God-centered resources from the ministry of John Piper

How does a group of Westerners develop curriculum relevant to non-Western cultures? A few of us on the International Outreach team have been grappling with this question. We’ve started to plan and dream about writing non-formal curriculum for training indigenous church leaders, based on Piper sermon manuscripts.

Part of our education has been to read Teaching Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Learning and Teaching, by Judith and Sherwood Lingenfelter. In this short and practical book, the authors present principles and field experiences useful to anyone doing international missions work. I highly recommend it.

Here are several cross-cultural teaching methods the book describes:

Observation and Imitation
Learners watch a skill in practice for an extended period before attempting it. Usually they don’t ask questions but simply watch. Teachers rehearse the steps over and over for the learners.

Experiential Learning
Learners engage in cycles of experiencing, reflecting, abstracting, and experimenting. They participate in “doing,” which involves trial and error. The power of experiential learning lies in its unpredictability, its simulation of experiences people are likely to encounter, and the creation of a controlled context for action, reflection, and learning.

Rote Learning
This learning style is typically used for learning proverbs, songs, and stories that come from a concrete body of knowledge. Many learners believe that oral stories are more accurate than written ones because they are repeated by a number of trustworthy sources rather than written down by only one. Teachers often discourage questions.

Incarnational Teaching
Good teaching in a traditional culture necessarily involves becoming a Christ-like servant who invests time in cultivating relationships with students.

Group Learning
Many traditional cultures accomplish tasks through the efforts of the whole family and the whole community. Traditional learners often prefer group learning because it tends to provide ‘cover’ for those who don’t know the answers, while Western learners are often more individualistic.

Context
Many traditional learners learn by observing and practicing a specific skill in a specific context. They may have difficulty applying these skills to a different situation.

Mentoring
In many traditional cultures, the most effective learning situation occurs when a skilled “master” works personally with an individual learner. This person connotes superiority and authority in the context of a caring, reciprocal personal relationship. The master must have a highly respected level of personal character.

Questions
Western learners are accustomed to working toward abstract questions. Traditional learners think more concretely and desire to find the “right” answer. Children in traditional cultures are often taught not to question older people in authority.

Story-telling
Using narratives is one of the most effective ways of reaching traditional learners.