Focusing the Message: Student Needs

The second part of the book is concerned with focusing the message, and starts with an emphasis in chapter 6 on understanding and assessing student needs.  This emphasis was a new idea for me, since I have always assumed that I would communicate the content, and the students would work out themselves how the content meets their own needs.

But, as the authors say:

“By understanding your students you will also avoid the common pitfall of Bible teachers – teaching lessons rather than teaching students. Creative Bible teachers are student aware. They know that the content counts, but it is students that they teach… Some teachers focus on the content they desire to cover in the class as the primary factor in teaching. Creative Bible teachers do not. They recognize the necessity of teaching the truth of the Bible and the importance of strong content, but they also know that they teach students, not lessons. Student needs and student learning are a priority. Creative Bible teachers see themselves as a link between the content and the student. By knowing and caring for their students, they are able to connect the content in meaningful ways with students’ lives.”[1]

I am not inclined to be a very empathic person, and every Myers-Briggs test I have ever taken has labeled me an INTJ (think Picard from Star Trek TNG!). Introverts really have to go out of our way to get to know anyone, let alone a whole class full of people. One description of an INTJ goes so far as to say: “INTJs spend a lot of time inside their own minds, and may have little interest in the other people's thoughts or feelings.”  And while who I am is certainly not defined by any personality profile, this certainly feels true for me a lot of the time!

So this book issues a strong challenge for me: “Do you see each member of your class as individual persons, or do you see them as a collective, a class, a group only? How well do you know and understand your students? Do you know their names, interests, concerns, and needs?”[2] I would have to answer that I will really need to work outside of my comfort zone in getting to know my students and their needs, since this is not something that comes naturally for me.

This is following Jesus’ example, since “Jesus recognized the basic educational principle that the student’s needs, interests, and readiness determines what is to be taught and how it is to be taught.”[3]

---

[1] Pp. 108-109 [emphasis mine].
[2] Ibid, 105.
[3] Ibid, 94.