Teachers must go through three developmental phases in order to become successful at educating. The first phase is commonly experienced through undergraduate, pre-service teaching, and the first few years of professional employment. The second phase may happen around the five-year point, and the third phase should be continuous thereafter throughout one’s entire career. The act of teaching is not optimally successful unless the third phase is reached and maintained through continuous expanding of one’s knowledge base and teaching skills.
THREE PHASES. (1) A beginning teacher first focuses totally on personal self, “Will I get through this class?” They are usually “shaking in their boots” as they ask themselves this question.
(2) A developing teacher focuses on the material and content, “Did I cover all the lesson?” At the close of a lesson, they tend to experience regrets for having missed a part or for having realized they could have said something better.
(3) An expert teacher, having mastered self and the content, focuses instead on his/her students’ quality of learning and immediately knows how to remediate as needed. An expert teacher continuously thinks during the act of teaching, “Have my students shown me they learned the skill(s) and at what level of competence? Is this an acceptable demonstration of excellence?”
SELF REFLECTION. Anyone involved in any kind of teaching situation must ask him/herself several questions, “At which phase do I teach? How do I determine, and am I determining, if my students are learning successfully?”
Pastor, at which of the three developmental phases are you with your sermons? Have you gotten beyond phase two? How about phase three—Does your preaching focus on your members’ learning? Do you recognize deficiencies and know immediately how to remediate effectively?
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(1) Introduction
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(2) Your Paradigms
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(3) Bondage or Freedom
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(4) Gateway Skills
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(5) Teacher Accountability
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(6) Talking About vs. Doing
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(7) Student Accountability
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(8) Assessment
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(9) Bury Dead Tradition
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(10) Teaching vs. Learning
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(11) Teachers' Three Phases
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(12) Excellence is NOT a Goal
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(13) My Teaching Limits Were Their Learning Limits
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(14) Unlearning Creates Success
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(15) Pioneers vs. Settlers
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(16) Real and Lasting Learning
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(17) Problems With Memory
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(18) Ownership Creates Success
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(19) Not Perfect, But Honest
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(20) Take Risks and Give Away Control
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(21) Out of a Job
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(22) KCAASE and Proverbs 24
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(23) Responding vs. Reacting
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(24) Only When Performed
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(25) A Supervisor's Vision
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(26) Glimpses Into the Spiritual
Your Belief System and Your Church:
(27) One Reason Alone