Is God the ultimate distance education course designer?
He seems to be invested in some of the principles:
* Personal relations
* Study pleasure (scripture stories, doctrines, the need to pick and piece together parts to get the whole picture)
* Empathy (atonement, having "descended below all things" the instructor can have a relationship of understanding of feelings of learners)
* "Feelings of empathy and belonging promote students' motivation to learn and influence the learning favorably." Holmberg, 70
* Prescriptive Components for Good Distance Education
* Promotes and guides argument and dialogue (have to have a structure in text) (example present a question and provide the point and counterpoint-opposition in all things)
* Reflection in writing or recording (prayer)
* Clear, colloquial language-use pronouns and talk informally (instructor to learner put down on text; moderate information density) plenty of this in the scriptures
* Explicit advice (commandments)
* Personal involvement with study matter (This is MY work and MY glory-I think he is pretty personally involved)
* Dialogue, but NOT IDLE CHATTER (Wherefore, I the Lord ask you this question—unto what were ye aordained?)
* Problem-oriented (Lost manuscript, Nephi vs Laman and Lemuel, David and Goliath, Ammon and scattered sheep, Peter walking on water and then losing it, etc)
The above was an interesting thought process to go through but as I come to the end I think, perhaps, there is just so much stuff in the spiritual realm that you could find examples of hundreds of different educational principles being applied???
3 comments:
insightful thoughts - thanks for sharing Shawn!
What a great post, Shawn. There are hundreds of examples of teaching/learning theories in the scriptures and at BYU we are encouraged to use these connections as a way of helping people learn better. I really like how you've found parallels for these constructs in the scriptures and think they're entirely appropriate (it doesn't mean that Conversational theory is some God-given theory, but it's a way of relating something new to something you already know).
Thank for the post! It would be interesting to keep this lens throughout the course. I believe that God is the master teacher and so any "effective" technique (use of object lessons, attention getters, etc.) will be found in His ways of teaching us. I believe that Boyd K. Packer did his dissertation focusing on the teaching techniques of the Savior in the gospels. All truth comes together doesn't it? Great insights Shawn.
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