Updated 2/28/12

What kind of impact do our ministries have on those who are a part of them?

How much do our students really takeaway from your sermons, small group discussions, experiences and outreach opportunities?

Consider the ‘Cone of Learning’ (pictured to the right), or ‘Cone of Experience’, that was put forth by Edgar Dale in 1969.

In the first column we’ve got the retention rate. Retention is huge… because if our students aren’t remembering whatever it is we’re trying to teach them… than what are we doing? Retention the day after is on thing… but retention after two weeks — now that’s something to get excited about — and that’s what we see in the first column. At the top of the cone we’ve got a retention rate of approximately 90% — 90%! Can you imagine!?! As you work your way down the chart — and the “kind of learning” changes — so does the retention rate.

In the second column we’ve got the type of activity. There are a lot of different ways to learn and experience. If we want students to retain whatever it is that we’re teaching them… well, then we’d better be intentional in how we instruct them or create opportunities for them to learn.

In the third column we’ve got the nature of involvement — active or passive. It’s very clear — to no surprise — that the more active one is in the learning process, the more they will learn and retain.

While this depiction may not be what Dale had originally conceived (click here and here to read about this debate), I think this is worth us spending some serious time considering, and using, in the assessment of whether or not (or to what extent) what we are doing is truly assisting our students to grow spiritually.

I’ll probably spend a few days camping out on this…

So stay tuned and speak your opinion!