What Effective Church Educators Do
What Effective Church Educators Do
Fortunate is the church that can afford to call a paid church educator. More fortunate still is the church that finds an effective educator. That one person will make all the difference in helping a church have a stellar Christian…
Motivation and Learning
Here’s the bad news: The truth is, we can’t teach anybody anything.
The good news, however, is that people are motivated to learn, conditionally. We can’t teach a truth—or even a simple fact—to someone who is not ready to learn,…
Teaching for Faith
A man was out hiking when he fell off a cliff. He managed to grab a thin tree branch sticking out of the side of the rocky cliff wall saving him from plunging thousands of feet below. As his fingers…
Christian Education: Values or Content?
Tucked away in one of my educational psychology books is a Peanuts cartoon clipped from a newspaper years ago. It is a cartoon of Peppermint Patty, that endearing character who represents a teacher’s worst nightmare: the unmotivated student.
In…
Two Theories of Learning
I can trace my intrigue with Christian education to one single moment. That moment was when I stumbled upon a statement by Morton Kelsey that went something like this: For Christian education to be authentic, its approaches need to be…
Using Conversation in Teaching and Learning
When I talk to people about dialogical learning, they often reply, “Yes, we have great discussions in my class.” But discussion and dialogue, as learning methods, are different things. And then there’s conversation.
But conversation too can be…
Use Entry Points to Help Students Get Into the Lesson
How do you help students to get the point you’re trying to teach?
More often than not most of us try the direct approach: “Just tell them!”
But a paradox in learning is that often students do not learn what…
Learning is not an outcome of Teaching
The counter-intuitive notion that learning is not an outcome of teaching can be a challenging concept.
This is natural, for several reasons.
First, due to our experiences, we tend naturally to associate teaching with learning.
Second, despite the logical connection…
On Knowing What You Are Actually Doing
Many folks who find themselves engaged in the task of congregational education tend to be able to jump right in and keep the programs running. And they do an acceptable, if not admirable, job of keeping things going smoothly. Programs…
Can You Pass This Educational Test?
May 20, 2019—Throwing out some old files and materials (New Year’s Resolution no. 7) I stumbled across an old final exam from a course I offered over two decades ago when I was teaching adjunctively. Reviewing the course material I…
Three Cheers for the Unheralded
May 6, 2019—An Episcopal priest played golf regularly with the local Baptist minister and two of his members. The priest kept inviting the Baptists to visit one of his services until they were embarrassed at not having gone. So they…
How Do Good Educators Become Good?
April 1, 2019—At a gathering of congregational educators the discussion centered on teaching in the church. We discussed the perennial challenges of training church teachers. Those challenges include getting teachers to participate in training events, getting them to see the…
The Phone Call I Enjoy
March 18, 2019—A couple of days I received that phone call I enjoy so much. It goes like this:
Caller: “Hello, Dr. G? You probably don’t remember me, I was a student at the seminary a couple of years ago…
Active Learning
February 18, 2019—One major drawback to teaching in Christian education is the unwarranted, and often unintended, practice of setting ourselves up for inactive, non-participatory, learning. Many teachers of adults tend to shy away from challenging their class or group to…
Nine Works on Moral Development
February 4, 2019—Study and research on moral development was a standard area of study for Christian educators some decades ago. As with many disciplines, some studies wane as others take their place—new fads, emerging fields of study, whatever is deemed…
