A PRIMER ON EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: ARE YOU A Great TEACHER?

Group, Nov/Dec 2004 by Briggs, J R

WHETHER YOU'RE PRETTY DARN GOOD ALREADY OR YOU'RE FRUSTRATED WITH YOUR IMPACT AS A TEACHER, THESE PRACTICAL IDEAS WILL TRANSFORM THE WAY YOU ENGAGE YOUR KIDS WITH GOD'S TRUTHS-YOU'LL SEE THE KIND OF RESULTS YOU'VE DREAMED OF GETTING

Several months ago my wife and I were driving somewhere when a song came on the radio. To my surprise she belted out the lyrics, line by line. I asked, "How do you know the words to this song so well? How many times have you heard this?"

"Two times," she answered.

"Two times? And you have it memorized already?" I was both impressed and confused.

Then I remembered that my wife is an auditory learner. Once she'd heard the song clearly a couple of times, she had it down. I, on the other hand, am a visual learner. If you'd given me a lyrics sheet, I could've memorized that song in a few minutes. My brother is a gifted musician and a kinesthetic learner. Give him the song's chords and he'd learn to play it on his guitar-and he'd never forget it.

USING EXPERIENCES TO TEACH

I remembered a very important lesson in the car that day: We all learn differently. And this truth profoundly impacts my approach to teaching God's Word. I no longer "talk at" people-my goal is to help young people experience scriptural truth, not just hear about it. When we make our teaching experiential, our "learners" not only remember the teaching, they experience it in their hearts, not just their heads.1

And by the way, we serve a God whose teaching style is tactile and experiential.

* In Exodus, we read about God's command that each Jewish household in Egypt keep a 1-year-old lamb without blemish around their home for several days before sacrificing it during the Passover. Then they're instructed to paint the thresholds of their homes with its blood. Can you imagine young Jewish children asking their father why they had to gruesomely kill this defenseless lamb to participate in a painting project?

* In Deuteronomy 6, the ancient Shema calls God's people to bind the Scriptures upon their foreheads and attach them to their doorposts. (You can visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem today and see how literally they take this command!)

* In the book of Joshua, once the people of Israel have crossed the Jordan River and entered into the Promised Land, Moses' successor instructs the Israelites to erect "remembrance stones" as a reminder of what God accomplished by fulfilling his promises.

* Even today when we celebrate communion we're reliving one of Jesus' most profound experiential teachings. After describing himself as the Bread of Life, he told his disciples, "Do this in remembrance of me." What disciple could forget those words around that table that night in the upper room as he was chewing and swallowing that Passover bread?

Clearly, God's teaching strategy is to involve us in experiences that, once they're debriefed, help us learn his truths more deeply than if we'd heard a mere lecture. To use Jesus' illustration, we want to serve the same wine (God's unchanging truths) in new wineskins (experiential methods).

Baz Luhrmann made a name for himself as director of the Academy-Award-winning film Moulin Rouge. Before that, he directed a remake eft Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the lead roles. Luhrmann kept Shakespeare's script the same, and the actors spoke entirely in Elizabethan English, but he radically changed the play's setting to fit our postmodern culture. That change in "wineskins" brought Shakespeare's masterpiece powerfully to life for a whole new generation of moviegoers. When we teach, the script must remain the same but the methods we use to express the script must change.

When we're preparing to teach, ask: "How can I bring this passage or theme alive through an experience?" Rob Bell is pastor of Mars Hill in Grand Rapids, Michigan-a progressive church that often uses the "hook" of experience to engage people in the truths of God's Word. Before he teaches. Rob asks himself, "How can I make it as difficult as possible for people just to sit there with a holy stare?"

USING THE BASICS

How do you retool your teaching to include riveting experiences?

* Use nature's storehouse. Use leaves, rocks, twigs, grass, flowers, and other treasures from nature-God's creation-to help kids learn who God really is. Get them in trios and give each small group something from nature, then have them brainstorm how their object is like and unlike God.

* Use the culture. Your kids' favorite TV shows, movies, magazines, music, and video games are all rich in experience-producing "tools." Use clips from TV shows and movies to spark great discussions. Use magazine articles as the basis for pro-and-con debates. Challenge kids to create an idea for a new video game that teaches the concept of grace.

* Use what's in your closet. When you're studying a Bible story, ask for volunteers to pull a Baz Luhrmann and retell the story in a setting that's common for today's teenagers-use some old clothes from your closet as impromptu costumes.