Jesus was an excellent teacher for many reasons. As Christians, we regard
Him almost always most especially for his ability to teach as a model, as His
actions as described in the Bible are what we have become to know Him,
know God, and know His doctrines for us with. In James, Martinez, & Herbers
(2015), Jesus is noted for His excellent teaching practice of teaching using
narratives and analogies. They illustrate this teaching practice of Jesus in
Matthew 20. An example I have found of Jesus using this type of teaching
strategy is in Matthew 18, verses 12 through 14. Here, Jesus gives an analogy
to His listeners using sheep to represent God's people and the owner/caretaker
of these sheep as God. He describes that in the event where one of 100
sheep wanders off the owner will seek this sheep and be happier about the
one sheep than the rest who did not wander (ESV, 2001). Such a reaction is
God's with His people for whom He cares. It doesn't matter who we are or
how insignificant we are; God loves us all and wants us to stay on the right
path with Him. He pursues us, cares for us, and loves us all. It is even more
remarkable for one who returns to or comes to God after adversity in this
analogy. In using this analogy/story to convey His message Jesus increased
His listeners attention and understanding because of its relatability and
understandability. The setting and characters He chose in His analogy where
commonplace to His listeners, rather than foreign and non-relatable.
b b b b b On this note, Jesus used a notably effective teaching strategy. James,
Martinez, & Herbers (2015) cite a few writers who explain why they believe
storytelling is effectual in teaching, as summarized as being an interesting,
attention-grabbing process that "touches the human psyche" (p. 147). Aside
from teaching analogously through the format of storytelling, Jesus' analogous
teaching can be understood as a teaching strategy rooted in information-
processing theories that fosters memory transfer. Transfer is a basic process
of human functioning as it tells people how to behave, and/or shapes the way
they think in every situation so that people don't have to "start from scratch" in
every new experience. It refers to something learned at one time facilitating
learning/performance in a subsequent occasion (Ormrod, 2020). For example,
when we use multiplication that we learned in the third grade to figure out
how to double our dinner recipe, or simply when remember that hard work paid
off "last time" and it's likely to pay off "this time". This cognitive theoretical
skill is similar to the behaviorist phenomenon of generalization. Of course, one
can only transfer information if he or she can recall it. One of the ways to
facilitate the recall of information is through meaningful learning (Ormrod,
2020). This refers, naturally, to the idea of making learning meaningful. One
way to do that is to make learning relatable, interesting, and notable. The use
of analogies with relatable and familiar features is a great way to do this, as
Jesus did.
b b b b b As Jesus set excellent examples of meaningful teaching through
narratives and analogies, I could also do so in my hypothetical college course
entitled "Foundations of Learning and Cognition". The bases of learning
according to the different major learning theories are heavy laden with different
phenomena, processes, and terminology. One of the best ways to teach, as the
focus of this post, is through meaningful learning, particularly through
narratives and analogies. I would explain concepts using everyday and common
experiences to better illustrate complex learning concepts. For example, when I
teach the concepts of operant conditioning I can use examples of dog training.
b b b b b To continue, many people have dogs or have at least seen dogs display
certain behaviors. For example, I can explain that positive reinforcement is any
stimulus presented after a response that increases the frequency of the
response, and positive punishment is any stimulus presented after a response
that decreases the frequency of the response. Without context, the terms are
often misused and misunderstood. I can provide a narrative that includes the
illustration of the terms in action. Many people use positive reinformcent with
food such as a dog treat when training their dogs. I can illustrate that when I
am teaching my dog to respond to the command "sit", that when I say, "sit,"
then my dog sits and I then provide a little dog treat I am intending to use
positive reinforcement on this behavior. If my dog's sitting behavior increases
in response to my added stimulus, then I have successfully reinforced this
behavior. On the other hand, if I am trying to reduce a behavior's frequency,
such as my dog jumping on people, I can add a stimulus in response to my
dog's jumping behavior. For example, if I said, "no," while removing my dog off
of the person he jumped on and after time the jumping behavior was
decreased as a result, I have successfully punished the behavior.
b b b b b Now that I have explained how Jesus made His teachings clearer using
narratives and analogies, as well explained why they are so effective, I'd like to
pose a question to the class. To the readers, have you folks ever had trouble
learning difficult course content that suddenly became clear with narratives
and/or analogies? If so, please explain what the situation was and how they
helped you understand the content.
References
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). ESV Online. https://esv.literalword.com/
James, G., Martinez, E., & Herbers, S. (2015). What Can Jesus Teach Us About
Student Engagement?. Journal of Catholic Education, 19 (1).
http://dx.doi.org/10.15365/joce.1901062015
Ormrod, J. E. (2020). Human learning (8th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc.
