How to Teach Religion: Principles and MethodsBetts, George Herbert
Religion
How to Teach Religion: Principles and Methods
Betts, George Herbert
Religion -- Study and teaching; Religious education
3. The law of _vividness of impression_. The relation of vividness of
impression to learning has already been discussed in another chapter. In
no one of the mind's activities is vividness a more important factor
than in memorizing. Matter committed under the stimulus of high interest
and keen attention is relatively secure, while matter committed under
slack concentration is sure to fade quickly from the memory. Songs can
therefore best be committed under the elation of the interesting singing
of the words; a verse of poetry, when the mind is alert and the feelings
aroused by a story in which the sentiment of the verse fits; a prayer
when the spirit of devotion has been quickened by worship. To insure
full vividness the imagination must also be called upon to picture and
make real such parts of memory material as contain imagery.
4. The law of _repetition_. For most minds memory depends on repetition.
The impressions must be deepened and made lasting by being stamped again
and again on the mind. The neurons of the brain which do the work of
retaining and recalling must be made to repeat the process over and over
until their action is secure. It is therefore not enough to make sure
that the child has his memory material committed for this particular
Sunday. If the matter was worth committing in the first place, it is
worth keeping permanently. If it is to be kept permanently, it must be
frequently reviewed; for otherwise it will surely be forgotten. It is to
be feared that much, if not most, of the matter memorized by the pupils
in many church schools lasts only long enough to show the teacher that
it has once been learned, and that not many children know in any
permanent sense the Bible passages they have committed. In so far as
this is true it would be much better to select a smaller amount of the
choicest and best adapted material to be found, and then so thoroughly
teach this that it is permanently retained.
5. The law of _wholes instead of parts_. Many persons in setting at work
to commit a poem, a Bible passage, a psalm have a tendency to learn it
first by verses or sections and then, put the parts together to form the
whole. Tests upon the memory have shown, that this is a less economical
and efficient method than from the first to commit the material as a
whole. This method requires that we go over all of it completely from
beginning to end, then over it again, and so on until we can repeat much
of it without reference to the text. We then refer to the text for what
the memory has not yet grasped, requiring the memory to repeat all that
has been committed, until the whole is in this manner fully learned. The
method of learning by wholes not only requires less time and effort, but
gives a better sense of unity in the matter committed.
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