An interesting study came out a few years ago in the Journal of Applied Psychology by Shmuel Ellis from Tel Aviv University, which looked at how to increase learning after an event. The basic learning was that it's important for the key participants to process an activity or event as soon as possible afterwards in an "after action review" to discuss what went right, what didn't go right, and what could be done better in the future.  The study looked at a military company's performance on navigation exercises. Afterwards, one group talked about their failures and what they could do differently next time. The other group discussed what could be learned from both their successes and failures. Two months later, both groups repeated the exercises. Both groups made significant improvements, but with some striking differences:

1. Higher learning was exhibited by the group that had discussed both the successes and the failures.
2. These soldiers seemed to learn faster because they had formed "richer mental models" of their experiences.

Some later studies have found some interesting corollaries:

1. After successful completion of a task, people learn the most if they think and talk about what went wrong.
2. After task failure, it makes no difference whether the conversation's focus is the successes or failures. If an event review takes place, people will learn.

Assuming we can generalize from these studies, there are very important implications for Christian educators and other church leaders.

1. Learning is sparked through these "after event reviews," or what traditionally has been called evaluation. No surprise there, of course, yet the reality is that many churches just don't stop to really process what went right and wrong after a Sunday school class, a youth group meeting, a worship service, a fundraiser, and so on. The result is that the same mistakes keep on happening.
2. After successful events, it's particularly critical to think about those things that did NOT go well. Otherwise, the participants will simply bask in their success and not learn what could have been done even better.
3. Failures will happen, and when they do it's very important to have an "after event review" so that the leaders will think deeply about the event and their role in it. Simply talking about the event is the most important thing, not whether you focus on the successes or failures.

So, if you'd like to see improvements in the teaching and leadership abilities of your Christian educators, let your leaders know that it's OK if things don't always go perfectly…but it's important to set aside time after each class or event for the purpose of learning.

~ by Tim Gossett