The Changing Understanding of How We Learn–Part 2 : What is Effective Learning?

Some of my most significant learning in seminary happened in the cafeteria.

The cafeteria was where we all gathered after chapel, drawn in by the aroma of freshly baked cookies and newly brewed coffee, timed to coincide with the “Amen.” That was where we asked the questions of one another that we could not or would not ask in class. That was where we wrestled with ideas and boldly challenged the notions of professors with whom we would not dare publically disagree in class. I would often leave with more questions than answers, but usually the sense of community and mutuality left me with a positive feeling. Enhanced by the delicious cookies, the cafeteria experience became a positive memory of learning for me. We’ll explore why in a little bit.

A second significant learning experience was the year I spent living in and attending class in an urban ministry context. Not only were the classes held in a low-income, economically challenged neighborhood, but there was ample opportunity woven into the classes for first-hand experiences in community ministry organizations, followed by intentional opportunities to process the experiences in a structured environment.

I will never forget the first time I ate lunch with a homeless woman at a shelter in downtown Boston and listened to her story. I remember the feelings of fear and shame at feeling afraid. I remember feeling awkward and uncertain about what to say—afraid I would say something stupid. I also remember sharing those feelings with other students and no longer feeling alone as other students shared similar feelings. While I can’t remember the professor’s name, I can recall feeling accepted, not judged, and guided to explore my experiences as a source of learning about myself, others, and God. This experience is very similar to a Clinical Pastoral Education experience, which many seminary students declare was transformative for themselves and their later ministries. But why?

Effective Learning = Great Teaching

Throughout my educational experience, there were certain teachers who stood out as great teachers. I usually gave these teachers high marks on course evaluations because I felt I truly learned something in their class, and because they had ignited something within me for the subject matter. What is it that makes a teacher go from a good teacher to a great teacher? Is it more individualized attention, more rich content, more student presentations?  Or is it less?

Parker Palmer (The Courage to Teach) asserts that “good teaching is an act of hospitality.” Perhaps helping students learn is the act of setting the table – creating a welcoming space where students can bring all of who they are to the task of learning.

Often when we speak of teaching, we are referring to actions which are generally focused on the teacher with the learner as the receiver. Most of our language and behavior considers teaching as an action primarily concerned with content and the transference of content using various methodologies.

Helping students learn suggests a shift to a greater focus on the student and on the process of learning within the student. So what is the role of the teacher and how can a teacher begin to make pedagogical shifts toward helping students learn more effectively in the seminary setting? What does a shift toward helping students learn look in a language class, or a theology class, or a Christian education class, or a pastoral care class? What does this shift mean for the tried and true methodologies used by seminaries to prepare students for ministry? Perhaps more importantly, what might the seminary students learn about their own process of learning that could impact how they teach others in their ministry settings? These are difficult and challenging questions for those of us concerned with training hearts and minds to think theologically and act compassionately.

Students learn effectively when….

Ben Johnson, educational consultant, writes in his blog, “Great teachers engineer learning experiences that maneuver the students into the driver’s seat and then the teachers get out of the way. Students learn best by personally experiencing learning that is physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual.”

As John Dewey reminded us 75 years ago, “We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.” Dewey understood learning as an activity which arises from the personal experience of grappling with a problem.

Can you smell the cookies?

So why were the learning experiences I mentioned earlier significant for me? The cafeteria experience was all of the things Johnson suggested: physical (warm coffee, soft cookies, sitting with friends), emotional (memories of my grandmother baking cookies, love and acceptance of friends), intellectual (wrestling and grappling with tough questions and concepts), and spiritual (sense of community, shared faith, love). The experience tapped into emotions and some prior memories which made it a powerful tool for learning.

My experience in inner city Boston was based on Dewey’s process of reflective learning. It was not solely the experience of eating lunch with the women in the shelter that stuck with me. It was appropriating the experience and making meaning of the experience that was transformative and stuck with me for over 25 years.

Educators from John Dewey to Jürgen Habermas to David Kolb have claimed reflection is important for learning. Religious educators, such as Thomas Groome have asserted the value of reflection for spiritual formation as well. Dewey couldn’t have known that the reflective learning process he proposed is precisely the way our physical brain works to learn and remember!

Go here to find out more about reflective learning.

 

Add to favorites