Alfred Speaks: "Improve your Quiet Times"

Alfred is our very cheerful, zealous and fired up brother. He loves children and is always inspiring others with his soft heart towards the word of God.

    

My dear Campus,

Today, I will share to you on how I usually do my Quiet Time and I hope this may help you in your daily bible studies. I learnt about this Bloom’s Taxonomy Theory in NIE and it really helps me in classifying and practicing the different Higher order thinking skills.

Bloom Taxonomy

In the late 1940s, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of cognitive psychologists at the University of Chicago to develop a taxonomic hierarchy of cognitive-driven behavior deemed important to learning and to measurable capability. Bloom’s taxonomy in theory helps teachers better prepare objectives and, from there, derive appropriate measures of learned capability and Higher order thinking skills. An awareness of these levels can help one determine how well the students really know their course content. There are six major categories, which are listed in order below, starting from the simplest behavior to the most complex. The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is, the first one must be mastered before the next one can take place.

Bloom's levels are:

 

1.       1)  Knowledge

2.        2) Comprehension

3.        3) Application

4.        4) Analysis

5.        5) Synthesis

6.        6) Evaluation

 

Knowledge & Comprehension

During my young Christian days, I was very new to the bible. Back then, my quiet time was all on knowledge and comprehension. For example:  

Matthew 1: Joseph was the father of Jesus (Knowledge) 

Matthew 4: Temptation of Jesus _ Story (Comprehension)

 

Application

After a few months as a Disciple, my QT was more on application. For example:

 

Matthew 5: 29 “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

 

I must not treat sin lightly. I must try my best not to fall into sin. (Application)

 

Analysis

As years went by, my bible study became more in depth. I learnt to put myself in the shoe of the bible characters and started to empathize them during their difficult times. At this stage, I am practicing more on Analysis. For example:

 

Matthew 27: 27 – 31 “ Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him.²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. ³⁰ They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. ³¹ After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

 

The pain that Jesus had gone through was unbearable. Jesus was innocent and yet he had to go through so much humiliation and beating. I know that I won’t be able to go through the similar painful treatment. Lord, I really want to thank you so much for your sacrifice. (Analysis)

 

Synthesis

After becoming a disciple for a few years, I was given the opportunity to share lessons for devotions & bible talks. Usually in a lesson, we have a few points of different concepts. Hence when preparing a lesson, we are actually combining many concepts into one lesson. At this stage, we are practicing Synthesis of the higher order thinking skill.  For example in a bible talk lesson: 

John 2 (Title: Jesus changes water to wine)

1.      Jesus can surprise us with his miracles.

John 2: 6 “Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.”

 

1 gallon ≈ 3.7 liters

1 stone water jar contains 20 to 30 gallons. (75 to 115 liters)

6 stone water jars contain 120 to 180 gallons. (450 to 690 liters)

 

A stone water jar can contain 75 to 115 liters of water. That is really amazing. I went to the internet and found the information about the stone water jar. I am astonished by it! It is really big!!!

http://www.bibleplaces.com/newsletter/december04.htm

 

6 stone water jars of water can fill ¼ of the Olympic size swimming pool. Imagine Jesus had turned that much of water into wine. Amazing!!! Jesus can surprise us with his miracles. Jesus can do miracles in our life!

  

2.      Jesus was a humble man.

Jesus didn’t show off his power. He did that miracle because his mum asked him to do so. Imagine if we have the same power as Jesus, would we use that power for our own benefit or for others? Would we show off or be humble like Jesus?

 

From the above lesson, I am combining the concepts of “Jesus can do miracles on our life” & “Jesus’ humility” into a lesson. By doing this, I am demonstrating the higher order thinking skill of Synthesis.

 

Evaluation

When I am doing my QT now, I am trying to practice this stage of higher order thinking skill of Evaluation. This is the highest stage of high order thinking skill. This is the stage where we study the bible with much more in depth. For example:

Mark 7:8 “You have let go of commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”

In this verse, God doesn’t want us to follow the tradition of men but want us to follow the commands of God. I found this verse very useful when I am studying bible with people especially for the study on “Baptism” & “Speaking in Tongues” I would go to the internet and find the origin of the different kind baptisms & speaking tongues and show to them that all these practices are traditions of men. Basically, for any practices and if I can prove that they are traditions of men, I can back it up with this verse. (Evaluation)

 

The table below is the detailed explanation of the different level of high order thinking skills.

Table 1 : Blooms Taxonomy of Learning

 

Level	Learner Action	Question Cues	Example
Knowledge	Recall content in the exact form that it was presented. Memorisation of definitions, formulas, or procedures are examples of knowledge-level  functioning	List, define, label, identify, name	Mat 1: Joseph was the father of Jesus (Knowledge)
Comprehension	Restate material in their own words, or can recognise previously unseen examples of a concept.	Describe, associate, categorise, summarise	Mat 4: Temptation of Jesus _ Story (Comprehension)
Application	Apply rules to a problem, without being given the rule or formula for solving the problem.	Apply, calculate, illustrate, solve	Mat 5: I must not treat sin lightly. I must try my best not to fall into sin. (Application)
Analysis	Break complex concepts or situations down into their component parts, and analyse how the parts are related to one another.	Analyse, compare, separate, order, explain	Mat 27: The pain that Jesus had gone through was unbearable. Jesus was innocent and yet he had to go through so much humiliation and beating. I know that I won’t be able to go through the similar painful treatment. Lord, I really want to thank you so much for your sacrifice. (Analysis)
Synthesis	Rearrange component parts to form a new whole.	Combine, modify, rearrange, "what-if"	Combining the concepts of “Jesus can do miracles on our life” & “Jesus’ humility” into a lesson.
Evaluation	Evaluate or make judgments on the worth of a concept, object, etc. for a purpose	Assess, decide, grade, recommend, explain, judge	Basically, for any practices and if I can prove that they are traditions of men, I can back it up with Mark 7.

 

I hope there is something that you can learn from this. Please share about your thoughts. I really want to grow in  my bible studies, hence please give me your valuable feed backs.

 

Thanks!

Alfred