Book Review: The Learning Cycle: Insights for Faithful Teaching from Neuroscience and the Social Sciences

Abstract

Drawing upon over five decades of intercultural educational experience in dialogue with relevant research, biblical and theological insights, and engaging illustrations, authors Muriel and Duane Elmer have provided an exceptionally practical and accessible text that is as applicable to formal educational settings in the classroom, as it is to informal ministry contexts, particularly with adult learners. Their overall emphasis is to explicate how teachers and facilitators can intentionally nurture learning that leads to life change—moving from knowing to doing to transforming practice and character. Utilizing their thoughtfully constructed Learning Cycle, adapted from Duane Elmer’s doctoral dissertation, the authors delineate five levels of learning with the goal of integrating cognitive, affective, and psychomotor elements of learning into a cohesive whole. While content recall is identified at each level, they also introduce additional features into the learning process including the role of emotion, speculation as to how to use new knowledge, identifying and overcoming barriers, the importance of practice, and developing habits which eventually lead to character transformation or the goal of Christlikeness. Recent discoveries from neuroscience provide additional validation for these time-honored principles. The authors write, “Only when stored in long-term memory do beliefs and behavior begin the fusion into integrity, character, and wisdom” (p. 194). Replete