A Biblical view of learning (5)

The message and context of true learning
The message of true learning is God Himself, and the context in which the Spirit of God delivers that message to the souls and lives of God’s people is the Kingdom of God. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to draw those who earnestly seek the Lord into the presence of His glory. There He effects an encounter with the living Christ, the impact of which transforms the learner increasingly into the likeness of Christ (2 Cor. 3:12-18). If, in our work as Christian educators, we are seeking anything less than this, we are not in pursuit of the true learning God intends His people to gain in the school of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As learners go from the presence of Christ, transformed by His Spirit, they go into the world to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness as their first and highest priority in all things (Matt. 6:33). Thus, teachers who seek to realize true learning in their students will focus on nurturing an outlook and vision for the Kingdom of God, just as Jesus did in His many parables. They will concentrate on addressing those affections which lead one to desire, longing for, and love of the Kingdom of God and the King Who is advancing it on earth as it is in heaven. And they will confront any priorities or values which impede seeking the Kingdom and work to replace them with the will of Christ and God.

We will begin to realize true learning when, regardless of what our topic or text may be in any teaching and learning context, we work hard to bring our learners into the presence of God and to send them forth seeking His Kingdom for every aspect of their lives.

But how do we do this?

The means of Christian learning (1 and 2)
Much of contemporary Christian instruction has fallen into some familiar grooves. Attend a typical Sunday school class and you will find a lengthy period of socializing over refreshments interrupted by a 20-minute lecture, with a few questions or comments, and followed by a brief season of prayer. In home Bible study groups a more informal environment obtains, with a leader who guides the group through the lesson and encourages feedback, comments, and responses to questions. Then, prayer and fellowship.

Interestingly, the more formal – and, we suppose, the more serious – Christian education becomes – day schools, colleges and universities, seminaries – the larger (in general) the classes are, the more the burden of instruction falls to teachers and textbooks, and the higher the priority to cognitive learning becomes (as evidenced by the kinds of assessment tools employed).

Certainly there is a place in the quest for true learning for lecture, discussion, and reading. I do not intend to disparage these tools nor to suggest that teachers set them aside.

Instead, I would like, very briefly, to describe four key components of the teaching-and-learning process which must be present in any instructional environment if true learning – knowing Christ and living in His Kingdom – is to result. These involve the way we prepare for teaching, the goals we bring with us into the experience, the instructional setting in which teaching proceeds, and the follow-up we do in seeing learning through to the ground, as it were.

We will consider the first two of these in this installment, and examine the remaining two next time.

Preparation
If we want true learning to result in those we teach, then we must prepare for true learning throughout the teaching opportunity. Preparation is an ongoing task. It involves more than simply mastering a text or topic, marshalling resources or instructional aids, or getting a concise and coherent outline in order for the class.

Preparation begins in prayer. If we want God to teach our learners to know and serve Him, should we not plead with Him to that end, daily, and for as long as these learners are in our care? And should we not pray that the Lord will teach us as well, so that we may embody the lesson we want our learners to embrace? Prayer that focuses, first on oneself, then on each student, with the request that God make Himself known to each one and outfit them for their proper service in the Kingdom, is more likely to result in true learning than if, by our lack of such prayer, we insist on depending more on our own glibness or methods than on the Lord.

Preparation for true learning also entails eagerness in study and learning on our parts. We must not presume to come before our students with nothing more than a raft of notes to impart. The goal of Christian instruction is love that issues from a real encounter with God and flows through a life dedicated to His Kingdom (1 Tim. 1:5; Jn. 7:37-39). The goal is not to ensure that the information on my notes ends up on the students’ notes as well. Thus, those who teach must be eager to learn what God has for them and for their students through whatever may be the subject of the class or course. An instructor who has prepared so well that he has himself encountered God in His glory, and known the transforming power of God’s Spirit to make all things new in his life – that instructor will be much more effective in helping his students along the road of true learning.

Goals
What we aim at in the work of Christian instruction will in large part determine what we accomplish. If our goal is merely to impart information, then that’s about all we’ll achieve. When our goal becomes leading our students to realize the transforming power of God and His glory, and when we prepare our teaching to address such a goal, then we will be more likely to realize God’s purpose for the teaching and learning process.

Because I’m going to write more fully about this in the seventh installment in this series, let me say for now that our goal-setting will not be complete, whether for a course or any individual class, until we have targeted all aspects of the learner for confrontation with the truth of God. We must learn to set and pursue goals for soul and body – heart, mind, and conscience, as well as the practices that issue by word and deed from our being transformed from within.

Now determining such goals, based on the content of the teaching and the needs of the learners, requires a good deal of prayerful contemplation together with carefully getting to know the learners. We cannot define learning goals to address the souls and lives of each individual – this is the function of application; but we can determine how the content we intend to present is best designed to address particular aspects of the soul and the life so that true learning will be encouraged from within and without.

Teachers cannot assume that students will figure this out on their own. The Spirit of God is working through the instructional process to guide learners into the truth. He seeks to place their hands on the handrails of soul and practice as they climb from the darkness of unknowing into the light of truth, so that they are affected in both the inner and outer person by the content of instruction. Our task as teachers is to help in keeping our learners in contact with the demands of truth as it speaks to their souls and their daily lives. The better we plan for this, the greater will be the likelihood of our actually teaching to these ends.

For more insight to this topic, get the book, Rediscovering the Lost Tools of Learning, by Douglas Wilson, from our online store.

Or read the article, “Listen to the Spirit,” by T. M. Moore.