Which Teaching Method is Best?

Many adult Sunday School teachers rely solely on the lecture method to teach the lesson each week. Is this the best method? The teacher’s goal is to have a successful teaching/learning experience. The teacher wants to teach and hopefully the students will learn something.

People learn through their senses but each person is wired in a different way. Some like to hear information to learn it. Others like to see it to learn it, while others like to get involved in doing it to learn it. In surveying conferees I have found that the majority of people like to see or do rather than hear to learn something. Therefore, teachers need to focus more on seeing and doing if the students are going to learn the content. It is important to use visuals and get students involved in discussion.

Statistics show that the more students are involved in the process the more they remember. When lecture is the only method used, students will remember only 10% of the content after 72 hours, as compared to 90% retention when the students are involved in hearing, seeing, discussing, and doing it. A teacher needs to use a variety of methods to do an effective job. Some methods will work one week and next week that same method will not work. Just because a method is not well received by some students does not mean a teacher should abandon the method. Remember that each student learns in a different way. Just as all lecture is not a good teaching method, a teacher using all discussion will also not be very effective. A good teaching model is to look at how Jesus taught. He used a variety of teaching methods (lecture, object lessons, stories, and questions).

Take the risk – try something new this week! Leave a comment and share your experiences with using different teaching methods. What teaching methods have you found that works well with adults?