TYPES OF TEACHING
One of the surest tests of the skillful teacher is his ability to adapt
his instruction to the child, to the subject matter, and to the
occasion--that is, to the _aim_. Teaching must differ in its type with
the age; the primary child and the older youth require different
methods. It must differ with the kind of material to be presented; a
lesson whose chief aim is to give information must be differently
presented from a lesson whose aim is to enforce some moral or religious
truth. It must differ with the occasion; a lesson taught a group of
children who have had no previous study or preparation on it will demand
different treatment from a lesson which has had careful study.
Types of lessons.--Several clearly recognized types of lessons are
commonly employed by teachers in both school and church-school classes.
No one of these lesson types can be said to be best in the sense that it
should be used to the exclusion of the others. All are required. Several
may even be employed in the same recitation period. The teacher should,
however, know which type he is employing at any given stage of his
instruction, and why he is using this type in preference to another type
of teaching. The following are the chief lesson types that will be found
serviceable in most church school classes:
1. The _informational_ lesson; in which the immediate aim is to supply
the mind with new knowledge or facts needed as a part of the equipment
of thought and understanding.
2. The _developmental_ (or inductive) lesson; in which the aim is to
lead the child through his own investigation and thinking to use the
information already in his possession as a basis for discovering new
truth or meaning.
3. The _application_ (or deductive) lesson; in which the aim is to make
application of some general truth or lesson already known to particular
problems or cases.
4. The _drill_ lesson; in which the aim is to give readiness and skill
in fundamental facts or material that should be so well known as to be
practically automatic in thought or memory.
5. The _appreciation_ lesson; in which the aim is to create a response
of warmth and interest toward, or appreciation of, a person, object,
situation, or the material studied.
6. The _review_ lesson; in, which the aim is to gather up, relate, and
fix more permanently in the mind the lessons or facts that have been
studied.
7. The _assignment_ lesson; in which help is rendered and interest
inspired, for study of the next lesson.
THE INFORMATIONAL LESSON
The child at the beginning is devoid of all knowledge of and information
about the many objects, activities, and relationships that fill his
world. He must come to know these. His mind can develop no faster than
it has the materials for thoughts, memories, ideas, and whatever else is
to occupy his stream of thought. He must therefore be supplied with
information. He must be given a fund of impressions, of facts, of
knowledge to use in his thinking, feeling, and understanding.
To undertake to teach the child the deeper meanings and relationships of
God to our lives without this necessary background of information is to
confuse him and to fail ourselves as teachers. For example, a certain
primary lesson leaflet tells the children that the Egyptians made slaves
out of the Israelites and that God led the Israelites out of this
slavery. But there had previously been no adequate preparation of the
learners' minds to understand who the Israelites or the Egyptians were,
nor what slavery is. The children lacked all basis of information to
understand the situation described, and it could by no possibility
possess meaning for them.
The use of the information lesson.--It is not meant, of course, that
when the chief purpose of a lesson is to give information no
applications should be made or no interpretations given of the matter
presented. Yet the fact is that often the chief emphasis must be placed
on information, and that for the moment other aims are secondary. To
illustrate: When young children are first told the story of God creating
the world the main purpose of the lesson is _just to give them the
story_, and not to attempt instruction as to the power and wonder of
creative wisdom, nor even at this time to stress the seventh day as a
day of rest. When the story of Moses bringing his people out of Egypt is
told young children, the providence of God will be made evident, but the
facts of the story itself and its enjoyment just as a story should not
in early childhood be overshadowed by attempting to force the moral and
religious applications too closely.
It even happens that the indirect lesson, in which the child is left to
see for himself the application and meaning, is often the most effective
to teaching. The same principle holds when, later in the course, the
youth is first studying in its entirety the life of Jesus. The main
thing is to get a sympathetic, reverent, connected view of Jesus's life
as a whole. There will, of course, be a thousand lessons to be learned
and applications to be made from his teachings, but these should rest on
a fund of _accurate information about Jesus himself and what he taught_.
Danger of neglecting information.--It should be clear, then, that in
advocating the informational lesson there is no thought of asking that
we should teach our children _mere_ facts, or fill their heads with
_mere_ information. The intention is, rather, to stress the important
truth often seemingly forgotten, that to be intelligent in one's
religion there are certain, fundamental _things which must be known_;
that to be a worthy Christian there are certain facts, stories,
personages, and events with a knowledge of which the mind must be well
furnished. There can be little doubt that the common run of teaching in
our church schools has failed to give our children a _sufficient basis_
of information upon which to build their religious experience.
Informational instruction may be combined with other types of lessons,
or may be given as separate lessons which stress almost entirely the
informational aspect of the material. In the younger classes the
information will come to the children chiefly in the form of stories,
and the accounts of lives of great men and women. Later in the course,
Bible narrative, history, and biography will supply the chief sources of
informational material.
THE DEVELOPMENTAL LESSON
It is a safe principle in teaching not to give ready-made to children a
fact or conclusion which they can easily be led by questions and
suggestions to discover for themselves. Truths which one has found out
for himself always mean more than matter that is dogmatically forced
upon him. The pupil who has watched the bees sucking honey from clover
blossoms and then going with pollen-laden feet to another blossom, or
one who has observed the drifting pollen from orchard or corn field, is
better able to understand the fertilization of plants than he would be
from any mere description of the process.
On the same principle, the child will get a deeper and more lasting
impression of the effects of disobedience if led to see the effect of
the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the shame and sorrow and feeling of
guilt that came to them, than he will through listening to ever so many
impressive assertions on the sin of disobedience. If the concrete lesson
is carried over to his own personal experience and his observation of
the results of disobedience, and the unhappiness it has brought, the
effect is all the greater.
Purpose of the inductive lesson.--The developmental, or inductive,
lesson, therefore, seeks to lead the child to _observe, discover, think,
find out for himself_. It begins with concrete and particular instances,
but it does not stop with them. It does not at the start force upon the
child any rules or general conclusions, but it does seek to arrive at
conclusions and rules in the end. For example, the purpose in having the
child watch particular bees carrying pollen to blossoms, and in having
him observe particular pollen drifting in the wind, is to teach in the
end the general truth that _certain plants are dependent on insects and
others on currents of air for their pollenization_.
In similar fashion, the purpose in having the child understand the
effects of disobedience in the case of Adam and Eve and in any
particular instance in his own experience is to teach the general
conclusion that _disobedience commonly brings sorrow and trouble_. The
aim, then, is to arrive at a universal truth of wide application, but to
_reach it through appealing to the child's own knowledge, experience,
and observation_. In this way the lesson learned will have more vital
meaning and it will be more readily accepted because not forced upon the
learner.
Two principles.--Two important principles must be kept in mind in
teaching an inductive lesson:
1. A basis or starting point must be found in knowledge or experience
already in the learner's possession.
2. The child must have in his mind the question or problem which demands
solution.
The first of these principles means that in order for the child to
observe, think, discover for himself, he must have a sufficient basis of
information from which to proceed. The inductive lesson, therefore,
rests upon and starts from the informational lesson. To illustrate, in
order to understand and be interested in the work of the bees as
pollen-bearers, the child must first _know the fact_ that the blossoming
and fruiting of the common plants depend on pollen. The ear of corn
which did not properly fill with grains because something happened to
prevent pollen grains from reaching the tips of the silks at the right
time, or the apple tree barren because it failed from some adverse cause
to receive a supply of pollen for its blossoms may properly be the
starting point. The _problem_ or question then arising is how pollen
grains are carried. With this basis of fact and of question, the child
is ready to begin the interesting task of observation and discovery
under the direction of the teacher; he is then ready for the inductive
lesson, in which he will discover new knowledge by using the
information already in his mind.
Conducting the inductive lesson.--In conducting the inductive lesson
the teacher must from the beginning have a very clear idea of the goal
or conclusion to be reached by the learners. Suppose the purpose is to
impress on the children the fact of Jesus's love and care for children.
The lesson might start with questions and illustrations dealing with the
father's and mother's care and love for each child in the home, and the
way these are shown.
Following this would come the story of Jesus rebuking his disciples for
trying to send the children away, and his own kindness to the children.
Then such questions as these: How did the disciples feel about having
the children around Jesus? Why did they tell the children to keep away?
Perhaps they were afraid the children would annoy or trouble Jesus. Have
you ever known anyone who did not seem to like to have children around
him? Does your mother like to have you come and be beside her? What did
Jesus say about letting the children come to him? Why do you think Jesus
liked to have the children around him? How did Jesus show his love for
children? Why do you think the children liked to be with Jesus? Do you
think that Jesus loves children as much to-day as when he was upon
earth? Do you think he wants children to be good and happy now as he did
then? In what ways does Jesus show his love and kindness to children?
The impression or conclusion to grow out of these questions and the
story is that _Jesus loved and cared for children when he was upon
earth, and that he loves and cares for them now just as he did then_.
This will be the goal in the teacher's mind from the beginning of the
lesson.
THE DEDUCTIVE, OR APPLICATION, LESSON
Not all teaching can be of the inductive, or discovery, type. It is
necessary now and then to start with general truths, rules, or
principles and apply them to concrete individual cases. Rules and maxims
once understood are often serviceable in working out new problems. The
conclusions reached from a study of one set of circumstances can
frequently be used in meeting similar situations another time.
For example, the child learns by a study of particular instances the
results of disobedience, and finally arrives at the great general truth
that _disobedience to the laws of nature or of God is followed by
punishment and suffering_. This fact becomes to him a rule, a principle,
a maxim, which has universal application. Once this is understood and
accepted, the child is armed with a weapon against disobedience. With
this equipment he can say when he confronts temptation: This means
disobedience to God's law and the laws of nature; but _disobedience to
the laws of God and of nature brings punishment and suffering_;
therefore if I do this thing, I shall be punished, and shall suffer--_I
will refrain from doing it_.
Making the application.--A large part of our instruction in religion
must be of the deductive kind. It is impossible, even if it were
desirable, to rediscover and develop inductively out of observation and
experience all the great moral and religious laws which should govern
the life. Many of these come to us ready-made, the result of the
aggregate experience of generations of religious living, or the product
of God's revelation to men. Consider, for example, such great
generalizations as: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also;" "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy"; "No man
can serve two masters"; "With what measure ye mete it shall be measured
unto you"; "The wages of sin is death."
These are illustrations of the concentrated wisdom of the finest hearts
and minds the world has seen, words spoken by Inspiration, but true to
the experience of every person. It is our part as teachers to make the
great fundamental moral and religious laws which underlie our lives
living truths to our pupils. To do this we must not teach such truths as
mere abstractions, but show them at work in the lives of men and women
and of boys and girls. We must find illustrations, we must make
applications, and discover examples of proof and verification.
Teaching that fails from lack of applying truth.--The object, then, of
the _inductive_ lesson is to lead the learner to _discover_ truth; the
object of the _deductive_ lesson is to lead him to _apply_ truth. There
can be little doubt that much of our teaching of religion suffers from
failure to make immediate and vital application of the truths we teach.
When we teach the youth that no man can serve two masters, we should not
be satisfied until we have shown him the proof of this truth at work in
the everyday experience of men. When we teach him that the wages of sin
is death, we must not stop with the mere statement of fact, but lead him
to recognize the effects of sin's work in broken lives and ruined
careers.
Nor should we confine our proofs and illustrations to examples taken
from the Bible, valuable as these are. Too many, perhaps half
unconsciously to themselves, carry the impression that religion belongs
rather more to Bible times and peoples than to ourselves. Too many
assent to the general truth of religion and the demands it puts on our
lives, but fail to make a sufficiently immediate and definite
application of its requirements to their own round of daily living. Too
many think of the divine law as revealed in the Scriptures as having a
historical significance rather than a present application. One of the
tasks of deductive teaching is to cure this fatal weakness in the study
of religion.
THE DRILL LESSON
Teaching religion does not require as large a proportion of drill as
many other subjects. This is because the purpose of drill is to make
certain matter automatic in the mind, or to train definite acts to a
high degree of skill. For example, the child must come to know his
multiplication table readily, "without thinking"; he must come to be
able to write or spell or count or manipulate the keys of a typewriter
without directing his attention to the acts required. Wherever automatic
action or ready skill is required, there drill is demanded. Drill
provides for the repetition of the mental or physical act until habit
has made it second nature and it goes on practically doing itself. There
is no way to get a high degree of skill without drill, for the simple
reason that the brain requires a certain amount of repeated action
before it can carry out the necessary operations without error and
without the application of conscious thought.
Drill lessons in the church school.--While the church-school teacher
will not require so much use of drill as the day-school teacher, it is
highly essential that drill shall not be omitted at points where it is
needed. There are some things which the child should learn very
thoroughly and completely in his study of religion. He should know a few
prayers by heart, so that their words come to him naturally and easily
when he desires to use them. He should know the words and music of
certain songs and hymns suited to his age. He should learn certain Bible
passages of rare beauty, and other sentiments, verses, and poems found
outside the Bible. He should come, as a matter of convenience and skill,
to know the names and order of the books of the Bible. In some churches
he is required to know the catechism. Whatever of such material is to be
mastered fully and completely must receive careful drill.
Principles for conducting the drill.--The first step in a successful
drill lesson is to _supply a motive_ for the drill. This is necessary in
order to secure alertness and effort. _Mere_ repetition is not drill.
Monotonous going over the words of a poem or the list of books of the
Bible with wandering or slack attention will fail of results. The
learner must be keyed up, and give himself whole-heartedly to the work.
Let the child come to feel a real _need_ of mastery, and one great
motive is supplied. Let him desire the words of the song because he is
to sing in the chorus, or desire the words of the poem because he is to
take part in a pageant, and there will be little trouble about
willingness to drill.
Again, the competitive impulse can often be used to motivate drill. The
child is ambitious to stand at the head of his class, or to beat his own
record of performance, or to win the appreciation or praise of teacher
or parents, or he has a pride in personal achievement--these are all
worthy motives, and can be made of great service in conducting classroom
or individual drills. The posting of a piece of good work done by a
pupil, or calling attention to the good performance of a member of the
class can often be made an incentive to the whole number.
Drill, in order to be effective, must not stop short of thorough
mastery. The matter which is barely learned, or the verse which can be
but doubtfully repeated is sure to escape if not fixed by further drill.
It is probable, as suggested in an earlier chapter, that we attempt to
have our children memorize too much Bible material which is beyond their
understanding and too difficult for them. On the other hand, there can
be no doubt that we fail to teach them sufficiently well the smaller
amount of beautiful sentiments, verses, poems, songs, and prayers which
should be a part of the mental and spiritual possession of every child.
Our weekly lessons provide for the memorizing of Bible matter week by
week, yet surprisingly few children can repeat any sensible amount of
such material. Better results would follow if we should require less
material, select it more wisely, and then _drill upon it until it is
firmly fixed in the mind as a permanent and familiar possession_.
THE APPRECIATION LESSON
It is quite as essential that the child shall come to enjoy and admire
right things as that he shall know right things. To cultivate
appreciation for the beautiful, the good, the fine, and the true is one
of the great aims of our teaching. One who is able to analyze a flower
and technically describe its botanical parts, but who fails to respond
to its beauty has still much to learn about flowers. One who learns the
facts about the life of Paul, Elijah, or Jesus but who does not feel and
admire the strength, gentleness, and goodness of their characters has
missed one of the essential points in his study. One who masters the
details about a poem or a picture but who misses the thrill of enjoyment
and appreciation which it holds for him has gathered but the husks and
misses the right kernel of meaning.
How to teach appreciation.--Appreciation can never be taught directly.
The best we can do is to bring to the child the thing of beauty or
goodness which we desire him to enjoy and admire, making sure that he
comprehends its meaning as fully as may be, and then leave it to exert
its own appeal. We may by ill-advised comment or insistence even hinder
appreciation. The teacher who constantly asks the children, "Do you not
think the poem is beautiful?" or, "Is not this a lovely song?" not only
fails to help toward appreciation, but is in danger of creating a false
attitude in the child by causing him to express admiration where none is
felt.
There is also grave doubt whether it is not a mistake to urge too much
on the child that he "ought" to love God, or that it is his "duty" to
love the church. The fact is that love, admiration and appreciation
_cannot be compelled_ by any act of the will or sense of duty. They must
arise spontaneously from a realization of some lovable or beautiful
quality which exerts an appeal that will not be denied.
The part of the teacher at this point, therefore, is to act as
interpreter, to help the learner to grasp the meaning of the poem, the
picture, the song, or the character he is studying. The admirable
qualities are to be brought out, the beautiful aspects set forth, and
the lovable traits placed in high light. The teacher may even express
his own admiration and appreciation, though without sentimentality or
effusiveness. Nor is it likely that a teacher will be able to excite
admiration in his class for any object of study which he does not
himself admire. If his own soul does not rise to the beauty of the
twenty-third psalm or to the inimitable grandeur and strength of the
Christ-life, he is hardly the one to hold these subjects of study before
children.
THE REVIEW LESSON
Reviews and tests fulfill a double purpose for the learner: they help to
organize and make more usable the matter that has been learned, and they
reveal success or failure in mastery. They also serve the teacher as a
measure of his success in teaching. The review lesson should not be, as
it often is, a mere repetition of as many facts from, previous lessons
as time will permit to be covered. It should present a _new view_ of the
subject. It should deal with the great essential points, and so relate
and organize them that the threefold aim of _fruitful knowledge_, _right
attitudes_, and _practical applications_ shall be stressed and made
secure.
Guiding principles.--If the section of matter under review deals with
a series of events, such as the story of the migration of the Israelites
from Egypt or the account of the ministry of Jesus, then the review
lesson must pick out and emphasize those incidents and applications
which should become a part of the permanent possession of the child's
mind from the study of this material. These related points should be so
linked together and so reimpressed that they will form a continuous view
of the period or topic studied. There is no place for the incidental nor
for minute and unrelated detail in the review.
The teacher will need most careful preparation and planning to conduct a
review. He must have the entire field to be reviewed fully mastered and
in his own mind as a unit, else he cannot lead the child back over it
successfully. He must work out a lesson plan which will secure interest
and response on the part of his pupils. Many review lessons drag, and
are but endured by the class. This may be accounted for by the fact that
the review recitation often fails to do more than repeat old material.
It may also come from the fact that the children are asked details which
they have forgotten or never knew, so that they are unable to take their
part. It may in some cases arise from the fact that the teacher is
himself not ready for the review, and does not like review days.
Whatever may be the cause, the review that fails to catch interest or
call forth enthusiasm has in so far failed of its purpose. The minds of
teacher and pupils should be at their best and concentration at its
keenest for the review lesson.
ASSIGNMENT OF LESSON
No small part of the success of instruction depends on faithfulness and
skill in assigning lessons. Too often this is left for the very last
moment of the class hour, when there is no time left for proper
assignment and the teacher can give only the most hurried and incomplete
directions. Or, it may be that the only direction that is given is the
exhortation to "be sure to prepare the lesson for next week." But this
will not suffice. We must not forget that children, especially the
younger children, may not know just how to go to work upon the lesson,
nor what to do in getting it. It is hard for any young child to gather
thought from the printed page, even after he has attained fair skill in
reading; and it is doubly hard if the matter is difficult or unfamiliar,
as is much of the material found in the church-school lessons.
How to make the assignment.--In order to assign the lesson properly
the teacher must, of course, be perfectly familiar with the coming
lesson. This means that he must keep a week ahead in his preparation,
which is in the end no loss, but even a gain. The teacher must also have
the plan of the lesson sufficiently in mind that he knows just what
points are to be stressed, what will present the most difficulty to the
class, what will most appeal to their interest, and what will need to be
especially assigned for study or investigation. In lessons which
children are to prepare at home it is usually well to go over the
material briefly with the class in making the assignment, giving hints
for study, calling attention to interesting points, and stating very
definitely just what the class is expected to do.
If there is to be written work, this should be fully understood: if
handwork or drawing or coloring, it should be made perfectly clear what
is required; if memory material is asked for, it should be gone over,
the meaning made clear to every child, and directions given as to how
best to commit the matter. If outside references are assigned in books
or magazines, the reference should be written down in the notebook or
given the child on a slip of paper so that no mistake may be made. The
purpose and requirement in all these matters is to be as definite and
clear as would be required in any business concern, leaving no chance
for failure or mistake because of lack of understanding. Less than this
is an evidence of carelessness or incompetence in the teacher.
1. In order better to understand and to review the several types of
lessons listed in the chapter it will be well for you to look
through the lessons for the current quarter or year and determine
to which type each separate lesson belongs. How many do you find
of each type? Are there many lessons that will involve several of
the types?
2. Which type of these lessons do you best like to teach? Is there
any particular type that you have been neglecting? Any in which you
feel that you are not very successful? What will you need to do to
increase your efficiency on this type of lesson?
3. Do you feel that you are reasonably skillful in leading children
to discover truths for themselves through the use of questions? If
you find when questioning that the children lack the information
necessary to arriving at the truth desired, what must you then do?
What do you consider your greatest weakness in conducting the
developmental lesson?
4. Does your class like review lessons? If not, can you discover
the reason? Have your reviews been largely repetitions of matter
already covered, or have they used such devices as to bring the
matter up in new guise? Do you believe that review day can be made
the most interesting of the lessons? Some teachers say it can, How
will you go at it to make it so?
5. What application, or deductive, lesson have you taught your
class recently? Was it a success? Have you ever discovered a
tendency in your teaching to have your class commit to memory some
great truth, but fail in its application to real problems in their
own lives? What applications of religious truths have you recently
made successfully in your class?
6. What is your method or plan of assigning lessons? Do you think
that any part of the children's failure to prepare their lessons
may be due to imperfect assignments? Will you make the assignment
of the lessons that lie ahead one of your chief problems?
FOR FURTHER READING
Earhart, Types of Teaching.
Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process.
Hayward, The Lesson in Appreciation.
Knight, Some Principles of Teaching as Applied to the Sunday School.
Maxwell, The Observation of Teaching.