"The Learning Cycle" (Muriel I. Elmer and Duane H. Elmer)

TITLE: The Learning Cycle: Insights for Faithful Teaching from Neuroscience and the Social Sciences
AUTHOR: Muriel I. Elmer and Duane H. Elmer
PUBLISHER: Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020, (224 pages).

From time to time, I would hear graduates speak about how disconnected their college education was from their jobs. Some would say that what exists in practice do not quite match up to the theories they learned in school. Among older folks, they prefer to tell us that experience is worth much more than the educational qualification. This common sentiment is also felt among seminarians and those who had theological education. I once came across a study that shows how inverted the expectations are between seminaries and churches. What church elders and members claim are more important often do not align with theologians and biblical scholars' expectations. Ideally, they should be the same. Practically, they are more different than thought. Helping to bridge this divide is the aim of this book. As educators for the past 50 years, the authors share their passion for teaching and give us insights about how to learn. Their underlying assumptions are:

• They believe sin has affected all of life, including our learning.
• Scripture needs to be seriously considered in holistic learning.
• Truth can be learned also from other disciplines such as social sciences and medical sciences
• We need to depend on the Holy Spirit for guidance
• We need to do a better job in connecting head-heart; facts-feelings; theory-practice; and teaching-learning paradigms.

The root of this book comes from Duane's PhD thesis about major learning models of the day. While many institutions tend to focus on the cognitive part of learning, we need to incorporate as much as possible the emotions and behavioural aspects. Enters the Learning Cycle, a 5-level model to help us toward holistic learning. Each level begins with a call to "recall" what Scriptures had taught us. It reminds us that the Bible is the final authority and we need to put all of our questions, our discoveries, our learning etc, under the Word of God. For those unfamiliar with Christian lingo, this is not to say that the Bible is used to debunk science or philosophy. Rather, it is the over-arching guiding paradigm that helps us make sense of the world. For example, while many things can be explained by science, there are many mysteries in life that are still undiscovered and outside the purview of human sciences. For example, how do we make sense of suffering? What about measuring love? Why do the earth exist in its state? Why do we think a particular way? While science could explain some, it is not an absolute authority because the world is much bigger than the domain of science. Even universities do not just comprise a science faculty.

Here is a summary of the five levels:

1. Remember the Information (Memory)
2. Recall with Appreciation (Gratitude)
3. Recall with Speculation (Curiosity)
4. Recall with Practice (Behavioural Change)
5. Recall with Habit (Christlikeness)

My Thoughts
There are three reasons why I like this book. First, it is holistic, albeit with a conviction in the Bible. This may seem strange to those of us who prefer to stick to facts or to give science the final say. Here, let me offer an opinion about this starting position. Whenever we write a book or start a project, there is usually a basic assumption we carry with us in our research. This is also called pre-supposition. We all have our own presuppositions, which guides us in our work and interpretations. Even the notion of letting science have the final say is already a presupposition. Thus, for anyone who cries foul over the use of the Bible as a presupposition, remember that they too are guilty of their own presuppositions of letting science have the final say. Here's my point. The moment we have a pre-existing assumption, we are already biased. All of us are biased to various extent. In reading this book, I think we need to give the authors the benefit of the doubt as this is their book written based on their presuppositions. We read this book to learn and to expand our understanding. For if we are open to truth, then we need to be open to the 80-years combined learning and experience of the Elmers.

Second, it does not debunk the place of science. The authors show us how faith and science can complement each other. There are lots of wisdom within the pages of each chapter. They challenge us to question the facts placed before us. Instead of relying on rote learning, we are challenged to learn with understanding. This is also what the Bible teaches. We learn about the pedagogy of repetition; of rehearsal; of making the connections. They show us the importance not just about learning the content, but also about how these are made relevant to people. The best lecturers are those who are committed to their students both mentally and spiritually. Asking questions is a simple but profound way of learning.

Finally, learning is also learning about tackling our own barriers to change. If one is a believer and refuses to be informed by the sciences, one would be impoverished of the latest research and findings. If one is an atheist and refuses to be open to faith matters, one risks ignorance and forgets that historically, many great scientists were renowned people of faith. We will all have our personal biases and prejudices. As long as these come in the way of learning, we will limp along in our search for truth. Ordinary students absorb and try to remember what they learn. Good students read widely and remain open to different avenues of instruction. Great students go beyond these to ask good questions and discern the pathways to truth. The authors conclude with a call for us to aim for Christlikeness, which is the key to the whole Truth.

This book is a gift to the Church and to the learning community about holistic education from a biblical perspective.

Muriel I. Elmer (PhD, Michigan State) is a retired adjunct professor for Trinity International University where she taught in both the educational studies and the intercultural studies PhD programs. She has taught nursing and intercultural communication at various institutions and has been an international consultant and educator for many cross-cultural organizations. She was the director of child survival programs and a training specialist at World Relief as well as a missionary in South Africa.

Duane H. Elmer (PhD, Michigan State) has taught in over seventy-five countries and has provided cross-cultural training to Fortune 500 companies, relief and development agencies, mission organizations, churches, and educational institutions. He previously served as director of the PhD program in educational studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.

Rating: 4.75 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Inter-Varsity Press and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.