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Best Practices for Teachers

How Do People Learn?

• Question: How would you define learning? What does it mean for someone to learn? How do you know if someone has learned?

Learning is a complicated process that involves both external and internal factors. Defining when learning has occurred is particularly challenging. If someone can mimic back a phrase does that mean they have learned? If someone answers a question correctly and then ten years later cannot remember the answer, did they actually learn the material? Most of us would say yes they did learn the material, but this forces us to ask, how long must someone retain knowledge before we can say they have learned? Thankfully, developing a fully coherent complete definition of learning is not necessary in order to teach. However, having thought about what it means to learn will help you frame your planning time and make you a more effective teacher.

The Responsibility

• Question: What does James 3:1 tell us about teaching?

I do not believe that James 3:1 is intended to discourage true teachers, but intended to convey the seriousness of the responsibility. The Greek word κριμα that we translate as judgment is a penal judgement.^[1] However, we must be careful not to view this as judgement in the eternal sense, "The ‘judgment’ (κρίμα), meanwhile, refers to a judicial verdict, implying potential censure (but scarcely guaranteeing eternal ‘condemnation,’ as the KJV might suggest),”^[2] Douglass Moo suggest that this passage shows that, teachers "expose themselves to greater danger of judgment. Their constant use of the tongue means they can sin very easily, leading others astray at the same time.”^[3] In any case, James 3:1 makes is clear that we must take our job as teachers seriously. We should strive to do our best and effectively teach the students with which we have been entrusted.

Active Learning

• Question: Flip through the Gospels and look for examples of extended periods of teaching by Jesus. How many times does Jesus appear to give an extended lecture?

• Question: How often, in the teaching of Jesus do we find short statements, or parables, followed by discussion?

• Question: Think back to something challenging that you have learned. What helped you to learn? Is there something someone did that was particularly helpful?

____________ learning consists of ________________ methods and ________________ norms that promote deep ____________________, reasoning, study, peer-to-peer interaction, and instructor inquiry into student thinking all with the goal of producing a ______________ understanding of Biblical truths and leading to _____________ Biblical behavior.

Educational research has shown that Active Learning methodology leads to significantly better learning. I would like for us to get away from the notion of "Learning Styles" i.e. visual, aural kinesthetic etc. Many would say these have been debunked as having no tangible effect on learning outcomes and I do not know of any teacher trainers that are currently using learning styles to design their training. There are some nice ideas in the field, but they simply are not going to make a big difference in your teaching. Instead, there are some common threads amongst all learners. If we can learn to make sense of these common threads, then our teaching will become far more effective.

Some Basic Learning Theory

Information Processing is a theoretical construct used to help describe the process by which the human brain receives, stores, and retrieves information. For the purposes of this seminar we only need a basic understanding of this process. A basic understanding of the human brain and cognition will allow you to frame the way in which you present students with new ideas and help them to better remember and apply these ideas.

When considering memory it is sometimes helpful to think about the so called _________-___________ model of memory. In the two-store model of memory, memory is broken into three distinct regions: sensory, short-term, and long-term memory. As teachers our goal is to get students to effectively move material from _________________ to ____________________ to ______________________. Additionally, we want to help student effectively retrieve information from long-term memory.

• Question: How many data chunks were you able to remember?

• Question: What steps can you take to remember more of the pieces of data?

Chunking is the process of joining pieces of data together in order to reduce the workload on short-term memory. Another related concept is that of concept-maps. A full explanation of concept-maps is outside the scope of this presentation. A concept map is a diagram that depicts the connections between pieces of information. The following is one example:

• Question: Pick a topic that you are likely to be teaching on in the next few weeks. Or a topic that you might want to teach on at some point. Construct a concept map of that topic.

• Question: How might a concept map help you organize your material so that students will be more likely to move information from short-term to long-term memory?

• Question: How will you know what connections your students are prepared to make in their own conceptual maps?

Developing as a Teacher

One of the questions that often arises is "what is the state of the art?" What are the best known techniques for me to develop as a teacher? The answer is both very simple and very complicated. The best way you can develop as a teacher is by knowing your students.

As with most things, there is actually a lot to the phrase "knowing your students." Knowing your students involves:

1. Reflecting on their current knowledge
2. Anticipating items they may be ready to learn
3. Planning future teaching actions in light of these anticipations
4. Executing the plan
5. Starting the cycle of reflection over again

Moreover, the more specific you can be in each of these elements the more opportunities to grow, as a teacher, you will be provided.

• Question: Pick someone who is either in a class you are teaching or someone that you think might be in a class you might teach one day. In order to protect the individual, give them a pseudonym for today. What is their current state of knowledge as it relates to the material you might be teaching in a church setting?

• Question: Based on your reflection on their current knowledge what do you anticipate they might be ready to learn?

• Question: How can you plan future teaching actions that will benefit this student?

What is it that makes teaching hard? Many people will say something like, “getting in front of all those people.” But this is not what teaching is all about, teaching is about facilitating learning. The teacher does not have to be the most knowledgable, best spoken, dynamic individual in the room. The teacher is instead a facilitator whose intimate knowledge of the individuals in their class allows them to provide optimally planned opportunities for each individual in the classroom to learn. The hard part about teaching is facilitating this process when there is more than one person in the room. The average person is capable of having seven close friendships, a teacher is expected to have deep knowledge of far more than seven people.

• Question: What steps can you take to better know your students as individuals, whether you have a class of 3 or a class of 30?

Teaching Adults

Learning Objectives

Learning/outcome objectives are the critical starting point from which you can build your activities and lesson plan. Well-formed objectives will help you develop activities that are focused and relevant. A good objective is important regardless of what level you are teaching. Unfortunately, our curricular materials do not always use good learning objectives and sometimes fail to give any learning objectives. Regardless, you as the teacher, should develop learning objectives for your lessons. When forming learning objectives it is good to keep the following three principles in mind. A good learning objective should be:

1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Attainable

• Question: Consider the following three learning objectives. Within your groups, evaluate each learning objective.
  • Learning Objective A) Students will learn the Bible.
  • Learning Objective B) Students will apply the lesson to their life today.
  • Learning Objective C) Students will identify one or two obstacles to their own spiritual growth and commit to praying about these obstacles every day this week.

• Question: What aspects of these goal statements might help you develop an activity?

• Question: Pick a passage of Scripture that someone in your group may be teaching from in the next month and develop a learning objective for that passage.

• Question: Write a prompt that might be useful in helping students to achieve the learning objective you have written.

Once you have developed learning objectives you are ready to begin developing the content of your lesson. Many curriculum developers have realized that learning is an active process instead of passive, and thankfully, many curriculum writers have begun incorporating active learning into the materials for children. Unfortunately, the active component of learning seems to be largely forgotten in materials for adults. This does not mean that you are off the hook, but rather means you should develop activities that you can use in your class. For many adult classes, writing activities is tantamount to writing a collection of good questions.

Types of Questions

The following list of categories may help you to identify types of questions you are asking your students to engage with. The key here is balance; you want to make sure that you are working with students in each of these areas. A good collection of questions will draw from many categories giving students at all levels the ability to participate in class. Remember, the purpose of your questions is to help your students become active learners instead of passive participants.

1. Lower-Level Demands-Memorization
   1. Require the learner to recite previously learned facts, rules, or definitions.
   2. May require the learner to reproduce some known fact, and in particular what is to be reproduced is clearly and directly stated.
   3. Does not require a connection to the concepts or meaning that underlies the facts rules, formulas, or definitions being learned or reproduced.
2. Basic Applications
   1. The application is specifically called for or is evident from placement of the task.
   2. The application requires limited cognitive demands.
   3. The application requires little or no explanation.
3. Higher-Level Applications with Connections
   1. The application requires the learner to draw on multiple aspects of theology or Scripture to resolve the question.
   2. May suggest multiple passages and ask students to discern which passages apply and which passages do not apply.
   3. Require some degree of cognitive effort, students need to synthesize ideas from multiple areas in order to effectively answer the question.
4. Doing Theology
   1. Require students to synthesize and understand the nature of concepts, processes, or relationships.
   2. Require students to utilize relevant Scripture and appropriate interpretation in answering the question.
   3. Require students to analyze their own reasoning, the reasoning of a peer, or even the reasoning of someone more knowledgeable in order to draw conclusions.

Within your groups work through the following activity.

• Memorization: Take a few minutes and work with a partner to memorize John 8:12.

• Question: Look at Ephesians 5:1-7, what are a few items that this passage indicates we should avoid using in our speech?

• Question: What are some circumstances in which you have been tempted to use your tongue improperly?

• Question: What does the Bible have to say about the circumstances you listed in the previous section?

• Question: What contrasts does the Apostle Paul make in Ephesians 5:8-14?

• Question: In John 8:12 Jesus said "I am the light of the world." What insight into Christ can we gain through Ephesians 5:8-14?

• Question: How might the contrasts given in Ephesians 5:8-14 parallel the contrasts given in Ephesians 5:1-7?

• Question: Earlier you identified some circumstances in which you have been tempted to use your tongue improperly. Identify one of those circumstances that you think might be the most tempting. How should you respond given your position as "light in the Lord?"

Analyzing the Activity

Question: What learning objective do you think might have been used to develop these questions?

The following learning objective was the one that was actually used: Learners will identify a sinful speech habit that they have either fallen into or are tempted to fall into and respond to that habit by considering their call to be light in the Lord.

• Question: Go back through each of the questions and try to categorize the questions as Lower-Level Demands, Basic Applications, Higher-Level Applications with Connections, or Doing Theology. What about the questions made you choose those categories?

• Question: In your opinion what is an appropriate balance of questions from each category? Why?

• Question: Pick the category that you find the most challenging and write a question from that category that would fit the learning objective you wrote earlier.

Preparing for Class

Preparing for an active learning environment is very different then preparing for a lecture. In a lecture, you take time and polish the presentation. In active learning the key to preparation is preparing to respond to students. In other words, you must anticipate student responses. In learning the Bible one of the most common student responses to which you need to respond occurs when a student answer the questions or regularly applies the passage to someone other than themselves. In my own experience this is such a common response that you should take some time to consider how you will respond to such an individual. However, there are also a multitude of other responses that you should also consider.

• Question: Write down three ways in which students might respond to the question you wrote earlier. If you cannot come up with three ways, then you should rewrite the question so that there are three ways the students might answer the question.

Once you have an idea of how your students might answer your question you can begin to plan how you might respond. The key to responding to students is to respond in a way that will help the student to think more productively about the question.

• Question: Think back to times when you have been a student. What are some ways in which people have guided you to think more productively?

• Question: Given the three student responses you wrote down earlier, how might you respond to these students?

Applying it Today

If you have some material with you today that you intend to use in a class sometime in the near future, then go through these procedures with that material now. Talk to people in your group and work together to develop an activity that you can use. If you do not have any materials with you today, then try to go through the procedures we learned today using one of the sample lessons from the provided materials.

Teaching Children

Planning a Lesson Things to Remember: There is an old adage "those who can't do teach." When it comes to teaching the Bible, nothing could be further from the truth. Anybody interested in teaching should consider James 3:1. In teaching we utilize what is one of our most dangerous body parts, the tongue. When we teach we have great potential to lead students astray and cause lasting problems. However, when we teach well, the results are often eternal. Teaching is a worthy pursuit, but also a high calling not to be taken lightly. Anybody planning to teach should spend a significant amount of time studying the passage. All to often we assume that we can teach without really spending any time preparing. Children develop and learn in complicated ways. You do not need to be an expert in educational theory in order to teach children. However, you should consider some of what educational theory has to say. For example: Children learn best when they are actively engaged in the process of learning, building on previous knowledge, and connecting new material to other known material. Children remember best when the memory is paired with other known items, and in particular children can learn very well when memory is linked to physical activity, for example kinesthetic learning.

Prerequisites: Before you begin any planning, before you look at the teacher's book, and before you begin thinking about the class, take time to read the entire passage of scripture you plan to teach. As you prepare to read ask yourself the following questions:

What story comes before this story? What story comes after this story? Where does this story fit in the Bible? If the main message of the Bible is the gospel, then how does this story relate to the gospel?

After reading the passage try and outline the main points of the passage. Outlining may seem like a tedious unnecessary task, but creating an outline will help you organize your thoughts and read the teacher's book better. To help you understand what this looks like I am including an outline of Genesis 42:1-43:3 but you should also make your own.

Joseph's Brothers Go to Egypt A famine hits the land There is grain in Egypt Joseph had been placed in charge of managing food during the famine. Joseph had stored up much food so that the people would survive the famine We will later see that all that had happened to Joseph had occurred so that God could preserve his family Jacob sends his sons to Egypt Jacob send all of his sons except Benjamin Benjamin was the only known remaining daughter of Jacob's favored wife Rachel Joseph's brothers visit Egypt to buy food The brothers encounter Joseph Joseph recognizes his brothers but they don't recognize him Joseph recalls his dream in which his brothers bowed before him Joseph accuses his brothers of being spies Joseph requires that his brothers leave one brother as a prisoner. The brothers remember what they had done to Joseph The brothers realized just how terrible of a thing they had done The brothers get their food Joseph has their sacks also filled with their money Joseph's brothers return home On the way home the brothers stop and notice that their sacks are filled with their money and grain. The brothers because it appears that they stole from Joseph Simeon is still in Egypt The brothers ask Jacob permission to return to Egypt to get Simeon. Jacob says no They again run out of food and are forced to decide whether or not to return to Egypt

Once you have written your outline read through the teacher's book. When you read through the teacher's book try to answer the following questions:

What (if anything) does the teacher's book suggest you emphasize that you did not emphasize in your outline? What (if anything) does the teacher's book leave out that you think should be included?

Carefully consider the above two questions. After considering the questions you should decide if you want to include or exclude anything from the teacher's book.

Introduction: The introduction serves two purposes. The introduction captures the children's attention while also laying the foundation for the lesson. A good introduction should flow smoothly into the days topic and last approximately 5 minutes. You should answer the following questions:

What activity will you do for the introduction? What supplies will you need for the introduction? Where will you be able to get the supplies for your introduction? How will you transition from the introduction to the main body?

Main Body: The main body is the place where we dig into the Bible. When you teach the main body you need to be careful to not just read text to the students. You should also make a point of using your Bible. Have your Bible open, emphasize to the students that these are the words of God. Remember it is the Bible that is sharper than any two edged sword, never trade your own stories, experiences, etc. for time in the Bible. That being said you should explain things out of the Bible. My personal preference is for you to actually read the story from the Bible to the kids. However, you need to make sure they pay attention to the actual story and words. There are several ways of maintaining their attention:

Use visuals like power-point slides or flano-graph. This is probably the most traditional method and is certainly better than just talking to the students. However, in the age of digital TV and video games I am not convinced this is as effective as it used to be. Many people may say something like "well, these kids need to learn to sit still and listen." While probably true, I am not willing to trade a gospel opportunity for a lesson on sitting still. If I need to adapt my teaching so that I can effectively reach the child then I wont hesitate. Remember, we are teaching the students God has given us, not the students we would necessarily choose to teach. Ask students to summarize what you just stated. This is probably the simplest one to implement and works well with older children but can be tedious and ineffective with young children. Give a visual physical demonstration of the story. As you read the Bible have several people act out the parts. Hearing and seeing allows the brain to process is multiple ways. Plan kinesthetic activities for students. I find this to be one of the most powerful methods. Here is an example. When teaching the story of the fiery furnace you might ask kids to perform a series of actions every time a certain word is used. e.g. "fiery"- jump up and say "hot, hot, hot", "music"-make a trumpet noise while holding your hands like a trumpet. "king"-bow and say "your majesty". Neurological research gives strong indications that activities of this form allow the brain to be activated on many levels not possible otherwise.

Here are some questions to consider: What is the main point of your lesson? How are you going to keep the students listening? How are you going to adapt your outline to make an actual lesson? What supplies do you need?

Closing The closing activity should bring everything together, maintain the students attention and give an opportunity to emphasize the gospel.

What closing activity do you want to do? How will you work the gospel into this activity? What will you do if someone is interested in responding to the gospel presentation? How will you figure out who is interested in the gospel?


At this point you should create your actual lesson plan. Much of your lesson plan is actually contained in the notes you have taken if you have completed the process I outlined in this document. I have included a sample lesson plan outline

Introduction Goal Activity Description of the activity Supplies Transition to Main Body Main Body Goal Lesson Lesson Outline Supplies Means of maintaining student attention Transition to Conclusion Conclusion Goal: See Children make decisions to trust Christ, or live for Christ Activity Description of the activity Supplies

1. ↑ TDNT
2. ↑ Craig L. Blomberg and Mariam J. Kamell, James, vol. 16, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 152.
3. ↑ Moo, Douglas J. The letter of James. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000, 150.