The Craft of Christian Teaching: Essentials for Becoming a Very Good Teacher

Rating:
Summary: from Clergy Journal
Review: "Galindo's book is practical and helpful for those who want to become better and more effective teachers. Galindo is a careful writer and uses humor well to make his points. The book is full of helpful illustrations. The title comes from one of his workshop attendees who said that she took his class so that she "could become a very good teacher." For pastors or church educators-perhaps one in the same-this book offers an ample array of ideas. Teachers can easily apply Galindo suggestions. This book would make an excellent gift for a staff person or volunteer who oversees any church's educational ministries."
-excerpted from a review in Clergy Journal, March 2000

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Where It Counts
Review: I'm giving this book 5 stars despite some reservations I have about some of what Galindo offers here, particularly in the area of learning psychology. I'll discuss this more below, but in terms of specific methodologies and approaches to learning in a Christian context, I think this book is full of very good information that teachers and even preachers can refer to repeatedly in their pursuit of becoming very good teachers.

In discussing the craft of teaching, Galindo spends considerable time at the outset of the book discussing how people learn, and how learning itself is multi-faceted and fluid. Galindo interacts with many secular studies about the psychology of learning, what kind of teaching stimulates certain kinds of learning, retention levels, and the all important issue of application of learning. Galindo's extensive interaction with secular studies could be considered either a strength or a weakness in his approach. I consider it to be a strength, though it is noteworthy that at the same point in the book where Galindo is laying the groundwork for Christian teaching by relying heavily on secular studies, he also says that Christian teaching is unique and altogether different from non-Christian teaching. There's an appearance of inconsistency here that Galindo doesn't really deal with, but it's probably minor and I didn't think it ultimately undermined the good stuff he gets to later on in the book. The same could also be said of the notion that 'you can't teach anybody anything'. Galindo too often resorts to bumper sticker axioms in the first section of the book which are easily misconstrued and frankly lessen the impact of his otherwise serious treatment of the subject matter. But again, these things were more annoyances than anything else and do not significantly detract from the meat he offers later.

The strengths of the book are Galindo's assertion that Christian teaching is unique because we are not dealing in teaching merely about facts or events, but about relating to a Person, Jesus Christ. This should necessarily impact on how we conduct our teaching, according to him, and I think that's correct. In the second part of the book, Galindo puts the groundwork laid in the first section to use in suggesting very practical teaching methodologies and approaches to stress relational learning that emphasizes application and relationship. There's lots of good stuff in here that's very practical and should prove very helpful to teachers throughout the church, as well as to church leaders who are looking to strengthen their education programs. While it's true that the reader can get the impression that Galindo is unnecessarily downplaying traditional learning methods by so stressing relationality and application, I do think he's pretty much on the mark in making a case that in Christian teaching specifically, if learning in the classroom doesn't translate into application on the street, our teaching can't really be considered successful.

So while there is some minor chaff here that we could do without, there is a good harvest of healthy wheat in here that is worth paying attention to. Churches expend a lot of resources in their education programs, and I have yet to meet a single pastor who is totally satisfied with the results. That alone makes Galindo's book worth reading, and possibly worth providing to those people in the church whom God has called to teach.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Where It Counts
Review: I'm giving this book 5 stars despite some reservations I have about some of what Galindo offers here, particularly in the area of learning psychology. I'll discuss this more below, but in terms of specific methodologies and approaches to learning in a Christian context, I think this book is full of very good information that teachers and even preachers can refer to repeatedly in their pursuit of becoming very good teachers.

In discussing the craft of teaching, Galindo spends considerable time at the outset of the book discussing how people learn, and how learning itself is multi-faceted and fluid. Galindo interacts with many secular studies about the psychology of learning, what kind of teaching stimulates certain kinds of learning, retention levels, and the all important issue of application of learning. Galindo's extensive interaction with secular studies could be considered either a strength or a weakness in his approach. I consider it to be a strength, though it is noteworthy that at the same point in the book where Galindo is laying the groundwork for Christian teaching by relying heavily on secular studies, he also says that Christian teaching is unique and altogether different from non-Christian teaching. There's an appearance of inconsistency here that Galindo doesn't really deal with, but it's probably minor and I didn't think it ultimately undermined the good stuff he gets to later on in the book. The same could also be said of the notion that 'you can't teach anybody anything'. Galindo too often resorts to bumper sticker axioms in the first section of the book which are easily misconstrued and frankly lessen the impact of his otherwise serious treatment of the subject matter. But again, these things were more annoyances than anything else and do not significantly detract from the meat he offers later.

The strengths of the book are Galindo's assertion that Christian teaching is unique because we are not dealing in teaching merely about facts or events, but about relating to a Person, Jesus Christ. This should necessarily impact on how we conduct our teaching, according to him, and I think that's correct. In the second part of the book, Galindo puts the groundwork laid in the first section to use in suggesting very practical teaching methodologies and approaches to stress relational learning that emphasizes application and relationship. There's lots of good stuff in here that's very practical and should prove very helpful to teachers throughout the church, as well as to church leaders who are looking to strengthen their education programs. While it's true that the reader can get the impression that Galindo is unnecessarily downplaying traditional learning methods by so stressing relationality and application, I do think he's pretty much on the mark in making a case that in Christian teaching specifically, if learning in the classroom doesn't translate into application on the street, our teaching can't really be considered successful.

So while there is some minor chaff here that we could do without, there is a good harvest of healthy wheat in here that is worth paying attention to. Churches expend a lot of resources in their education programs, and I have yet to meet a single pastor who is totally satisfied with the results. That alone makes Galindo's book worth reading, and possibly worth providing to those people in the church whom God has called to teach.

Rating:
Summary: A great resource for church educators & homeschooling parent
Review: This is a very accessible, practical book on basic Christian teaching-learning--from theory to "how to". We bought copies for all of our church teachers!