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Category: Adult Learning

  • Open and Closed Questions

    If you’ve been following this series of articles, you’ll know that I’ve been promoting learning through dialogue. In dialogic learning, teachers think of themselves less as the “sage on the stage” and more as the “guide on the side.” Since dialogic learning works through dialogue, the instructor will need to ask questions that promote discussion.…

  • Learning Tasks vs. Sharing Everything You Learned

    In the last article, we talked about the importance of slowing down our teaching in Bible class. Part of the reason I tend to rush through my material is that I’ve already grappled with the text and am eager to share what I’ve learned with the class. The easiest way to do this is simply…

  • Let the Students Absorb What You Are Teaching

    Do you ever find yourself speaking at a rapid-fire rate trying to finish the Bible study before time is up? It’s a regular challenge for me. That’s why I appreciate the advice I once received: Don’t talk faster—cover less. Just because you are speaking doesn’t guarantee that people are listening. Especially if you are talking…

  • God’s Word is Always the Solution:
    A Letter From the Editor

    Dear fellow servant of the Word, Has the ministry of our called workers changed over the past few decades? Perhaps it has in some ways. We certainly live in a broken world. That’s not new. It has been broken from the time Adam and Eve coveted the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good…

  • Problem-Solving as a Pillar in Adult Education

    The importance of giving adult students the opportunity to apply what they have learned is one of the assumptions of current andragogy. If we agree that adults learn in order to solve problems, then it seems reasonable to not only teach them biblical principles, to not only convince them that the principle will benefit them, but to…

  • Using Strong Verbs in Your Lessons

    I learned from a venerable coach that it doesn’t help to tell your team, “Okay people. If we play hard, we can win.” Sure, it’s a true statement, but your team is more likely to be successful if you’re specific about the goals for the game (e.g., box out on every shot, pass the ball at…

  • Having an Aim for Your Lesson

    In the last issue of Teach the Word we emphasized that the purpose of a Bible study is not simply to make spiritual smarty-pants out of God’s people so they can answer all the questions in Bible Trivial Pursuit. But since our students must first know God’s Word before they will be empowered to act,…

  • The Purpose of Bible Study

    Augustine (AD 354-430) wrote that biblical education meant “moving the minds of the listeners, not [simply] that they may know what is to be done, but that they may do what they already know should be done.”1 Augustine’s ancient advice is a good reminder for us all. The purpose of any Bible class is not…