Ask a random Latter-Day Saint off the street what the state of teaching is within the Church today and you could get a response anywhere from ‘decent’ to ‘horrible’–likely directly related to the quality of the 3-4 most recent lessons they’ve attended.
Generally speaking, in the Church today, there are:
- A few great teachers
- Some good teachers
- A great many adequate teachers
- Lots of poor teachers.
Poor teachers leave students depressed, unfulfilled, and sometimes angry after class ends. People start habits of leaving church after sacrament meeting–sometimes going inactive entirely–because of poor teachers.
Adequate teachers fulfill their callings without leaving students in a bad mood afterwards. Students receive some basic gospel instruction during the lesson which is presented in a competent manner…and which is usually forgotten about thirty seconds after they walk out of the classroom.
Good teachers leave students in a happier mood than when they came. Students receive gospel instruction that will stay with them throughout the week, if not longer. Most of the important gospel lessons that Church members retain and internalize throughout their lives come from good teachers.
Great teachers leave students sad once the block hour is over…because they want to hear more. Great lessons leave students feeling ‘reconverted’ to the gospel, and give them knowledge and wisdom that they not only remember and act on throughout their lives, but have the desire to share with others also.
Church members despise poor teachers, tolerate adequate teachers, appreciate and respect good teachers, but actually look forward to lessons from great teachers.
Teaching is fundamental to the gospel. From the beginning, the pattern has been: God teaches gospel truths to a handful of people–and then they share those truths with everyone else. The very first teachers (Adam and Eve, naturally) were specifically told they had a responsibility to teach their posterity:
“Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time. Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children” (Moses 6:57-59)
Likewise, Church members of all ages after A&E have been given the responsibility not only to learn gospel principles themselves, but teach those principles to others. The fundamental purpose of every part of Church meetings following the sacrament is to teach and be taught.
Why have this pattern? (In other words, why can’t we learn the gospel directly from God’s mouth instead of through the opaque filter of other Church members?) Because teaching is a part of eternal progression, not only for the students but the teachers themselves.
Teaching is not a zero-sum game. Passing on knowledge to a receiving person does not diminish the giving person–in fact, teaching benefits both the giver and the receiver: “Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together.” (D&C 50:22)
Since organized teaching is important and omnipresent within Church life, improving the quality of teaching is vital. President Spencer W. Kimball once said:
“Stake presidents, bishops, and branch presidents, take a particular interest in improving the quality of teaching in the Church. I fear that all too often many of our members come to church, sit through a class or meeting, and they then return home having been largely uninformed….We often do vigorous enlistment work to get members to come to church but then do not adequately watch over what they receive when they do come” (Teaching of Spencer W. Kimball, pg 524)
Okay…but how do you improve gospel teaching, then? Oftentimes the simplistic response is just to “call better teachers”. But this presumes teaching ability is hard-coded in DNA and cannot be changed–that good teachers were born good (and poor teachers likewise) without recognizing that teachers can improve. What if that great gospel doctrine teacher you love to listen to every week wasn’t always great–she became great only through experience and study…and a ‘training’ period of being adequate or worse before she figured out what she was doing? Are there specific things that teachers can do to move themselves up the quality scale?
In my opinion, yes. Since my mission, I’ve been an Elders Quorum teacher, Priests Quorum teacher, Primary teacher, Young Men’s teacher, and a Sunday School teacher; some more than once. My current calling is in the Stake Sunday School Presidency, where one of our main purposes is to visit the Sunday School classes of the different wards, and work with ward teachers and SS presidencies to improve the quality of teaching. I’ve taught many lessons (and attended many more) through the years. I’ve made some terrible teaching mistakes (which you’ll hear about), but have through time and experience learned from the mistakes and have been able to improve. I’ve seen many common mistakes that teachers make which undercut the power of their lesson, and will attempt to share some of my limited experience in written form. It is the same concern that Pres. Kimball shared several decades ago that is the primary motive for this series: how to improve gospel teaching.
There is no ‘right’ way to teach (although you can argue there are certainly many ‘wrong’ ways): Attending the same lesson taught by several different ‘good’ teachers can all be inspiring, despite being almost completely different in structure and execution.
“Teaching by the Spirit” (the scriptural ‘right’ way to teach—see D&C 42) is the key to successful gospel instruction…but even then, as a guiding principle it is fairly broad. Good teachers find a variety of useful and effective ways to ‘teach by the Spirit’–and, frustratingly, some teachers with strong testimonies and gospel backgrounds often fail at ‘teaching by the Spirit’ through poor execution. How can teachers more regularly harness the power of the Spirit and make a meaningful connection with their students? Hopefully, this series will be able to analyze some important factors, and provide some basic advice as to how to improve gospel teaching in the Church.
NOTE: ‘Teaching’ within this series will refer primarily to ‘lesson teaching’–organized classes in the second/third block hours taught by a teacher working from a lesson manual–mostly because that happens to be where the bulk of my experience lies, and the area specifically addressed by President Kimball above that needs guidance and improvement. “Lesson teaching” in this context includes all Sunday School classes, EQ/RS classes, and YM/YW classes–although not Primary so much, because as any Primary teacher will tell you, teaching young children is a different animal altogether. (Primary probably deserves its own series…by someone else with more direct experience than me.)
Some of these principles will have application to other forms of teaching in the Church, from sacrament talks, to FHE, to missionary work, but the primary focus will be teaching organized lessons to Church members 12 and older.
NEXT: How to be Adequate…
This looks interesting. I hope you will take time to focus on teaching teens. I teach 16 – 18 year olds and it is extremely challenging.
I second Matts request as I find teens much different to teach than adults. I would love some suggestions on quality teaching when everything you say has to be translated into another language which is what I am doing now. I look forward to this series, I need it.
Even though I love doctrinal discussions I tend to think that for most lessons that’s a mistake. The key aspect I think most teachers miss is that they have to be entertaining. If most in the class aren’t listening and don’t remember what you say when they leave the class you’ve largely failed. Yes it’s easy to put the burden on the class as one might in say a university class. But by and large the biggest problem is that teachers aren’t that interesting.
You have to find one or two points and then sock them home with entertaining personal stories.
Of course being entertaining is a bit of an art. There’s only so much you can teach. But you can teach a lot. (Indeed just the suggestion to find personal stories to relate to a few key passages is more than I think most teachers realize)
I disagree with the idea that a teacher must be entertaining. Sure, its nice when they are, but give me a teacher thats entertaining and a teacher thats interesting, I’ll take the interesting one any day.
The problem Nick, is that those who are interesting typically are so because they are entertaining. Some people might find doctrinal discussions interesting (I do, for instance) but most don’t. Thus for most people interesting and entertaining are closely tied together.
One GD teacher I had a few years ago was not entertaining at all, but brilliant, and for the first time I was excited to go to GD. She wasn’t dull, I just wouldn’t call her entertaining. She’s the best GD I ever had, and I think the whole class would agree. I’m just saying that entertainment is not a requirement to be one of the “great teachers” that Kevin mentions, though I agree it is nice. It definitely helps youth and less cerebral adults. When I teach the youth, I try to be both- entertaining, AND interesting. I’m ok at the first, but the second is much harder and is what I think makes a great teacher.
Dianna H. #2: I plan on writing a post at the new Feast blog (http://feastuponthewordblog.org/) in the next week or so about my experience teaching youth (12-14-year-olds), stay tuned. (Notice also Joe Spencer’s idea for teaching youth using paradox: http://feastuponthewordblog.org/2007/01/08/the-role-of-paradox-in-teaching-especially-for-youth/.)
Nick and Clark: I think that being interesting is the goal and sometimes that means being entertaining, esp. for kids. I agree with Clark that stories are an important part of teaching in the Church, and that personal application is important, and that personal stories are a very good way to keep a lesson interesting. Personally, I think that the most important part of teaching is to ask good questions and then steering discussion properly. Some would argue that this means the teacher isn’t bringing much insight to the class and so the discussion will not be good if class members haven’t been studying much (and, let’s face it, most don’t…). I disagree, and I think Jim F.’s study questions are a good counter-example. It’s obvious from the questions he asks that he’s studied the text (and commentaries) carefully, and that he’ll lead a good discussion about the scriptures by asking his students thoughtful questions.
(Sorry, the “a” tags aren’t working and I don’t know how else to make hyperlinks….)
Last year (2006) I took the teacher development course during the Sunday School hour. It was based on the church manual “Teaching, No Greater Call.”
Product ID: 36123000, at http://www.LDScatalog.com, or here. [Mod Edit: fixed link]
The teacher of the teacher development course was himself entertaining, interesting, dynamic, and filled with the Spirit. His real-life job is business coaching and motivational stuff.
I think one of the best ways to improve your teaching skills is to take a class, any class, taught by someone with excellent teaching skills. I was fortunate to take several Institute classes within the past few years from our regional CES coordinator, who is perhaps the best teacher I’ve ever had in a church setting. When I read the “Teaching, No Greater Call” manual, I soon realized that the Institute teacher was going by that book.
I’ll add my praise for the “Teaching, No Greater Call” manual. It should be owned, read, and studied by anyone with a teaching calling in the church.
Too much emphasis on the teacher is bad. There is too little emphasis on the learners. How many read the lessons before they attend the class? How many pray that they may have some revelation about the principles of the lesson? How many are studying the scriptures the lessons are based on? How many have sought out conference talks related to the scriptures.
This subject shouldn’t be addressed without reading david Bednar’s 2006 talk to CES talk.
georgeD:
Your point is an interesting paradox. If you want to put emphasis on the learners, who is it that places that emphasis or gives that influence? It’s the teacher.
I remember feeling like I learned so much in 8th grade religion at my Catholic grade school only to find what seemed like watered down content in my high school years. We covered so much ground in that year. We studied so much from the Scriptures to the Crusades. Plus, we had a morality section to boot. I don’t know how to apply this all here, but I know that I loved all the learning.
As far as Gospel Doctrine, I find that I enjoy the class much better if the teacher is a cute male. Call me shallow.
People in my ward think I’m a “great teacher” because I show up every week and always have something prepared (I actually never bother bringing the lesson folder with me, since I type up my own lesson and usually have my version memorized.) For me, it’s an open question as to whether my 7/8 year olds are actually learning anything, so I don’t think of myself as so great, but in a ward where it’s rare for a teacher to have this calling for six months straight (I’ve been in Primary continuously longer than anyone else in the ward, as of a few months ago) I guess a different standard might apply.
In any event, someday I might be moved to YW or Sunday School, so I look forward to reading more of this series. ^_^
In my opinion I feel that if someone feels that their sunday school teacher, RS or Elder Quorum teacher is not a “good” teacher and the lesson is boring and then it is up to the student to comment in class and do what they can to make the lesson “more interesting”. A boring teacher is no reason to leave church early.
It is also important to remember that it is the teacher’s calling to be in that position weather it is to help us, them or both.
georgeD—I’ve actually found reading the lesson beforehand to be a detriment in my ward. They are such sticklers for teaching by the book that they 1) repeat things nearly word-for-word, 2) rush to try to get the whole lesson in (despite the manuals instructing NOT to do this) and 3) don’t appreciate insights that aren’t in the book.
When I read ahead, I’m even more bored than usual.
One of the biggest faux pas teachers make is to try to teach too much. They end up teaching nothing.
I have thought it would be nice to call a teacher coach to audit the various classes and help with targeted teacher training. It would have to be someone who could do that without offense, though.