Looking Ahead In Christian Ed
ed ited by. M a rga ret Ja eob sen 9 A f.A .
Associate professor of Christian Education, Biola Bible College
TEACHER TRAINING HINTS
How To Have More Effective Teachers B ecause the Sunday school in Amer ica goes forward under God with a great army of volunteers, we Can we do better than this? Use the Summer
The American public school wel comes visitors. It is wise to contact the principal and explain, “ I am in terested in teaching 3rd graders in the church. May I observe one of your 3rd grade classes?” A gracious reception will generally be given you and you may ,be surprised at how much you learn. Observe by Plan Look at the classroom. What is the student learning from displays, bulle tin boards, pictures, interest centers? Is the teacher using environment to teach? Listen to the lesson presentation. How does the teacher arouse interest, integrate new material into the pu pil’s body of knowledge, stimulate thinking, develop understanding, re view and repeat, apply the lesson to life? Watch the pupils. What learning activity do they engage in? How are they held responsible for learning? Is there friendly competition between groups or competition with one’s own previous record? Does the pupil seem to have pur pose in learning? Why, or why not? What satisfactions in learning does the pupil have? (Praise from the teacher, satisfaction of a job well done, admiration of other pupils, rec ognition that what he has done well pleases the Lord, etc.) In what way does he (or can he) apply what he learns? Observation and participation un der the leadership of experienced teachers— see and try—these are im portant steps in leadership training in the local church. N ext month: The Teacher’s Work shop.
Daily Vacation Bible School time is here. This is our opportunity for concentrated observation and appren tice training. Our prospective teach ers have heard about and talked about child psychology and methods of teaching. Now is the time for them to see children as they are and watch teachers in action. How much we learn by intelligent observation! Daily Vacation Bible School with its program of 10 or more consecu tive day sessions, offers real concen trated opportunity for work with small groups too. The apprentice teacher observes, but she also helps. At first she directs the activities of a small group and in the second week of the DVBS, she tells the story to a class or even directs the department. The apprentice teacher has the ad vantage of encouragement and help from the regular teacher. Responsi bility is added a little at a time. This is practice teaching. Observe the Skilled Teacher Watching a good teacher at work is always helpful. Observation need not be limited to DVBS, it may be in your own Sunday school. One Sunday school assigned an assistant to each class, who not only observed but got to know the students, the curriculum, and the teaching methods suitable to the class. The substitute teacher was no problem in this church. There was even a waiting list for regular teachers. Observation may be in another Sun day school, or in a Christian day school or in the local public school.
have in this column been discussing ways of developing teachers for the local church. We have discussed: 1) A teacher’s covenant which sets up practical and spiritual standards for the teacher. 2) “ Successful Teaching,” a series of eight filmstrips on the teacher, the pupil, the language, the lesson, the teaching and learning process, review and application, recently produced by Moody Bible Institute. This series is a good intensive eight-session training course for regular of prospective teachers. Combining filmstrips and tape recordings with a booklet of sug gestions for group discussions, this series can easily be used by any group. 3) A more complete course, outlined by the Evangelical Teacher Training Association, 434 S. Wabash, Chicago. 4) The Biola C o rre sp on d en ce School, through which individuals may take ETTA training. 5) A church library with a good section of teacher helps in books and magazines as well as teaching equip ment. But is this enough? A Sunday school superintendent writes, More Than a Training Program “We have had a teacher training program in operation to develop per sons for teaching who have expressed an interest in becoming teachers for our Sunday school, but fcr several reasons only a few of these so-trained have materialized into working teach ers.”
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