Some concepts are easily explained and understood by reading their definitions or hearing relevant facts. Others rely more on feelings or emotions that need to be experienced to understand the associated term or idea. Obscenity is one of those difficult concepts to grasp. People may rely on legal definitions to understand what falls into this category, while others may struggle to apply a definition to a specific example. According to the Supreme Court, obscene speech isn’t protected speech, meaning that it isn’t covered by the First Amendment and may even be considered illegal. This makes it imperative to clearly determine whether something falls into the category of obscenity. In the mid-1900s, the problem of defining obscenity came to the forefront. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr., who served from 1956 to 1990, was a renowned legal scholar of the twentieth century. He made repeated efforts to define obscenity but found the task more challenging than he imagined. Justice Potter Stewart tried to explain it in 1964 and is on the record saying, “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material…but I know it when I see it.”^[1] This quote by Stewart accurately summarizes the difficulty in trying to define obscenity. Sometimes an understanding relies on emotions or feelings and can’t always be captured through words.

The meaning of obscenity has changed over the years through various court rulings, but the current legal definition is

whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,

whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and

whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.^[2]

These written guidelines are necessary for use in legal decision-making, but for many, obscenity evokes an emotion that allows it to be more easily recognized than by trying to identify it by the standards laid out in a definition.

Art criticism is another area where objective standards exist but subjective feelings and emotions often influence decisions. Good art criticism will incorporate four main categories, the first of which is describing. It is an objective process focusing on the features of the artwork that are observable:

To begin, the critic should collect the obvious information such as the title of the artwork, the name of the artist who created it, the date of its completion, and the medium of the artwork if such information is available. The medium of the artwork is the material that the artist has used, for example, paint, clay, or photographic paper. The step of description also requires the critic to observe the visual elements of art, such as shape, texture, or palette. The term “palette” refers to the specific selection of colors that the artist has used. If an artwork is representational, the critic identifies and describes the subject (the “who” or the “what” that the artwork is about). The most informative descriptions use concrete language to provide an image in the mind’s eye. Description is an objective report of perceivable features. To describe an artwork is to provide facts, not opinions.^[3]

Next, the critic must analyze the piece of art to see how the various elements work together, then interpret the piece to make a statement about what is being expressed in the work, and finally evaluate the artwork to determine how well it meets the standards of the particular style or movement it is attempting to represent or how well the piece expresses emotion, an idea, or beauty.

This describes the formal process of critiquing art. In other words, there are specific standards to follow to determine “good art.” For many who visit art galleries, however, their opinions and value judgments are based more on personal feelings and emotions. They judge a piece of art on how it makes them feel personally. This same reaction is what allowed Sherlock Holmes to solve the great mystery in The Hound of the Baskervilles. As he was walking through a portrait gallery in the home of Sir Henry, the following conversation took place as they reflected on the surrounding paintings. Sir Henry said, “I don’t pretend to know much about these things, and I’d be a better judge of a horse or a steer than of a picture. I didn’t know that you found time for such things.” To which Holmes replied, “I know what is good when I see it, and I see it now.”^[4] There are concepts and factual criteria for formal art criticism, but emotions and personal value judgments guide the determination for many. As with Holmes, most people know it when they see it.

People learn in different ways: by processing information taken in by words, encountering situations that impact their emotions, or observing actions or people that they can imitate. This chapter describes these various types of learning and provides principles that can maximize the potential for learning to occur.

Learning

Designing a curriculum plan for ministry is a way of describing the various components of a journey toward spiritual transformation. Transformation is change, moving from one state, stage, or condition to another. In discipleship, it is the change that takes place within an individual that leads that person closer to Christlikeness. The essence of all learning is change. While many definitions for learning can be found, in its simplest form, learning involves changing. It includes changing one’s knowledge or understanding; changing one’s beliefs, values, or perspectives; or changing one’s abilities to perform a task or skill. These three key areas represent cognitive, affective, and behavioral change. Sometimes, they are referred to as head, heart, and hand, or thoughts, beliefs, and actions.

The previous examples of trying to determine obscenity or what makes good art represent how people appropriate cognitive and affective standards in their decision-making. Their conclusions may be based on cognitive information or be determined by feelings or value judgments. Both of these types of learning impact spiritual transformation, so it is important to understand each. Behavioral change, as it is typically conceived of in terms of spiritual growth, is often the result of deep commitments or values. Most often, it is a result of cognitive and affective learning that results in a changed lifestyle. Behaviors change as a result of one’s deeper understanding or commitment to a belief. However, the third key type of learning described in this chapter is related to acquiring physical skills, referred to as psychomotor skills. Behavioral change is associated with a change in ability resulting from acquiring a motor skill. Psychomotor skills are not as prevalent in teaching and learning outcomes related to spiritual growth, though they may occasionally be included in a curriculum plan.

Various Christian educators have suggested an additional learning outcome, dispositional learning, to either replace or supplement affective learning. Dispositional learning is said to include values and the tendency for persons to act on those values, while affective learning describes emotions and attitudes. It is the belief of these educators that the affective domain is too large and contains too many components. They believe that secular educators rely on this singular affective category because they don’t take into consideration the reality of the immortal soul or one’s own will to act.^[5] While the case has been made for this additional type of learning, dispositional, it will not be dealt with separately in this text. A clear understanding of affective learning includes the dispositional, as it does give consideration to this area of volition, or the tendency to act on one’s values.

It is important to understand that no learning takes place in isolation. Cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills are each distinct categories of learning outcomes. LeRoy Ford refers to these as primary learning outcomes, or PLOs.^[6] He divides cognitive learning into two distinct PLOs, knowledge and understanding, as will be discussed later in this chapter. Each of these outcomes represents the type of learning or change that is intended to be predominant in a given situation. However, the reality is that learning doesn’t take place in a vacuum, and when an individual gains a deeper understanding of a particular topic, known as cognitive change, it is highly likely that the learner will also experience a change in what they value or believe as a result of that cognitive learning. If a student gains a motor skill, it will be the result of not only practicing the skill but also having a deeper understanding of what is required to perform and perhaps a change in the commitment to practice the skill or an attitude of enjoyment of the activity. This overlap or blending of learning outcomes is known as diffusion of learning. In its simplest form, it means that learning outcomes diffuse or spread. Categories blend into one another. There may be one main type of intentional learning, but other types of learning also result.

Cognitive Learning

Much of what we consider to be learning is cognitive, related to head knowledge. It refers to facts and processing information, things we memorize or understand or can explain. Formal education in schools places a high value on cognitive learning, and this is often the standard for determining whether we consider someone intelligent. Scripture also emphasizes the importance of the mind and cognitive learning:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2, NIV

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

Mark 12:30, NIV

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight; for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young—let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance—for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:1–7, NIV

Growing as disciples requires us to grow in the cognitive domain. Believing and trusting in God includes understanding who he is, what he desires for us, what he has done for us, and what he expects from us. An emotional commitment without knowledge or understanding is dangerous. Values and commitments can fall prey to persuasion and feelings that aren’t always based on objective truth, meaning people can be easily swayed by emotional appeals. Spiritual transformation includes not just the heart but also the mind. On the other hand, too much emphasis on the cognitive aspect of change can lead to pharisaism, with a sense of being self-righteous or overly critical of those who don’t agree with us. This is why the Great Commandment reminds us to love God holistically, with every part of our being.

Cognitive Learning Taxonomy

There are different levels or degrees of cognitive learning. Consider an exam in an academic class. Have you ever studied only to find the test far more difficult than you anticipated? Maybe you memorized terms, but the test required you to define them. Perhaps you understood definitions or basic concepts, but the exam asked you to compare and contrast various ideas. This is an example of how cognitive learning can take many forms, progressing from basic to more complex. The term taxonomy is most often used in science, but it refers to a system of organizing or classifying information. A learning taxonomy is a way of organizing various levels or stages related to learning for a specific outcome. The cognitive learning taxonomy was developed around 1956 by Benjamin Bloom and some of his colleagues.^[7] Some educators have revised it slightly in recent decades, reversing the order of the final two categories. LeRoy Ford follows Bloom’s taxonomy but divides it into two separate outcomes: knowledge and understanding. We will follow that pattern as it relates to principles that provide guidance in teaching.

The first and lowest level of Bloom’s taxonomy is knowledge. It includes basic memorization or recognition of information. When students are asked to recite, identify, label, list, or match information, they are operating at the knowledge level of cognitive learning. No understanding is necessary for knowledge, just recall or recognition. This is why Ford includes it as a separate PLO. The entire cognitive learning taxonomy includes six levels, but the knowledge level is one PLO, and the other five levels are the understanding PLO. When learners are asked to memorize the books of the Bible, use a map to locate the places Paul visited on his missionary journeys, or name the twelve original disciples, they are operating at the knowledge level of cognitive learning.

The second level is comprehension. This represents the lowest level of the understanding PLO. Comprehension requires students to put an idea into a new form, such as paraphrasing, explaining, summarizing, or creating a visual representation of a concept. It involves translating or interpreting. Students demonstrate comprehension when they are able to compare and contrast various concepts or ideas. Asking students to explain the necessity of Jesus’s death and resurrection, write a definition of stewardship, or create a drawing that illustrates the Church are all demonstrations of comprehension.

The next level of understanding is called application. When students can use ideas or concepts in new situations and are able to see how abstract facts operate in real-life concrete experiences, they are able to apply their learning. Application involves recognizing how an idea is lived out and being able to identify a concept in the real world. If students can provide examples of when they have experienced forgiveness, recognize an intercessory prayer when it is offered, or describe how the Acts 15 teaching against eating meat sacrificed to idols might relate to contemporary culture, then they are at the application level of cognitive learning.

The third level of understanding is analysis, which involves the ability to break down a larger body of thought into various components. It might include creating an outline of a book of the Bible, creating a diagram illustrating the key topics Jesus taught through his parables, or creating a calendar depicting and describing the various feasts and celebrations observed by the nation of Israel. Analysis can also involve systematically solving a problem to find acceptable answers. When a group of high school students wants to understand how best to reach their peers with the gospel, they might create a strategy that involves surveys to figure out which students are part of a church, which students are Christians, what issues their peers are facing, or why students don’t believe in Jesus or attend a local church. The information can then be used to figure out how best to reach them. Analysis that involves problem-solving requires a clear understanding of the problem, a way to gather relevant facts, a review of the information to see how it all relates, and a proposal of possible solutions to the problem, with the best ideas being implemented.

The fourth level of understanding is known as synthesis. It requires students to put together various ideas and concepts about a particular subject to form something brand new. It requires an understanding of different aspects of one particular thought or teaching. Synthesis results in a new product, such as a written Bible study, a sermon, a gospel tract, or a worship service. When students work to create a prayer emphasis retreat, they are engaging in synthesis.

The fifth and highest level of understanding is evaluation. It calls for learners to use their high level of understanding to make judgments about the value or merit of an idea, project, event, or production based on specific identified standards. Does the response follow biblical guidelines? Will this accomplish its intended goal? Does the presentation contribute to spiritual growth? Does the worship service follow the pattern demonstrated in Isaiah 6?

Affective Learning

Knowing facts and understanding biblical truths is essential for spiritual transformation. Paul emphasized the role of teaching for spiritual growth, and he wrote about the importance of cognitive learning and discernment in his letter to the church at Ephesus:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

Ephesians 4:11–15, NIV

In this same passage, Paul also emphasized the need for affective learning. Knowing the truth must be accompanied by a commitment to live in truth. Cognitive learning is not sufficient unless there is also heart change:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:22–24, NIV

Samuel was reminded of the importance of the heart when he was tasked with selecting a king from among Jesse’s sons.

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7, NIV

Affective learning is embracing ideas and concepts, valuing them, believing them, and living them out. It is about a change in attitudes. Affective change is often the result of other types of learning. Knowing, understanding, or learning to do something can often result in a changed opinion or new commitment. However, there are biblical scholars who aren’t Christ-followers. They have head knowledge without heart change. Spiritual transformation requires both.

Affective Learning Taxonomy

David Krathwohl created what is probably the best-known and most widely used taxonomy for affective learning. Its five stages progress from a general awareness of a particular value or belief toward a full commitment that guides a person’s lifestyle. As mentioned previously in this chapter, the highest level of affective learning includes the will or a disposition to act on what one professes to value. Unlike Bloom’s cognitive learning taxonomy, not every stage of Krathwohl’s taxonomy may initially appear as if it is genuine learning. The earliest two stages seem more like preparation for heart change than an actual commitment. However, they represent the lowest levels of value or belief. They are necessary first steps.

The first level of the affective taxonomy is receiving. It happens when the learner becomes aware of an idea or particular subject. The learner sometimes pauses to take note of the information, but regardless, this stage represents a point when an individual becomes sensitive to the reality of a particular concept or idea and is willing to tolerate it without total dismissal or rejection. When passersby read billboards with positive biblical messages or advertising about upcoming ministry events, they are at the receiving level. When they hear an announcement about a service opportunity, receive a flyer in the mail, or see a post on social media, they are receiving information that can lead toward commitment or belief in whatever is being represented. This need to begin at the receiving level is expressed in Romans 10:14: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”

The second level of Krathwohl’s taxonomy is responding. Those who receive the information become interested enough to react in some way. The only commitment at this point is to explore what they have seen or heard. Think about a speaker who makes an engaging and persuasive presentation about a new idea. Learners who are intrigued may stay around to ask questions about the idea. They aren’t yet persuaded to fully endorse what was presented, but they want to know more. Outreach events, missionary speakers, and gospel presentations are designed to elicit a response from those in attendance. When someone becomes aware of your church by receiving information and then decides to visit, that person is at the responding level. There is no commitment to be a regular attender. No positive or negative attitudes about your church have been formed. A response is further down the road toward commitment, but not yet there.

The third level of affective learning is valuing, which is what is most commonly thought of in terms of commitment or belief. It is when a learner voluntarily recognizes truth or value in something and commits to that idea, organization, or belief system. When someone confesses Christ, that person is at the valuing level. When individuals sign tithing pledge cards, they are at the valuing level. Volunteering at a homeless shelter, keeping a prayer journal, and attending a discipleship group are all examples of valuing.

Organization is the fourth level of affective learning. Students are at this level when they are faced with competing value commitments yet choose to follow through on their prior commitment relative to the idea or subject. This calls for them to take more than one value or belief into consideration before choosing to act. Unfortunately, there is often less emphasis on the organizational level than the valuing level within many ministries. When students make a commitment, there may be little follow-up to help them grow and live out what they have professed. This is what contributes to a lack of spiritual transformation for many Christians, and it is why understanding the need for affective teaching and learning is so important.

When learners commit to practicing a spiritual discipline daily but find themselves with a full schedule, do they keep their commitment to practice the discipline? If a student professes a desire to grow as a Christian and commits to regular worship in their faith community but has an opportunity to be part of a traveling sports team on Sundays, what choice do they make? When someone signs a pledge to contribute monthly to a charity but doesn’t have the funds to follow through each month, is that person at the organization level? Sometimes people waver back and forth between valuing and organization. Only when their choices remain consistent with their commitment and what they say they value are they at the organizational level.

The highest level of affective learning is characterization. At this level, the learner consistently acts in accordance with the values they have professed and internalized. At this stage, a learner’s lifestyle reflects their values. Others recognize this person as an exemplar or representative of the value.

Behavioral Learning

Curriculum resources often list behavioral outcomes for their lessons, but most of these are not psychomotor skills. As a result of a study, it might be desirable for students to be able to share their personal testimonies or to be able to locate specific passages of Scripture. These are not technically behavioral outcomes but cognitive skills. A cognitive skill relies on understanding. Some of the behavioral outcomes included in published curriculum resources might actually reflect attitudinal change. Perhaps it is desirable to see students inviting non-Christian friends to church or becoming more involved in ministry projects. While those are observable behaviors, they are a result of heart change and don’t constitute a skill. In its purest form, a behavioral outcome is a learned skill. Psychomotor skills do involve both cognitive and affective elements. There must be an understanding of what one is trying to achieve and a willingness to perform the act. However, the dominant learning component is the actual skill that is performed.

Psychomotor skills are physical skills or actions learned through practice, such as sports or playing an instrument. They typically require the use of fine motor skills for precision or coordination or developing motor skills for strength or performance. It might be helpful to think of psychomotor skills in terms of activities where one could take lessons.

Behavioral Learning Taxonomy (Psychomotor Skills)

Elizabeth Simpson developed the psychomotor skill taxonomy based on the work of Benjamin Bloom and others who came before her. The taxonomy describes stages of the learning process for gaining motor skills. The first level of Simpson’s taxonomy is known as perception. In this stage, learners use their senses to gain an awareness of the skill to be learned. When students listen to the worship team and notice the various instruments and sounds, they are at the perception stage of learning to be part of the worship team. When they observe someone cooking a meal or painting a portrait, they are at the perception stage. Whether they smell the dish as it simmers on the stove or watch the brushstrokes of the artist, they are using their senses to become aware of the skill they wish to learn.

The second stage is set. Learners prepare themselves mentally, physically, and emotionally to engage in the skill. They gather equipment, put on uniforms, and practice a stance or finger placement. They have a general understanding of what they need to do to perform the skill and are willing to begin.

Guided response is the third stage in psychomotor skill learning and what is often considered the beginning of learning a skill, though perception and set are both necessary. In guided response, the learner is assisted in acquiring a new complex skill. This may be guidance by a coach or mentor or by practicing through trial and error while watching a video or reading an instructional manual.

Mechanism is the fourth stage, when learners can perform some aspects of a complex skill with confidence and proficiency. These have become habits due to the practice in the guided response stage. A student learning to play baseball might have become confident at the plate but is still learning how to catch and throw with proficiency. Ford labels this level as habit and ends with one more stage, complex overt response.^[8]

Complex overt response is reached when the learner can seamlessly perform the complex movements required for the skill. There is a level of proficiency and coordination without a great deal of effort. The skill has been internalized and doesn’t require a lot of thinking to perform. Think of learning to drive a car. At this stage, drivers can pull into traffic, navigate the road, stop, start, back up, and park without having to think about what they are doing, even though there are a lot of individual skills involved. This level of skill allows learners to perform without hesitation.

Stages six and seven allow learners to move beyond the original skill they have learned. Adaptation involves the ability to adapt or change the performance of a skill to meet the requirements of a different environment. It is what allows a skateboarder to quickly transition to snowboarding or an ice skater to snow ski. Origination takes place when learners create new skills built on what they can already do so well. Think of the various feats that some athletes do on bicycles or the outlandish performances witnessed on some of the competition shows. New skateboarding tricks, new cooking techniques, and original gymnastic routines are all the result of origination.

Principles of Learning

It is important to have a clear sense of the learning outcomes you hope to accomplish through a curriculum. Identifying the knowledge, understanding, and attitude or value outcomes for each area of the scope will help you finalize your plan in such a way that your overall mission is achieved. Each PLO is accomplished differently, which adds to the importance of clearly thinking through the types of learning you desire that are relevant to each topic and subtopic you identified. Knowledge isn’t acquired in the same manner that values are adopted. Understanding and belief result from different types of teaching and learning strategies. Diffusion of learning means that there will always be overlap in learning, but if there is a desire for a specific type of learning outcome, then it is important to understand the types of learning experiences that are most likely to lead to that type of change. Ford created a list of principles or guidelines for teaching toward each of the four learning outcomes. The following lists are adapted from his original work.^[9]

Principles of Learning for Knowledge

The following guidelines will help students acquire basic knowledge, the ability to recall or recognize information.

1. Involve them in activities where they have to provide an active response and not remain passive learners.
2. Incorporate learning activities that require the learners to use more than one of their senses at the same time. Hearing and seeing information is an example of this principle.
3. Give the students advance organizers for their learning, allowing them to see what they are supposed to learn ahead of time. This might be a chart of what each session will cover or a list of keywords they should listen for in a biblical passage.
4. Provide the learners with immediate knowledge of the results of what they are attempting to recall or recite.
5. Involve the learners in many different learning activities that are all focused on achieving the same learning outcome.
6. Plan unique and memorable activities that will help them remember the information they are intended to learn.

Principles of Learning for Understanding

The following guidelines will help students acquire understanding. As you read through the principles, notice how they are geared toward various levels of understanding from comprehension through evaluation. When planning discipleship events or teaching sessions, it will be helpful to follow principles that relate to the level of learning you hope your students will achieve.

1. Plan learning activities in which students will be asked to translate basic concepts into new forms.
2. Incorporate activities that will require learners to discover the connections between various ideas and concepts.
3. Ask students to define or interpret specific ideas, biblical truths, or concepts.
4. Utilize learning activities that involve students in using what they have learned in practical ways.
5. Call for students to engage in an activity that requires them to break down larger bodies of information into meaningful parts.
6. Provide case studies or other means of presenting students with problems they have to solve based on their understanding of the key concept you want them to understand.
7. Require students to engage in an activity that requires them to combine several ideas or concepts about a subject and create a new product or resource.
8. Call for students to use their understanding of a concept to judge the value or worth of something based on specific guidelines or standards related to that idea.

Principles of Learning for Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs

The following guidelines will be useful in helping students develop personal values, attitudes, or beliefs related to specific biblical truths.

1. Involve leaders and peers in the learning situation who will model the attitudes and values that you hope the learners will adopt for themselves.
2. Give opportunities for the learners to read or hear about others who exemplify the attitude or value you want them to appropriate.
3. Help students to engage with respected, authoritative sources that will emphasize the importance of the attitude or value.
4. Assist students in identifying and articulating the attitude or value and what it means.
5. Give learners opportunities to have meaningful emotional experiences related to the value or belief.
6. Plan opportunities for learners to act on the values and practice the attitudes in appropriate ways.
7. Help students analyze their own values and engage in decision-making related to moral and ethical issues.
8. Involve learners in activities that call for them to reflect on their lives through the lens of biblical truth.
9. Provide opportunities for students to share their stories with others in a safe environment that gives them a sense of freedom and trust.

Principles of Learning for Psychomotor Skills

While there will be fewer opportunities or needs for helping students develop skills within the context of a curriculum plan focused on spiritual transformation, there will be times when it will be appropriate. Following these guidelines will help. They do not include activities designed for adaptation or origination.

1. Arrange situations for the learners to see the entire process or skill before they begin.
2. Provide a step-by-step demonstration of the skill for students to observe.
3. Ask the learners to explain aloud the instructions or their plans for carrying out a specific sequence of actions needed to accomplish the skill.
4. Assist the learners in their first attempts to accomplish the skill.
5. Give learners opportunities to perform the skill numerous times without any assistance.
6. Allow students to practice the skill under realistic conditions.