Created to Learn: A Christian Teacher's Introduction to Educational Psychology, Second Edition

By William Yount

This revised and expanded second edition of Created to Learn—an ECPA Gold Medallion Award finalist—shows teachers how to organize and tailor classroom instruction to fit the learning styles of their students. In a real sense, author William R. Yount takes the theories of teaching and learning and brings them to life inside the classroom. Additional content in this updated edition includes:

• More information on new reasearch into learning theories, including discoveries in the field of neuroscience that provide far more detail about brain function.
• New chapters on Constructivism and brain-based learning.
• Updated research from Yount’s teaching experiences in other countries.
• Full rewrite of original text, condensing material that has moved into other books, removing data found to be less helpful, and adding research that provides support for evolving ideas about cognitive and humanistic learning theory systems, designing instructional objectives, and the revolution in brain science.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BH Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9781433672811

William Yount

William "Rick" Yount is professor and assistant dean of the Foundations of Education division, School of Educational Ministries, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He travels every year to teach pastors and missionaries in the former Soviet Union. Yount lives with his wife in Fort Worth, Texas.

Book preview

Copyright © 2010 by William Yount

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

978-0-8054-4727-9

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 380.15

Subject Heading: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY \ RELIGIOUS EDUCATION—PSYCHOLOGY

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 • 15 14 13 12 11

To Barb—

Blessings to you for watching my back this year,

literally, as I sat hours at a time,

poring over texts and tapping this book into my computer.

Words cannot express my thanks

for your encouragement, support, and love.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Foreword

Preface to Second Edition

Acknowledgments

UNIT 1: Educational Psychology and the Christian Teacher

Chapter 1: The Disciplers' Model

Chapter 2: Knowing, Science, and the Christian Teacher

UNIT 2: Educational Psychology and Learners

Chapter 3: How We Develop as Persons: Erik Erikson

Chapter 4: How We Develop as Thinkers: Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky

Chapter 5: How We Develop as Moral Decision Makers: Lawrence Kohlberg

UNIT 3: Educational Psychology and Learning

Chapter 6: Traditional Behavioral Learning: B. F. Skinner

Chapter 7: Social Behavioral Learning: Albert Bandura

Chapter 8: Cognitive Learning I: Jerome Bruner

Chapter 9: Cognitive Learning II: Information Processing Theory

Chapter 10: Humanistic Learning: Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

Chapter 11: The Christian Teachers' Triad: A Meta-Theory of Learning

Chapter 12: Instructional Taxonomies: Setting Up Targets for Teaching

UNIT 4: Educational Psychology and Motivation

Chapter 13: Provoking the Desire to Learn

Chapter 14: The Teacher and Classroom Climate

Chapter 15: Measurement as Motivation: Evaluation of Learning

UNIT 5: Educational Psychology and the Brain

Chapter 16: Mind over Matter: Teaching Brains by Teaching People

Epilogue

Notes

Index

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FOREWORD

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In 1989 I taught my first class in educational psychology at Southwestern Seminary. At that time, following the lead of my esteemed professors, I used the best secular textbook in educational psychology I could find. Then I spent that semester and the following years trying to adapt it to the needs of my Christian education students. It was laborious, identifying the applicable aspects of each theory and adjusting the suggestions for those who teach in schools where attendance is compulsory and motivation is often extrinsic to the unique classrooms of Christian learning and teaching, where attendance is voluntary and motivation is intrinsic.

One of the most helpful resources during those days was the class notes that Rick Yount shared with me, his student. I knew then that he had a gift for infusing abstract concepts with real life application, and this knowledge was confirmed when the first edition of Created to Learn: A Christian Teacher's Introduction to Educational Psychology was published in 1996.

Since its first publication, I have used Created to Learn every year in my teaching at three institutions, including both masters' and doctoral classes. Rick Yount's clear and precise writing, along with his gift for analogies and stories, has made his work a favorite of my students. While it serves as an introduction, students return to Created to Learn for clarification and explanation of foundational teachings and review the suggestions for applying educational theories. This book is on my must-read list for every Christian education student.

This new revision builds on the strengths of the previous edition. Yount's engaging, readable writing style; his continuous and creative application of the concepts presented; and the objectives and learning activities that surround each chapter are still present. However, the addition of new material, such as chapters on constructivism and brain-based learning—as well as the added experiences of Yount's international teaching and updated research and statistics examples—bring it up-to-date and solidify its position as the premiere textbook in educational psychology for Christian teaching.

Throughout this text, Yount passionately conveys that God has created each person with the capacity to learn, and that capacity includes the ability to know and follow Jesus. He also convincingly communicates that Christian teachers can know, understand, and appreciate how students learn and can use empirical research to make good decisions about teaching, whether in an academic setting or in the church.

Dr. LeRoy Ford, in his book Design for Teaching and Training, proposed that a gap exists between what we know about the way people learn and what we actually do in the classroom. A standard book on educational psychology might focus only on the theories—what we know about the way people learn. But Yount has bridged the gap identified by Ford by taking the theories of teaching and learning and bringing them to life in the classroom. You will enjoy using Created to Learn to help your students become bridge builders for learning in the kingdom.

—Norma Hedin, Ph. D.

Fellow and Professor of Foundations of Education

B. H. Carroll Theological Institute, Arlington, Texas

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PREFACE

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Second Edition

Welcome. Come in. Have a seat here at the table. There's a warm fire in the corner. Sufficient light for making notes and drawing diagrams. Pleasant food and drink to sustain a long conversation. I cannot tell you how glad I am to see you. There is nothing I'd rather do than sit here and discuss the ministry of equipping and discipling others with you. But I am curious. Why have you come? What brought you to this place? The answers to these questions make a difference in the way we handle our time together.

How Come We to This Place?

The path bringing me to this place sprang from a life of Bible study and passed through academic studies of philosophy, theology, and psychology. The philosophies of Idealism, Realism, Neo-Thomism, Pragmatism, and Existentialism—particularly as applied to religion and education—still dance across my mind. Even after nearly forty years, I find myself playing with the philosophies as they intersect educational problems: the nature of the learner, the teacher, methodology, intended outcome, and social impact. Yet formal philosophy did not lead me here.

I have little desire to engage in discussions that have little apparent purpose other than the glorification of the intellect of the participants. I think of the two philosophers who, sitting by a quiet brook, spent the afternoon debating the essence of wetness. A young boy came wandering by; listened for a moment; and then, bored by the abstract banter, simply plunged his hand into the water. Ah, wet! I am that young boy. While I enjoy wrestling with various philosophical views from time to time, I do not consider myself, personally or professionally, a philosopher.

The path to this place passed through studies of systematic, historical, and comparative theology. I certainly benefited from the Greek compartmentalization of biblical Truth (God, man, sin, Christ, Holy Spirit, salvation, Church, last things); but formal theology did not lead me here. The endless quoting of essays, books, and monographs; the categorizing and re-categorizing of theological thoughts, views, arguments, and counter arguments can be exhausting and, at times, spiritually demoralizing. While I strive to live out biblical theology in my everyday decisions, I do not consider myself, personally or professionally, a theologian.

The path to this place passed through studies in psychology—especially that strain of psychology given to the educational process. I have taught masters' courses and doctoral seminars in issues of educational psychology for thirty years, but it is not psychology per sec that brought me here. While I see the value of psychological insights into human thought, affect, and behavior, I do not consider myself, personally or professionally, a psychologist.

I am a Christian teacher. It is my calling, my focus, my personal passion. You will see this teacher-first focus throughout the text. I am thrilled that you care enough to share my musings, to question and explore them with me. Sharing these discoveries with teachers—disciplers, pastors, missionaries, parents—has been a great joy for most of my adult life.

By teacher, I mean something more than commonly accepted concepts of teacher-teller, teacher-facilitator, or teacher-coach. Teaching embraces nothing less than personal life change. It anchors into concepts of personal engagement, discipleship, equipment, and transformation of learners. It is from this perspective that I began using the term discipler to emphasize the distinction in my very first book on teaching¹ (The Disciplers, self-published, 1977). Discipler and teacher are not synonyms.

God calls us as disciplers to shape our learners—their thinking, values, and behaviors—by His power, toward His ends, through His Word. Without that call, we reduce the study of educational psychology to bits and pieces of conflicting theories. Without the desire to use these discoveries to help others grow in their sense of spiritual being, we are left with little more than incomplete, and often irrelevant, viewpoints from history. These viewpoints can leave us unsatisfied, even depressed.

Erik Erikson carries us through eight stages of personality development, ending for most, it seems, in a state of despair at the end of a broken life. We all suffer fractures in one way or another, at one time or another, in life. But as disciplers, we can use Erikson's stages to attack problems all along the human lifespan—in terms of educational ministries in local churches, in church schools, or even seminaries—to support the Hope only the Lord can give. When we study Erikson through the filter of Christian discipleship, he helps us in ways he never dreamed.

Jean Piaget explained the mechanism by which the mind constructs a mental representation of the world we experience. He sorely misrepresented early developmental stages of children as negative by emphasizing their lack of adult cognitive abilities. Yet, as disciplers, we can use his mechanisms and stages to help learners of every age move, according to their ability, beyond personal perception to Truth, beyond personal reality to God's Reality—to His view of our world and His kingdom, which is at hand. Piaget helps us in ways he never dreamed.

Lawrence Kohlberg's work on moral reasoning helps explain the mechanism by which human beings make moral choices. His focus is process, however, not outcome. He provides no help with what is right or wrong. Rather, he describes ways we determine what to do. Let me put a finer point to this: What we actually do was not Kohlberg's focus but how we determine what we do. Yet, as disciplers, we find his six stages helpful in connecting real world moral decisions (positive and negative, right and wrong) with biblical truths. How do we help learners move beyond religious clichés to determine the Right in the practical moral dilemmas they face? Kohlberg helps us in ways he never dreamed.

Edward Thorndike reduced human growth and learning to stamping stimulus-response bonds into the nervous system through repetition and satisfaction. B. F. Skinner focused on pellets, pigeons, and ping-pong to achieve desired behaviors in learners through prompt, cue, and reward. Thorndike and Skinner rejected the very ideas of mind and person in favor of nervous system and organism. We struggle to find in these theories any glimmer of human virtues: love in the face of hate, integrity in the face of corruption, courage in the face of danger. Yet as disciplers, we can use principles of behavioral learning to set patterns and reward success for behaviors that honor God. We can motivate first attempts at proper action where self-motivation does not exist. Thorndike and Skinner help us in ways they never dreamed.

Abraham Maslow emphasized the centrality of personal needs and choice in the lives of learners. Deficiency needs hinder learning. Growth needs enhance learning and personal development. Children should be free to choose what is best for them. Carl Rogers underscored freedom in the classroom, allowing learners to share their personal stories, questions, and answers with each other. But where do we find truth in these personal stories? If we focus always on needs, where do we find joy? Mere love for a subject—the humanists' dubious and often unrealized ideal—does not often translate into mastery of that subject. Three decades of educational testing have proven that humanistic classrooms produce few scholars. Though Humanistic Learning Theory has all but disappeared from contemporary textbooks, the tenets of self remain strong under new names such as radical constructivism. Despite fifty years of increasing social chaos—created by self-centered and self-focused individuals, we can, as disciplers, embrace effective principles of learning to connect with learners heart-to-heart, to build relational bridges in the classroom. Maslow and Rogers help us in ways they never dreamed.

How did I come to this place?

It was as a discipler, a Christian teacher. My desire in writing Created to Learn (1996) was to share with Christian teachers in Sunday school classes, cell group Bible studies, church schools, Christian colleges, and seminaries what the Lord had been teaching me through years of personal experiences and study. I come here today, with anticipation and joy, to share changes that have occurred since we published the first edition.

The Intervening Years

It has been more than fourteen years since May 1995, the month the last words to the first edition of Created to Learn were penned. The following November, a ministry door opened, one set before us more than thirty-one years before—in July 1964.

My wife Barb and I met at an associational youth camp in Waukegan, Illinois. Somewhere during the week, sitting with a hundred others at a campfire, we fell in love. We were almost 16. At the end of the week, facing the beginning of our junior year of high school, we decided we would marry in six years and then go to the Soviet Union as missionaries. The idea was prompted, no doubt, by a picture I saw in an early newsletter published by Richard Wurmbrand.² The picture showed Baptists standing knee-deep in snow at the edge of a small frozen pond, deep in a forest. Six adults were dressed in white, waiting to be plunged into the icy water as soon as others finished chopping a rough hole in the ice. They were meeting in secret, breaking Soviet law, in order to baptize, and be baptized, in the name of Jesus. I saw that picture when I was ten, but I have never forgotten it. Barb had seen a full-color picture of St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, and somehow the Lord used that picture to draw her to the idea of going there. As we left the camp grounds, we did not know that missionary work was forbidden in the Soviet Union.

In November 1995, thirty-one years after our call at camp, Charlie Warner of Barnabas International unexpectedly visited Southwestern Seminary, looking for professors willing to teach at Odessa International (Baptist) Seminary in Odessa, Ukraine. I left that meeting with an invitation to teach. In May 1996—after years of college studies in electrical engineering, psychology, and counseling; after years of deaf ministry and seminary study; after years of educational ministry in churches and seminary—we found ourselves, by God's grace, in the former Soviet Union, teaching educational psychology. The just-published Created to Learn provided the course material. The next year, June 1997, I taught the same course at Moscow Baptist Theological Seminary. I have taught in both schools several times since.

In November 1999 I attended the annual meeting of the Eur-Asian Accrediting Association (EAAA) in St. Petersburg, Russia. Andrei Chumakin, one of my Odessa seminary students—serving at that time as academic dean of the Baptist Bible Institute in Almaty, Kazakhstan—introduced me to two Baptist Union pastors. They invited me to teach in their Bible Institute. God miraculously provided the means to go.

I taught sixteen students in Almaty in January 2000. Nearly half of the class had driven 200 miles from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to attend the course. Alexander Schumilin, a student in the class and a Baptist Union leader, invited me to teach at the Bishkek Bibelschule the following year, in 2001. I returned in June 2003 and yet again in June 2007. In May–June 2009, I returned to Kyrgyzstan to lead three-day seminars on Adult Small Group Bible Studies in three cities and to Almaty to teach the educational psychology course.

In 2000 EAAA selected Created to Learn . I have used the Russian version in all my Russian-language courses since that time.

Yaroslav Pyzh, academic dean at Western Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary (Borislav) and one of my students in the 1998 Moscow course, invited me to teach. I taught courses of educational psychology and principles of teaching in June 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009. Other teaching opportunities came from Donetsk Christian University (Ukraine) and two teaching visits to the first Baptist church (or House of Prayer—as churches are called there) in Tyumen, Siberia, Russia. In August 2008 I traveled to Lisbon, Portugal, where I taught nine Ukrainian pastors and teachers who are ministering among Ukrainian worker-immigrants. In February–March 2009, I taught both courses in Baptist seminaries in Odessa, Kiev, and Borislav, Ukraine.

I had no inkling while writing the first edition of this text in 1994–95 that the Lord would open the door for such an extensive teaching ministry in the former Soviet Union. Yet each one of the trips—each one of these classes—provided fresh opportunities to observe, over and again, how students process the ideas of this text. Hundreds of experiences in these classrooms—as well as those at Southwestern Seminary—have helped to clarify the most potent principles of learning and teaching worldwide. This edition folds these twelve years of practical experiences into the mix.

The Design of the Text: Emphasizing the Changeless in a Changing Field

The original design decision—to focus Created to Learn on classical psychological issues in discipling and equipping—was intentional. I attempted to emphasize fundamental principles over the merely new. The insights provided by the theorists selected for the text have staying power because they connect to basic human learning design—God's design—that has been discovered by science. In 2005 I analyzed ten recently published educational psychology textbooks and found the major emphases of the original Created to Learn were as relevant as ever.

But changes have occurred. Piaget's ideas on cognitive development focus on individual development and fit western thinking well. A contemporary of Piaget, Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, emphasized the social dynamics of cognitive learning. His work was slow in coming to the West but has been widely discussed in the last decade. Vygotsky's thinking, which provided support for a new kind of man—a super-man (an ideal of Soviet Communism now rendered moot), holds interesting views concerning communal issues of learning in church and family; and I've added them in this edition.

The past decade has seen an addition to Erik Erikson's classical psycho-social theory. Erikson died in 1994. In 1997 his wife Joan revised her husband's 1982 book, The Life Cycle Completed, and, working with Lars Torstam, added a ninth stage to Erikson's eight. Torstam called the stage gerotranscendence, defining it as a step beyond personal integrity in which the personality embraces the world at large.

We investigate gerotranscendence, finding comfort in this: what we have always believed as evangelical Christians is now being promoted by others—albeit in secular forms. Christ sent disciples nearly two millennia ago, as He sends us today, to embrace the world: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . . teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20). We understand that our lives exist beyond our selves. Jesus proclaimed this truth boldly: And whoever doesn't take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it (Matt 10:38–39).

Not only do we hear Jesus calling us to look beyond self to the world; we hear Him calling us to embrace life, His life, beyond physical death. Without the Christian's assurance of life beyond death, the secular notion of life beyond self merely mocks human mortality. With the assurance of life beyond life, we find eternal meaning in teaching, learning, and spiritual growth that continues to the end of our days and beyond.

We included a chapter on Information Processing theory in 1996, which has been updated for this edition; but a startling revolution in the field of neuroscience over the last two decades provides far more detail about brain functioning. Advanced medical technology, such as fMRI scanning³, provides the means to measure brain changes in real time—at far more complex levels than ever before. An entire educational industry, brain-based learning, has grown up in the last decade around the idea of teaching the brain. We address the revolution in neuroscience, the importance of mental attention in learning and growth, and implications for educational practice in a new sixteenth chapter.

Finally, the entire original text has been revisited, revised, and rewritten. Very few sentences escaped unscathed. New illustrations have been added. Old ones dropped. Material that has found its way into other books⁴ has been condensed here. Material found to be less than helpful has been dropped altogether.⁵ Original references, which continue to reflect contemporary thinking, were carried over from the first edition. Extensive research provides support for evolving ideas in the field, particularly regarding cognitive and humanistic learning theory systems, designing instructional objectives, and the revolution in brain science.

It is my prayer that you will find in this text many useful ideas for your use in teaching, equipping, learning, and preaching ministries around the world. Our goal here echoes that of the apostle Paul: to help learners of every age and every kind to grow in every way into Him who is the head Christ (Eph 4:15). Paul's Spirit-breathed discipling goal gives supernatural meaning to the study of theology, philosophy, and psychology of education. While this text cannot accomplish this overarching spiritual goal, it is intended to carry you to the One who engages us in accord with these principles every day.

A Return to the Original Question: Why Have You Come?

I return to my original questions. What brought you to this place? Why did you come? If you come as a student in a formal class, I believe with all my heart that these pages will help you in tangible ways as you teach others—in your family, among your friends, in small groups, in worship, and formal classrooms—here at home and around the world.

If you came out of a desire to teach more clearly, more warmly, more skillfully, we will spend many enjoyable hours together. We will leave this place changed by our interactions.

If you came for other reasons . . . well, the Russians would say pah-smoh-treem—we will see where our conversations lead. Perhaps you will catch the fever of teaching—discipling and equipping others—along the way. That is my prayer for you, and nothing would bless me more.

May God richly bless you in the process. May He give you wisdom, passion, and expertise as you freely devote yourself to Him in preparation—as discipler, pastor, or missionary—to facilitate the learning of others that they may grow up into Him.

Rick Yount

Fort Worth, Texas

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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I wish to thank Southern Baptists for their support of my teaching ministry in local churches, associations, and teacher conventions since 1969 and as a faculty member at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary since 1981. My sabbatical leave this past year enabled me to work full-time on this second edition (fall 2008 through summer 2009) and then apply this new research in multiple classes in seven different teaching venues in three former Soviet republics (spring 2009).

I wish to thank John Landers, retired from B&H Publishing Group, for his support since we first met in 1994 to discuss chapters in the original The Teaching Ministry of the Church (Eldridge, 1995). John encouraged me to write and, after editing my chapters for TMC, asked if there was anything more I wanted to write. There was, and the result was Created to Learn (1996). John was instrumental in the publications of Called to Teach in 1999 and Called to Reach in 2007. Since John's retirement in 2008, I have received great encouragement from B&H's Jim Baird and Ray Clendenen and my new editor Dave Stabnow. Their support has been an incredible blessing to me. Thank you, B&H Publishing Group, for enabling me to extend my teaching ministry to readers I will never meet this side of glory.

Many thanks to the North American Professors of Education association for its untiring efforts in promoting a broad range of issues in the field of Christian Education. The organization and its members have enriched my thinking, year after year, since the early 1990s when Daryl Eldridge and Warren Benson welcomed me to my first annual convention.

I am deeply grateful to Norma Hedin, Ph.D., faculty colleague in the Foundations of Education Division at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1990 to 2006, for her helpful comments and suggestions. Her perspective comes from the standpoint of years of experience as a seminary professor, minister of education, and teacher training specialist. I am most grateful that she was willing to write the Foreword for this edition. Her quiet professionalism in the classroom, her team spirit among faculty colleagues, and her participation and leadership in the North American Professors of Christian Education (NAPCE) association are well-known among Christian educators.

My thanks to Baltazar Alvarez, Shirley Moxley, Debra Pauley, and Jacob Johnson, Ph.D. students in the Fall 2007 educational psychology seminar, for their research and presentations on Teaching the Brain. Their work, and especially our class discussions, helped clarify major themes in a bewildering array of resources. I wish to further thank Baltazar and Jacob for their additional contributions of research made through a Ph.D.-directed study in selected educational psychology topics during the spring of 2008.

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UNIT 1

Educational Psychology and the Christian Teacher

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Teaching is both art and science. The best teachers weave together competing elements—content and communication, justice and grace, control and nurture, challenge and support—in order to help learners grow. Teaching is art in that this weaving of elements happens spontaneously, in the heat of battle, in the very acts of engaging human learners. Teacher-artists paint colorful mental landscapes, frame questions on the spot, respond warmly to learners in the moment, and use humor to dispel tension or drive home a point. Such an artistic weaving of elements flows out of the personality of the teacher, making the process unique for each teacher.

Teaching is science in that the best teachers employ widely accepted principles for establishing knowledge, expediting understanding, facilitating attitude change, and shaping behavior. These principles are grounded in tangible processes, discovered through scientific investigation and empirical observation. Teacher-scientists investigate the most effective ways to create positive learning environments, address learner differences, engage learners head, heart, and hand,¹ explain terms and concepts clearly, question learners appropriately, and set reasonable expectations through measurable instructional objectives. Scientific fundamentals flow out of the field of educational psychology and anchor teachers in a common process.

Educational psychology presents the scientific framework for the art of teaching. The word education comes from the Latin educare, [bring up, to rear]² and refers to the process of developing the faculties and powers of a person by teaching, instruction, or schooling.³ The word psychology combines the Greek words psyche- and logos. Psyche- means soul, life,⁴ and logos means 1) Discourse, expression or 2) Science, theory, study.⁵ Psychology is the study or science of the soul, the person, the individual—particularly with regard to mental processes and behavior. Educational psychology, then, is the study of the individual as learner.

God created us to learn and provided the Church as the context. God reveals Himself as Creator (Gen 1–2). He created humankind in His image, male and female, (Gen 1:26–28)—created us to learn of Him. He is Teacher, enlightening us, guiding, training, and lifting us (Deut 4:1–14).⁶ Jesus, the express image of God in flesh, was known best as a Teacher, Master, and Rabbi as He taught how to live as citizens of His kingdom.⁷ The Church is primarily a reaching-teaching institution, drawing people to faith in Christ, and then growing them to full citizenship in the kingdom,⁸ through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, our Teacher. Through its associated classes, schools, colleges, and seminaries, the Church expands its discipling and equipping functions to both citizens and leaders in God's kingdom.

The teaching task is both nurturing and instructive. The apostle Paul writes [Christ] gave some to be . . . pastors [shepherds, nurturers] and teachers [trainers, instructors] for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing into a mature man (Eph 4:11–13).

Educational psychology stands as one of the foundational disciplines of the teaching-learning process. Anyone who desires greater effectiveness as a teacher will benefit from the findings of educational psychologists. But what, you may ask, can we, as Christian teachers, learn from secular theorists? And yet we engage spiritually neutral things every day. We order our days by weather forecasts anchored in the science of meteorology. We speed our travel by trusting our lives to modern jetliners, built according to the scientific laws of aerodynamics. We manage our diets according to the latest findings on nutrition, derived from the science of biology. Many of us get our news by way of computers, cell phones, and the Internet, all produced by the science of microelectronics. None of these tools are Christian.

Moreover, we regularly seek help from nonspiritual sources. When our cars needs repair, do we seek a pastor or a mechanic? When our teeth need work, do we look for a theologian or a dentist? When our drains are clogged, should we consult a seminary professor or a plumber? When we want to know which highways to take from A to B, do we consult the Bible or a recent map? The answers are obvious.

In the same way, discoveries made by men and women who have given their lives to the study of human learning can help us as well. Why should we not study what researchers have to say, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:5)? What have dedicated men and women discovered through scientific investigation and educational observation? How might we transfer these discoveries into a Christian context? Unit I addresses these issues by first establishing the Disciplers' Model as the Christian context for the study of learning and then analyzing the scientific approach to knowing.

Chapter 1: The Disciplers' Model

The seven elements of the Disciplers' Model provide a philosophical and theological framework for the remainder of the text. Eternal Truth speaking to contemporary Need are the two elements of the foundation. The three tangible systems that energize the discipling process are rational, emotional, and social. The ultimate goal of the process is maturational. The Primary Enabler of the process is the Holy Spirit.

We connect six of these biblical elements with their counterparts in educational psychology: content, individual differences, cognitive development, affective development, social development, and maturation.

Chapter 2: Knowing, Science, and the Christian Teacher

The grand scope of philosophy sets before us three Great Problems. The second of these, and the one most important to us here, is called epistemology⁹ and defines several distinct ways that human beings achieve knowledge of the world. Educational psychology is a scientific discipline and uses scientific means to define educational truth. How does knowledge discovered by science differ from other ways of knowing?

Chapter Two investigates seven ways we gain the knowledge we have: common sense, tradition, authority, intuition and revelation, experience, deductive reasoning, and inductive reasoning. The chapter then defines scientific knowing and describes how it functions. Finally, we compare and contrast faith and science as ways of knowing.

1

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THE DISCIPLERS' MODEL

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And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head—Christ. From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.

Ephesians 4:12–16

The actual well seen is ideal.

—Thomas Carlyle¹

Chapter Rationale

The Disciplers' Model provides a biblical and theological framework for the remainder of the text. Chapter One defines the seven elements of the Model and explains how they work together. We conclude the chapter by associating elements of the Model with secular counterparts in Educational Psychology. The goal of the chapter is to provide a Christian teaching context for secular theories of learning and development.

If you have read my earlier books,² you are familiar with the Disciplers' Model. There I provided a brief overview of the Model as an organizing tool for the texts. Here you will find a more extensive discussion of the Model's seven elements. These elements define a synergistic answer to the question, How do I teach so that my learners grow in the Lord? Understanding these elements will provide you a biblical framework for the study of the secular ideas of educational psychology.

Chapter Overview

The Left Foundation Stone: The Bible

The Right Foundation Stone: The Needs of People

The Left Pillar: Helping People Think

The Right Pillar: Helping People Value

The Center Pillar: Helping People Relate

The Capstone: Helping People Grow

The Circle: Holy Spirit as Discipler

The Relationship between the Disciplers' Model and Educational Psychology

Faith in Scripture—Suspicion of Science

Chapter Concepts, Chapter Objectives, Discussion Questions

Introduction

In 1971 I began teaching a Sunday school class for deaf college students attending Gallaudet College (where my wife and I worked as dormitory counselors) at Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, Virginia. There were no books on teaching deaf adults, and so I began to pray: Lord, how can I teach so that these learners will grow up in You? In response to this constant prayer, the Lord brought many experiences into the classroom sessions. In 1973 I began formal studies in educational psychology and philosophy at Southwestern Seminary. I was called as minister to the deaf at First Baptist Church, Irving, Texas, where I continued to teach deaf adults (1973–1976). In December 1976 I accepted the call to return to Columbia Baptist as their minister of education. In January 1977 the personal experiences and formal studies coalesced into what I called The Disciplers' Model. The first publication of the Model appeared in the spring of 1977 as a series of eight articles in the church's weekly newsletter. Over the next two years, materials were added from teacher training meetings and teacher conferences. In 1979 the self-published Disciplers was produced and sold to nearly 1200 churches. In 1981 the text was revised and renamed The Disciplers' Handbook and has served as my basic text for Principles of Teaching classes at Southwestern since then.

The Model has been reinforced through nearly forty years of serving on church staffs as minister of education, teaching seminary students here and in the former Soviet Union, and leading church-based teacher conferences across the nation. I have found the Model to be an excellent bridge between secular psychological theories and a biblical worldview. We begin with the foundation: the left foundation stone is the Bible, God's eternal Word.

The Left Foundation Stone: The Bible

The left foundation stone of the Model represents the Bible, the Word of God. Unless our teaching produces a clearer understanding of the Bible, with its call to personal commitment to Christ and His Church, all our teaching efforts produce little more than wood, hay, or straw (1 Cor 3:12). For education to be rightly called Christian, it must be built upon the sure foundation of God's Word.

How Does the Bible Define Itself?

Theories of inspiration thrive, and conflicting interpretations abound, but God's Word still speaks across the ages to people today. How does Scripture define itself?

Divinely Inspired. Scripture emphasizes that the Lord, not man, speaks through Scripture. Take a scroll, and write on it all the words I [the Lord] have spoken to you (Jer 36:2). The word of the LORD came directly to Ezekiel the priest (Ezek 1:3). The Scripture had to be fulfilled that the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David spoke in advance (Acts 1:16). All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16). Because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, moved by the Holy Spirit, men spoke from God" (2 Pet 1:21). The Lord spoke, and man recorded the message. The Lord revealed Himself, and man recorded the messages.

Sacred. Scripture warns its readers and teachers not to alter it by adding to or taking away from it. You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, so that you may keep the commands of the LORD your God I am giving you (Deut 4:2). Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Don't add to His words, or He will rebuke you, and you will be proved a liar (Prov 30:6). And if anyone takes away from the words of this prophetic book, God will take away his share of the tree of life and the holy city, written in this book (Rev 22:19). Handle Scripture carefully. It is sacred.

Powerful in Its Influence. Scripture is more than words and symbols. God's Word is an extension of God's power: the gospel . . . is God's power for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom 1:16). Take the . . . sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph 6:17). For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword. . . ; it is a judge of the ideas and thoughts of the heart (Heb 4:12). When we teach God's Word, we convey God's power.

Written for a Purpose. Scripture has a purpose, and that purpose is life in Christ. But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name (John 20:31). That purpose is hope. For whatever was written before was written for our instruction, so that through our endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we may have hope (Rom 15:4). That purpose is to warn us. Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us (1 Cor 10:11). That purpose was to equip us for ministry. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16–17). That purpose is assurance of eternal life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13).

Reveals Eternal Truth. Scripture moves us upward from our daily experiences to eternal principles. LORD, Your word is forever; it is firmly fixed in heaven (Ps 119:89). The word of our God remains forever (Isa 40:8). My words will never pass away (Matt 24:35). When we teach Scripture, we engage eternal blessings and consequences.

How Do Teachers Use the Bible?

God's Word is Eternal Truth. While Christians argue over various interpretations of Scripture, few argue about the eternal nature of Scripture. And yet, even among those who are most conservative in their view of Scripture, a significant question remains, How do we handle Scripture as we teach? Even with the highest regard for Scripture, we may not help our learners grow in the Lord. What makes the difference?

Talk about it. A popular way to handle Scripture is to talk about it. I can remember spending hours each week preparing to teach the lesson on Sunday. I read the assigned passage, studied the accompanying teaching helps, and wrote out several pages of notes: my lesson. On Sunday morning I stood behind a podium or at a desk and taught my lesson. I can remember Sundays when I taught so hard (using sign language with deaf college students) that I sweat through my suits! Yet several days later, members of my class remembered little of what I had worked so hard to teach. How could they become doers of the Word if they couldn't remember what the Bible said?! Telling people about the Bible is a good first step, but there is a better way to help people grow as they learn.

Let the Bible Speak! A better way to handle Scripture in the classroom—and the approach I have found effective in changing learners—is to let the Bible speak! Teachers do well to ask thoughtful questions and lead learners into God's Word for the answers. Learners remember what they study far better than when we simply give them our own ready-made answers. The Bible, God's eternal Truth, is the sure foundation of discipling Bible study. Let the Word speak, that it may convict and comfort, warn and console, revive and refresh us—so we might become all He intends and do all He commands.

The Right Foundation Stone: The Needs of People

The companion foundation stone in the Model represents the needs of learners. Jesus taught people the meaning of Scripture by focusing it at their point of personal need. Zacchaeus was lonely. Jesus asked to have dinner with him (Luke 19:10). Jairus grieved at the death of his daughter. Jesus raised her to life (Mark 5:21–24,35–43). Nicodemus the Pharisee sought Jesus' words on the kingdom of God. Jesus gave him specific instructions (John 3). Jesus did not dine with everyone, nor raise all dead people, nor give special instructions to all. He met needs in the lives of people—the leper, the lame, the deaf, the blind, the lonely and the religious—and in doing so, taught us in tangible ways how much the Father loves us.

Jesus pointed to soils, light, salt, and sheep. He illustrated eternal truths with basic things that were familiar to those who pressed close to hear Him teach. He had no need of attendance prizes or candy or free trips to manipulate interest or enthusiasm. He spoke the Words of Life most of us hunger for! He shared with learners a caring Father Who wants the best for them. Jesus did not simply teach the truth. He taught truth in such a way that it became truth that matters to me!

What the Bible says is unchanging (Left Stone), but how we explain it varies from learner to learner (Right Stone). Why? Because our learners have different needs that are both general and specific.

General Learner Needs

A general need refers to a common characteristic of people in a given group. Age is one such factor. Preschoolers learn differently from children, children differently from youth, and youth differently from adults. Even various groupings of adults—singles, young marrieds, median adults, seniors—learn in distinctly different ways.

Learners within given age categories experience similar situations in life: growing, school, adolescence, marriage, family, home, career, retirement. Similarity of life experiences helps groups focus on the relevancy of Bible teachings.

Life situation is another general need. Children from dysfunctional or broken families learn differently than children in healthy families. Single adults differ from married adults of the same age.

Blue-collar workers see things differently from professional workers. Teachers do well to study the general life needs of their students and apply what they learn to their preparation and instruction.

Specific Learner Needs

A specific need refers to an individual characteristic of a single member of a given group. Specific needs include such experiences as personal failures or successes, past tragedies, present struggles, and times of spiritual drought. In any classroom, one finds emotional aches, pains, and scars. We discover the specific personal needs of our learners as we become better acquainted with them as individuals, persons, friends. Teachers do well to provide opportunities for learners to share themselves with the class—prayer concerns, personal experiences, and personal struggles. How we do this will be discussed a little later. That we do this demonstrates our concern for the needs of our learners and opens the door to deeper learning experiences.

The Two Stones Side by Side

Both foundation stones are required for the model to be stable. If either crumbles, the Model falls, reflecting teaching that does not result in spiritual growth, that is, growth in the Lord.

When we spend too much class time emphasizing Bible content—recounting historical details, providing verse-by-verse explanations, analyzing language nuances, dissecting doctrinal principles—little time remains for connecting Eternal Truth to general or specific learner needs, or to what learners actually experience at home and at work. Learners leave the classroom feeling that they experienced a factual, but irrelevant, history lesson.

When we spend too much time emphasizing learner needs or concerns—allowing them to share personal opinions, tell personal stories, or chase personal rabbits—little time remains for connecting individual needs to Eternal Truths, to the answers found in Scripture. Learners hear each other's problems, but hear little of God's solutions.

Learners leave the classroom feeling that they have experienced little more than a superficial group therapy session. We need to connect learners' needs and experiences to Scripture, letting God's Word speak clearly to the discussion.

Neither irrelevant history lessons nor superficial sharing leads to spiritual growth. Teachers do well to intentionally build on both foundation stones to create an environment in which Truth speaks to contemporary need over time. Such an environment produces a personal teaching ministry that is both eternal and relevant.

I say over time because the balance between Bible and needs is not a 50–50 proposition. There are times when the meaning of a passage of Scripture requires more time than its personal application. When studying the prophet Hosea, for example, teachers would do well to provide a solid historical context to God's command that Hosea marry a prostitute (to illustrate Israel's unfaithfulness to God). This is not the time for group work and learner hunches. The Sermon on the Mount and the book of Revelation are other examples of heavy Bible emphasis.

On the other hand, there are times when the meaning of the passage is well-known and more time is required for personal reflection and application. When studying the Good Samaritan story, for example, teachers would do well to refrain from a verse-by-verse exegesis in favor of two sets of affective questions. The first set focuses on those who have been Good Samaritans to them: Think about people in your life who have been Good Samaritans to you. What did they do for you? How did their help change you? The second set focuses on their own experiences as Good Samaritans to others: Think about times you have been a Good Samaritan to others. What did you do for them? How did helping them change you? Details of the passage can be explained in the process of sharing testimonies. Those without testimonies may well consider doing more for others, becoming more of a Good Samaritan personally.

Over time, teachers address both eternal truths and personal needs in a relevant, biblical teaching ministry. We clearly see this balance of Word and needs in the Gospel accounts of Jesus' teaching.

The Stacking of Stones?

It might be helpful to consider one other way to look at the relationship between Bible and needs. This particular suggestion was first made by a Russian Baptist pastor in a course taught in Almaty, Kazakhstan, but I've had American students raise the same issue. During my summary of the Stones, the pastor raised his hand and said, I think your model is inadequate. May I change it? He was seated on the front row,³ and I handed him the marker: Certainly, I said. He stepped to the white board and re-drew the Model.

Satisfied with himself and his changes, he turned, snapped the cap back on the marker, and said God's Word is fundamental to everything else. It provides us all the answers we need. Even the needs of our lives are drawn from a proper understanding of Scripture. I believe this is a better perspective. How can our changing needs be considered equal to God's eternal Word?

It was an excellent question, and he was certainly correct in his analysis. But the class was stunned by his audacity and sat in silence waiting to see how the professor would respond to his correction. I began with praise. I really like the changes you have made here. It emphasizes the eternal nature of God's Word and makes the Bible the basis for discussions of 'real needs' in the lives of learners. But, may I ask you a question?

Yes, of course, the student responded, now sitting at his desk, smiling.

In your version of the Model, if I pull the Bible stone out of the Model altogether, does the Model fall?

He looked at the whiteboard and slowly shook his head No. The smile was gone. He was thinking.

"Or the Needs stone? If I completely disregard the needs of the learners in my class, does the Model fall?

More quickly this time, he said, No.

"That's the problem. We are not equating God's Word with learner Needs. We are saying for spiritual growth to occur, we need to connect God's Truth with the relevant needs of learners. We are saying both Truth and Need are necessary for relevant changes to occur in individual learners.

He looked back at the board, slowly nodded his head, and said, I agree. He smiled again, more enthusiastically. And the class breathed a sigh of relief.

The Left Pillar: Helping People Think

Learners grow in the Lord when they understand, clearly and correctly, the meaning of God's Word. Such understanding grows from analysis of texts, asking and answering questions, weighing the opinions of others, and deriving biblical principles that confront personal views. The objective focus of the Thinking Pillar emphasizes the translation of Bible passages into principles, standards, and ideals, which in turn informs the decisions they make in everyday situations. How do we teach so that thinking skills are improved?

Three Stages of Thinking

The city of Colossae, situated in the Lycus Valley in southwestern Asia Minor, was home to early gnostic philosophy that emphasized knowledge as the means to God. The apostle Paul wrote the Colossian church, using the words of early gnostics—knowledge, understanding, wisdom, mystery—while drawing distinctions between Christian and gnostic thinking. In making his case for the gospel, Paul accentuated the role of rational thought in spiritual growth: We haven't stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding (Col 1:9). Here Paul presents us with three rational components of spiritual growth. These are knowledge, understanding, and spiritual wisdom.

Filled with the knowledge of His will. Educators define knowledge specifically, differentiating between knowing and understanding. To know refers to the ability to recall facts or to identify appropriate facts from a list. Knowledge consists of collections of facts that one can recall. Philosophers define knowledge more broadly, referring to facts, concepts, and principles accumulated through personal study or experience. Paul's term in Colossians reflects this latter definition—and more.

There are three major Greek words translated knowledge in Scripture. These are oida (intellectual or academic knowledge), gnosis (knowledge accumulated through personal study or experience), and epignosis (full or accurate knowledge, or knowledge which goes beyond). Paul did not use oida because he knew first hand that knowledge of God's will does not come through mere academic study. He was a graduate of the University of Tarsus and a zealous student of Gamaliel. Academic knowledge of his religion led him to persecute Christians, opposing God's will in Christ.

Paul used gnosis in his earlier letters, but this word became the moniker for the heretical gnostics⁴ (men of knowledge, see 1 Tim 6:20). False teachers in Colossae reflected an early form of Gnosticism and assumed, as knowing ones, superiority over the simple faith proclaimed by Paul. So Paul employs here epignosis (epi-gnosis), a knowledge that emphasizes experiential learning derived from a personal relationship⁵ with Jesus Christ. Paul was confronting early gnostics who taught that salvation required more: special knowledge, obtained through secret rituals, ceremonies and mysteries.⁶

Curtis Vaughn⁷ once explained the term this way: epignosis reaches out and grasps its object, and is in turn grasped by that object. When my wife and I married, I knew very little about football. But her family loved football, and I began to learn about the game. As I began to grasp the essentials of the game, football took hold of me. As I have studied brain research these past two years, brain science has taken hold of me. To possess the epignosis of God's will means to take hold of His will—personally and relationally—and for God's will to take hold of us.⁸

But Paul goes further. He prays that we be filled with epignosis. The phrase carries the idea of being fully equipped—a ship ready to sail or a soldier ready for battle. Further, the term means to be controlled by. One filled with anger is controlled by anger. One filled with the Spirit is controlled by the Spirit.⁹ Paul's prayer is that Christians will grow in Christ to the place that they thoroughly equipped and controlled by God's will.

Spiritual understanding. Paul reinforces epignosis with sunesis—a mental putting together,¹⁰—which speaks of clear analysis and decision-making in applying this knowledge to various problems.¹¹

Educators define understanding as the process of organizing knowledge (facts) into concepts and principles that can be used outside the learning environment. Learners who understand can explain fact-based concepts in their own words. They can give correct examples of what words mean, as well as what they do not. They can create fresh examples and illustrations to clarify meanings. Paul certainly means all of this but adds the adjective spiritual. Spiritual understanding stresses the ability to act and think spiritually.¹²

We mentioned Paul's academic studies (oida) earlier. But when he met the Risen Lord on his way to Damascus, his academic understandings became unhinged—he saw things in a new way. During three years in an Arabian desert, he restudied the Old Testament in light of the Resurrected Lord. Before salvation, as one circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to the righteousness that is in the law, blameless (Phil 3:4–6), he knew what the Old Testament says. He met Christ and began to understand what the Old Testament means. As his spiritual understanding blossomed into full-bloomed faith, he declared that everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ (Phil 3:7).

Wisdom. Paul reinforces full knowing (epignosis) yet again with sophia, a term that refers to practical know-how that comes from God.¹³ Such wisdom allows disciples to apply general knowledge to particular occasions, and to suit it to all emergencies.¹⁴ James describes biblical wisdom as first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without favoritism and hypocrisy (Jas 3:17). James' focus is biblical action.

Wisdom is biblical understanding put into action in practical ways. At least, this is my understanding of Jesus' definition in Matthew 7:24–26: "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible [wise, NKJV] man and everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man" [emphasis mine—RY]. We may know the Bible, and we may understand the Bible, but we are considered wise by Jesus only when we practice biblical truths, living by them. Jesus clearly distinguishes between knowing the Bible and living biblically.

Rational Growth Is an Upward Spiral in Transformation

The process of spiritual, rational growth is continuous. We grow in personal, experiential knowledge of God and His kingdom (epignosis). We clarify our own perceptions and perspectives about life and the world in light of God's Word (sunesis). We live out what we know and understand in everyday problems and situations (sophia). Knowledge begets understanding, understanding begets wisdom, and wisdom begets further knowledge in an upward spiral. The result is life transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom 12:2).

Paul defines the purpose of this growth, this spiral, this life transformation as follows:

So that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints' inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Col 1:10–14).

We teach in a way that helps learners think biblically, in class and in life. The result, over time, are lives that are worthy of the Lord. Lives pleasing to God. Fruitful lives. Strong and enduring, patient and joyful lives. Rescued, redeemed, and forgiven lives. Why? Because learners continually grow as they know what the Bible says, understand what it means, and live as it commands.

The factor that produces life-centered growth and prevents self-serving academics is the focus of the process: God's will. Paul prays that the Colossians will be filled with the epignosis of His will. God wants us to know His will (Acts 22:14) and to understand His will (Eph 5:17). We are not the Lord's robots. We are His friends, to whom He makes known the things of God (John 15:13–15). This is the learning process of the Left Pillar.

The Right Pillar: Helping People Value

Learners grow in the Lord when they embrace biblical truths personally, confronting their own attitudes with God's Word and rearranging personal priorities according to God's Word. The subjective focus of the Valuing pillar addresses emotional aspects of