In the world of education, learning outcomes are statements of what students will learn in a lesson. The statements are focused on student learning (What will students learn today?) rather than instructor teaching (What am I going to teach today?). The idea is that there is a difference between what is taught and what is learned, which is certainly true.
The problem I have with issuing learning outcomes in a confident manner that can seem almost arrogant is that learning is not quite as straightforward as we often think it is. Learning is not simply a matter of listening to a teacher and doing what the teacher says. There has to be a process of understanding, grasping, analysing, remembering and, ultimately, ‘getting it’ for true learning to take place. That does not happen for everyone at the same pace or in the same way. It’s not always the teacher’s fault if the student does not ‘learn’ something; it’s not always the student’s fault if it takes longer than one lesson to grasp a truth.
Jesus taught His disciples for over three years, and it’s fairly safe to say that as He was arrested and crucified, they were not much closer to ‘getting it’ than they had been at the start. They were, He said to the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection, ‘foolish… and slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.’ (Luke 24:25) They were, in essence, proof that there are many difficulties in ‘getting it’.
I’m sure that Jesus’s teaching methods would not have gained the approval of OFSTED, for if we read John 13-16, we see conversation and action that did not clarify and illuminate as clearly as inspectors would like! Jesus used parables to draw people into the story of God; He left them asking questions, not always sure of the answers. He taught, Eugene Peterson says, in ways that reflected ‘the indirections inherent in revelation and the unforced intimacies of love.’ (‘Tell It Slant’, P 214) When we read the disciples’ questions and confusion, it seems not much learning was going on at all.
And yet later, after the resurrection and the baptism in the Holy Spirit, when the Comforter and Advocate was there to remind them of all Jesus had taught and to bring to mind all that had happened, it seems the lessons had finally been well absorbed. Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost understood the connections between Old Testament prophecy and its fulfilment in Christ in ways that would have been unthinkable months earlier. Paul’s letters show a thorough integration of understanding, connecting the dots of the Old Testament in ways that continue to open our eyes today.
We may well feel our learning is sporadic, patchy, not particularly coherent. We may well feel that there is so much we don’t understand yet and wonder if progress will ever be made. Take heart. The learning outcomes might not be achieved in one lesson, but we have a lifetime of lessons to assimilate all God wants to teach us. Jesus is not in the same hurry that teachers often are; we’re not working to a deadline of external examinations. The work God has started will be brought to completion by Him (Phil 1:6), but if our learning happens in fits and starts, that’s not a problem for God.
After chastising a child, a parent often asks ‘Have you learnt your lesson, then?’ Some lessons are harder to learn than others, but as long as we stay close to Jesus, learning will take place. The outcome is thankfully, in this case, secure. One day, we will be like Him. (1 Jn 3:1-3)