ENGAGING LEARNERS

3 CONSIDERATIONS

• What Does It Mean To Engage Learners In Active Learning?
• What Are The Causes Or Conditions For Learning To Be Active?
• How Might An Approach To Engaging Learners Be The Same Or Different For The Christian Educator?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ENGAGE LEARNERS?

• Core Concept
• Jane Vella
• Howard Hendricks & Bruce Wilkinson
• Raymond Wlodkowski
• Learning Is The Goal

1) Core Concept

• Learners can learn, but responsibility for active engagement lies on the shoulders of the teacher

2) Jane Vella

• Author of Taking Learning To Task
• Learners learn when actively engaged - cognitively, emotionally, and physically-with the content.
• The more passive, the more they can disengage
• The greater the involvement, the greater the retention
• Best teachers don't teach all they know but what the learners need to know

3) Hendricks and Wilkinson

• Hendricks = Teaching That Changes Lives = The 7 Laws of Teaching
• “maximum learning is always the result of maximum involvement”
• Wilkinson = The 7 Laws of The Learner
• “the instructor has not taught if the student has not learned.”
• tendency is to blame the student, may be instructor

4) Wlodkowski

• motivation to learn linked to brain and neurological connections that link former learning to new learning
• “Neurons that fire together wire together"
• Responsibility of teacher to build on previous learning and assist in getting "wins" in the brain

5) Learning Is The Goal

• the responsibility of motivating students to learn resides primarily with the instructor
• learning tasks vs. teaching tasks (dialogue vs monologue)
• Learning is the goal, not simply the dissemination of information

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OR CONDITIONS?

• Right Understanding of Self
• Commitment and Disposition of Teacher
• Excellent Understanding of the Learner (5)
• Developing Content So Learners Learn (3)

1) Right Understanding Of Self

• Parker Palmer - “The more familiar we are with our inner terrain, the more surefooted our teaching— and living— becomes”
• “…good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.”
• CW affirms/ Jesus insists that all of life is an overflow

2) Commitment and Disposition of Teacher

• Wilkinson - “If you haven’t learned, then I haven’t taught.” (self-eval/critical-reflective stance)
• Brookfield - teaching is all about whatever helps a student learn

3) Excellent Understanding Of Learner

• Brookfield = “Skillful teaching…is teaching that is contextually informed."
• Wlodkowski = characteristic of empathy
• Hendricks = “the way people learn determines the how you teach.”

3) Excellent Understanding Of Learner

• Knowing Their Demographics
• Knowing Their Learning Styles
• Knowing What They Already Know
• Knowing How They Experience The Content
• Knowing Their Personalities and Backgrounds

4) Developing Content So Learners Learn

• Schemas, Paradigms, Constructivism = Bain/ Heaths/ Barker
• Learning Tasks = Vella/ moves the educational process “from instruction to discovery”
• Disequilibrium, Perspective Transformation = Mezirow, Heaths, Wlodkowski

HOW MIGHT IT BE THE SAME OR DIFFERENT?

• How Are They The Same?
• How Are They Different?

1) How Are They The Same?

• Issuer = “At one level of analysis, the process of teaching and learning is a common human experience regardless of Christian beliefs and commitments since all are created in God’s image.”
• Similar process of developing philosophy of ed = what, why, how

2) How Are They Different?

• Christian education is distinguished by its foundational starting point and distinct teleological purpose...
• God > Actively Involved > There and Not Silent > Teacher Come From God > Teacher In Our Midst > Everyone A Teacher > Called To Learn