At Teach One Reach One Ministries, we want to help enhance your ministry by keeping you up to date on secular research that can make your Bible classes more impactful. We look at a variety of studies and summaries of studies and then extrapolate to decide how you can adapt what you are doing so your students learn, remember and use as much as possible.
Here are seven takeaways from the lists of top studies for 2024.
- 40% of young people are still reporting persistent sadness and hopelessness. Sure, that’s down from 42%, but it is still incredibly high. What you are teaching has the answers they are seeking, but you will have to help them connect the dots. Depression is particularly high in girls and Native Americans, so if your ministry includes those young people, be particularly attuned to their mental state.
- Chronic absenteeism is one of the negative societal holdovers from COVID. Schools and other groups are seeing this as a persistent problem. Some young people want to live a virtual life from home. You will have to be intentional and persistent to get them to return consistently to your ministry classes and activities.
- A bad attitude in class is contagious. This one is really interesting. They tasked a student with going into a class and slouching, looking bored and not participating. They watched everyone in the room and found the unengaged attitude and behaviors quickly spread to other students. If you have a student who is obviously unengaged, you will either need to find ways to engage the student or keep the student out of the sight line of the others. If not, you may find the other students quickly unengaging from your lesson.
- Helping students learn from their mistakes works better than fussing at them. A study found that teachers who helped students analyze their errors and figure out what they could do differently – and more successfully – in the future, faired better than those whose mistakes were merely pointed out to them. This is especially helpful when mentoring students. Ask questions when they complain something went wrong. Why do they think things went badly? What could they have done differently to have a better outcome? What do they need to change or practice so they are ready to make better choices the next time?
- Students who teach peers a topic report more anxiety, but also learn better. This one is not for every Bible class teacher. You have to be willing to work with students to prepare engaging lessons and make them short enough that students who are teaching aren’t overly anxious. You also need to make sure students who are being taught are still being engaged with the lesson being taught. Your best bet is to have a little two to five minute mini lesson taught on a particular topic each week. Give them plenty of help preparing. Help them reflect in a one on one session with you after their lesson about what they have learned and give them plenty of positive reinforcement. These mini lessons can also be a great way to get them more comfortable with teaching Bible classes and sharing their faith.
- Struggling students need small wins. A study found that students given really tough math problems faired better if they were also given a few easy ones at the beginning or end of the test. Have a student who is struggling with either behavior or the material you are teaching? Try to find easy ways for that student to be successful before leaving your class each week. Let the young person walk out of your room with a win.
- AI isn’t helping long term learning – yet. Some of you may have started experimenting with AI in your lessons. You need to be aware that the results you may be seeing tend not to hold up. AI isn’t perfect, yet most people think it is. Which means they turn off their critical thinking skills and depend upon it rather than their brains to remember things. Uses for it may improve over time, or like ebooks, they may find the benefits for learning aren’t the same. For now, use AI sparingly – if at all – in your lessons.
Keep watching our blog in coming months as we share with you more new research that can make your Bible classes more impactful.