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What Is Effective Teaching?

Teaching is not the demonstration of a teacher’s learning, although obviously one cannot teach what he does not know. It is not the mere presentation of information, for one may present without communicating. Communication takes place only when there is a reception to the teaching being presented. Unfortunately, we cannot pour knowledge from one mind to another like pouring water from one bucket to another.

Knowledge must be recognized, rethought, and relived by the receiving mind (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:14-17; 1 Corinthians 11:1-2; 2 Timothy 2:1-16; 2 Peter 1:12-15; 2 Peter 3:1-2; Jude 1:3-5).

Effective teaching is not that which gives knowledge, but that which motivates the student to gain knowledge. There is no teaching without proper learning. The teacher’s function then is to create the most favorable conditions for self-learning.

At this point, some teachers will probably say, “Our students have no mental appetite. They do not seem motivated to learn.” As teachers, the solution to this problem is that we create that mental appetite. This is the very core of successful teaching.

John Dewey once said, “Thinking begins with a felt difficulty.” We are motivated to think when our emotional or physical needs arouse in us some doubt or uncertainty. When we consider various solutions (accumulate the evidence) and select or reject until we reach a satisfactory conclusion, we have engaged in reflective thinking.

For example, the audience is not motivated to think simply because the preacher steps to the pulpit. He must have the ability to motivate them to analyze themselves, see needs, and seek solutions. All explanations and expositions are useless unless they excite, motivate, and direct the student to think for himself (Nehemiah 8:8; cf. Habakkuk 2:2; Luke 24:27; Luke 24:32; Luke 24:45; Acts 8:30-35; Acts 17:2-3; Acts 28:23).

Brethren, if we want to be effective teachers of God’s word, we must consider our students’ voices more, and the sound of our own voices less.