Focusing the Message: Truth into Life - Part I

Chapter 7 of Creative Bible Teaching starts with this bold statement:

“Education is based upon an assumption that what is learned in the classroom can and should be applied outside the classroom. By definition, learning requires that the student be able to meaningfully transfer a concept from one setting to another. But the transfer of truth from one situation to another is not automatic. Effective teachers know this. They know that there is a difference between parroting answers and transferring those facts into life scenarios.”[1]

I think that I am probably good at getting my students to the “parroting answers” stage, but have had limited success in getting them to transfer the facts I teach into their life scenarios. Maybe I am being too hard on myself. But I strongly suspect that any life-application that has occurred has been in line with my intentions, but in spite of my execution.

This is the one that really gets me:

“Too often we equate knowing what the Bible says with knowing God…When a Sunday school teacher merely teaches the Bible as content, he implies that to know about God and to know God are the same… There is a profound relationship between knowing about God and knowing God, but it’s a relationship over which many stumble. Information about God and from God, applied to and responded to in daily life, leads to a growing knowledge of God.”[2]

So am I implying that to know about God and to know God are the same? It is certainly not intentional, so I plead guilty as charged. And it is certainly no excuse or consolation that so are most other Sunday school teachers. I think that is what has been modeled, and so that is not only what everyone does, but also – sadly - what everyone expects.

On the subject of how to structure the content, the book says that: “Creative Bible teachers understand this principle of learning: Learning most powerfully transfers and transforms when the material taught has meaning to the student’s life and experience.”[3] They go on to say that “…a basic principle of learning and, therefore, of teaching – order and structure give meaning to information and ideas…for students to learn a concept, some sense of structure and order is important. Random ideas are not retained and transferred to life as well as ordered concepts.”[4] I think I do a reasonable job of selecting and working through the material in a way that at least communicates the facts and ideas. But I do need to devote more attention to structuring the content so that it is memorable and easily digestable.

---

[1] 113, [emphasis mine].
[2] 114, [emphasis mine].
[3] 115.
[4] 115.