Quiz 3 reaching a conclusion about your career ministry

Orienting Adults to Learning in

Graduate Theological Education

Stephen D. Lowe, Ph.D.

Graduate Chair of Doctoral Programs & Professor of Christian Education

Rawlings School of Divinity – Liberty University

and

Mary E. Lowe, Ed.D.

Associate Dean and Professor of Christian Education

Rawlings School of Divinity – Liberty University

© 2017

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Foreword ~

In a world of accelerating change, which we have now entered, the traditional

way of learning, students passively listening to a teacher lecturing, is no longer

appropriate. In this new kind of world, learning must be lifelong and most of it must take

place outside of classrooms, in real-life situations.

In this kind of world the principal responsibility for diagnosing one’s learning

needs, planning learning experiences, carrying out learning activities, and evaluating

learning outcomes rests with the individual learner, with the help of appropriate resource

people.

This new way of learning requires a completely different set of abilities from

those of the traditional student.

Orienting Adults to Learning in Graduate Theological Education, compiled and

written by Dr. Steve Lowe and Dr. Mary Lowe, will help you acquire those abilities.

Dr. Malcolm S. Knowles

Late Professor Emeritus

North Carolina State University

University of Arkansas

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Chapter 1

Becoming a Self-Directed Adult Learner

A self-directed adult learner is one who is able to plan, implement and evaluate

his/her own learning experiences with or without the direction of others. A self-directed

adult learner takes the initiative and assumes the responsibility for his/her own learning.

A self-directed learner is not an isolated or independent learner. Self-direction may often

take place in concert with other adult learners. The description that Malcolm Knowles

provides above is an early and often referenced portrait of self-direction that while not

complex reveals the essential nature of the task of self-direction.

The concept of self-directedness in adult learning can be used in fundamentally

distinct settings. Adults can be self-directed while participating in on campus or online

instructional environments. Self-directedness can be a significant component whether an

adult's learning takes place in a traditional institution or a nontraditional one. Although

we could spend time discussing the application of principles of self-direction to informal

settings, our concern is with its application to formal educational contexts, and in

particular the online graduate theological context.

The work of Allen Tough at the University of Toronto focused on the

self-directedness of adults who initiated their own "learning projects." He found that 90%

of the adult population engaged in at least one major learning project each year that

involved a minimum of 100 hours. The average adult in the U.S. created five learning

projects per year. What Tough concluded from his many years of research on this

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particular aspect of self-directed learning is that a shift in focus is needed away from

"providing" education to "facilitating" the learning that is already taking place.

Putting Off the Old and Putting on the New

The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17 writes that "if anyone is in Christ, he is a

new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Later he would exhort his converts to

"put off your old self . . . and to put on the new self, created to be like God . . . ."

(Galatians 4:22, 24). The motivation for Paul's command to "put off" and "put on" had to

do with the new identity Christians receive at the time of conversion. Their new identity

in Christ needed to be reflected in their behavior, so, consequently the need to "put on the

new man."

The same process applies to those who are beginning a course of study in a new

delivery system like online education. You may need to discard your old learner identity

for a new one that will enable you to succeed in a new environment. One’s old learner

identity often finds its origins in teachers who taught from a purely pedagogical

orientation. That is, they treated you like a child (paidion) and taught you as a child. We

know from our knowledge of New Testament Greek, that Paul used a form of the word

pedagogy (paidagōgos) in Galatians 3:24, 25 in reference to the function of Torah prior

to the coming of Christ. The King James Version translated this Greek word as

"schoolmaster" because it conveyed the idea of someone who teaches children. Although

further study on the role and duties of the paidagogos suggests that formal teaching was

not included among the more mundane duties of escorting and supervising a male heir

until the time of maturity, it is clear that informal teaching took place and parents

expected the schoolmaster to shape the moral compass of the child.

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Typically, child learners are passive and receptive to all that teachers tell them.

Good students learn how to conform to these rigid expectations and are rewarded

academically. Other students, who may be brighter than their conforming classmates

may, often chafe under these conditions, like Thomas Edison, and eventually drop out of

school completely.

As a learner, you have learned to adapt to the expectations and hidden agendas of

the traditional classroom. In fact, many of you, if honest, would confess that you secretly

prefer the old way, because the teacher laid the instruction out for you like Mom did your

clothes when growing up. The professor would come in on the first day of class, hand

you a syllabus, and spend the next 45 minutes slowly walking you through it, allowing

students to ask questions to be perfectly sure everyone understood what was expected.

The syllabus told you the due dates of papers and tests, what topics the professor would

cover, how to write the term paper, when you would take exams, what would be on the

exams, etc. The womb-like environment of the traditional classroom was comforting and

warm.

The fundamental flaw from your old academic way of life is the self-concept it

has created in you as an adult learner. Students conditioned in this traditional learning

environment often view themselves as passive receptacles needing to have their

supposedly empty brains filled by the knowledgeable professor. Students taught in this

way, often understand themselves to be dependent upon the teacher for direction,

self-discipline, motivation, and guidance at every step of the way. Online students often

wait for this magical professor to appear and begin giving directions, but alas, he or she

never appears. Rather than waiting to be taught, an online student needs to develop

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learning how to learn skills that allow him/her to instigate their own learning process

rather than waiting for someone else to do the instigating.

Change Your Learner Self-Concept

Malcolm Knowles first identified an essential feature of an adult learner as one

who has a "deep psychological need to be generally self-directed" (1980, p.48).

Additionally, Knowles also argued that congruent with an adult's innate need to be

self-directing, learning situations need to be more transactional with the role of the

teacher shifting from that of dispenser of information to a "resource person, and

co-inquirer" (p. 48).

As adults mature in all aspects of their personhood (physical, intellectual,

emotional, social, moral, and spiritual), they develop a need for more autonomy. Having

achieved a sense of autonomy and independence, adults normally do not become

isolationists but rather begin to develop strategies and skills of interdependence,

mutuality, and reciprocity. Social skills become more fully developed that enable

maturing adults to work more effectively and harmoniously with all types of people

toward common objectives.

However, this sense of autonomy and self-directedness, although innate, can be

stifled and stunted by situational variables imposed by work, home and institutional

variables created by educational environments. Adults who have experienced traditional

forms of education, in which teachers expect students to assume a passive role, often

enter online degree programs unable to cope with the differing student expectations. With

no one to tell them what to do and when to do it, many adult students flounder and

eventually withdraw.

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Listed below are some suggestions for facilitating a change in your learner

self-concept that will enable you to begin acquiring the requisite skills necessary for

success in an online graduate theological education environment.

1. Choose to erase from your conscious frame of reference the view of yourself as a

passive, other-directed learner, dependent upon some system of academic support for

success as a student. This old identity will not serve you well in an online setting.

2. Choose to replace your old learner identity with a new one more congruent with

who you are as a mature, able, competent and self-directing adult. You are self-directing

in other areas of your life, why should you be expected to jettison that skill set when you

enroll in an online course?

3. Decide to act as though you are certain to learn. The overwhelming research

evidence of the last forty years clearly indicates that adults can learn anything they want

to, even though it may take them longer to do so. Choose not to let the fear of previous

academic failures deter you from accomplishing your academic goals. Remember, your

failure may be attributable to the pedagogical constraints imposed upon you by a mass

produced educational system. Do not attribute to yourself failures that may have been the

result of the way the system taught you.

4. Set realistic and attainable goals for yourself. Do not allow your emotions to

distort your sound judgment regarding what you will be able to do given the constraints

of work, home, church and community.

5. Affirm the value of your own background and experiences. The great advantage

that adults bring to the learning situation, that children do not have, is their vast

experience. Remember, when you were eighteen you probably had not had the

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experience of being a full-time worker, a spouse, a parent, a participatory citizen, an

active leader of a church, or a successful businessperson, but by age thirty, you may have

had all of these experiences under your belt. Use these experiences to your advantage and

never be ashamed to share them or hesitate to integrate them with what you are learning.

These experiences enable you to see relationships and connections not afforded less

mature learners. Your learning of new material is also enhanced by your previous

experiences because you are more apt to integrate new learning with old learning and

thereby give it new meaning, hence your experiences can provide you with additional

insight and a sense of mastery.

6. Recognize the expertise you have acquired from your vast experiences. One of

the beneficial side-effects of reaching middle age and beyond is a sense of emerging

mastery and competence. Do not hesitate to carry over this sense of mastery and

competence into your educational environment.

7. Obediently accept the promised empowerment of the Holy Spirit than enables

our learning and acquisition of knowledge about God’s world and God’s word. One of

the features of the Spirit’s empowerment in the Book of Exodus was the accompanying

“wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge” (31:1; 35:31) and a general “spirit of wisdom”

(28:3; 35:31, 35) that manifested itself in various abilities including the ability to teach or

communicate the knowledge and wisdom received from the Holy Spirit to others (35:34).

While Christians learn like all other human beings, they possess a divine enablement

through the Spirit of God that embellishes native human abilities. We see this same

phenomenon at work in Daniel and his three friends who study and learn like everyone

else but at an exceptional level, that attracts the attention of the secular authorities.

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Adult learners need to appreciate and affirm the vast resources they already have

at their disposal to succeed in an online educational setting. Unlike your 18-24 year-old

counterparts, you have developmental baggage to check when you enroll in a degree

program that if unpacked and used, will provide you with many advantages. Foremost

among these items is a healthy self-concept grounded in a firm belief that as image

bearers of our Creator, you are intelligent, creative, unique, competent, and an amazingly

adaptive person. We encourage you to affirm your value both as a person and as a

self-directed adult learner, ready for success, no matter what you are learning or where

you are learning it.

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Chapter 2

Understanding the Basics of Adult Learning

Adults learn differently than children. While we may have known this intuitively,

it took Dr. Malcolm Knowles to popularize the term “andragogy” to distinguish teaching

adults from “pedagogy” teaching of children. If the teaching of adults is different from

the teaching of children then it follows that how adults learn is different from how

children learn. Both terms, pedagogy and andragogy, involve both how to teach and how

to learn. How a student learns may often determine how we teach so that we teach in a

way that resonates with learning styles and learning modalities.

Unfortunately, we still assume that adults learn like children and so we often

teach them like children rather than adults. We still use the term pedagogy when we talk

about teaching methods even if those methods have adults as their audience. Two things

have to happen if we want adults to learn more effectively and successfully. First, we

must embrace and accept the scientific research on adult learning that clearly indicates

they learn differently than children and teenagers. Second, we need adult learners to

embrace and accept a new identity as an adult learner and cultivate a new approach to

learning. What we know about adult learning after forty years of research is fairly clear.

Here is a suggestive list distilling the results of that research which may be helpful in

furthering your understanding and appreciation of your own learning abilities.

 Adult learning must be paced according to the physical, psychological,

and intellectual realities of adult aging. The best policy is to learn how to cooperate with

the natural aging process when learning rather than trying to deny it or fight it.

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 Adults are more self-directed than other-directed when it comes to

learning. One researcher at the University of Toronto found that the average adult spends

about 500 hours a year on various types of learning projects. These are self-motivated

and self-planned activities prompted by an adult’s curiosity, need, and interest. The fact

that you enrolled in this course is a clear indication that you are a self-directed learner.

Most of our students are not required to take our courses or earn our degrees. They come

to Liberty freely and voluntarily because they have a desire to learn, improve themselves,

or prepare for a future to which they believe God has called them.

 Adults have a deep desire to see that the content they are learning can

have immediate application to their life, vocation, or ministry. Material to be learned by

adults must be meaningful and have prima facie evidence of applicability. Adults need to

know why they need to learn something before undertaking to learn it. In a sense, this

makes adults very pragmatic learners. This does not mean that they are not interested in

learning for the sake of learning and expanding their insight and understanding. It means

that they also want to see how knowledge and information directly impacts what they are

doing or plan to do in their vocations and ministry.

 Adults prefer learning environments that are supportive and stress free.

Many studies on adult learning make it clear that if adult learners sense a threat to their

self-esteem, they will withdraw from the learning experience. Reducing the perceived

threat of the learning experience will go a long way in improving an adult’s learning

ability. Reducing learner anxiety often connects to educational gaps that adults bring with

them to the online classroom. Many adults in online courses and degree programs have

multiple year gaps between one degree and another. It is not unusual to have adult

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students in a course who have not been in a course or degree program for 10, 15, or even

20 years. Adults in this situation experience anxiety and hesitancy about their ability to

compete and perform at a graduate level. They are often unsure of their abilities and feel

at a distinct disadvantage over their younger counterparts.

 One way adults prefer to experience reduced stress is with either a

reduction in or elimination of a time frame within which to learn or master a subject or

skill. Research studies comparing adult learners with young learners working on math

problems found that when they imposed a time limit for solving the problem, younger

students did better. However, when they removed the time limit, adults competed with

younger students and did just as well in problem solving. When adults cannot modify

time limits (like the length of a term or semester) then they must call upon their learning

agility and make adjustments accordingly. This means that adult learners will need to

give themselves more time in fulfilling reading and writing assignments, for instance.

Giving themselves a head start on course assignments reduces this learner anxiety and

improves academic outcomes.

 Adults tend to be multi-modal learners. The typical learning modalities

are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile. That is, we often have a preference for

learning new information through the eye gate, the ear gate, or through touch and

movement. While children tend to have one of these three manifested in a dominant form,

adults have learned to morph or merge these three into a blended style that incorporates

all of the modalities. This makes adult learners more agile and capable of adapting to

different learning settings. This ability to adjust their learning to the instructional method

of the course or instructor gives adults a learning edge over their youthful counterparts.

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 Adults are motivated to learn as they experience needs and interests that

learning will satisfy. Motivation in adulthood is always linked to some aspect of the

adult's life. Motivation to learn something is not devoid of context which gives it

meaning to the adult. The reason why many adults are not motivated to learn what we

want to teach them is because we have done an inadequate job of convincing them of its

practical value.

 Adults' orientation to learning is life-centered. Adults, therefore, become

ready to learn those things they need to know and be able to do in order to cope

effectively with real life. Adults seek out learning experiences in order to cope with life

events (marriage, divorce, new job, different job, retiring, etc.)

 Experience is the richest resource for adult learners. This is the most

marked difference between children and adults with respect to learning. Children have

very little experience, adults have a great deal of experience. Adults bring their

experiences with them like checked baggage on an airplane. It functions as a lens through

which adults perceive new knowledge and information. It also functions as a Geiger

counter sniffing out inauthentic or contradictory pieces of information or knowledge that

do not match what they have known or learned from living life. This often comes across

to the instructor as a critical or difficult attitude from the adult learner. Instead, it is

simply the adult coming to terms with the discrepancy and wanting to think through it. As

American educator John Dewey reminded us not all experiences are educative or

positive. Just because adults have had experiences does not mean that those experiences

are valid or correct. Adults want a learning environment that will allow them to explore

these discrepancies without retaliation or negative feedback from the instructor.

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 Adults learn through personal reflection upon experiences. As adults

mature, they become more interior and reflective in their cognitive processes. In older

adults, we call this behavior "life review" or "reminiscing.” Paulo Freire, the famous

Brazilian adult educator, advocated the importance of critical reflection upon our learning

experiences. Adults have a built-in tendency to do this anyway because they have so

many life experiences that prompt the reflection. Adults need to learn how to use this

natural tendency to their advantage in learning contexts. Allowing time to consider,

ponder, and ruminate about what one has just learned or mastered cements that learning

in our long term memory centers in our brains. We can do this in two ways. First, while

awake and alert by intentionally thinking about what we have learned and how we might

use that learning in our vocations and ministries. Second, by getting plenty of sound

sleep. When we sleep, especially during REM periods of sleep, our brains engage in

sorting, filing, and synthesizing what we have learned during our waking hours. When we

use a combination of these two approaches, we are solidifying what we have learned and

making it part of our thinking and reasoning.

 Adults learn through dialogue and discussion. Adult learners have greater

mental and verbal abilities than their younger counterparts. They prefer to be in

situations in which these abilities are prized and accepted. When given the opportunity to

choose, most adults will choose to be in learning situations in which they are encouraged

to participate verbally and mentally. Active participation in learning means that adult

learners invest in their own learning. While most adults have taken most of their

education on campus in a physical classroom, online courses require a different form of

dialog and interaction. Digital dialog and keyboard interaction are the norms in online

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learning so adults must again employ their learning agility and adjust to this new way of

communicating.

 The more learning and education an adult receives the more he/she wants.

The single best predictor of whether an adult will participate in a learning activity is prior

level of educational attainment. It seems as though the more an adult exposes themselves

to learning, and the more beneficial and helpful the learning is perceived to be, the more

such learning an adult wants and needs. I have seen hesitant and nervous adult learners

enter a Liberty degree program unsure as to whether they could compete and complete,

only to see them take multiple degrees and many of them enroll in doctoral programs.

This is a joy to observe as adult learners find that they have God-given abilities to learn

and grow toward whole person impersonation of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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Chapter 3

Developing Learning How to Learn Skills

Although it is important to change your learner self-concept and to be aware of

your strengths and weaknesses as a self-directed adult learner, you need certain academic

skills to complement who you are becoming as an adult self-directed learner. Please note

we are discussing learning skills, not attributes that one possesses innately. Anyone,

regardless of prior academic performance, can learn these skills and become a better

student. Skills are acquired abilities learned by practice and use. Time on task is a great

equalizer of academic abilities. We want to encourage you to take the time necessary to

acquire and enhance the skills identified in this section.

We have identified five learning skills: reading, writing, listening, critical

thinking, and essay test-taking that are essential for one to be successful in online

education. Given the nature of online delivery, these skills need to be acquired or

sharpened, as the case may be.

 Reading Skills

Here is a pre-test that will assist you in determining your need to read this section.

Check which of the following statements about reading you think are true.

 I should read most material at the same speed.

 Underlining important information as I read will help me remember it.

 Good readers can remember most of what they read.

 Reading slowly is the key to good comprehension.

 Good readers try to memorize large amounts of information as they read.

 When I read rapidly, I remember less information than when I read slowly.

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If you checked most of these statements as true, you will probably benefit from reading

this section. There are many reading techniques in the learning skills literature. However,

one that seems most appropriate to online theological education is the "Proactive

Reading" technique proposed by Professor Robert Smith of Northern Illinois University.

We have modified his basic approach but the germ for the technique is entirely his.

Think of proactive reading much like you would approach the use of a computer.

The book is a resource from which you want to glean information. Not all of it is

pertinent and you already know you are not going to remember all of it. You want to be

able to formulate in your own mind the essential gist of the book's contents. Proactive

reading requires that you switch from being a passive learner to an active, self-directing

one who engages in an interactive fashion with the material you are required to read.

1. Look over the book and read any of the promotional comments printed on the

jacket, inside pocket, or on the back of the book. Evaluators, selected by the publishing

company who are recognized experts in the field, usually make these comments.

2. Read all you can about the author's background and expertise to write the book.

3. Read all of the introductory materials (foreword, preface, introduction, etc.).

Seek to identify the author's purpose for writing the book. Identify recognized and

admitted limitations or delimitations of the book.

4. Leaf through the table of contents and index to get a feel for the major topics that

addressed in the book's contents.

5. Scan the book noting chapter headings, sub-headings, special appendices or any

charts, diagrams, or photos.

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6. Scan each chapter before reading it in detail. You want to obtain a big picture

view of the chapter much like you have already obtained of the entire book by what you

have done in the first five steps.

7. While reading a chapter you may wish to make written notations or make marks

that highlight what you think are significant or important statements. These should be

marked only for ease of locating them for future use, not for purposes of hoping they will

improve memory retention. Use notations or marks that do not take long to write or mark

so that you do not compromise your reading rate. You might use short comments like

“agree!” “disagree!” or “proof?”

8. When you are finished reading the chapter, write down or type out the main idea

presented and identify at least two thrust points that indicate how the author (s) support

this main idea or thesis.

9. Critically reflect upon what you have read and respond to it verbally or in writing,

depending upon your learning style preference. With what do you agree, disagree, take

issue with, don't understand, view as weak, or think is exceptional or well-stated in the

chapter?

10. Decide how you are going to incorporate and use what you have learned in the

chapter with course assignments. How you proceed will depend upon the stipulations and

parameters set forth in your syllabus. Each faculty will use and integrate required reading

material in different ways. Be sure you are alert to how the instructor expects you to use

the required reading before you begin reading the texts.

Another helpful model for active reading was proposed in the classic How To

Read a Book by Charles Van Doren and Mortimer J. Adler. You may remember the name

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Charles Van Doren from the movie Quiz Show which dramatized the quiz show scandal

that he was involved in as a young man. Adler of course is a well-known American

philosopher. In their book, they advocate the practice of “active reading” because reading

is a very complex activity. You must master each of the skills that comprise the act and

art of reading in order to read something actively and grasp its meaning. These authors

propose a model of reading that involves four different levels that represent four different

purposes for reading. The first level is Elementary Reading and refers to the basic skills

of learning to read that most of us acquire in grade school. The second level is

Inspectional Reading and involves the ability to read or skim a book’s contents in a

relatively short period. Some questions you may ask at this reading level are: “What is

this book about?” or “What is the structure of this book?” or “What are the parts to this

book?” The third level is Analytical Reading and is a more complex and systematic way

of reading than the previous two. Francis Bacon once wrote that some books are to be

“chewed and digested” and that is what one would do when reading at this level. The

fourth level is Syntopical Reading or Comparative Reading. This kind of reading

involves multiple books on the same subject from which the reader is able to deduce a

synthesis of knowledge not present in any of the texts per se.

The Inspectional Reading level is similar to Smith’s Proactive Reading model and

is usually a good place to start for any texts you may be required to read in an online

degree program. If you are required to respond or react to the reading in written form,

you will want to be reading at the Analytical level. If you are going to be writing a paper

on a given subject, you will probably want to be reading at the Syntopical or Comparative

level.

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Another very helpful resource on this subject is a chapter in a book. The chapter is

entitled “Becoming a Critical Reader,” and appears in Decker’s Patterns of Exposition by

Randall Decker and Robert A. Schwegler (Longman, 1998). The authors argue that

critical reading involves (1) Previewing; (2) Reading; (3) Reviewing. You can read their

chapter for more details about this method but I wanted to highlight three techniques they

suggest for reading critically that we have found helpful. First, keep a reading journal in

either a notebook or a digital file in which you keep your responses and reactions to

materials you are reading. This is a very helpful technique if you will need to write about

what you have read. Second, jot down marginal notes while reading. These notes should

be brief and abbreviated but serve as a trigger to recall your initial reaction. Third,

highlighting limited portions of the text as you read to indicate what sections of the book

or article was of particular importance to you. If you plan to write about what you are

reading later, you especially what to use highlighting to identify sections you may want

to use as a quotation.

 Writing Skills

You can plan to do much more writing in a graduate theological program than in

other types of education. This is because the main form of communication is writing and

there is a vast literature spanning 2000 years. Every piece you write must contain three

essential elements that form the "bare bones" of any written structure (Payne, 1965).

1. Introduction

The introduction ought to draw the reader into the body of the material to follow.

It should begin with a general statement or question, sometimes called the "thesis

statement" or "thesis question," followed by a quick narrowing down to the main theme

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to be developed in the body. Set the stage quickly, give appropriate background, then

move right into a transition sentence that will set up the reader for the body.

2. Body (argument)

The body of a written piece is where you elaborate, defend, and expand the thesis

introduced in the first section. The body should support your main contention with

supporting evidence and possible objections. A good body presents both sides of a case,

pros and cons. Save your best argument for last. When presenting contrary views, be sure

to set forth the strongest arguments so you can avoid someone charging you with erecting

a "straw man." When moving from one sub-point or argument to the next, be sure to

employ the use of connecting or transition words and phrases that enable the reader to

follow the flow of your case (argument). The following is a partial list of logical

connectors appropriate in your writing:

 exceptions - but, alas, however, etc.

 illustrations -for instance, for example, etc.

 conclusions -thus, so, therefore, consequently, etc.

 comparisons -similarly, by contrast, etc.

 qualifications - yet, still, etc.

 additions - moreover, furthermore, etc.

The writing of the body of any piece best includes the following three components:

a. elaboration: spell out the details by defining, clarifying and adding relevant, pertinent

information.

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b. illustration: paint a verbal picture that helps make or clarify our point(s).

Well-illustrated pieces are easier to read and follow than those that grind on at a very

high level of abstraction.

c. argumentation: give the reasons, justifications, and rationales for the position or view

you have taken in the introduction. Draw inferences for the reader and explain the

significance of assertion or claims made.

3. Conclusion

The conclusion is your best shot to make your final appeal to the reader and

consequently its importance cannot be overstated. Some refer to this "best shot" as "the

clincher" referring to the finishing, all-encompassing statement that wraps up your

presentation in a powerful or even dramatic fashion. Normally a single paragraph, brief

and concise, will suffice. The purpose of the conclusion is to leave the reader with an idea

or thought that captures the essence of the body while provoking further reflection and

consideration.

 Listening Skills

All of the courses you take at Liberty University will involve oral presentations of

various sorts presented in video format. Good listening or viewing skills are, therefore,

essential for academic success. Here are some suggestions for improving your listening

skills.

Most listening scholars recognize a direct relationship between the reception of

aural stimuli (listening) and learning. The result of much of this research clearly suggests

that listening is a learned behavior/skill. Therefore, it can and should be taught, especially

to students who spend most of their time listening.

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Dr. Harrel T. Allen has said, "Listening is hard work and requires increased

energy--your heart rate speeds up, your blood circulates faster, and your temperature goes

up." Listening is a complex activity that requires our full attention and a well-rested body

and mind. Avoid listening to course videos when you are tired. Always be at your best

and freshest.

Listening requires attention because the mind works faster than the mouth can

speak. The average speaking rate of speed is about 125 words per minute. The average

person thinks at a rate of 500 words per minute, or about four times as fast. As a result,

your mind has a tendency to wander and allow other thoughts to intrude upon what you

are listening to. Therefore, good listeners have learned how to avoid distractions and

concentrate fully on what they are hearing. Multi-tasking while listening, although

frequently practiced, has been scientifically demonstrated to be an inferior learning

behavior.

Listen actively by interacting with the speaker. Active listeners pay attention to

the speaker and try to make sense of what they hear. Active listeners refuse to allow

verbal tics (“um,” “ah,” or favorite words and phrases) or mannerisms (jingling keys or

coins) to distract them from the essential message. Ask questions, check your

understanding, make counter-points, etc. Identify the speaker's purpose and general

approach while listening for specifics without being fixated upon them. This is tricky, but

you can learn it with practice. Active listening assumes that something in the presentation

will be useful either now or in the future. Therefore, active listeners tend to be more

highly motivated to listen no matter how effective or ineffective the speaker may be.

Active listeners make a decision to listen and thereby strengthen their commitment to

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learn. Listen for repeated terms, words, ideas, or signal words. For example, a speaker

might say, "There are three major views regarding the relationship between the

testaments." The signal word or phrase here is "three major views." This should trigger a

response from you that alerts you to listen for those three major views.

Here is an interesting vein of research that has developed over the last ten years.

Italian neuroscientist Vittorio Gallese, identified the phenomenon of mirror neurons in

the brain. He found that while watching someone perform an action like drinking water

from a bottle or glass – the person watching or observing automatically activated the

same neurons that would light up if that person took the drink themselves. As far as our

brain is concerned observing someone do something is like doing it ourselves.

However, the follow-up research of three professors from Princeton University

(Stephens, Silbert, and Hasson, 2010) is even more intriguing.1 They asked the question,

“I wonder if this same mirror neuron effect is present when simply listening to someone

speak about drinking water without the person being present?” They found that the same

regions of the brain activated just as they did in the original research but now simply by

listening not by observing. The Princeton researchers referred to this as neural coupling

because the neural activity of the speaker and the listener couple during a communication

event. Instead of viewing an audience as passive during a communication event – the

brains of the audience are extremely active. In fact, the audience members in the

research, so attuned and engaged with the speaker, were often able to predict or anticipate

what the speaker was going to say next. They could predict, at a very high rate of

accuracy, what words the speaker might use before the speaker uttered them. In short,

1 “Speaker-listener neural coupling underlies successful communication,” Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2010:107 (32): 14425-30.

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they found that “the listener’s brain activity mirrors the speaker’s brain activity with

temporal delays” (p. 14428).

Active listeners are made, not born. We acquire listening skills by imitation of

good listeners and by learning them deliberately. Active listening/viewing promotes

speaker-listener neural coupling and produces effective communication and

understanding.

 Critical Thinking Skills

The hidden curriculum of previous generations in higher education was the

teaching of critical thinking skills. Recently, these skills have come to be a more obvious

part of our intentional instruction. Critical thinking refers to the ability to consider

logically, react, and process information or data in a sophisticated manner. Many Liberty

University professors base learning outcomes on Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational

Objectives in the Cognitive Domain.2 The Taxonomy proposes a hierarchy of critical

thinking abilities from simple comprehension to more complex critical evaluation and

judgment. We expect students to be able to use the higher order skills of critical thinking.

Even within a degree program, the first courses are more general in nature and require

less critical thinking than courses of a more theoretical or technical nature. Rather than

assuming you have already acquired these skills, or that you will obtain them by osmosis

simply by taking online courses, this section of our orientation intends to be more

deliberate.

2 Bloom B., B. Mesia, and D. Krathwohl (1964). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in the Cognitive

Domain (New York: David McKay).

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Probing

Harvard researcher D. N. Perkins in the Graduate School of Education has

observed that competent thinkers proceed by challenging and altering premises,

accumulating and abandoning assumptions, until they reach a tentative conclusion. This

kind of effective reasoning interrogates one's own knowledge, assumptions, information,

and possibly even conclusions because the learner holds them tentatively. This kind of

thinking is not "knit-picking" but reflects an intense desire and curiosity to understand

and assess a matter or issue carefully. Critical reasoning is inquiry and discovery through

probing strategies that enlighten and inform. In short, the questions, "what?" "why?" and

"why not?" form the query base of solid critical thinking and reasoning in an academic

setting.

Plausibility

The term derives from the Latin plaudere literally meaning, "deserving of

applause" and refers to the believability or credibility of ideas and thoughts. Ideas or

concepts that are credible have survived the test of stringency. Typical scientific inquiry

follows this approach when tests of significance are established and the assumption of the

procedures is that the tougher the test, the greater the credibility of the thing being tested.

Reasoning and critical thinking attempts to determine what among competing data are the

most plausible. Most plausible data often undergo development into a theory. Plausibility

or believability runs along a continuum from "strong" to "not sure" depending upon the

available evidence and the source of the evidence. For instance, we may hear a politician

declare that he/she is going to win an election by a certain percentage margin and we may

hear a scientific pollster report similar information. We may be more inclined to believe

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the pollster than the politician, even when the data is the same, simply because we have

more confidence in the pollster to predict such things than we do in politicians who have

stakes in the outcome of the election.

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

Again, we are dependent upon Latin roots to understand our English words. The

word "inductive" comes from the Latin word inducere translates, "to lead in" and the

word "deductive" from the Latin word deducere, means, "to lead out or away." When

used in the context of logical reasoning, both refer to ways of supporting propositions in

an argument. Alternatively, deduction and induction are ways our minds relate

reasons/evidence to conclusions. Induction refers to a method of reasoning that examines

particulars and deduces generalizations. Deduction is the ability to examine

generalizations and from these to identify particulars that are consistent with the

generalization.

 Essay Test-taking Skills

Students who know how to write essay answers well will be in a better position to

succeed academically. Here are some suggestions for writing an excellent essay exam.

The best advice anyone can give you for receiving a high grade on an essay exam

is to be sure your answer is well organized. A well-organized answer sends the right

message to the person grading the essay: this person has spent some time thinking about

the material reflected in this question. The way to achieve a well-organized essay begins

with a short outline of the major thrust points you wish to include in your answer. Write

or type this outline at the top of the page you plan to use. Even if you do not have

enough time to complete the essay, the professor may give you partial credit because of

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the information contained in your outline evidencing your knowledge and comprehension

of the subject matter. The outline also prevents you from committing the fatal flaw of

most essay answers: excessive length.

Begin your answer with a brief introduction or background that conveys the intent

and direction of your answer. This opening short paragraph should give an overview of

what you intend to cover in more detail as the answer unfolds. Again, if by some

circumstance, you are unable to finish the answer, the opening paragraph indicates your

grasp of the subject at hand.

Follow your outline as you build the body of your essay. Each thrust point in your

outline should be an expanded paragraph in your answer.

Finish off your answer with a summary statement or conclusion that packs a

wallop. Leave a good impression in the mind of the grader as she/he finishes reading your

answer. Let your conclusion be short and to the point.

While reading the essay question, pay attention to the key verbs (compare,

contrast, explain, discuss, define, describe, etc.). Key verbs tell you how to approach the

topic. Note key nouns in the question because they may often suggest key topics or

subtopics that you may need to cover in your response. Here is a sample:

“Compare and contrast the major tenets of the three monotheistic religions:

Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.”

Based upon the verbs used, you should plan to structure your answer to reflect a

contrast/comparison format. Based upon the nouns used, there should be three sets of

major tenets representing all three monotheistic faiths reflected in your answer.

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If there is a time limit, be sure to pay attention to point values and spend the bulk

of your time writing on those questions that have the highest point value. If the point

values are equal or not identified, then select the sequence in which you will answer the

questions by answering those questions you find the easiest or the ones you are best

prepared to answer.

What graders want to know by reading an essay answer is whether or not you

grasp the essential facets of the question and how well you can think through the subject.

Do not try to "snow" your instructor with a lot of verbiage that does not make sense or

with aimless and pointless meanderings. When writing essay answers, cogent, logical,

and well-organized responses are best and obtain the higher grade. Attention to these

learning/study skills will make you a better student and will enhance your learning. The

best students know how to use all of these skills to varying degrees in any learning

situation. We encourage you to begin today to practice these skills so that your learning

experience is a profitable and enjoyable one.

Closing

Have you ever noticed what you do when you get in a car you have never driven

before? Maybe it is a new car or a rental or one you are borrowing from a friend or

family member. You begin to adjust the seat, the inside mirror, outside mirrors, set the

radio to a station you like, adjust the temperature controls, and generally make driving the

car comfortable for yourself. Do you do the same thing when you enter a new learning

environment? If you have the proper skills, you can. One of the reasons why adults

often struggle in graduate theological programs is because they do not know how to

adjust the new learning environment to their own learning preferences and needs. This

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course is designed to help you make these learning adjustments so that you can maximize

your learning and your academic success.