This is a boring question in relation to Seth's last week.... Come on Jeremy :)
The Amazing Learning Loop of Death is a model of learning based on sequential events that build upon each other. The steps are: inform, apply, reflect, and re-view (yes, the hyphen is important if you read the footnotes in the book). Anyone can start at any point in the cycle, but the easiest way to explain it is to begin with “inform.”
The information step is where the student gets the lesson. It’s something that we, as students, are used to – most teachers tend to stop the learning process with this step instead of moving on to some of the others. However, Losey says that “Information needs to be acted on or the information is trivia” (p. 23).
Moving on, the apply step is all about interaction with the world. Students should be able to tell that what they’re learning about will make a difference in their lives. But application alone does not always touch a person’s heart. After all, how many of you ever went on a mission trip or retreat and didn’t really talk about what that should mean after it was over? I did – and I think it happens way too often.
The next step focuses on reflection – this is the level of transformation. Here students have to be given time to come to their own conclusions. We talked about this in our discussion of the QUESTion last week. We, as leaders in our youth groups or kids’ groups, will be tempted to have all of the answers. This step encourages us to step back and allow the students to have their own space.
Finally, we must re-view. We must take a new perspective on events or activities and evaluate what worked, what didn’t, and how it impacted the students. Re-viewing gives us a chance to change things and continue growing.
The great thing about the loop is that it builds on itself. Re-view leads directly back into new information. Therefore it can continue as a sort of spiral of growth and learning.
Boy, that was exciting, wasn’t it? ;) What do you think of this? Do you have examples of this working (or not working)?
There is a valid point that Liz makes here that has do do with the spiral method of learning. It is something that has been a very effective in the past that we seem to have gotten away from. It is based on the fact principle that the students learn the basics and then build upon those to learn more.
I feel this is a great idea and should be done in just about every setting. However, it seems to be a tough thing to do when we are dealing with people that are not "regular" attenders. we go over the basics and then they never get to the meat of the topics.
It is a good question to ask because on one hand you don't want to go real deep so the other ones will be left out or behind. on the other hand we need to be proactive in searching deeper
The Loop of depth works by first picking a subject. Then brain storming many Ideas under that topic. Then narrowing those topics down to a few. Bring each topic into a loop that works together and having other information connected with anther loop. As you design what you are doing with youth group.
The loop of depth is made up of four steps: Inform, apply, reflect, and re-view. The steps continue in a "loop" to be repeated whenever necessary.
To inform is the lessons, the sermons, the initial transmitting of information from the leader to the student.
To apply is when the group as a whole puts that information to work. They are able to actually see what they have learned being tested rather than just reading or hearing about the issue.
To reflect is when the group is given time to analyze and process the information. Quiet reflection or group reflection helps build the depth of understanding.
Then to re-view is to look at what we have done and see if the methods used or information taught was worth while to the sucess of the students.
The loop of depth is just that...a loop, so this process can be continually repeated.
I think it's important to note that there is no specific beginning or end to the loop of depth. It doesn't have to start at information and it doesn't need to end with re-view. The main concept we need to grasp from this is that all these parts feed off of and promote the steps around them. They work together to effect our ministry as a whole.
And isn't this the truth in our individual walks? Doesn't God send us through cycles to get us to new heights in our walk with Him? I'm learning that Christianity is a process. And not only is that important, but also it is important to note that ALL the parts of the process are important.
That reminds me of the verse that says that "God works all things together for the good of those who love Him." Through the good and bad, God teaches us. Through the exciting and the boring, God helps us to grow.
In our ministry, we need to grasp onto this idea of process and importance on all the parts--whether we view them as large or small in our wordly eyes.
God has big plans that He can reveal to us when we pay attention. And what better way to pay attention than through focusing on particular steps of a process? The learning loop of depth walks us through an understanding of growth in faith.
So the learning loop...of death??...oh right it's of depth. anyway the loop of depth is 4 steps that come together and explain the way we learn, or at least should learn.
We inform, or are informed. This is where we learn the subject matter.
We then apply. We put into practice the things we have learned.
We reflect. Here we think about what we learned and what we did.
Then we re-view. I feel that this step is really key and is where a lot of the learning comes from. In this step we take a look back to everything that happened including our reflection. It is in this step when we look back that we can actually learn something else that we didn't catch the first time. How many times have you read something and gotten one thing out of it but then you came back sometime later and read the same passage but got something completely different from it? I know that has happened to me a lot and that is why the step of re-view is important.
This is why the loop is important. We can hear something more than once but still learn from it in a new way.
to be honest i think that Jeremy got it right... it is the "learnjing loop of death"... but once again he forgot to put"Amazing" at the beginning, which would have made it even better to laugh at... lol so, yeah, everyone has repeated waht every part of the loop is so I am not... I will say, like i said on lukes question, that we seem to make it to the first 2 but never the first 3.
also, I do not agree that you can start anywhere on the loop, but you have to start at inform. My reasoning is that for teens and people to be able to apply they need to be informed about what they are applying. example - if you start in the loop at applying by taking teen on a mission trip then want them to reflect then what are they going to refelct on and what are they going to re-view? They were never informed to be able to apply, refelct or re-view. (This would be assuming that teens do not understand missions, which we should always assume b/c we never know if there are teens in our group that do not know about missions.)
As to Liz's question I would have to say that the first thing that popped into my mind - and I know I am going to offend someone, is Bible Quizing. We teach children and teens books of the Bible for memorization - a good thing to know, don't get me wrong, and this would be the inform... but where is the apply... where is the relect... where is the re-view... not to bash quizing b/c it is helpful, but I think that this might be something that needs work when it comes to the "Amazing Learning Loop of Depth!"
Yet again, this process happens automatically, so it seems that the only relevance (and purpose) this model serves is to ask more from ministry in each of the components. That said, I do believe there is points to be made about this model. For one, I think that in the church, there is far too much informing than applying in our ministry, even with what we hear in chapel. I think that ever christian (and non-christian) knows that Christians want to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. I have been informed by multiple people in sermon after sermon. The justification for this is that people still are not sharing their faith. I propose that the reason it is not being shared does not come from lack of being informed that we need to, it's that we do not show how to apply what we know or have it modeled well. I know friends who leave only invitations to churches for tips thinking that they just did evangelism right. Or a person who yells " repent or go to Hell" in front of a courthouse or college thinks they are helpful to the spreading the word, when in actuality, it puts people off to hearing about the bible and even less interested in being a Christian. I know that some professors would say "God can use that", which means little to me. I can punch a guy in the face and God can use that, but it doesn't mean that I should.
As youth leaders, we wont always have the right answers. Reflection is a very important step to me cause we need to realize that we do not have all the answers and we as leaders need to continually look Higher for answers. Also, the re-view step means a lot to me because I feel that its significance stands out because once we accomplish something, we need to take time to review everything - the good, the bad, everything. Change needs to happen, and like it was stated above, each step feeds off one another and is a continual process.
I agree that this process is mainly automatic. However by thinking about automatic processes we move them into our conscious awareness and make them something that is no longer automatic but can be altered and improved on.
That being said, I would remove a step or two from the cycle. I think when properly done every review will include reflection and vice versa. Why shouldn't the students be involved in the process of deciding what did and didn't work and what they got the most out of in this process?
This is a boring question in relation to Seth's last week.... Come on Jeremy :)
ReplyDeleteThe Amazing Learning Loop of Death is a model of learning based on sequential events that build upon each other. The steps are: inform, apply, reflect, and re-view (yes, the hyphen is important if you read the footnotes in the book). Anyone can start at any point in the cycle, but the easiest way to explain it is to begin with “inform.”
The information step is where the student gets the lesson. It’s something that we, as students, are used to – most teachers tend to stop the learning process with this step instead of moving on to some of the others. However, Losey says that “Information needs to be acted on or the information is trivia” (p. 23).
Moving on, the apply step is all about interaction with the world. Students should be able to tell that what they’re learning about will make a difference in their lives. But application alone does not always touch a person’s heart. After all, how many of you ever went on a mission trip or retreat and didn’t really talk about what that should mean after it was over? I did – and I think it happens way too often.
The next step focuses on reflection – this is the level of transformation. Here students have to be given time to come to their own conclusions. We talked about this in our discussion of the QUESTion last week. We, as leaders in our youth groups or kids’ groups, will be tempted to have all of the answers. This step encourages us to step back and allow the students to have their own space.
Finally, we must re-view. We must take a new perspective on events or activities and evaluate what worked, what didn’t, and how it impacted the students. Re-viewing gives us a chance to change things and continue growing.
The great thing about the loop is that it builds on itself. Re-view leads directly back into new information. Therefore it can continue as a sort of spiral of growth and learning.
Boy, that was exciting, wasn’t it? ;) What do you think of this? Do you have examples of this working (or not working)?
There is a valid point that Liz makes here that has do do with the spiral method of learning. It is something that has been a very effective in the past that we seem to have gotten away from. It is based on the fact principle that the students learn the basics and then build upon those to learn more.
ReplyDeleteI feel this is a great idea and should be done in just about every setting. However, it seems to be a tough thing to do when we are dealing with people that are not "regular" attenders. we go over the basics and then they never get to the meat of the topics.
It is a good question to ask because on one hand you don't want to go real deep so the other ones will be left out or behind. on the other hand we need to be proactive in searching deeper
The Loop of depth works by first picking a subject. Then brain storming many Ideas under that topic. Then narrowing those topics down to a few. Bring each topic into a loop that works together and having other information connected with anther loop. As you design what you are doing with youth group.
ReplyDeleteThe loop of depth is made up of four steps: Inform, apply, reflect, and re-view. The steps continue in a "loop" to be repeated whenever necessary.
ReplyDeleteTo inform is the lessons, the sermons, the initial transmitting of information from the leader to the student.
To apply is when the group as a whole puts that information to work. They are able to actually see what they have learned being tested rather than just reading or hearing about the issue.
To reflect is when the group is given time to analyze and process the information. Quiet reflection or group reflection helps build the depth of understanding.
Then to re-view is to look at what we have done and see if the methods used or information taught was worth while to the sucess of the students.
The loop of depth is just that...a loop, so this process can be continually repeated.
Nice summary, Liz!
ReplyDeleteI think it's important to note that there is no specific beginning or end to the loop of depth. It doesn't have to start at information and it doesn't need to end with re-view. The main concept we need to grasp from this is that all these parts feed off of and promote the steps around them. They work together to effect our ministry as a whole.
And isn't this the truth in our individual walks? Doesn't God send us through cycles to get us to new heights in our walk with Him? I'm learning that Christianity is a process. And not only is that important, but also it is important to note that ALL the parts of the process are important.
That reminds me of the verse that says that "God works all things together for the good of those who love Him." Through the good and bad, God teaches us. Through the exciting and the boring, God helps us to grow.
In our ministry, we need to grasp onto this idea of process and importance on all the parts--whether we view them as large or small in our wordly eyes.
God has big plans that He can reveal to us when we pay attention. And what better way to pay attention than through focusing on particular steps of a process? The learning loop of depth walks us through an understanding of growth in faith.
P.S. I REALLY like this author.
So the learning loop...of death??...oh right it's of depth. anyway the loop of depth is 4 steps that come together and explain the way we learn, or at least should learn.
ReplyDeleteWe inform, or are informed. This is where we learn the subject matter.
We then apply. We put into practice the things we have learned.
We reflect. Here we think about what we learned and what we did.
Then we re-view. I feel that this step is really key and is where a lot of the learning comes from. In this step we take a look back to everything that happened including our reflection. It is in this step when we look back that we can actually learn something else that we didn't catch the first time. How many times have you read something and gotten one thing out of it but then you came back sometime later and read the same passage but got something completely different from it? I know that has happened to me a lot and that is why the step of re-view is important.
This is why the loop is important. We can hear something more than once but still learn from it in a new way.
to be honest i think that Jeremy got it right... it is the "learnjing loop of death"... but once again he forgot to put"Amazing" at the beginning, which would have made it even better to laugh at... lol
ReplyDeleteso, yeah, everyone has repeated waht every part of the loop is so I am not... I will say, like i said on lukes question, that we seem to make it to the first 2 but never the first 3.
also, I do not agree that you can start anywhere on the loop, but you have to start at inform. My reasoning is that for teens and people to be able to apply they need to be informed about what they are applying. example - if you start in the loop at applying by taking teen on a mission trip then want them to reflect then what are they going to refelct on and what are they going to re-view? They were never informed to be able to apply, refelct or re-view. (This would be assuming that teens do not understand missions, which we should always assume b/c we never know if there are teens in our group that do not know about missions.)
As to Liz's question I would have to say that the first thing that popped into my mind - and I know I am going to offend someone, is Bible Quizing. We teach children and teens books of the Bible for memorization - a good thing to know, don't get me wrong, and this would be the inform... but where is the apply... where is the relect... where is the re-view... not to bash quizing b/c it is helpful, but I think that this might be something that needs work when it comes to the "Amazing Learning Loop of Depth!"
Yet again, this process happens automatically, so it seems that the only relevance (and purpose) this model serves is to ask more from ministry in each of the components. That said, I do believe there is points to be made about this model. For one, I think that in the church, there is far too much informing than applying in our ministry, even with what we hear in chapel. I think that ever christian (and non-christian) knows that Christians want to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. I have been informed by multiple people in sermon after sermon. The justification for this is that people still are not sharing their faith. I propose that the reason it is not being shared does not come from lack of being informed that we need to, it's that we do not show how to apply what we know or have it modeled well. I know friends who leave only invitations to churches for tips thinking that they just did evangelism right. Or a person who yells " repent or go to Hell" in front of a courthouse or college thinks they are helpful to the spreading the word, when in actuality, it puts people off to hearing about the bible and even less interested in being a Christian. I know that some professors would say "God can use that", which means little to me. I can punch a guy in the face and God can use that, but it doesn't mean that I should.
ReplyDeleteAs youth leaders, we wont always have the right answers. Reflection is a very important step to me cause we need to realize that we do not have all the answers and we as leaders need to continually look Higher for answers. Also, the re-view step means a lot to me because I feel that its significance stands out because once we accomplish something, we need to take time to review everything - the good, the bad, everything. Change needs to happen, and like it was stated above, each step feeds off one another and is a continual process.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this process is mainly automatic. However by thinking about automatic processes we move them into our conscious awareness and make them something that is no longer automatic but can be altered and improved on.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I would remove a step or two from the cycle. I think when properly done every review will include reflection and vice versa. Why shouldn't the students be involved in the process of deciding what did and didn't work and what they got the most out of in this process?