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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780310101932 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Elm Hill |
| Publication date: | 12/18/2018 |
| Pages: | 156 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.80(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.60(d) |
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CHAPTER 1
Bloom's Taxonomy and Preaching
Introduction
Some readers will find this chapter to be mind-blowing in some ways and perhaps the most practical information in the entire book. At the very least, Bloom's Taxonomy will shine a very bright light on many of the preaching and teaching shortcomings in the church today. Naturally, it is scripture that shines the light on what is or is not proper theology. Likewise, our understanding of truth and proper doctrine is rooted in God's nature and his Word. But it is NOT sacrilegious to use some secular understandings of psychology, education, human behavior, etc., to enhance our ability to get the gospel to people in the most effective ways. In this chapter, many — even experienced — preachers and teachers are going to have the proverbial Aha! moments as you will plainly see some things you have been doing wrong; in my case, for many years.
Let's take a slightly more in-depth look at Bloom's Taxonomy. By the way, this is something that you can learn a great deal about with basic Internet searches. You need not embark on doctoral studies, nor get overly deep into the "scholarly literature." The man who rightfully gets a lot of the credit for all of this is Benjamin Bloom, an educator who rose to prominence in the middle of the twentieth century (Guskey, 2001). You may say at this point, "Shane, I thought you said we were going to learn something new." Trust me, you are about to see this as plainly as the nose on your face — let's begin. Taxonomy is just another word for classification ("Taxonomy," n.d.). Therefore, Bloom's Taxonomy is a system of classification of different levels of educational objectives or learning, established by Benjamin Bloom. He is a fascinating character of history; however, a deeper biographical dive into his life is unnecessary in order to apply his contributions to our ministries. Arguably, his biggest legacy looks something like this (see figure 1) and I would bet that many of you have seen this before.
Do not be intimidated by the above diagram, because I will describe each "classification" or level in very simple terms as we go. The overview is this: these "learning levels" are arranged from the lowest, simplest, and easiest (at the bottom) to the highest, most sophisticated, and most advanced (at the top). Again, here goes the farm, but most teaching, whether religious or secular, rarely goes beyond the first two levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (Onosko, 1991). This is why I have already suggested that the church is suffering an epidemic of "low level" preaching. With Bloom's diagram in your mind, if you only hang out at the lowest levels in your preaching and teaching, you will not only bore your audience most of the time, but you will actually do them a large disservice for at least two reasons. Reason number one is that, by definition, you are leaving much information out of your sermon or lesson. Two, you are neglecting the things that your audience actually needs to be doing. It has often been intimated that at the end of the day it is not more knowledge that Christians need, rather Christians need to put into action the knowledge they already have.
I require my college students to format virtually all of their writing assignments in accordance with this exact scheme from Bloom's Taxonomy. I actually mandate that they put their short essays, for example, into a six-paragraph format, so that one entire paragraph is devoted to each of the six sections of Bloom's Taxonomy. I stress for them that in the future, other professors might well require a different format, but Bloom's Taxonomy should always be their guide in understanding when their writing is complete. So if they were ever asked to submit a written essay in a traditional three-paragraph format (introduction, body, and conclusion), they would still know that unless their writing touched on all six of Bloom's categories, their assignment would be weak and incomplete, regardless of how many paragraphs they were required to write.
We will get to the sermon aspect of this momentarily, but I want to share a couple of more things in an educational context. By the way, education is not antithetical to church or ministry; it is just something that most seminaries do not do particularly well. If you have ever been a student or taught a class (that should cover most of us, I would think), you have likely run into the phenomenon of students expressing frustration at any vagueness in writing assignment instructions. You have heard, or said yourselves at some point, "How many pages does this paper need to be? What do I need to address? What can I leave out? What are you (the professor) looking for?" On and on it sometimes goes, with most conscientious students desperately trying to figure out how they can create a product that will earn them a passing if not excellent grade. May I say that once you properly introduce students to Bloom's Taxonomy, most of those concerns go quietly into the night.
An example I often use with my students, which ought to help preachers understand, as well, is that I should be able to assign them an essay paper and give them, literally, one word of instruction. For example, most of my students are at this level now, but I should be able to set them down and say, "'Birdhouses,' now start writing." Before Bloom's Taxonomy is introduced, you can imagine the cacophony of frustration and follow-up questions that students would express. For instance, "What is it about birdhouses that you want to know? How much do I have to write? You can't possibly expect us to write a paper without more information than that!" Once Bloom's Taxonomy has been properly introduced, though, students are able to use it as a guide to write a thorough paper on the subject of birdhouses without needing any further guidance.
Students would first know that they need to share some basic knowledge (Eber & Parker, 2007; Mayer, 2002) of birdhouses with the consumer of their paper, which is the first level of Bloom's Taxonomy. A snippet of that section might look a little something like this: "Birdhouses are small manmade structures, often constructed of wood, that serve as shelter for birds." Next, students would know that they need to demonstrate their comprehension/understanding (Eber & Parker, 2007; Mayer, 2002) of the topic of birdhouses. A portion might look like this: "Birdhouses come in many different sizes, shapes, colors, and materials, but they are constructed for the purpose of providing birds with shelter from the elements and often as a place to lay eggs and raise their babies." The third level of Bloom's Taxonomy is application (Eber & Parker, 2007; Mayer, 2002). At this point a student might say, "People who are interested in helping birds to survive and providing them with an advantage in the wild might consider deploying birdhouses."
The analysis category is next in line in the Bloom's diagram (Eber & Parker, 2007; Mayer, 2002). Here, a student might address the pros and cons of using birdhouses. Or a student could compare and contrast the use of birdhouses with other types of pro-bird interventions. The point is that once the basic knowledge (first level of Bloom's) is shared with the audience and a thorough explanation (second level of Bloom's) is given along with how this information can be used in the real world (third level of Bloom's), it is now time to go beyond all of that. Suffice to say much preaching and teaching never go beyond the knowledge level, most never go beyond comprehension, and hardly any goes beyond application. In fact, far too many preachers leave even the application of the message to the individual members of the audience rather than helping guide the whole audience to similar applications, which is more likely to produce unity and momentum in a church. Back to birdhouses. After an analysis, the student should synthesize the information (Seddon, 1978), which involves combining pieces of old knowledge in order to develop a new and comprehensive understanding that then allows for a plan to move forward. Finally, an evaluation (Seddon, 1978) of birdhouses is needed (apex of Bloom's pyramid), which consists of arriving at a particular judgment or appraisal of the information investigated and compiled to ensure that it is true.
I recently had a mother and daughter in my campus office. The daughter was my student and she was a little nervous about using Bloom's Taxonomy for the first time, so she scheduled an appointment to meet with me at the beginning of the semester. She brought along her mother, I am guessing, for some moral support. I went through the whole birdhouse analogy and suggested that most students are trained to go to the library in order to research a topic. Then they have been overtly taught, or at least conditioned over time, to write down a massive amount of knowledge about whatever topic they were assigned to research (hopefully not birdhouses!). So they write and they write and they write, and once their paper is finished, they turn in a reworded regurgitation of very low-level, knowledge-based information. Where is the application? a teacher might ask. Where is the analysis,synthesis, or evaluation? Why, to this day, do we continue to instruct students how to cite what other authors have said, as if that is the entire measure of productive research and writing? After I had conversed with the two for ten to fifteen minutes, the mother said, "Now I feel like going back to school again! I wish I would have known all of this years ago." The daughter went on to have an extremely successful semester and finished at the very top of the class. She, too, happily admitted that she "gets it" now, and that her learning will never be the same again.
It should be noted that an Internet search of Bloom's Taxonomy will likely reveal an "original" or "traditional" Bloom's Taxonomy as well as a "new" or "revised" Bloom's Taxonomy. To avoid any confusion, this book focuses on the original Bloom's Taxonomy, which I personally feel is a smidgen more straightforward. The two are substantially similar anyway, so there is no harm if you prefer the revised one. In the space below, all six categories of Bloom's Taxonomy are briefly fleshed out and put in a Christian preaching and teaching context.
KNOWLEDGE and Preaching
For Christians, it should go without saying that developing a strong biblical base of knowledge is an indispensable endeavor whether or not you are in a preaching and teaching position. One of the biggest strengths of most seminaries is that they do an exceptional job of laying a foundation of pertinent knowledge. One of the biggest weaknesses of many seminaries is that they do an exceptional job of laying a foundation of pertinent knowledge. In other words, seminaries produce lots of ministers who "know their stuff." Actually, to say it even better, seminaries produce a lot of ministers who know quite extensively what the Bible says. They interpret the scripture well, also; I'm not suggesting otherwise. Consequently, though, all of that academic ability has led to our sermons often consisting of the very routine exercise of transferring knowledge from the Bible, through the pulpit, and to the people. This process was absolutely necessary hundreds and even thousands of years ago, long before the Bible was translated into countless modern languages. It is no longer necessary; indeed, it is usually unsuitable for the preacher to merely stand up and confirm to the church what the Bible says. Why? Because people have their own personal copies of the scriptures and no longer need a preacher to simply state the obvious.
Preaching is a science, in that there are established methods available to follow for consistency. Preaching is an art, in that the more you practice properly, the better you can become over time. Good preaching is categorically not regurgitation, yet that is what is practiced from countless pulpits around the world each week. Changing our view about what preaching is supposed to accomplish (stating/restating the obvious versus something much deeper) is vital, or else the church — particularly in the United States — will continue its gradual decline. The generations-long downturn of the American church is real but hardly irreversible. However, it will take some intentional changes in the church, among leaders and laity alike, up to and including the very ways we teach, preach, and learn.
Right now, the way we are preaching and teaching has led to plenty of Christians who "know" their Bibles, but far fewer who know what to do with that knowledge (or even how to think at the next level about the facts and figures they have "learned"). Even worse, innumerable Christians, including many preachers, teachers, and leaders, frequently fail to even see the need to go beyond knowledge. Therefore, the "solution" to virtually every crisis, problem, or controversy in a church or community is yet another Bible study, sermon, or position paper. Frankly, this is the comfort zone of most preachers: "If only people better understood what the Bible says about this, then we could all get on the right track. I'll put together a sermon that highlights what God has said on this matter." As I facetiously say a number of times in this book, that sounds like it ought to be right. It sounds on the money. Looking to see what God has said on an issue sounds like it should be the endgame for the church, but in truth it is only the starting point. I am not implying that knowledge is unimportant for Christians, but I am suggesting that it is the lowest and easiest form of learning, and by itself does not go nearly far enough to equip Christians to have a maximum impact on society. It is curious that a secular educator/ psychologist came along nearly seventy-five years ago and reminded us that merely knowing plenty about something is not enough. Those responsible for preaching and teaching in the church must take heed.
In figure 1, it is easy to see that knowledge forms the base of the pyramid, emphasizing the importance of knowledge as the foundation upon which all of the other aspects of learning rest. That said, the preacher needs to realize that it is the quality of the knowledge that matters more than the quantity. It is usually a mistake to cram sermons full of verses and then add more verses to support those verses, and then dip into the opposite testament (Old or New, depending) for even more of what God says about X, Y, or Z. I believe I can safely say that most Christians do not require such a level of so-called knowledge in a Sunday morning sermon, for instance. In fact, the only reason for such excessive Bible citations in a sermon is if it is in dispute that God actually said such and such. By all means, if you have an inordinate number of skeptics in your church who question whether or not the Lord has spoken on a particular subject at all, then you should spend an appropriate amount of time relaying the basic knowledge.
Assuming you are not preaching to a large crowd of atheists or other ardent skeptics on a regular basis, the main knowledge portion of your sermon should largely be confined to your introduction as you set the context for your sermon. You can even use the Word if you like while delivering the sermon, for example, "Let me share a little knowledge with you to get us started this morning." After such a statement, you might then read a passage of scripture or an isolated verse or two. Perhaps you will give a brief synopsis of some research you have done throughout the week or a brief summary of a book you just finished reading. Whatever the case may be, just know that if your sermon is all (or even predominantly) knowledge, you are actually dumbing down your people, as counterintuitive as that may seem. How so? Because you are not stimulating more advanced thinking and learning.
At this point, it might be prudent to note that the average parishioner in the pew likely doesn't know very much about Bloom's Taxonomy, either. As far as they know, it really is the preacher's job to reiterate what God has written in his Word. This obviously only exacerbates the preaching problems in the modern era. Not only are there mostly-knowledge-based sermons happening on a regular basis in a plethora of churches, but people do not even realize that they ought to be dissatisfied with it! Just as preachers have a comfort zone, congregants also have a comfort zone. That zone often involves sitting semi-comfortably in the pew (or equivalent), enjoying the music if there is any, and politely listening to how nice a job the preacher does at accurately reading or restating what God has already said. This has passed for preaching for so long that virtually all sides involved in the process have become, not just complacent about it, but blissfully ignorant that there surely is a better way.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Preach Better Sermons"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Shane Stone, Ph.D..
Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
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Table of Contents
Introduction vii
Chapter 1 Bloom's Taxonomy and Preaching 1
Chapter 2 Andragogy and Preaching 39
Chapter 3 Expository versus Topical Preaching: Resolving the Tension Once and for All 69
Chapter 4 Constructing and Delivering the Sermon 81
Conclusion 123
References 135