetime of experience Make use of what they bring you in the classroom. Air for the student being active in the planned experiences you are going to present.
3. Adults are in your classroom because of a need that is generated by their life experiences. Real-life events such as failure, need for self understanding or increasing income.
4. Adults are after a skill or knowledge that they can apply pragmatically to their immediate circumstances.
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