Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Barriers to Learning

Barriers to Learning
Find out the certain barriers there are to learing in a classroom setting.

Unless the room temperature is above sixty-five degrees, it is unlikely that learning will take place. If, however, the temperature rises about eighty degrees, learning probably won't take place either. God has made us "amphibious" beings, with one foot in the spiritual world and one foot in the physical world. We are not merely spirits who happen to inhabit bodies, nor are we bodies with spirits attached. We are spirit-bodies, amphibious beings not totally complete without both elements (2 Corinthians 5:1-4). The spirit aspect influences and affects our bodies. Likewise, our bodies affect various spiritual processes, including learning. That's why we generally do not learn unless the room temperature is roughly between sixty-five and eight degrees.

The Physical Environment:

This is not only true of the temperature. A number of things in the physical environment can impede or even kill learning. Maybe adults should be mature enough to rise about these, but most of us are not. Unless the physical environment is right, the right things usually do not happen in class for the disciple-making process to progress.

Temperature is among the most important of the physical factors in the classroom. Another is the quietness of the room. It is difficult for learning to take place when there is a screaming baby next door, a loud video across the hall, or yelling teenagers in the hallway. People ought to be able to filter these distractions out, but loud, distracting noise usually aborts the learning process. No matter how fervently you pray or how well you prepare your lesson, it is unlikely that learning will take place if there is a wailing baby next door, a loud video across the hall, or yelling teenagers in the hallway. People ought to be able to filter these distractions out, but loud, distracting noise usually aborts the learning process. No matter how fervently you pray or how well you prepare your lesson, it is unlikely that learning will take place if there is a wailing baby in the room next door. On the other hand, if your group is watching a video, it must be loud enough for everyone to comfortably hear.

Everything in the physical environment either contributes to or distracts from the learning process. Hard chairs tend to distract from the learning process. Little piles of junk—last quarter's Sunday school books mixed with a few maps and some discarded Bibles—tend to distract from learning. On the other hand, an attractive, quiet, well-decorated room with comfortable chairs tends to increase the chances that the right things will happen with the learns in class. Attractive art and tasteful wallpaper tend to help people relax so they can concentrate on the business of learning. If people's bodies are relaxed, their spirits—their minds and hearts—can learn.

Likewise, arranging chairs in a circle encourages people to talk to each other, whereas placing them in straight rows tends to limit discussion. People are simply not comfortable talking to those whom they cannot look at face-to-face. When the chairs are set in straight rows, the best we can expect is for conversation to take place between the class members and the teacher. If we want people to talk to each other, we need to arrange their chairs in a circle.

Physical factors—the arrangement of the chairs, the temperature of the room, the presence or absence of various distractions—all of these affect learning.

Excerpted from Disciple-Making Teachers

Saturday, October 08, 2005

What Superchick Believe!

What We Believe

What we believe: It is very simple. We believe that every person regardless of age, gender, size or any other reason you can come up with, was created on purpose and for a purpose. Every person has greatness in them and something special and unique to offer the world. The world doesn't stand in our way. Other people don't stand in our way. We are the only thing standing in our way. We are the ones who define who we are by the choices that we make every day and the things that we choose to believe about ourselves and about life. And don't think that you can just remain unseen and not be affecting people because even by not doing anything that affects someone that you could have reached out to. We have a world out there that is a mess and looking for someone or something to give them a reason to live. It is our responsibility to start doing something. Don't limit yourself or the impact that you can have in changing the world. You could be the next Mother Teresa that shows millions love or a janitor that shows one person love. It's not in the big or in the small it's in the doing..