01.07.2025 / Volker Glissmann
When TEE developed in the 1960s, it was quickly realised that it is more productive for the class meeting if the learners study in their own time before the next lesson. One of the benefits of learning before the lesson is that the learners can study at their own pace, which allows them to re-read paragraphs, check references and even pause to reflect on the importance of their reading. And perhaps most importantly, it gives learners the chance to think and fully engage with a topic in preparation for a discussion. In that way, the class time could be freed for content delivery. Instead, the class could predominantly focus on comprehension/understanding of the learning content (this includes application to life and ministry). This is a common pedagogical tool; it is called pre-class readings.
The second significant early development was moving away from simply giving pre-class assigned readings but instead adding questions and exercises to the pre-class reading, thus helping the learners engage deeper with the reading and helping them reach greater comprehension. Instead of simply reading through a lesson (and thus only quickly and superficially engaging with the content), learning comprehension requires learners to re-read texts multiple times to comprehend their meaning. This is also called recursive reading. Unfortunately, not many learners are taught how to learn; it is often assumed that learners know how to learn, or it is not seen as part of the individual course curriculum. This is where the misunderstanding comes from: reading a text once is not sufficient for understanding/comprehension. Reading something only once might works for novels, but it does not work for other texts, especially Christian/theological/biblical texts, which usually combine multiple ideas and require unpacking and reflection. This is the context in which questions, exercises and reflections were added to the simple pre-class reading, thus changing the pre-class readings into a student workbook. Workbooks are student handbooks containing learning content and exercises supporting comprehension and practising application of the content. Sometimes, they are referred to as self-study books/workbooks or as TEE books. Historically, within TEE, they were also known as “self-instructional study material”. It is important to note that these workbooks are carefully crafted materials that guide as student in learning the content and are very different than class notes that a lecturer may hand out to their students. Hartwig Harms has written an excellent book on writing TEE materials (available as a free e-book on TEEnet: Writing for TEE: A Handbook for Authors).
In its basic form, questions and exercises function like stop signs, slowing readers down and forcing them to pay attention to specific elements of a text that are important for comprehension. Such questions are similar to a tour guide that slows visitors to point out interesting and significant features of a building, helping tourists appreciate the details and stories behind a building. This is why questions are important for deep learning. In a simplified way, there are two types of questions: one type of questions focuses on comprehension/understanding (like remembering details and understanding/explaining concepts), and the other type focuses on the application of learning to life and ministry (this might include contextual analysis, application of ideas to new contexts, and context evaluation). Usually, comprehension/understanding questions require fewer thinking skills (or cognitive/affective processes), and application questions require more cognitive thinking skills. Both kinds of questions are needed if learners should develop the ability to think theologically. Ultimately, the questions allow learners to answer and engage with the texts (this is why providing enough space for learners to write their answers into the workbook is good).
In theology, reflective questions serve an additional purpose: a private or personal experience and engagement (not just public engagement such as a lecture or service) with Christian theology. This seems especially important to foster spirituality (individual ethics) that is not mediated through others (like in chapel or a class setting) but arises from the direct encounter between oneself and God. Workbooks can provide space to formalise and reinforce these encounters.
A third (and often misunderstood) development was the recognition that questions in a workbook are by itself only half of the solution. Questions are good to prompt deeper thinking. However, the answers to the questions asked are the other important half of the solution of deeper learning (Usually, answer keys are the defining characteristic of self-study guides where they list the correct responses to the questions). Only if students can compare their answers to model answers can they recognise either the success of the learning or see where they can improve in answering questions, and then deep learning can take place. The usefulness of questions depends on the workbook providing (detailed) answer keys to allow learners to check the correctness of their answers and guide them to revisit the partially understood content and reflect further. Critics of this strategy point out that some learners are not fully conscientious of the learning strategy behind the provision of the answer keys and might resort to copying the correct answers (this is, of course, exactly what educators want to avoid as it discourages meaningful self-study, problem-solving and theological thinking skills). TEE tutors are usually able to identify and work with students who are simply copying and explain to them the correct method for working through the materials.
On the other hand, not providing detailed answer keys leaves learners uncertain about the content that should be mastered in a lesson. Thus, a learner might often miss an important stepping stone for evaluation, which has adverse knock-on effects regarding an appropriate application. Providing some answer keys in TEE workbooks (either immediately, at the end of a lesson or as an appendix) is encouraged. However, it is also recognised that answer keys to reflective or application questions to life and ministry questions are difficult to provide due to the contextual nature of the answers. Sometimes, the TEE group meeting is where the answers are shared, and the group or, ultimately, the facilitator provides space and the answer keys to the questions.
TEE materials which include the pre-class reading and the answer key provide what educators call a “flipped classroom.” This allows the majority of “class” time to be spent at the student’s preferred learning pace and free time at home as the work through the material. The TEE group meetings serve as a time to quickly review the material and cover any difficult area that are still confusing or unclear for students. There is no need to cover every question because the students have already self-corrected their answers with the provided answer key. This maximizes the efficiency of the time spent together in group meetings. In a future blog we will discuss effective TEE group meetings.
Finally, workbooks are an excellent resource for learners to keep after they have studied a course/lesson. This allows them to revise and re-study content again and again. Workbooks contain important subject content, as well as the learners’ own reflections and even key ideas that learners found valuable and added to their reflections after the group discussion. All of this will enhance any later re-engagement with a course workbook and its content. Few Christian ministries can succeed long-term without ongoing access to quality resources to continuously advance one’s ministry.
Look out for our next regular post on August 1, 2025, where we will continue looking at TEE workbooks from a practical perspective.