On Sunday afternoon I read a small book by Les Giblin, Skill with People.
In the introduction Giblin outlines three interesting human insights:
Insight #1 - How We Learn (and Buy)
83% through SIGHT
11% through HEARING
3.5% through SMELL
1.5% through TOUCH
1% through TASTE
Insight #2 - How We Retain Information
10% of what we READ
20% of what we HEAR
30% of what we SEE
50% of what we SEE & HEAR
70% of what we SAY AS WE TALK
90% of what we SAY AS WE DO A THING
Insight #3 - Methods of Instruction
Telling when Used Alone
70% recalled 3 hours later
10% recalled 3 days later
Showing When Used Alone
72% recalled 3 hours later
20% recalled 3 days later
Blend of Telling and Showing Used
85% recalled 3 hours later
65% recalled 3 days later
In terms of communication, the conclusion is that effective public speaking and preaching should be visually stimulating, including multi-media in such a way that it adds to, not detracts from from the message delivered.
Also, people need to in some way participate in the message via speech or action if they are to have a greater chance of retention. If there is no retention, both audience and orator have wasted their time.
"Pastor," said the worshipper, "what a wonderful sermon!" "That," replied the preacher, "remains to be seen."
Showing posts with label Learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Learning. Show all posts
September 2, 2008
May 4, 2008
Lewis on Prudence
The honeymoon has afforded me heaps of time to catch up on reading. I've been re-reading one of my all-time favourite books, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
I like what he writes on the topic of prudence:
Prudence means practical common sense, taking the trouble to think out what you are doing and what is likely to come of it. Nowadays most people hardly think of prudnce as one of the 'virtues'. In fact, because Christ said we could only get into His world by being like children, many Christians have the idea that, provided you are 'good', it does not matter being a fool. But that is a misunderstanding.
In the first place, most children show plenty of 'prudence' about doing the things they are really interested in, and think them out quite sensibly. In the second place, as St Paul points out, Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary. He told us to be not only 'as harmless as doves', but also 'as wise as serpents'.
He wants a child's heart, but a grown-up's head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first class fighting trim.
The fact that you are giving money to a charity does not mean that you need not try to find out whether that charity is a fraud or not. The fact that what you are thinking about is God Himself (for example, when you are praying) does not mean that you can be content with the same babyish ideas which you had when you were a five-year-old...
If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all. But, fortunately, it works the other way round. Anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened: one of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself. That is why an uneducated believer like Bunyan was able to write a book that has astonished the whole world.
I like what he writes on the topic of prudence:
Prudence means practical common sense, taking the trouble to think out what you are doing and what is likely to come of it. Nowadays most people hardly think of prudnce as one of the 'virtues'. In fact, because Christ said we could only get into His world by being like children, many Christians have the idea that, provided you are 'good', it does not matter being a fool. But that is a misunderstanding.
In the first place, most children show plenty of 'prudence' about doing the things they are really interested in, and think them out quite sensibly. In the second place, as St Paul points out, Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary. He told us to be not only 'as harmless as doves', but also 'as wise as serpents'.
He wants a child's heart, but a grown-up's head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first class fighting trim.
The fact that you are giving money to a charity does not mean that you need not try to find out whether that charity is a fraud or not. The fact that what you are thinking about is God Himself (for example, when you are praying) does not mean that you can be content with the same babyish ideas which you had when you were a five-year-old...
If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all. But, fortunately, it works the other way round. Anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened: one of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself. That is why an uneducated believer like Bunyan was able to write a book that has astonished the whole world.
March 18, 2008
Reading - #2
Continued from earlier post:
4. Reading Conquers the Confines of Time
If a man does not read he limits his mind to think only on the concepts and ideas of his generation. Therefore his boundaries of available thought are perhaps forty to seventy years. However if a man reads widely, he avails himself of the thoughts and concepts of men and women of multiplied generations. His boundaries of thought are therefore hundreds and thousands of years.
Descartes, a French philosopher of the 17th century, said "The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of the past centuries."
In addition to this, by choosing to expand the historical breadth of reading material, a person is kept from any flawed concepts that may be prevalent in their generation.
5. Reading is the Habit of Effective People
When studying the lives of highly effective people, reading appears to be the reoccurring habit that links them all.
The Apostle Paul was a reader. In 2 Timothy 4:13 Paul asks a favor of Timothy, “Please bring with you…the books…”. Under house arrest and in the latter stages of his life, Paul’s desire was for a good book!
William Tyndale, Protestant reformer, scholar and Bible translator of the 16th Century, made a similar request during his imprisonment in the few months before his martyrdom in 1536. In a letter to the governor-in-chief, he entreated him to "kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may spend time with that in study.”
John Wesley was so passionate about reading that he did most of it on horseback, regularly riding fifty to ninety miles per day. He habitually traveled with volumes of science, history or medicine propped on his saddle. His method proved effective, helping Wesley to get through thousands of volumes. Wesley is quoted as regularly advising younger ministers either to read or get out of the ministry!
Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, typically read six books per week.
Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church (one of America’s largest churches) is quoted as reading a book a day.
Hundreds more examples could be given of successful people who highly value the habit of reading. If it’s good enough for the Apostle Paul, Tyndale, Wesley, Spurgeon and Warren, it’s good enough for Bell!
6. Reading Increases the Income of Ideas
J. Oswald Sanders writes, "Ideally a book is a channel through which ideas can flow from one mind to another."
I cannot expect to call upon a plenitude of good ideas if I have not invested good ideas into my mind.
Ravi Zacharias states this point superbly: "An expenditure of words without the income of ideas leads to conceptual bankruptcy."
4. Reading Conquers the Confines of Time
If a man does not read he limits his mind to think only on the concepts and ideas of his generation. Therefore his boundaries of available thought are perhaps forty to seventy years. However if a man reads widely, he avails himself of the thoughts and concepts of men and women of multiplied generations. His boundaries of thought are therefore hundreds and thousands of years.
Descartes, a French philosopher of the 17th century, said "The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of the past centuries."
In addition to this, by choosing to expand the historical breadth of reading material, a person is kept from any flawed concepts that may be prevalent in their generation.
5. Reading is the Habit of Effective People
When studying the lives of highly effective people, reading appears to be the reoccurring habit that links them all.
The Apostle Paul was a reader. In 2 Timothy 4:13 Paul asks a favor of Timothy, “Please bring with you…the books…”. Under house arrest and in the latter stages of his life, Paul’s desire was for a good book!
William Tyndale, Protestant reformer, scholar and Bible translator of the 16th Century, made a similar request during his imprisonment in the few months before his martyrdom in 1536. In a letter to the governor-in-chief, he entreated him to "kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar and Hebrew Dictionary, that I may spend time with that in study.”
John Wesley was so passionate about reading that he did most of it on horseback, regularly riding fifty to ninety miles per day. He habitually traveled with volumes of science, history or medicine propped on his saddle. His method proved effective, helping Wesley to get through thousands of volumes. Wesley is quoted as regularly advising younger ministers either to read or get out of the ministry!
Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, typically read six books per week.
Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church (one of America’s largest churches) is quoted as reading a book a day.
Hundreds more examples could be given of successful people who highly value the habit of reading. If it’s good enough for the Apostle Paul, Tyndale, Wesley, Spurgeon and Warren, it’s good enough for Bell!
6. Reading Increases the Income of Ideas
J. Oswald Sanders writes, "Ideally a book is a channel through which ideas can flow from one mind to another."
I cannot expect to call upon a plenitude of good ideas if I have not invested good ideas into my mind.
Ravi Zacharias states this point superbly: "An expenditure of words without the income of ideas leads to conceptual bankruptcy."
March 16, 2008
Reading - Outdated or Underestimated?
Why Read?
In the highly visual age in which we live, the question is one that many may pose. Isn’t reading outdated, considering that we now have at our disposal numerous, more ‘time effective’ methods of learning? Has visual technology replaced our need for reading?
I would argue ‘no’.
Why?
In the highly automotive age in which we live, have cars replaced our need for physical exercise?
Just as physical exercise benefits us in a way that cars cannot, I believe that reading benefits us in a way that visual learning cannot. Am I against cars? No! Am I against podcasts, vodcasts, YouTube and the like? No! I simply believe that the advent of the new does not render the old irrelevant.
So, why do I believe in reading?
1. Reading Enhances the Gift of Intellect
I believe that wise stewardship of entrusted resources is our responsibility before God. We talk much of our responsibility to steward our finance and giftedness, yet little focus is given to the stewardship of our intellect, which is one of the greatest resources God has entrusted to us.
In his book Christian Behavior, C.S. Lewis writes:
“It is quite true that God will not love you any the less, or have less use for you if you happen to have been born with a very second-rate brain. He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants everyone to use what sense they have. God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers.”
2. Reading Stimulates Fresh Inspiration
This point is true particularly in the genre of biography. Sir William Robertson Nicoll (Scottish pastor and journalist, 1851-1923) writes, the “lives of great men still remind us that we may make our lives sublime.” Is it possible to read the biographies of truly great men and not be inspired?
American pastor, author and co-founder of the Fuller Theological Seminary Harold Ockenga said, “Read to refill the wells of inspiration.” So convinced was he of the merits of reading, he took a suitcase full of books on his honeymoon! (I can’t say that I will follow your lead Harold)
3. Reading Facilitates Fellowship with Great Minds
To perceive reading as simply the assimilation of text is a great error. Instead, consider reading as a doorway into the minds and thought processes of history’s most brilliant and effective people. This is an opportunity too good to miss!
J. Oswald Sanders writes, “It is possible to hold communion with the greatest and godliest of men of all ages through the medium of their writings.”
More points soon...
In the highly visual age in which we live, the question is one that many may pose. Isn’t reading outdated, considering that we now have at our disposal numerous, more ‘time effective’ methods of learning? Has visual technology replaced our need for reading?
I would argue ‘no’.
Why?
In the highly automotive age in which we live, have cars replaced our need for physical exercise?
Just as physical exercise benefits us in a way that cars cannot, I believe that reading benefits us in a way that visual learning cannot. Am I against cars? No! Am I against podcasts, vodcasts, YouTube and the like? No! I simply believe that the advent of the new does not render the old irrelevant.
So, why do I believe in reading?
1. Reading Enhances the Gift of Intellect
I believe that wise stewardship of entrusted resources is our responsibility before God. We talk much of our responsibility to steward our finance and giftedness, yet little focus is given to the stewardship of our intellect, which is one of the greatest resources God has entrusted to us.
In his book Christian Behavior, C.S. Lewis writes:
“It is quite true that God will not love you any the less, or have less use for you if you happen to have been born with a very second-rate brain. He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants everyone to use what sense they have. God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers.”
2. Reading Stimulates Fresh Inspiration
This point is true particularly in the genre of biography. Sir William Robertson Nicoll (Scottish pastor and journalist, 1851-1923) writes, the “lives of great men still remind us that we may make our lives sublime.” Is it possible to read the biographies of truly great men and not be inspired?
American pastor, author and co-founder of the Fuller Theological Seminary Harold Ockenga said, “Read to refill the wells of inspiration.” So convinced was he of the merits of reading, he took a suitcase full of books on his honeymoon! (I can’t say that I will follow your lead Harold)
3. Reading Facilitates Fellowship with Great Minds
To perceive reading as simply the assimilation of text is a great error. Instead, consider reading as a doorway into the minds and thought processes of history’s most brilliant and effective people. This is an opportunity too good to miss!
J. Oswald Sanders writes, “It is possible to hold communion with the greatest and godliest of men of all ages through the medium of their writings.”
More points soon...
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