{"id":14645,"date":"2017-10-19T12:08:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T19:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=14645"},"modified":"2017-10-19T12:08:09","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T19:08:09","slug":"pfffth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/pfffth\/","title":{"rendered":"Pfffth!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Confession time: When I began reading Learn How to Study<\/em>, it was with a dramatic roll of the eyes and a haughty \u201cbeen there, done that\u201d attitude. Honestly, I\u2019d wager that people who go on to do post-graduate studies have pretty much figured out how to study. And worse, much of what I read seemed dedicated to memorization and test-taking skills rather than research and development. I may be wrong, but I think our test-taking days are over.<\/p>\n

And then I felt a pang of conviction.<\/p>\n

And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, \u201cTruly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.\u201d Matthew 18:2-3<\/p>\n

Converted to become like children. Not experts. Not academics. Children. Humble, open, receptive, teachable, curious–these are the childlike qualities that enable us to learn and grow. And as we strive to mature in our faith, we are wise to maintain these childlike qualities through all seasons of life and learning. I don\u2019t ever want to become a know-it-all. So despite my exasperation with the style of Rowntree and the pedestrian nature of his content, I tried to find a way to approach this reading that would render me open and receptive.<\/p>\n

My doctoral project has to do with cultural adaptation for missionaries, and so I decided to read Derek Rowntree\u2019s Learn How to Study<\/em> in hopes of discovering approaches to learning that might be as useful to the missionary on the field as the university student in the classroom. In the section entitled, \u201cWhy Read This Book?\u201d the author suggests that the skills he proposes \u201care actually more life-<\/em>skills than exclusively study-<\/em>skills.\u201d[1]<\/a> Might these life-skills work for one whose aim is to learn language and culture? And there you have it, the question that brought my curiosity to life.<\/p>\n

Rowntree begins the book by dispelling the \u201cMyths of the Super-Student,\u201d and boiling down student success to three key tasks: being clear about expectations, developing approaches to learning that will enable one to meet those expectations, and being able to demonstrate that learning in formal and informal settings. It seems that all three of these tasks would pertain to the cultural adaptation process for missionaries. But are they practiced? There is certainly an expectation that missionaries will learn to adapt to the culture in which they are living, but what exactly that looks like is rather unclear. The expectations are fuzzy, and this makes the second task difficult! How can one develop an approach for cultural adaptation if no one has never defined what that looks like in the end? But most lacking of all is the third task.<\/p>\n

Christians (in my experience) shy away from measurement, unless it\u2019s counting people in the pews or dollars in the bank. We\u2019re lousy at evaluating our progress or programs. We think that results are \u201cin God\u2019s hands\u201d (which may be true) so there is no need to assess our efforts (which is certainly not true). A few years ago I surveyed missionary sending agencies, asking them about the importance of cultural adaptation for missionary effectiveness. All eight of the agencies surveyed told me that cultural adaptation was very important, but none of them\u2026not one\u2026had a process in place for evaluating how well their missionaries adapted. Thus, these first three tasks gave me fodder for thought.<\/p>\n

And then Rowntree went on to talk about \u201cGrit and Self-Control.\u201d[2]<\/a> These two qualities of good learners are incredibly applicable to missionaries. The problem is, Rowntree convinces the reader that these two qualities are essential, even reassures the reader that that one can establish these qualities with practice, but then offers no help in how to go about developing them. Grit is mentioned throughout the book, and the concept of self-control is intrinsic in much of what Rowntree prescribes, reinforcing their importance without helping the reader to attain them. Fortunately for missionaries, we\u2019ve got another book to help us with this subject! Even better, we\u2019ve got the Holy Spirit to inspire and empower our growth.<\/p>\n

There were some helpful tips in the section on planning, which was basically about time-management.[3]<\/a> Both missionaries and students have to be able to manage their time wisely, as neither is going to be punching a time clock. The nine steps could all be applied to missionaries in the adaptation process, if, indeed, the missionary had been able to clarify expectations in the first place.<\/p>\n

Sadly, it seemed the help for missionary adaptation ended there. Though Rowntree suggested that his book contained \u201clife-skills,\u201d I found the \u201cstudy-skills\u201d to be fairly simplistic, ordinary, and uninspired. I was optimistic when he began to write about \u201cthe awareness of cues,\u201d but found him to focus the conversation so narrowly on test-taking that anything he suggested would\u2019ve been irrelevant to missionary adaptation.<\/p>\n

I thought perhaps I had missed something, so I went to try to find some reviews. Maybe another reader would be able to help me see some of the value of the book that I had been missing. But there were no reviews on Google Books and one (one!) on Amazon.com. I tried to stay open. I tried to approach the book humbly, like a child. But in the end, I\u2019m afraid my honest, childlike response to Rowntree is downright childish. I\u2019d give it a big ol\u2019 raspberry.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Derek Rowntree, LEARN HOW TO STUDY: Developing the Study Skills and Approaches to Learning That Will Help You Succeed in University<\/em> (Derek Rowntree, 2016). Kindle loc 115.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Rowntree. Loc 336.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Rowntree. Loc 1762.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Confession time: When I began reading Learn How to Study, it was with a dramatic roll of the eyes and a haughty \u201cbeen there, done that\u201d attitude. Honestly, I\u2019d wager that people who go on to do post-graduate studies have pretty much figured out how to study. And worse, much of what I read seemed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[913],"class_list":["post-14645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-rowntree","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14646,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14645\/revisions\/14646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}