Backwards, Upside Down, and Flat
It is a beautiful Saturday afternoon here in Peru and the students are visiting their primary classrooms – the different parts of Lima where they learn from the people about the people. While they are out of the building, I’m getting ready to guide next week’s classes in the more traditional classroom.
Only it isn’t really very traditional – the Creating Understanding classroom tends to be backwards, upside down, and flat. Before you jump to conclusions, let me explain!
How do you build a training program that will prepare young missionaries for cross cultural work? I get to lead that discussion next week – and what a great topic for this group! There are 14 people in our Seminar, and 7 of them are significantly involved in missionary training programs.
How do you train missionaries? By thinking backwards. We start with the skills, attitudes, knowledge that will be needed for the task, and then we walk our way “backwards” from that end point, one by one making sure that what is needed at the end is included in the curriculum. What activities will help us reach our goal? What new information do students need to know? What attitudes will let someone go to the trouble of learning this? As tempted as we are to fill the curriculum with topics that we enjoy talking about, the best way forward is to think backwards – starting with the end in mind and then identifying the steps that will take us to that endpoint.
And as for “upside down”? Traditionally, teaching starts with a theme or title – a proposition if you will. And from that proposition, students work on activities that will clarify its meaning, finally arriving at some kind of application at the end.
We tip that pattern upside down. Starting with the experiences that students or the teachers have lived through, we start with the realities of ministry. Then we create discussions into which we add new information, identify and discuss potential options, reflect on the key issues, and finally create - together – a few short summary statements. All of the traditional elements are still there, but we present them in an order that builds off of experience and involvement.
Finally, our classrooms are flat – as in Thomas Friedman’s book, The World is Flat. His point is that technology has made it possible for multiple cultures around the globe to interact non-stop.
Take yesterday’s class session as an example. Dr. Donald Smith, co-founder of the Institute for International Christian Communication ministries (which includes the Creating Understanding Seminar), could not personally come to Peru. But he joined us for a 90 minute session yesterday, sharing his heart and his experiences via internet and web cameras. Students asked questions, and he responded. He told the stories that shaped a generation of missionaries – including this current Seminar. He could talk with the students, complete with hand gestures, voice inflections, laughter, and responses to questions. Even working through a translator in the room did not diminish the connection that was made in that “flat world” interaction.
Why are we backwards, upside down, and flat? Some of the reason has to do with the world we live in. But the bigger reason is the ministry we are called to. Making disciples is a deliberate process. So we deliberately think about what needs to be “learned” (in the deepest sense of the word). From that starting point, we move forward by thinking backwards – guiding our students toward the deliberate goals that we find in Scripture.
Making disciples is also not only a matter of knowledge – Jesus was so clear that it is a matter of “obeying all things that He has taught us.” You have to be upside down to teach obedience – it isn’t just a matter of conceptually grasping propositions that Jesus said. It is a matter of experiencing Him as we grow in obedience to all He told us to do. And so, in the cyber world of 2010 we take that upside down and backwards discipleship, and make it flat at times as well.
It is a beautiful Saturday afternoon here in Peru and the students are visiting their primary classrooms – the different parts of Lima where they learn from the people about the people. While they are out of the building, I’m getting ready to guide next week’s classes in the more traditional classroom.
Only it isn’t really very traditional – the Creating Understanding classroom tends to be backwards, upside down, and flat. Before you jump to conclusions, let me explain!
How do you build a training program that will prepare young missionaries for cross cultural work? I get to lead that discussion next week – and what a great topic for this group! There are 14 people in our Seminar, and 7 of them are significantly involved in missionary training programs.
How do you train missionaries? By thinking backwards. We start with the skills, attitudes, knowledge that will be needed for the task, and then we walk our way “backwards” from that end point, one by one making sure that what is needed at the end is included in the curriculum. What activities will help us reach our goal? What new information do students need to know? What attitudes will let someone go to the trouble of learning this? As tempted as we are to fill the curriculum with topics that we enjoy talking about, the best way forward is to think backwards – starting with the end in mind and then identifying the steps that will take us to that endpoint.
And as for “upside down”? Traditionally, teaching starts with a theme or title – a proposition if you will. And from that proposition, students work on activities that will clarify its meaning, finally arriving at some kind of application at the end.
We tip that pattern upside down. Starting with the experiences that students or the teachers have lived through, we start with the realities of ministry. Then we create discussions into which we add new information, identify and discuss potential options, reflect on the key issues, and finally create - together – a few short summary statements. All of the traditional elements are still there, but we present them in an order that builds off of experience and involvement.
Finally, our classrooms are flat – as in Thomas Friedman’s book, The World is Flat. His point is that technology has made it possible for multiple cultures around the globe to interact non-stop.
Take yesterday’s class session as an example. Dr. Donald Smith, co-founder of the Institute for International Christian Communication ministries (which includes the Creating Understanding Seminar), could not personally come to Peru. But he joined us for a 90 minute session yesterday, sharing his heart and his experiences via internet and web cameras. Students asked questions, and he responded. He told the stories that shaped a generation of missionaries – including this current Seminar. He could talk with the students, complete with hand gestures, voice inflections, laughter, and responses to questions. Even working through a translator in the room did not diminish the connection that was made in that “flat world” interaction.
Why are we backwards, upside down, and flat? Some of the reason has to do with the world we live in. But the bigger reason is the ministry we are called to. Making disciples is a deliberate process. So we deliberately think about what needs to be “learned” (in the deepest sense of the word). From that starting point, we move forward by thinking backwards – guiding our students toward the deliberate goals that we find in Scripture.
Making disciples is also not only a matter of knowledge – Jesus was so clear that it is a matter of “obeying all things that He has taught us.” You have to be upside down to teach obedience – it isn’t just a matter of conceptually grasping propositions that Jesus said. It is a matter of experiencing Him as we grow in obedience to all He told us to do. And so, in the cyber world of 2010 we take that upside down and backwards discipleship, and make it flat at times as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment