A walk through the Eight Facets of Learning*

This is a reflection on how my ideas of learning in the church have been transformed through the work experienced in my Education 1 class this past semester.

Community
The role of community in the learning and teaching process is integral to my developing Trinitarian understanding of the purpose of the church. To be a Christian means to be in community. Therefore if we are going to teach about Christianity, then it needs to be done in community.
In my own experience, I struggled with the decision to begin my studies as a “distance learner” or become a “residential student.” While I decided that I would be too distracted in my home surroundings and thus would need to remove myself from those distractions in order to focus on learning, I was also pleased to benefit from a number of the characteristics of learning in the community located here at Luther. In particular, ... continue reading

Presentation
This facet of learning is demonstrated by the majority of teaching I have experienced here at Luther. The variety of presentation methods and styles has spanned a broad spectrum. At times I have found presentations to have been highly effective in my learning and at other times I’ve questioned the value of having invested the time to even listen. I would like to contrast two recent presentations that describe some of what I have experienced:
The first presentation employed the use of power point, a technology that is widely used but when not employed properly can actually become a hindrance to carrying the message being presented. In this case, ... continue reading

Discussion
As we are called to be in a dialogical relationship with God, it only makes sense that we employ good use of a discussion technique when focusing on Christian education. Important when considering discussion is to recognize that good listening creates as much value as does good talking. A number of my courses this semester have employed discussion times to provide opportunity for greater learning and I have gained a few insights along the way.
Group size may have more to do with the quality of the discussion more than any other factor. It’s no surprise that the larger the group, the less effective the discussion becomes. In a number of my ... continue reading

Study
It seems that much of what I dedicate my time to when outside of the classroom is study. This study is taking on a variety of forms. Much of the work I am doing is in reaction to class presentations and assigned readings. For example, while my Greek professor presents concepts and briefly demonstrates the basics of the language in class, it remains for me to spend time memorizing vocabulary, practicing verb conjugations, and translating verses. It’s through this work that the bulk of my understanding of Greek is occurring. In addition to performing rote memorization, a number of my other classes are requiring me to put in significant time studying in preparation for analytical writings and exams. Depending on my interest level in the topic, this effort has yielded varying results.
The effectiveness of my studies seems to be linked to a number of factors. First, the quality of the resources available in my study has much to do with my ability to engage the topics at hand. Next, when I am given ... continue reading

Individual
One of the major teaching techniques employed here at Luther is to assign significant volumes of reading, a key element of the individual learning facet. In fact, I believe that I have read more words and pages in the past six weeks then I’ve read in the past six years. While I believe the quality of the readings is high, the value of them has been compromised by their sheer volume. One of my classes, for example, would be better served to use just one of the assigned textbooks and discard the other two. I believe more would have been gained if we could have drilled down into the one text rather than just glancing off the surface in order to skim the material presented in the other two.
It’s important to note that ... continue reading

Confrontation
I can appreciate that the goal of confrontational learning relates to the church’s missional identity by demonstrating “that the Christian learner is now alive and thinking, making choices and acting in the world. Unfortunately, I just haven’t had much opportunity to engage in this type of learning in the past six weeks. It’s just not a technique that has been employed by any of the courses I am enrolled in. On a personal level, I do feel like my developing faith has made itself known within the conversations I’m having around the coming regional and national elections. I suppose it’s a bit like the early confessors of the church, who in the course of public discourse, were forced into formalizing statements of their beliefs and then watching as those statements become the foundation for debate, disagreement and discord. Over time, hopefully, the truth seems to rise to the surface and we should give thanks to those on both sides of the arguments for sticking their necks out to engage in the debate.

Experience
In a previous piece, I stated how much I value experiential learning. Yet only a few of my classes this semester seem to be offering me this type of opportunity. Employing case studies, role playing, simulations, expeditionary learning and the like, I find to be incredibly helpful in my learning process. When I find the need to access the information later, I always appreciate being able to tell a story of my own experience with the topic at hand. With respect to this education class, I certainly have appreciated all of its experiential elements and can imagine that the topics of the class that I was able to experience first-hand, like preparing the Advent/Intelligence Model presentation, will remain in the forefront of my memory. A case study being developed ... continue reading

Reflection
The last of these facets of learning is probably the one I had the least exposure to prior to coming to Luther this fall. Not unaware of its value, however, I decided to begin this blog in order to provide a medium for me to process my journey and open up my story to those who may be on this journey (literally and in spirit) with me. Perhaps it’s serendipity, but the reflective writing assignments for this class have created great content for me to share on my blog. In addition, the experience of preparing these writings has given me valuable coaching in continuing to use this technique to the benefit of my learning while here at Luther. This journaling exercise has created a greater emotional buy-in of the material being presented and discussed. It has also provided ... continue reading

*Norma Cook Everist, The Church as Learning Community: A Comprehensive Guide to Christian Education, Abington Press, 2002