Drew Boswell

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Understanding Roles of Church and Home (Part Three; Written Learning Goals and Objectives)

Written Learning Goals and Objectives

Another way to help parents and teachers in their effort to educate their children would be to have written learning goals and objectives. Doug Fields has written a book entitled Purpose Driven Youth Ministry. What makes this book different from any other “how to do youth ministry” book is that he introduces the concept of identifying “H.A.B.I.T.S. ”[1] that students should be encouraged to implement into their lives.[2] These are activities that students do outside of structured church programs and are an effort to get students to have a quiet time, an accountability partner, memorize Scripture, etc., on their own, away from adult supervision. Field’s theory is that if these “H.A.B.I.T.S.” truly become second nature in the lives of the students, they will more than likely carry them over when they graduate out of youth ministry. The strength of this concept is that he has identified a short list of six things that the youth ministry can focus on and encourage in the lives of the student.

With regard to a strategy of equipping children within the local church, it would be helpful to provide parents and teachers with a list of learning objectives that the church feels are fundamental to the child having a balanced and maturing relationship with God.[3] These learning goals can even be broken down by appropriate age range. For example, two-year-olds would have completely different objectives than second graders.  In order for the material to be reviewed over time these various sets of learning objectives could build upon one another over the course of the child’s time in the church’s children’s ministry.

Someone may ask, “But what if a new student comes into the class or a student misses several lessons?” This lack of knowledge on a particular topic (missions, evangelism, Samson, for example) can be dealt with by making the topics cyclical in nature. For example, a first and second grade class may learn about “missions” and when they graduate up to the third and fourth grade class, they may study it again. Instead of repeating the old material, it will be reviewed and new material will become the focus.  At each class level, even though the same topics may be covered, the learning objectives change toward becoming more complex.[4]

There are several benefits of having written learning goals and objectives. One is that the teachers have a clear list of learning objectives that can help them in evaluating if their teaching has been effective. Second, parents have a clear list of learning objectives so that they can be working on these concepts at home, in the car to the soccer game, during bath time, or whenever the parent thinks would be an appropriate time to teach.[5] The third benefit is that the home and the church can work together, in concert to see that the child’s life conforms to the set biblical teaching objectives and life habits. It has been said that, “what is not evaluated is not worth much.” It is humanity’s natural tendency to drift toward mediocrity rather than push toward improvement and growth. Therefore, a fourth benefit of learning objectives is that it encourages the teacher to do a good job of teaching because he knows that his ministry will be evaluated when the child “graduates” to the next class. There will also be a form of outside evaluation when the child goes home and the parents ask them questions based on the set learning objectives. In discussing this concept of written goals and learning objectives Barna says,

One of the most startling revelations I encountered on this journey was finding that many of the effective ministries have a long-term plan—in some cases an 18-year developmental plan with specific ideals outlined for each age groups from infants through high school seniors. While those churches allow for spontaneity and flexibility despite their long-range planning, they are fully committed to implementing their “big picture” plan.[6]

A teacher may have teaching objectives for a given year, and she may even have learning objectives that she has developed on her own, but for her ministry to be successful these goals have to coincide with the “big picture” for the child’s spiritual development.

A fifth benefit of having written goals and objectives is that the teaching ministry of a church from nursery to high school can function as a team, with one level building upon the next until the child is mature in Christ.[7] A teacher or parent could reference the learning goals and objectives and seek to help one another in their teaching efforts. It is in essence a map for everyone to follow, so that one could get to the desired destination; a growing disciple of Christ.


[1] HABITS is an acronym where the “H” stands for Hang Time With God, “A” stands for Accountability Partner, “B” stands for Bible Memorization, “I” stands for Involvement in the Church, “T” stands for Tithing, and “S” stands for Studying the Bible.

[2] Fields, Purpose Driven Youth Ministry,  Chap. 9.

[3] See Appendix A

[4] See Appendix B for an example of how topics can be repeated with the learning objectives becoming more complex.

[5] Deut 6:7–9

[6] Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, 100.

[7] “Maturing” as defined in Heb 5:14, “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”  (NIV)

The Three Components of Learning (Part Three; Evaluation)

The Three Components of Learning

Part Three

Evaluation

Proverbs 27:23 says, “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds” (NIV). The educational ministry of the church must have a master plan, which has clearly defined objectives. Those objectives can then be used to measure effectiveness. For the teacher each lesson should have clear objectives that are outlined for the student to learn. This is the first and most important way of evaluating teaching effectiveness. A simple way of establishing teaching effectiveness is simply to ask the students what they learned and how they plan to apply this knowledge to their lives. Another evaluation tool is to gather the leadership over a specific section of education and ask them the effectiveness of the teaching in their areas. Perhaps the greatest weakness of most Christian educational departments within the church is that they operate on a week-to-week basis with regard to the teaching. Many times the teacher will look at this comings Sunday’s lesson during the week but look no further. They lack written objectives or goals in which to evaluate if the students are learning. This becomes an even greater problem if teachers rotate as part of a teaching team. In this situation, one teacher may not even know what was taught the week before her lesson, or what the next week’s lesson will cover.

Now that the lesson has been taught, is the work of the teacher over? No. Gregory says in his “Law of review and application,” that the chief aim of the teacher at this point is “to perfect knowledge, to confirm knowledge, and to render this knowledge ready and useful.”[1] The material that has been taught, in order for it to have the most impact, must be reviewed. Review, however, is more than repetition; it is guiding the student back through the thought process that was taken earlier. Even in these times of review new thoughts may be discussed, or new questions may arise. This is especially true of a study of Scripture. Learning theory demonstrates that persons can only recall Bible facts, ideas, and concepts when they understand what is being taught and when the facts, ideas, and concepts are systematically reviewed.[2] It, therefore, is only as the teacher goes back and reviews previous lessons that Bible information is retained. When a lesson is reviewed it is like stacking information. However, in order for the teacher to know what to review, he has to know the big picture is. This explains the importance of master planning.

It has been said that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” But this can also apply to an unexamined ministry. A teacher could go years, if not his whole teaching ministry, making little impact for God’s kingdom. If he had only periodically evaluated how effective he had been, it could have been radically different. Hendricks says that “experience does not necessarily make you better; in fact it tends to make you worse, unless it’s evaluated experiences.”[3] The teacher has to evaluate periodically the methods he is using to determine if they are effective. Oftentimes one does not evaluate because one is afraid of what one might discover. The teacher may have to change what he has always done in the classroom. He may have to try new things that may be risky or make him feel uncomfortable.

The final step in the teaching process is for the student to teach others. Paul explains it this way, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim 2:2 NIV). Eldridge explains that having the student become the teacher accomplishes three things. First, the teaching is reinforced in the life of the original student. He says, “Expressing an idea in a way that others can understand increases the teacher’s comprehension.”[4] Second, when the original student teaches material to a third person, it helps to make concrete the original student’s beliefs. When the teacher has to defend his teaching and knows that he may be questioned as to how he knows what he is teaching is true, he is encouraged to dig deeper himself. Third, having a student become a teacher, the original teacher’s ministry is multiplied (2 Tim 4:12). Jesus did this when He sent the disciples off to share the gospel (Matt 6:7–13). Luke 6:40 says, “. . . everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher” (NIV). The teacher has to constantly be aware that his students (if he is effective) will be like him. In order for this model to be effective, the teacher must be like Christ. While no one is worthy to be a teacher of Scripture, one must make sure that he is doing all that he can to live up to this awesome responsibility and calling. Jesus sets the example, and is the watermark for the Christian educator to follow. Teachers should “press on” to become transformational teachers.


[1] Gregory, The Seven Laws of Teaching, 116.

[2] Dale, Changing Lives or Spinning Wheels, 29.

[3] Hendricks, Teaching to Change Lives, 33.

[4] Eldridge, The Teaching Ministry of the Church, 83.

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