Online Book Discussion: The Law of Education
Doug
Today we begin the second chapter of our online book discussion. Once again, you are welcome to participate in this interactive journey through the book, Teaching to Change Lives by Howard Hendricks. My plan is to give you a concise summary of the chapter along with questions for reflection. If you have read through the second chapter please feel free to leave comments or questions (if you’re new to this, simply click on the comments section at the top and it will prompt you on what to do).
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Summary
Chapter two deals with the Law of Education. Simply stated, the way people learn determines how you teach. Since people learn best when they are involved in the learning process, our job as teachers is to stimulate our students toward self-discovery and self-activity. In this way, the ultimate test of our teaching is not what we do, but what our students do as a result of what we do.
In this chapter, Hendricks challenges teachers to consider their role in the educational process. Instead of being a player, we are to be the coach. Instead of being the doer we are the motivator. With our role clearly defined, our aim becomes clearer as well. We must aim for life change in our students. We must prepare and plan toward that end. We must ask ourselves the question: What is the main thing my students will know and do as a result of what I teach them?
In this process of planning and teaching, Hendricks lays out three essential goals for teachers:
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Teach people how to think
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Teach people how to learn
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Teach people how to work
To sum up these points we could use the familiar axiom:
Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.
It’s true. When we get our students involved in the learning process–discovering the truth and acting on the truth for themselves–they will be changed.
But if we’re going to teach our students to think, learn, and work, Hendricks says we must help them to master four basic skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Suprisingly, Hendricks seems to place a high priority on listening over speaking saying that good teachers must be good listeners. Finally, Hendricks reminds us of the importance of failure. Failure is a great teacher and we must feel the freedom to fail and let our students fail. And yet at the same time, we must be sensitive to those special cases where failure can result in frustration and lack of motivation.
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Questions for Reflection
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What’s one thing that jumped out at you in this chapter?
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What do you want to do as a result of what you learned?
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Agree/Disagree: I haven’t taught if my students haven’t learned.
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Agree/Disagree: Too much of Christian education is too passive.
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Do you walk into your class with a goal? Is it written in terms of the student?
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Do you think listening is the more difficult and more crucial skill than speaking?
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When has failure personally helped you in your growth as a Christian?
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DON’T BE SHY … POST YOUR COMMENTS/QUESTIONS!
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Read some earlier comments below
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March 10th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I don’t know that I related as well to this chapter as the other but I have some thoughts nonetheless. I certainly agree with the statement above that I haven’t taught if my students haven’t learned although its sometimes difficult to judge how much they have learned.
I view my role as a teacher more as a facilitator (too passive?) than as a lecturer. I feel it is my responsibility to plan questions that lead the class to think more about the passage both at the surface and deeper implications. I aim to guide the discussion toward a central point and will often interject some significant thoughts that I’ve garnered through a week of studying that may not be seen at the initial glance. I try to have an objective and application and encourage the class to come up with these thoughts on there own. Ideally, I would like to talk less than half the time and only to affirm answers and encourage further thought (this doesn’t usually work out).
That said, I really didn’t connect to his three key points. I see how they apply to a traditional class room teacher more so than I see how they apply to me as an adult Sunday school teacher. I want people to become better learners, thinkers, and workers but I’m not sure how to do that in a 45 minute block of time each week. Hopefully, I’m already doing some of these things unintentionally.
Am I off base here? Am I missing something?
March 11th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Good thoughts here, Josh. And I appreciate the rest of you who are reading through the book and giving your comments. It really encourages me and keeps me accountable to read and live what I’m reading. My prayer is that we’d all become better teachers by walking through this together.
Josh, in regards to the three points, I think you’re right. They do apply more to a school setting than a church setting. And I suppose this book is written for teachers in all types of ministry settings.
I would agree with you that a lot of our teaching is “unintentional” like you said … it’s the life we live that speaks loud through our words and actions. But I’m realizing that I need to be more intentional about the unintentional if you know what I mean!
March 11th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
One important reminder that has been driven home through reading this book is that I need to focus more on the learning of my class. What is teaching if no one learns anything? Its all too easy to prepare a lesson and teach without any concern for the impact on the learners. I need to focus more on preparing an applicable lesson that forces thought and learning than just some arbitrary measure in my mind of a “good” lesson.
March 12th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Here’s one resource I made that helps me prepare for my lesson to be geared toward the learner:
http://www.lagrangebaptist.com/ministries/LIFE/training_notes/LIFE%20Training%20Notes%20-%20Instruction%20Lesson%20Plan.pdf
March 12th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Jeff and I are both reading this. It is an easy read and contains so much information I find it hard to retain it all! I am thoroughly enjoying it, gaining much knowledge, feeling conviction and being challenged to center my life more on Christ. Onward and upward!
March 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
[...] just because I link to it, doesn’t mean I always endorse it. For those participating in the Online Book Discussion, I look forward to seeing you next week, Lord willing, as we might be having our baby! Until [...]
August 20th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
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