Bruce Wilkinson, 7 Laws of the Learner: Law 5a Need

The Law of Need

Pages 267-306

Tuesday 9 November 2010

The essence of the Law of Need is these three words:

“Build the need”The teacher should build the

need before teaching the content


To catch a fish you must use bait.

As a teacher you need to put the bait on the hook - we cannot expect students to put their on bait on or simply be motivated by our good looking hooks.

As a teacher I am responsible for making students chase after the content


We call thisMotivation





Need MindsetSinking feeling in the pit of your stomach

Weakening of the knees

Reddening of the face

Straining for, stammering with, words

Walls pressing in

Desperate desire to leave quickly

Each day when a teacher thinks: “What’s the point of this”


Need MindsetSinking feeling in the pit of your stomach

Weakening of the knees

Reddening of the face

Straining for, stammering with, words

Walls pressing in

Desperate desire to leave quickly

Each day when a teacher thinks: “What’s the point of this”


Where do you assign the blame - weather, low student IQ, late in the day?

Should you resign, change occupation - or more?

Is it a students fault if they are apathetic and bored? Surely it isn’t the teachers fault?!

Wilkinson says it is the teachers responsibility to bait the hook


Consider the example of Jesus - he regularly addressed the needs of his hearers:

1. When the persons needs were obvious he sought to meet them.

2. If the people were out of touch with their needs, Jesus brought them to the surface.


Consider the example of Jesus - he regularly addressed the needs of his hearers:

1. When the persons needs were obvious he sought to meet them.

2. If the people were out of touch with their needs, Jesus brought them to the surface.

Jesus taught in response to his

students’ needs - he started with his class, not his

content.


Teachers can meets personal needs privately and common class needs through appropriate action in class, slanting discussion in a certain way, making comments etc.

Most teachers teach in response to the assigned curriculum - the result is that students are [predictably] bored etc.

Most teachers are distressed and shocked to find that students are lacking motivation and interest in their class. Should they be? The majority of classes are out of touch with the felt needs of the students and produce predictable results


What do we do - follow the example of Jesus who faced the same problem.

Jesus used 5 steps - seen in John 4:5-30


So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water,...

Woman comes to get water - she is hot, thirsty and totally uninterested in Jesus.

Students come and are not consciously thirsty - but a teacher will cause the student to want to learn, to be interested in seeking the lesson


Need Model

Stimulate felt need

Consider

“I want this”

Stir Curiosity

Curiosity

“Tell me more”

SeizeAttention

Capture

“what’s this?”


Stimulate felt need

Consider

“I want this”

Surface real need

Climax

“I need this”

Satisfy real need

Content

“I got what I

wanted”


Step 1: Seize Attention

She is self absorbed - Christ, a stranger, gets her attention, “Give me a drink”

The shock is that he spoke with her at all.

Capture students attention - joke, one liner, change style - remember that they are not focussed on you


Take the attention of your students away from whatever is holding it.

Attention is immediately drawn to the most vivid stimulus present - so overpower whatever holds your students attention

Seize attention, capture attention - students break free and ask “what is this?”


SeizeAttention

Capture

“what’s this?”


Step 2: Stir Curiosity

Attention is fleeting.

Lessen dependence on external stimuli - Jesus stirs the woman’s curiosity until she desires her teacher to tell her more.


Step 2: Stir Curiosity

Attention is fleeting.

Lessen dependence on external stimuli - Jesus stirs the woman’s curiosity until she desires her teacher to tell her more.


The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”


Imagine the woman thinking, “What is he talking about?”

Jesus baited her three times:

1. God’s gift

2. His identity

3. Living water

...and he did it quickly...and she took the bait


Living water - “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

Identity - Are you greater than our father Jacob,

God’s gift - who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Do you think it all happened by chance - or did Jesus build her curiosity and then move in deeper?


Stir Curiosity

Curiosity

“Tell me more”


Step 3: Stimulate felt need

The woman still isn’t quite with Jesus - so he stimulates her felt need and led her to consider the issues more seriously until she felt, “I want this”

Steps 1 and 2 have prepared for this one - curiosity must be quickly linked to felt needs

Stimulate felt need

Consider

“I want this”


Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

She would not have wanted to be out in the midday sun - Jesus picked this up - and teachers have to ‘pick up’ where their students are


Effective teachers have threaded themselves into the fabric of the students lives and know intuitively where they are.

Assuming you introduced things well you now have to involve the interest you created.

You have uncovered and cooperated with existing interest.

So how, after all this, do you lead students to the subject you have prepared?






Step 4: Surface real need

Jesus had intended to share the gift of salvation with her - but she is a long way from seeing her need for it.

Jesus continues building into her life


“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

Jesus again doesn’t answer her question - he changes the subject - and she wants to know more


Indirectly she asks Jesus for more content about worship - he had encouraged her questions and now had surfaced the real need, this is the climax of building and leads the student to feel “I need this”

Surface real need

Climax

“I need this”


Step 5: Satisfy real needOnly when the class is in touch with their real need do you satisfy it with the content. At this stage students are happy to have gotten what they wanted.

v. 25-26

Jesus withheld the answer until she had the right question - teachers should follow this pattern - start by creating a hunger for content.


Many teachers view this building up stage as a waste of class time - yet Jesus spent more time building the need than teaching the lesson.

(In modern preaching this is considered a disposable add on)

Jesus met her where she was, then he took responsibility for getting her attention and discussing her needs - Jesus took the responsibility in all of it.


Finally Jesus did not crush her (no comments about husbands etc.) he dealt with her graciously and sensitively.

Real needs do not surface easily - they are often tender and need gentleness.


Satisfy real need

Content

“I got what I wanted”


Need Maxims


Maxim 1: Need building is the responsibility of the teacher

“A great teacher is not simply one who imparts knowledge to his students, but one who awakens their interest and makes them eager to pursue knowledge for themselves. He is a spark plug, not a fuel line”


Great teachers realise they have to awaken interest before teaching content. They inspire and entice their students until the are fully absorbed in the lesson.

Most teachers ignore this and lecture their content regardless of the student need or attention.

Do you accept your responsibility to bait the hook every time?


Maxim 2: Need meeting is the teachers primary calling

Maxim 1 dealt with building need before you teach - Number 2 deals with meeting needs which are already there.

Does your pastor preach what he is interested in, or what he dreams of preaching, or what the people need?


Maxim 2: Need meeting is the teachers primary calling

Maxim 1 dealt with building need before you teach - Number 2 deals with meeting needs which are already there.

Does your pastor preach what he is interested in, or what he dreams of preaching, or what the people need?

“Teachers and preachers feel that their primary calling is to explain the truth. The only fallacy is that the truth does not have any needs! The Bible does not have a need to be preached or taught.

Only our people have needs. The call of the shepherd is to meet the needs of his sheep; the calling of the pastor to meet the needs of his class”


Imagine a person in tears phoning and asking you for help regarding their marriage. You agree. They come over. You have studied the tabernacle all week and gladly start to share this with them. They look puzzled. Then after making comments about “how is this meant to save my marriage” they walk out.

You are amazed at such stupid people - they don’t want proper food only milk


A ridiculous story - but one repeated in many church classes each week.

“We have separated the message from those we are called to minister to. We think if we have taught the Bible then we have fulfilled our calling.

But the only time we fulfill our calling is when we teach the Bible to the needs of our people”


If our content is to meant to help our audience, then should not our focus always be on what the students need and enable them to walk in obedience to the Lord?

All the Bible is inspired but some parts are less important or relevant, to people we teach.

We do not teach Romans 9-11 to 5 year olds, or Ezekiel 40-48 to new believers - they are wrong passages for those audiences.


If our content is to meant to help our audience, then should not our focus always be on what the students need and enable them to walk in obedience to the Lord?

All the Bible is inspired but some parts are less important or relevant, to people we teach.

We do not teach Romans 9-11 to 5 year olds, or Ezekiel 40-48 to new believers - they are wrong passages for those audiences.

“Believe it or not the Bible does not have a need to be taught. Only our people have a need to be taught, and it is their real need that should determine our teaching and preaching calendar”


Jesus told Peter to feed his sheep - do this and sheep grow and reproduce.

Paul did not write letters merely because he had something interesting to say - he wrote in response to needs - need then letter; problem then proclamation

This pattern is shown through the NT

Be wise and discerning in choosing your subject


Maxim 3: Need building is the teachers main method to motivate students

Motivation is a continual problem in class - what is the secret?

Provide a need

If it is an appropriate on the students respond.

Is this hard - Jesus took 116 words with the woman at the well - 100 of them motivating her to seek her saviour.

Bait the hook.




Provide a need



Bait the hook.




Provide a need



Bait the hook.






Maxim 4: Need motivates to the degree it is felt by the student

How deeply does the student feel the need?

Touch their feelings - provide the need in such a way that it is felt - the deeper the feeling, the greater the response - light a fire in the heart of your student


Wilkinson suggests that there are 7 universal motivators - listed in the next section of maximisers.

Don’t think motivation happens by chance - or that you don’t have the charisma to do it. Everyone can learn it.


Maxim 5: need building always precedes new units of content

When was the last time your students wanted the answer you were giving them?

In witnessing - when did peope sense their need for christ so much that they knew they were going to hell - and you had the answer.

Unless your class is dying for the answer, don’t give it to them.


Maxim 5: need building always precedes new units of content

When was the last time your students wanted the answer you were giving them?

In witnessing - when did peope sense their need for christ so much that they knew they were going to hell - and you had the answer.


4 Situations where you should build the need:

1. At the beginning of each new series - meaningfully explain the benefits of the classes.

2. At the beginning of each new lesson - refocus the student, they don’t remember the last class anyway!

3. During class for the next class - anticipation is powerful

4. Resurface the need if interest is waning, motivation sagging etc.


Maxim 6: need should be built according to the audience’s characteristics and circumstances

As a teacher you need to know your students characteristics and circumstances well.

Age, interests etc. determine appropriate methods for a group.


Maxim 7: need building may be hindered by factors beyond the teachers control

Be sensitive to other factors which affect students.

External factors - high temp. Baby crying - keep trying though

Internal factors - such as an incompatibility between the need you are suggesting and their lifestyle


Maxim 7: need building may be hindered by factors beyond the teachers control

Be sensitive to other factors which affect students.

External factors - high temp. Baby crying - keep trying though

Internal factors - such as an incompatibility between the need you are suggesting and their lifestyle


Internal factor might be intense or mild depending upon:

1. How far apart the need you are building is from their present conviction

2. How intensely and emotionally you are building the need

3. How rapidly you transitioned through the 5 stages of need building (to be discussed in the next section)


How do you deal with this?

Raise the intensity?

Don’t worry about it - it is their problem.

Stop, meet the pressing need and return to your lesson

Stop and acknowledge the tension - then either go on or stop and meet their need.


Conclusion

The teacher should surface the students’ real need before teaching the content.

This law is like the role of advertising in marketing - adverts are aimed at making you buy a product but they cost a lot of money to produce.


Conclusion

The teacher should surface the students’ real need before teaching the content.

This law is like the role of advertising in marketing - adverts are aimed at making you buy a product but they cost a lot of money to produce.

Will you pay the price in your class - in order to meet the needs of

your students?






Education

Bruce Wilkinson, 7 Laws of the Learner: Law 5a Need