Teacher Training efforts in the church too often seem to use a cookie cutter approach.  Everyone is put on the same track as though all teachers had the same needs.

Yet, in the typical teaching staff, you have veteran teachers and new teachers, good teachers and not-so-good teachers, teachers with a lot of Biblical knowledge and some with little to no understanding of God’s Word.  There are teachers who are spiritually mature and those who do little to maintain a consistent walk with the Lord.  Some teachers skillfully use a variety of methods and others are stuck in ruts.  Some know how to handle problem situations and others are ready to give up.   Then, of course, we get into the differences in learning styles among our teachers, the age levels they teach, etc., etc.

How can we even think that we will equip our teachers
effectively by training them with a “one-size-fits-all” approach?

To truly invest into teacher’s lives to make them better teachers, we need to tailor training to the individual teachers when possible by providing help in areas of greatest need and in formats most conducive to their learning bents and schedules.

This is the premise on which TrainBibleTeachers.com was built.  Please be sure to check it out!

As part of a membership at TrainBibleTeachers.com, you get access not only to links for materials on a variety of topics in a variety of means but also to handouts and worksheets I have written which you are permitted to copy and distribute to your teachers.  Right now I am working on putting up a series of one page handouts each on a different discipline issue teachers face.  The page gives a synopsis of the challenge that issue brings, possible causes, and corrective and circumventive measures you can take.  The point is that once you determine the cause, you can truly help the student.  Two students can be engaging in the same behavior but for different reasons.  If you approach both students the same way, you probably will do little to help one of them.  You may be able to stop the misbehavior but the need remains and will very likely resurface at a different time or in a different way. 

Teacher training and discipline issues are two examples of how cookie cutter approaches usually aren’t the most effective.  Where have you seen a cookie cutter approach applied that wasn’t very effective?