Teaching Others in Order to Learn, part 2

These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Mathew 10:5-7)

I note that Jesus sent the twelve out to teach people about the Kingdom of God even though they were still disciples -- learners. I find this significant, since I've already demonstrated that the Bible recognizes the value of teaching in order to learn.

A story follows that lends credence to the teaching-to-learn model of discipleship & education.

Back in 1990 a university professor shared the secret of his academic success. He did it in a book entitled The Overnight Student: How I went from Straight F's to Straight A's.

Gary North tells the prof's story:

 The professor had been a mediocre student in high school. He had gotten into college, but he flunked out. He asked to get back in. He was told that he would have to take correspondence courses first. He did. This took him two years.

He was re-admitted. But he was working three part-time jobs to pay for school. He worked very hard. He just barely got by academically. Then he made a discovery. He began using a simple technique for improving his comprehension. He describes it in Chapter 7 of his little book. He never got anything lower than an A from that point on. ("The Number-One Study Technique for Mastering New Material and Reviewing Old Material", garynorth.com)

The book now sells on Amazon for about a thousand dollars, used. The excerpt that follows reveals the kernel of his method:

Isaiah 28:13 tells us that the Lord teaches by giving us precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little. [King James Translation] So, start at the beginning of your notes, your book, or whatever your source document is; and pick a bite-size portion, perhaps a paragraph,

and read it. Now look away from your notes or cover them, and don’t touch them. You won’t be allowed to touch them while you’re taking the test, so let’s get rid of that security blanket right now.

Use Your Tongue

Now, teach what you just read, out loud, using your own words, to an imaginary class. Don’t talk in a monotone. Vary your voice inflection. Use your hands. Be a teacher. (Dr. Michael L. Jones, p.25, Louis Publishing, Bellingham, WA)

When I first learned of this, I tried it, and I want to tell you, it required a lot of focus. In fact, I found it so mentally taxing that I gave up. 

The difference between this Jones method and Whole Person Discipleship (via Whole Brain Teaching) lies simply in the fact that you don't have to imagine an audience. Your disciple teaches the bite-sized bit of learning to another disciple, right there. Personalizing the message in his/her own words will come automatically and improve over time.

Thus, while it encourages me to have corroboration of the teaching-to-learn model, it gives me even greater pleasure to know that I have access to an equal or better method, more easily applied.