Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 20
June 6, 1968
NUMBER 6, PAGE 3b,5-6a

Teaching For Learning (VII.)

Martin M. Broadwell

Let's talk some more about the subject of objectives. We said that they should be stated in "action" terms and should be "measurable." They simply describe what the students should be able to do at the end of the teaching session. In the last article, we stated some objectives for a study of the Book of Acts in which we were interested in the historical aspects of the book. In this case we had ample reason to believe the students were quite familiar with at least the first principles of Acts. Now let's change the picture, though, and suppose that the class is full of those who have only recently obeyed the Gospel, or at least are still considered to be babes in Christ. Do our objectives look any different? Certainly, someone says. Now we need to go through the verse-by-verse study not needed in the previous case. Do we? Let's see if that's really the case.

Where Are We Going?

Remember, we said that first we must decide where the student is, and where we want him to go, before we can get him there. Where do we want him to go? Here are some possibilities:

1. We can reinforce the correctness of their acts or steps of conversion.

2. We can establish in their minds to a much better degree, the important events in the beginning of the church.

3. We can cause them to become familiar with the various conversions, with emphasis on time and place; rather than the actual events.

4. We can do a complete survey of the book, chapter by chapter, putting emphasis on important events in each chapter.

There are other approaches, perhaps, but this will give us an idea and something to work with.

What about objectives for these various possibilities? Let's look at the first one, "Reinforce the correctness of the students' steps in conversion." Now look what happens. If we choose to do so, we can omit much of the parts of the book that does not deal directly with conversion and spend as much time as we think wise on the various conversions. We must first decide what it is we want the students to be able to do when the study is over, then determine how we can measure the result.

What Would Be A Good Objective?

-The student should be able to give scripture references that show an example for at least four (or two, or -five, etc.) conversions and show how this relates to his own conversion, with respect to each of the steps.-

Another Way Of Doing This Would Be To Say,

-The student should be able to list the things that took place in his conversion and give a scriptural example from the Book of Acts for each of the steps.

There are a number of other approaches, of course, and the individual teacher should find one that suits his specific case. The approach might be to be able to relate the story of any conversion, given only the name. The student would be able to give the scripture reference for each of the examples.

Can We Measure The Results?

Notice that each of the examples of objectives given here can easily be tested. If they are stated ahead of time, the student should not be surprised that we attempt to measure to see if the teacher has done his job properly. Notice, too, that it is possible to study the Book of Acts without going through it verse by verse, even if there is no literature to guide the study. The thing that makes it all right to skip from one conversion to the next is the objective that says the student is to be able to do something with these conversions. Another important point is that when we strike out to study a book like Acts on a verse by verse basis, we are combining so many different kinds of subjects that we will have a hard time trying to set one objective that will cover all our needs. The fault, however, does not lie in our inability to state our objective; it lies in the fact that we may well have no objective in mind at all!

There is something here that is important that quite often is overlooked. One thing that all of us recognize is that anytime we start something, we like to know two things: What are we going to do, and when are we going to stop? The objective takes care of the first part...usually the second part gets left out. Long, almost endless studies, that never seem to be going anywhere, become a drag on the minds of many students.

Here again, let's be sure that we understand that there is nothing wrong with a verse by verse study, as long as we have some realistic objective or purpose in mind.

Here's something to try that really will work and is a very effective way to study. It also is a good way to build and hold interest. (It also means work for the teacher, which may be the biggest problem after all.) Look back over the various possibilities in studying the Book of Acts. What would happen if each of these possibilities were undertaken, one at a time. This would mean four short trips through the book, rather than one long one. Each time through would be a reinforcement, but the objectives for each trip would be quite different. The students would get much more of a feeling of accomplishment, because four goals would be reached rather than one.

A personal example from business is in order here. Several years ago I took over the responsibility for a certain amount of the training in our company, including correspondence courses. At that time we had only one course. It used as a guide a rather lengthy book, and the entire course had over 30 lessons in it. At that time over 300 people had signed up for the course over a period of several years, but the completion rate was less than 3%! As an experiment, I revised the course and made three separate courses out of it. In reality, all I did was divide the book into three equal parts and make each part a complete course in itself. When a student finished any part, he received a certificate and was under no obligation to take anymore of the other courses. But a funny thing happened. In a short time, several hundred students had enrolled in the first course (10 lessons), and the completion rate was over 80%. Of those completing the first course, at least 75% signed up for the next one, and so it was with the third one also.

The reason for this is obvious, but we fail to apply it in our Bible study program many times. Of course, where we use literature, especially in the smaller children's classes, we can at least reach a goal by finishing a book every so often. But take a look sometime and see if this isn't misleading. The books often look very familiar to the last one, in color and design, and the format inside most often is still the same. This doesn't make the books wrong...it makes the teacher's job important in that he must be sure to see that each book is a complete package and an accomplishment in itself. Notice how the children like to get new books, and you will see the point. The teacher should start the new book with a quick overview, being sure to state that these are some of the things you will know at the end of this book. (We'll talk more about objectives at this level later, so we won't go far now.)

The next time we hope to discuss setting objectives for someone who has not yet obeyed the Gospel, who is now to study the Book of Acts. You try it yourself. What would you want a person to be able to do at the end of such a study? Would you study all of the book to reach this goal, or only part? Are there ways to go through the book several times, with different objectives in mind each time? Think about it and see if you would be willing to put out the work to reach such objectives. Remember, somebody's soul may depend on it!

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