Southview Teacher and KidMin Training, Nov. 4, 2023
Contents
Vision and Teaching
Vision
Values
Bible Engagement: Believing in the total inerrancy, absolute sufficiency, and life-changing power of God’s Word, we will regularly engage the Bible personally and through group study. God’s Word is foundational to all we are and do. (Psalm 119:10, Psalm 119:105, 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Worshipful Lifestyle: Knowing that worship is more than what we do together on Sunday morning, we will live in daily submission to God, pray at all times, and willingly serve Him. A constant attitude of worship leads to personal humility. (John 4:23, 1 Peter 4:11, Colossians 3:15-17, Philippians 2:1-11)
Intentional Relationships: Seeking more than shallow acquaintances, we will exercise sacrificial love by giving ourselves to others in meaningful relationships for mutual Christlike growth. We belong to God and one another as a Church family. (Matthew 22:37-40, John 13:34, Hebrews 10:24-25)
Gifted Service: Recognizing that God has given each of us unique talents, abilities, and spiritual gifts, we will serve individually and together for the glory of God. We always function better together as the Body of Christ. (Romans 12:4-8, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, Ephesians 4:16)
Gospel Sharing: Rejoicing in our personal relationships with God, we will share the Good News of Jesus with the World and serve them in His name. God’s desire is that all people would come to a saving relationship with Him. (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, 2 Peter 3:9-10)
Vision Statement
We are growing Christ followers who build a legacy for God by worshiping Him through serving others and sharing the Gospel. Our personal relationships with Jesus and one another transform our lives and change our direction.
Vision Casting
If I were to guess I would guess that the average person in our city holds that the worship service is where most of our church's energy is focussed and hence where we expect to have the biggest impact. However, if you look at our vision and values I propose that it is in our Sunday School, Adult Bible Studies, and Homegroups where we really have the opportunity to have a measurable impact on our vision and values!
- Question: In your Sunday School, Adult Bible Study, or Homegroups which of our values do you feel is emphasized well?
- Question: In your Sunday School, Adult Bible Study, or Homegroups which of our values do you feel needs to receive more attention?
We Are All Teachers!
- 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.
Maximizing Student Learning
________________ 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 the ________________ 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.
For the purposes of this work, Active Learning is based upon three pedagogical pillars, deep engagement with meaningful theological questions, collaborative processing of theological concepts, and instructor inquiry into student understanding.
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 discussion but a basic diagram is sufficient. A concept map is a diagram that depicts the connections between pieces of information. The following is one example:
- Question: Imagine teaching a lesson on Joseph providing food to his brothers, 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?
