kata ta biblia

a blog exploring Christian origins, biblical studies, social/cultural history, method, education and the journey through academia

Considering Intrapersonal Learning

One of the classes I’m taking this quarter is “The Congregation as Learning Community” where we discuss issues related to education in Christian congregations (as you might expect). In this past week, our primary assignment was to present on a book in small groups. Each group was given not only a book (ours was Practicing Our Faith edited by Dorothy C. Bass), but also a learning method to drive our presentation (ours was “intrapersonal”). This presented a challenge: how does one “present” anything conducive to intrapersonal learning. Should we integrate intrapersonal reflection within the classroom setting itself?

Fortunately, my partner and I had a topic that worked well here. The idea of Bass’ book is that we need to “practice our faith” in tangible ways in everyday activities. So, we started our 20 minute presentation with a meditation exercise where people found another place in the room (“body” learning) to pray and reflect on the calm images of nature that we were projecting on the screen (“visual” learning). After a couple minutes, we asked them to slowly and quietly return to their seats (“body” again).

Then we asked them to consider the shift in imagery when we showed them video of busy images taken from the streets of Tokyo (“visual” again). The point was: this book helps us to unite our intrapersonal reflections and experiences with our interpersonal practices and activities. I think the reflection time in that moment was appropriate and, as parenthetically mentioned, was appropriately combined with other learning methods (body and visual).

The issue for me is the fact that “intrapersonal” reflection is directly related to the topic here. My question is how easily one might allow for intrapersonal moments within other class settings. This course is intended for congregational learning, where times of prayer and meditation may be more appropriate than a college classroom. I’m not sure I will use similar techniques when I teach Christian origins.

The exercise is nevertheless a reminder that educators should move beyond the old standard lecture style and consider new ways of reaching multiple learning modes within a single classroom session. How do we impart information while also promoting critical engagement with the course materials?

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1 Comment by Patrick George McCullough  /  May 11, 2008  /  Posted in: books, classes, intrapersonal, learning styles, Uncategorized
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  • http://inthecornerwithmatt.blogspot.com J. Matthew Barnes

    I completely agree with you Pat that we must incorporate varied pedagogical methods in the classroom, especially in universities and seminaries.

    However, many professors fall back on the lecture style for at least three reasons: 1) As a professor friend of mine at Baylor said: “If you aren’t introverted when you begin your PhD, you will be when you are finished!” His point was that dedicated graduate studies change students…and since much of this learning is done in isolation, it is simpler and more natural for most professors to simply talk about the information that needs to be shared with the students; 2) Preparing for class is already time consuming (as I have had the privilege to find out many times myself!), thus adding to this already consuming task by thinking about how to present the material is viewed by many as impractical; and 3) Many (if not most) graduate schools do not incorporate much good pedagogical training into their curriculum, thus leaving their graduates out on a limb when it actually comes time to teach. Thus, many of them turn to the easiest alternative — an academic lecture.

    Now I’m not saying that any of theses rationalizations are good, in fact I would say that they are all bad. A good teacher should be willing to make the time sacrifices needed to teach effectively. However, when teaching begins to infringe on higher priorities (like faith and family in my case), what is the professor to do? We all only have 24 hours a day.

    So I agree, teachers and professors should do as much as possible to vary their teaching styles to better accommodate learning. However, when teaching begins to steal time from other more important things, any teachers ability to convey information effectively is going to be hurt.