Sitting through Sunday School and Elders' Quorum today, watching the clock as each of the teachers plowed through all of their lesson material, taking no thought (really) for most of what anyone else had to say and breezing over some things that, in my opinion, may have deepened the discussion, President Hinckley came to mind. In a 1969 leadership meeting (no, I wasn't there--well before my time), he said this:
Effective teaching is the very essence of leadership in the Church. Eternal life will come only as men and women are taught with such effectiveness that they change and discipline their lives. They cannot be coerced into righteousness or into heaven. They must be led, and that means teaching. (Source.)
As his words came to mind, I thought about the pedagogical goal of a decentered classroom, a learning environment in which the activities and the focus revolve around the students' and their needs rather than remaining forever on the teacher and their particular (self-)importance in the classroom.
As I see it, the most effective teachers are those that set the tone for students' personal inquiry and class discussion by asking questions that initiate extended conversations and that move students beyond superficial understandings by pushing them to clarify their responses and to think deeply and critically about culturally, historically, and spiritually relevant ideas. And the most effective students are those that come to class prepared (having read and considered the material at hand) and willing to participate.
When this last thought about student readiness came to mind (yes, I was holding a conversation with myself during class), I had an epiphany: I've been a terrible student at Church lately. I've been neither prepared nor willing to get outside of myself and, as such, I've come away with a very negative view of the teachers in our new ward.
And so, I'm going to take President Hinckley's oft repeated advice and try to be a little better--to prepare myself a bit more to commune with the Saints, realizing that there will also be times when I've just got to suck up my pride and endure.
.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that when I teach now and then, I become a better student as well.
When we moved into our current ward, every week someone new taught EQ. This was great for me and I think most others --- when we know we, I, might be teaching a couple weeks from now, we, I, am more likely to read before Sunday and participate thoughtfully day-of.
Then the new EQP just called teachers and that, plus holding a baby, slowly sucked me away. I haven't read from the JS manual in months. Not good.
Since into our present ward at the end of last November, I've been struggling with the whole preparation thing. I've even used our eleven month old as an excuse to get out of playing my part in class (not good at all!). Part of this lack, I think, stems from what I consider a failure on the teachers' part---both my wife and I have made comments that get brushed off because they either don't fit in with what the manual says or because the teacher doesn't know what to do with them---so they just look back down at the material and move on. This makes us feel as if we're just being annoying by trying to move the conversation a bit deeper than the status quo requires. Really frustrating...
ReplyDeleteAnother part of the lack stems from the new surroundings. We moved from a ward that we'd been in for quite a few years and in which we'd forged quite a few great friendships, including with the bishopric and his family, and been involved in a number of callings that require frequent teaching---SS teachers, EQ instructor, YM presidency, Scoutmaster. We'd trained our students to think outside the typical primary answer box and we really tried to encourage them to serve with mind and heart. And we'd grown to really love and know them.
Being in our new environment is a challenge and I'm just beginning to get the desire back to participate. I'm sure things will eventually turn around for me as I resolve to prepare and participate, but I'm having a rough go of it right now.
Sounds like the perfect time to put all of my intellectual convictions about service with mind and heart to the test, right? Like you said in your other comment, I too am standing accused.
.
ReplyDeleteOur ward before this one had the dullest EQ lessons imaginable. Teaching for Our Times consisted of handing out the talk to every one and following along together as we listened to Apostles on Tape. And the other weeks just meant taking turns reading paragraphs. Comments were awkward because no one knew what to do with them. And all that made it hard for me to feel like a member of the quorum. Moving to Berkeley was, in this sense, a godsend. I might be, deep down inside, an intellectual snob, but dangit! I need a reason to keep coming to EQ each week! I don't know what I would be doing now if we had lasted longer than seven months in that city.
Then again, what could I have done to improve things? That's a more useful line of inquiry, isn't it?
I hate that approach to Teachings for Our Time, and, for that matter, when a teacher just reads from Teachings of Presidents of the Church and then asks, "What does that mean to you?" after every paragraph. It seems like when good comments are made in these situations (a rare occurrence), the teacher doesn't know what to do with those either; and so both students and teacher suffer through and because of the experience.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to be in a classroom with a teacher and students that have prepared (unfortunately, also a rare occurrence) or when the teacher is able to draw from student comments to lead the discussion in compelling directions---ways that could never be foreseen before the teacher and his/her students opened their mouths. These instances give me reason, as you say, to keep going back, both to SS and EQ (yesterday was a good day in EQ: the teacher was prepared and allowed the discussion to evolve in what I thought were very inspired, instructive, and uplifting ways).
I also think your question is very compelling, one I think I need to ask myself more often: How can I, when in the position of a student, use my understanding of the principles of effective teaching to enhance the learning experience for myself and others, including the teacher? I remember once sharing a thought in SS that caused the instructor to rethink the way she approached teaching...not that I really had much to do with her motivation to change, though. I simply shared something from my own experience (don't even remember what the context was) and it sparked a flame in her.
.
ReplyDeleteD&C 109:7