Learning Styles and Youth Ministry
I enjoy a good lecture. I have always been intrigued by a well-thought out, concise dialogue of language. To have someone connect the dots of a problem or better yet, to be taught how to connect the dots myself is how I absorb and learn knowledge. Not everyone is like me. Many teenagers today are especially not like me. We are in a world of fast paced and fluid attention span that is captured in the dogs from "UP" and their "SQUIRREL!" antics. The point is that it doesn't matter how great our content is as teachers if we can't communicate it effectively. All of the knowledge and brilliant theologizing is useless with messengers adapting the message to the recipients. Now, the tension that arises is how (or maybe just an if) we emphasize teaching/learning styles and still trust the Spirit to move amidst our imperfect attempts at teaching/preaching/theologizing.
First, we must acknowledge that the Spirit is going to communicate the message to someone, somewhere, at sometime regardless of our efforts. God is the rescuer, we are merely heralds, messengers, servants, participants. However, we must also acknowledge that it is extremely unfaithful to ill-prepare to speak God's word when we have control of a situation (i.e. youth group, sunday school, random lesson, etc.). Enter, learning styles and effective communication.
Some of us are visual learners (learn through seeing), some audio learners (learn through hearing), and others kinetic learners (learn through motion, movement, touch). When I write a lesson, I write it to lecture. It's how I learn. I need correction. If we can make our lessons so dynamic, not necessarily in a charismatic way but in a learning rich style, we will be giving more people a better chance to understand the content that we work so hard to communicate. It is no wonder that music rich, canvas painting, journal writing forms of interaction are so popular and helpful today in our services. I will begin to write curriculum in an interchangeable style that the content of any of the sections (I typically have scripture, shared story, and praxis (action/reflection)) could be swapped with any learning style. This isn't a new thought, but it is new to me and my own development and I wanted to share. Thanks for listening.
First, we must acknowledge that the Spirit is going to communicate the message to someone, somewhere, at sometime regardless of our efforts. God is the rescuer, we are merely heralds, messengers, servants, participants. However, we must also acknowledge that it is extremely unfaithful to ill-prepare to speak God's word when we have control of a situation (i.e. youth group, sunday school, random lesson, etc.). Enter, learning styles and effective communication.
Some of us are visual learners (learn through seeing), some audio learners (learn through hearing), and others kinetic learners (learn through motion, movement, touch). When I write a lesson, I write it to lecture. It's how I learn. I need correction. If we can make our lessons so dynamic, not necessarily in a charismatic way but in a learning rich style, we will be giving more people a better chance to understand the content that we work so hard to communicate. It is no wonder that music rich, canvas painting, journal writing forms of interaction are so popular and helpful today in our services. I will begin to write curriculum in an interchangeable style that the content of any of the sections (I typically have scripture, shared story, and praxis (action/reflection)) could be swapped with any learning style. This isn't a new thought, but it is new to me and my own development and I wanted to share. Thanks for listening.
posted by Levi at
11:01 AM
1 Comments:
Definitely always a struggle; thanks for sharing, Levi.
I find this true when preaching especially. I can include super interesting information along historical and development lines that I am enthralled about, and then realize that the 2 paragraph description I just wrote is going to bore everyone half to death. But I don't want to cut it out, because I think it's important.
It's because of this tension that I have challenged myself to become a better editor. If I can take a paragraph of info and shorten it down to 2 sentences, people can still get the idea without worrying about the extra information. It's tough as the deliverer, but I try to remind myself of the purpose of teaching in these contexts isn't just to give people more information...
Speaking of editing, this is too long already.
Blessings.
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