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Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 1

Young Children’s Sunday School Program

Grace Xiaodan Wang

The University of Oklahoma

EIPT 6143 – Instructional Design I

Dr. Patricia Hardré

12/01/2014
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Contents
Metacognitive Essay 3
Abstract 6
Project Prospectus 6
Needs and Context Analysis 10
Task Analysis 15
Learner Analysis 20
Instructional Design 25
Evaluation & Assessment Design Assignment 33
References 41
Subject Matter Expert Feedback 42
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Metacognitive Essay

This whole semester I was designing an instructional project for a small Chinese Baptist
Church, Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church. This instructional project was designed as
a workshop training format for the volunteers who are teaching and helping in the young
Children’s Sunday School classes in the church. The reason why I designed the instructional
project is because of the needs of the young Children’s Sunday School teachers and the need of
program growth. The instructional project was composed of six parts: project of prospectus,
needs and contexts analysis, learners’ analysis, task analysis, instructional design, and the
evaluation & assessment.
This semester was my second semester in the program. I took the course with an anxious
heart and reluctance. When I started to design the project I was just in my second semester for
my master degree in Instructional Psychology Technology. Although I finished my first semester
in spring, I was still didn’t know what my major really could accomplish. I didn’t know why all
the courses I attended in spring were not really related to instruction. To be honest, I was
beginning to think I needed to change my major because it looked like all the theories I learned
and courses I studied in the spring didn’t help me figure out how my major related to
instructional design.
Without any design experience, I started the class with anxiousness and curiosity. I just
hoped that I wouldn’t fail the class, and that I would learn something related to design. At that
point, I couldn’t even imagine being an instructional designer.
In the class discussion section, I heard my class peers, who have design experience, discuss some
theories and projects I had never heard of before. I was very anxious, and felt I wouldn’t be able
to comprehend the class material.
I still remember my fear; it was the second week in which Dr. Hardre had asked us to
start writing the Project of Prospectus. At that point I had no idea what instructional design
should be like. I learned throughout the whole semester by reading articles, attending class
discussions, and submitting assignment every week. I learned step by step. Although I was slow
learner, I have been able to garner the same level of instructional design knowledge that my
peers have learned.
During the semester I learned and practiced many principles, for example: I learned
Gagne’s nine events of instructions, types of learning theories, CLER model, the ways of
evaluations, instructional theory, etc. I also practiced cognitive theory and developmental
strategies, as well as many other areas of instructional design.
Things I didn’t know but now I know:
An instructional design can be formatted as a training workshop. Before I didn’t know
instructional design could be implemented in such a way, but now I know an instructional design
can be addressed as workshop training session if the conditions are appropriated for the design.

I also understand the purpose of learning theories usage. When I took Dr. Houng’s class,
EIPT- Motivation in Classroom, I didn’t know the reasons why we studied those learning
theories, and I didn’t know when and how I could practice those learning theories till I took the
class, Instructional Design.

I also understand the connection between learning theories and instructional design. The
learning theories are the foundation of the instructional design. It is very important to practice
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and become familiar with those learning theories. The process of instructional design is a process
of searching and adapting the learning theories.
I also learned an instructional design should be detailed. Any design process should relate
to theories. The designer needs to create a detailed instruction by considering any possibilities in
a number of realistic situations. The designer should give reasons and explanations for each
theory chosen, each designing format chosen, and the procedures.
I will anticipate using learning theories appropriately in my future instructional design
projects. The analyses of an instructional design are important. The process of analyzing
learners, tasks, contexts, etc. helps the learners to collect the information to fulfill his or her
project. In my future design job I will detail my instructional design as much as I can. I need to
train myself consider and ponder questions on issues and situations an instructional designer
might face. In doing so, I can seek the best way to solve any issues an instructional project might
have.
Project of prospectus:
The purpose of the documents is to address the importance of Children’s Sunday School
programs. It focused on the needs of Children’s Sunday School teachers’ training needs by using
data and resource to emphasize their needs---there is a gap between the growth of Chinese
Baptist Churches and the training needs of their Children’s Sunday School teachers.
My general design is macro strategy which focused on instructional & performance needs
and the characteristics of learners. I planned to design a training workshop for young children’s
Sunday School teachers.
I got a grade of “B” for the assignment. Based on my self-assessment and professors’
feedback, I should revised my work and clarify the purpose of the project.
The key recommendation of the assignment is to clarify the goal of the project.
I will clarify the learning goal and revise the cited works. Addressing the big goals within the
project and their lack of clarity would help create a quality instructional design project. Without
addressing these points the learners would misunderstood or failed to understand the purpose of
instructional design. While writing the assignment, I learned that an instructional designer should
set simple and clear goals for an instructional design. One should make a design neither
complicated nor too big.

Needs and contexts analysis:


The purpose of the assignment was to analyze the issues of young children’s Sunday
School program and find possible solution for solving the programs issues. In this project, I
briefly analyze the learners and used micro specific strategies to find possible solutions. Based
on the grade, I think there are many aspects that I can revise and promote. I revised the
introduction part and added the explanation for why we need an instruction in communication.
Also, I explained why I chose workshop training as the instructional design format.

Learners’ analysis:
The purpose of the assignment for analyzing learners group, based on their characteristics,
was to give an effective instructional design. For this assignment I analyzed by following my
SME’s suggestion and added a new learners group into my learners group. My first submitted
work I didn’t include parents as a consideration, but later I added parents as one of my sub
learner groups and explained why I needed parents. I took my SME’s suggestion I think he made
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a good point: the young children’s Sunday school program needs the cooperation and support of
parents.

Task analysis:
The task analysis assignment is based on the needs and context of the assignment. I
wanted to discover how I could meet the learners’ needs and work the project out. Based on my
grade and feedback of my project, I revised the APA format. I deleted the disaster part since the
scope or view of the assignment was too big, and it would be difficult to detail everything. So I
only included weekly classroom secure factors in the new assignment. To be honest, the security
of Children’s Sunday School classes would become a big and huge project. Since this project
only focuses on general problems of young children’s Sunday school program, I will not reach
outside the boundaries of my focus.

Instructional design:
The purpose of instructional design is approaching and addressing the whole workshop. I
detailed the assignment, and my peers suggested I state the learners’ language usage. Since I
already stated at the beginning of the instructional project, learners analysis and needs analysis, I
will not re-state my learners’ language usage in this section. Although, after my peers had
finished reviewing my project, it had occurred to me that it might be wise to rewrite the project. I
later changed my mind because my peers had only read part of my project. They were not as
familiar with the project as I am.

The evaluation & Assessment:


The purpose of this project is to give appropriately evaluate instruments and to test
whether or not the learners learned effectively after finishing the workshop training of the
instructional project. My general design strategy is very specific: focus on formative evacuation,
summative evaluation, and confirmative evaluation to evaluate the training consequence.
Although I gave learners a quiz and a test, the purpose of all evaluation is to help learners
understand and memorize the instructions. I revised the feedback that Dr. Hardre gave me about
the summative evaluation and confirmative evaluation.

After a semester of designing and learning, I can now look back at all my projects
through a metacognitive essay. I reviewed my project again, and I found I had learned the basic
skills of designing an instructional design through needs context analysis, learns analysis, task
analysis, instructional design, and evacuation & assessment. I know the basic of process need to
create an instructional design, and I learned to use learning theories to support my design.
Although I know the basic process of an instructional design, I need to practice more and more
with these skills and theories. I really need develop my skills of how to identify learning goals
and simple and detailed objectives. During this project I set three learning objectives, which are
really big project. Actually, any of these three learning objectives could be a single big
instructional design. I think I missed the point at the beginning of my project. In my future career
life as an instructional designer, it will be a challenging task for me to clarify a clear learning
objective.
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Abstract

This project was designed to facilitate the young Children’s Sunday School program's
running effectively in Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church. The current young
Children’s Sunday School program has the following problems: teachers’ misconception of their
roles, potential insecurity factors that teachers’ are not aware of, and lack of effective
communication between those who are serving regarding the weekly and monthly schedule for
all co-workers in the whole program.

For solving current problems and improving the Children’s Sunday School's running
smoothly, safely and effectively, this project is designed and created to focus on the current
Sunday School Teachers. The project will be designed and presented as a workshop to train
Children’s Sunday School teachers to meet the program needs.

The instructional design was designed for meeting the needs of the Children’s Sunday
School programs. It includes Prospectus of the Project, Need and Contexts Analysis, Task
Analysis, Learners Analysis, Instructional Design Project, Evaluation & Assessment.
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Project Prospectus

Small Baptist Chinese churches don’t attach importance to children ministry. Church
children ministry is usually misunderstood as simple babysitting ministry in many small Chinese
Baptist churches. Children Sunday school as very important role in Children ministry, yet it is
simply understood by parents, even Sunday school teachers as Daycare center. Most Sunday
school teachers don’t have any experience in teaching yet dismiss training to be prepared well
before walking to Sunday school classrooms. This paper will discuss the current status of
children Sunday school in a small Chinese Baptist church, to find or scope a feasible and
effective way for changing Sunday school teachers’ concepts and behaviors in children ministry,
and facilitate Sunday school class in Children ministry.
“In 2010, the Chinese Baptist Fellowship made church planting a priority, with a goal of
planting 600 new churches in the United States and Canada by 2020. About 55 churches have
been planted since the initiative's beginning; …… In the last year, the fellowship was able to
start about 24 churches.”(Laura, 2014.) As the growth of the church planting, children ministry
should to have the same pace growing to match the growth of church planting. Children Sunday
school as the regular service on each Sunday takes main and important role in the whole children
ministry. Sunday school teachers as the main Biblical message delivery take assignable roles.

What the children ministry would be like in the future? If Chinese Baptist Fellowship not
only hope to keep current numbers of Chinese Baptist churches, but also keep planting and the
growing of new churches in North America, church leaders need to attach importance to
children ministry which put Children Sunday School teachers training as start.

This paper will focus on analyzing a small Baptist church in Norman, and discussing the
current status of the church from the several aspects, brief Context, brief Learner Profile, brief of
Big Picture Strategy, brief of Assessment Strategy, and Anything else that is important

Instructional & Performance Need


Children ministry does matter. In the bible Jesus said, "Let the little children come to
me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."(Mark, 2011)
People usually misunderstood children ministry as babysitting, even some teachers
misunderstood the concept of children ministry. Sunday school teachers as the main roles of
Biblical message preachers needed to prepare well to start teaching in Sunday school class.
This instruction will achieve the goal of preparing Sunday school well, help them renew the
perspectives or concepts of Sunday school teacher’s roles, and change, launch or carry out a new
ways in teaching and contacting with students.

Why does anything need to be done?


There are few training opportunities in small Chinese Baptist churches. Some training
opportunities in some American Baptist churches which are held by American Baptist
Association, but due to some factors such as teachers’ different concepts in children ministry,
budget legitimation, cultural difference, distance, etc. Sunday school teachers in small Chinese
Baptist church rarely have training opportunities.
“Training is required of all players.” “Training helps forge individuals into a team.
(Retrieved from http://bsfbc.info/wp
content/uploads/2011/03/Does_Sunday_School_Training_Make_a_Difference.pdf)
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According to the interview for SME in Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist church, she
thinks young children’s Sunday School teachers in this church need training. The young
children’s Sunday school program has some issues which need to find solutions for change the
situation.

Brief Context
“On January 20, 1985 the Calvary Chinese Baptist Mission was established with about 20
members. Rev. Sam Luk was called to be the first pastor (1985-1991,” “In November 1994, the
church was officially renamed to Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church (SOCBC).”
(Retrieved from SOCBC http://www.socbc.org/about/church-history) Around one hundred
church members regularly attend the church every Sunday service, and about 20 to 30 kids are
attending Sunday school on each Sunday. Since it is small church, children from different Asian
countries, English is main teaching language, but since some children only speaks Chinese or
English, Sunday school teachers are required speak bilingual, English and Chinese.
All teachers were volunteered to be Sunday school teachers, and they don’t get payment.
Low standard were required.
Training is needed in perspectives of Sunday school teachers’ roles.
Teachers need to understand the perspectives of Sunday school teachers’ roles, not the
babysitting.
Teachers need to know the security rules in classroom, activity policies.
A basic class routine class schedule will be given, schedule the steps of the classroom,
prayers, bible story, snack ,praise time, closed prayer, parents picking up.

Brief Learner Profile


All young children’s Sunday school teachers are volunteers who are from parents to be
Sunday school teachers as I stated in in front. The common characteristics are they have a
humble hearts to serve God in Children ministry. They are all matured Christians; all of them
have good educational background, all of them have graduate school degrees, and have
experience work with children.
For this project the most important characteristics are, they are all Baptism Christian, and
they all have serving hearts, but some of them don’t have too much experience in teaching, some
of them they dismiss the point of children ministry as babysitting children in church.
Teacher assistants who are teenagers help young Children’s Sunday School class every
Sunday.

Brief of Big Picture Strategy


A training workshop will be given in a weekend afternoon, either Saturday afternoon or
Sunday after church service, which depends on teachers and teacher assistants’ schedules. There
are several reasons to choose workshop training:
A workshop training is quickly and effective. Through workshop training, teachers could
address class situation or questions through discussion.
Teachers’ busy schedules. Teachers are parents, full time workers, housewives, they have
very busy schedules. Two to three hours workshop will be arranged, and pre-scheduled with all
teachers one or two months ago, it is feasible.

Brief of Assessment Strategy


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During the training workshop, learners will be given small quizzes, group discussion and
final test assess what they learned.
Some quizzes will be given Powerpoint slides; there will be no test score since all
teachers are volunteering in the program. I don’t want to stress them out; also I don’t want to
fright them away from the Sunday School program through the workshop training. Final test will
be given, and test teachers if they understand and clear the class rules which engage the training
aspects, their Bible teaching roles in church, if they were trained well and have better security
concerns and other risk management factors in Children’s Sunday classroom, they will be able to
track their teaching schedule by following the personal teaching schedule on their own
smartphones.

For instance, give a video to show a teacher taking hot drinks to classroom, and ask
teachers it is appropriated or unappropriated.

Children and Youth committee which charged the children ministry could take four to
five observations for Sunday school class, and make evaluation after the training workshop
finished three to five weeks.

Anything else that is important

Since small Baptist churches rarely have Sunday school teachers training in church,
suggest church committee to support the workshop training at least once a half year.
How to build right perspectives/ concepts of children ministry, children and youth
community in church not only need training Sunday school teachers, but also the other
volunteers.
For a succeeded children ministry, church needed to involve the whole church
community to engage ministry, not only parents, but also every church member.
This project prospects is written for considering the current Sunday school teachers’
needs in teaching Sunday school class in Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church, the
purpose for facilitating children Sunday school in children ministry
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Needs and Context Analysis

Children's Sunday School, as the regular service on each Sunday in church, takes a main
and important role in the whole children's ministry of the Gospel. Sunday School teachers are not
only the main Biblical message delivers who take assigned roles, but they also have the main
roles in taking care of the children.
Many churches provide Children’s Sunday School teachers training each year. Southern
Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church doesn’t have regular training for Children’s Sunday
School teachers because of some factors. The SME in the Children’s Sunday School program in
young children's classes sees the gap between the needs of Children’s Sunday Shool teachers and
the growth of the children’s Sunday School program, and she thinks it is necessary to give the
Children’s Sunday School teachers’ training.
This paper will focus on analyzing a small Baptist church in Norman, Southern Oklahoma
Chinese Baptist Church, and discussing the needs and context analysis for the instructional
design project.

CONTEXT OF NEEDS
Brief Introduction
Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church is the only Chinese Baptist Church in the city
of Norman. It was begun “on January 20, 1985 the Calvary Chinese Baptist Mission was
established with about 20 members. Rev. Sam Luk was called to be the first pastor (1985-1991),”
“In November 1994, the church was officially renamed to Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist
Church (SOCBC).” (Retrieved from SOCBC http://www.socbc.org/about/church-history) The
Church has one hundred church members, about eighty to ninety people attend the church every
Sunday service. All activities related to Children's Ministry were created and developed by the
church Children and Youth Committee.

Overview of Children’s Sunday School Program


About 25 to 35 children are attending Sunday School on each Sunday; and their ages are
from 2 to 15. The young children’s Sunday school program includes students, ages 2 to 7.
Totally there are 11- 16 students in the young Children’s Sunday School program. There are two
age-level classes in the children’s Sunday School program, a toddler’s class (age 2 to 3), and a
Pre-School& K class (age 4-7).
Although SOCBC ( Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church) is a small church, the
students who are attending Children’s Sunday School are pretty diverse. They are from different
Asian backgrounds, Chinese from Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Main-
land China, and America.
English is the official teaching language for Sunday School classes at the church. There are
seven Children’s Sunday School teachers who volunteer to teach in the Children's Sunday
School by taking turns each month; six teacher assistants take turns each Sunday to help in the]=
Children’s Sunday School Classes.

Current Issues:
There are several problems in the church young Children's Sunday School.
First, some teachers and Teacher Assistants think Sunday School is “babysitting” school,
some of them think Sunday School is “taking care of children and not bothering parents and
other adults’ worship service.” Some Sunday School teachers only give students plain paper and
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colorful pens for unguided and non-objective teaching instead of teaching by using teaching
materials.
Second, there are daily security concerns and other risk management factors in young
Children’s Sunday School classrooms. They include two issues: parents drop off children to the
teachers instead of dropping off children in the classroom without a check-in Sunday School
system.Children are running in the hallway looking for their parents right after the class instead
of the parents picking them up. Some parents have gone to the classroom, but their children were
not there and the children’s teachers didn’t know where the children were either. So parents and
teachers have had to look for the child in the whole church building; Children’s Sunday School
teachers have also thoughtlessly taken hot drinks and unnecessary things into the classroom .

Third, Young Children’s Sunday School teachers and teacher assistants don’t pay attention
to the teachers’ schedule without being reminded by emails.Wong helps with Sunday School
teacher schedules’ coordination. She helps by looking for Sunday School teachers each month,
communicating with teachers about the lesson progress and teaching material needs, arranging
the teaching schedule which includes the Teacher Assistants' schedules as well. Usually she
arranges three months of the Schedule for all Sunday School teachers and teacher Assistants, and
she sends to all teachers and Teacher Assistants by email, but it still happens that teachers and
teacher assistants forget to check their schedules, so she has to send emails to remind the
teachers and teacher assistants every week, this requires a lot of time after work and worship, and
she is very busy with graduate school. Sometimes she forgets to send the reminder emails and
the teacher or teacher assistant forgets, and she has to look for someone to cover for the teacher,
or do it herself if the teacher doesn't come to church on that Sunday without previous notice.
Wong was frustrated by this situation, and she complained “why don't people check their
emails?”

Overview of Related Groups


To start an instructional design for the problem, there are several groups that need to be
considered: first, Sunday School Teachers. All Children’s Sunday School teachers volunteered to
be Sunday School teachers, so did the Teacher Assistants. Of the seven Sunday School teachers,
only two have Sunday School teaching experience, five of them are students’ parents. All of them
love children and would like to contribute their time and energy to serve the children. They have
rarely received teaching training because of their busy schedules, distance and church budgets,
etc. All of them have great educational background.
Second, Teacher Assistants are teenagers, their ages are from 12-14, and they help Sunday
School teachers to demonstrate in the classroom, help students to be engaged in the class, and
they gave attention to students who need help for other needs such as snacks, drinking water,
going to bathroom, etc.
Third, there is the Children and Youth Committee of Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist
Church. All church children's activities must be approved by the Children and Youth Committee,
and all the official announcements are published by the Children and Youth Committee in
church. There are four members in the committee, two co-chairs, they help and coordinate all
children's activities, such as Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, teaching material, and the
other Children and Youth programs budget costs.

Fourth is the church parents. Church Children's Ministry is a main ministry for the whole
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church. The support from the whole church community and parents will make a big change in
the children's ministry. Also all teacher assistants are teenagers, their parents’ support and
encouragement would help teacher assistants to be more engaged and enrich the children's
ministry program.
The last group is the potential volunteers, the persons who are interested in Children’s
ministry, and who are willing to serve in Children’s Sunday School.

Other Concerns:
In this case, all the people are adult learners except teacher assistants. Most of them have
busy weekly schedules due to full time work. Although teacher assistants are middle school or
high school students, they are also very busy with other weekend activities, such as soccer team,
swimming team, instrument class, Chinese School class, etc.
“To Adults, time is an important consideration.” (MRK&K, 2011, p.63) A successful
instruction also needs to find a right time for all teachers and teacher assistants to meet together.
Wong, the person who is in charge of coordinating Sunday School said “there must be a way to
change the situation.” “It is difficult to gather everyone together on Sunday after worship service,
because normally after church Sunday service, people would go to lunch, and have family
time…”

DISCREPANCY-BASED NEEDS ASSESSMENT


The goal of Children’s Sunday Sunday School in children's ministry is to help all ages of
children build their lives on the rock of God’s Word through teaching the whole Bible in the
Sunday School class, helping them understand the gospel, and build their characters in Jesus
Christ.
The church has the goal in children’s ministry, but church people don’t really have a
systematic plan to accomplish the goal step by step. There were three age-levels of Children’s
Sunday School classes every Sunday, but now one of them is closed because of a shortage of
volunteers and budget. Basically the Children and Youth Committee is trying to keep the current
program running smoothly, and hasn’t really built a systematic plan.
The program is running okay so far, and since last year, the number of children who attend
young children’s Sunday School has been growing. Before there were only 8 to 10 students, but
now the number has risen to 11-16.
However for running a program properly and for a long term, to accomplish the Sunday
School goal, the current situation must be changed. There is a big discrepancy- based need
assessment; there is a gap between the poor Sunday School service and the growth in the
numbers of students.
Possible Consequence[s] without Solution of Issues:
If a solution for the current issues is not provided, the quality of Children’s Sunday
School classes would decrease, and he original purpose of Children’s Sunday School would be
missed.
Miscommunication between volunteers and SME about their duty in Children’s Sunday School
classes would cause unprepared teaching and would be frustrating to co-workers. The church
needs to find an effective way for communicating with all church children's ministry volunteers,
which includes teachers and teacher assistants.
Constantly lacking security concerns and other risk management factors in young
Children’s Sunday School would harm children. For instance lacking a check-in and check-out
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system for young children’s Sunday School would cause many problems such as missing
children.
The church is lacking a systematic plan for Children’s Sunday School, and they need to
provide training for all Children’s Sunday School teachers, teacher assistants, parents and
potential volunteers as a start. There is a gap between the growth of the children's program and
Sunday School service.
A workshop provides a way to create an intensive educational experience in a short amount
of time, when the time for a more comprehensive effort may not be available. A workshop is a
way for someone to pass on to colleagues’ ideas and methods that he has developed or finds
important. Especially for people who work together, a workshop can help to create a sense of
community or common purpose among its participants. (Kim et al., p. 124-131, retrieved from
http://ctb.ku.edu/en/toolkits)
There is a need to design an instruction project to help Sunday School teachers, for
helping Sunday School teachers build an effective way to train them to serve better in Sunday
School service. Also there is a need to design in the instruction to help Wong find a technology to
help communicate with teachers effectively.

INSTRUCTIONAL AND PERFORMANCE CONTEXTS

The church building has a big worship hall which has 300 seats, there are about 12
Sunday School classrooms in the buildings, one fellowship hall where most fellowship activities
happen;one kitchen, two libraries (children's library & adult library), and two pastors’ offices, 3
storage rooms, two for children's teaching material. In the 12 Sunday classrooms there are three
classrooms for ages 2-6 students, one classroom for a nursery program which is closed most of
the time.
There are two projectors and screens in the church which can be used for presenting
PowerPoint slides.
All Sunday School classrooms are small, the smallest one can seat 5-6 people, and the
biggest one can contain 15 people crowded up. It would be crowded if we held a workshop
training session in that Sunday School classroom.
The Fellowship Hall where most church activities take place has a big floor space, children
usually have games or run there like it is a playground. The room is used for church members
meeting, birthday party, combined fellowship and Children's Worship on Sunday. The capacity of
the fellowship hall is 70-100 people which depends on how people arrange the chairs. Most of
the time the chairs and folding tables are put against the wall. There are around 80 folded chairs
and 20 long folded tables put in the corner of the room. There is a projector there which can be
used for presentations, there are two loudspeakers there, and one micro-phone, also there is a
three by three meters white board on the wall, several markers are available. There is a CD
player on the book shelf of the Fellowship hall, with about 15 children's Bibles on it.
Based on the statement in previous paragraphs the Fellowship hall is a good place for
presenting the workshop training.

RESOURCES AND ASSESSMENT


For gaining further information about the need and possible intervention strategies, I will
research the information of other church children’s ministries, visit them and have an observation
time, and see what else that I can put in the workshop, and can draw them into the young
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children’s Sunday School program.

For designing the instructional project, I need to consider to design a project which meets
the current issues, also I need to consider the development of the young Children’s Sunday
School program in the next one and two years. In other words, I should be able to see the
tendency of the growth of the program. This is based on cognitive theory, “Learning materials
and activities needed to be designed appropriately to fit developmental needs.” (MRK&K, 2011,
p.393.) Also I will talk with the church committee, especially Children and Youth Committee to
gain more information, such as what goal does the Children and Youth Committee plan to
accomplish in the coming year, and in the coming five years. Hope to get a short and long-term
plan for Sunday School.

My instruction design will not only focus on how to solve the current problem, but will
also focus on building the basic foundation of the whole Children's Ministry. The design will
help Sunday School teachers to accomplish the basic process of Children’s Sunday School class
program, build an idea and prospectus for the Sunday School, and define their teaching roles.
Also the design will help them to implement the workshop training knowledge in the classroom.
This is based on B.F.Skinner’s Behaviorism theory. Skinner believed that the best way to
understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. He called this
approach operant conditioning. (McLenod, 2007. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html)

Also I will open a discussion time. Two of the Sunday School teachers have much
experience in Sunday School teaching, I would like invite them to share their experience. In the
instructional design, I would like to have open discussion time and cases study which is based on
Social Learning theories, “learning from others through observation and modeling.” (MRK&K,
2011, p.387)

RATIONALS FOR DESIGN DECISIONS

I’m the Wong who was mentioned in this paper. I worked for the church as Children's
Associate for half a year. During the half year, I gave observation, was involved in the programs,
and devoted myself in the children's ministry. I am familiar with this environment, and I saw the
problems, and suffered through it.
There must be a way to solve these problems. Most Sunday School Teachers and Teacher
Assistants are busy, they don’t have too much time to devote to church ministry besides Sunday.
If I expect to design a half year term Sunday School teachers training, it will be very difficult for
most students attending. A two to three hours workshop training on a Sunday will be an effective
option for the learners and even the committee.
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 15

Task Analysis

For enhancing and advancing the running of the Children's Sunday School program, young
Children's Sunday School teachers in SOCBC (Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church)
need to get training to meet the needs of the program, this could be considered as a general
learning goal. Learning goals are statements of purpose or intention, of what learners should be
able to do after training (Smith & Ragan, 2005, p76).
For accomplishing the general goal, we will analyze the task through three learning goals.
The three learning goals are as follows: learners will understand and redefine their roles in
Children's ministry and Gospel ministry; learners will learn and will know how to do a better job
in Children's Sunday School; learners will improve communication ways with the other co-
workers by learning new technology skills.
Prerequisite knowledge analysis
Prerequisite knowledge is the knowledge or skills a person needs to know or be able to do before
a person begin to learn something else (Smith & Ragan, 2005, p77).The basic requirement for
young Children’s Sunday School teacher:
Learners need to be believers in Christ and baptized members of the church, rich in Bible
knowledge. They must have ability to read, write and communicate with others in English well,
and have serving hearts for ministry to children for the sake of Jesus Christ. Although the church
uses bilingual language (Mandarin Chinese & English), learners do not have to know Mandarin
Chinese for teaching in the Children's Sunday School.
Learners will have to demonstrate the ability to follow the lecture and to recognize their
roles and responsibilities.
The 1st Performance Task:
Learners will understand and redefine their roles in Children's ministry and Gospel
ministry, and they will be able to tell their roles and responsibilities.
It includes three parts: learners will be able to tell the difference between babysitters and
Sunday School teachers after attending the workshop, through peers’ discussions and
testimonies; they will be able to identify and point out their responsibilities in a Sunday School
classroom after being given “The Sunday School Teacher Role Principle” which was created by
the Children and Youth committee of the church; learners will be able to tell why their roles are
important.
Misconception:
A possible & common misconception of Children Sunday School teachers: babysitters who help
parents take care of children well during worship time. Even some Children's Sunday School
teachers think their jobs are looking after children well, such as playing around with children,
giving children some papers for drawing pictures instead of using teaching material until their
parents come to pick them up.
Expectation from Learners: actual multiple roles of Children's Sunday School teachers:
• A faithful believer: love to serve God’s people, have a serving heart in Jesus
Christ.
• Gospel preacher: to encourage and help children into faith in Jesus Christ, and
help them to build and grow a spiritual relationship with God.
• Children & Family friend: help children to build relationships with peers,
teachers, parents, and God through Bible study. Be a bridge between children and
family, and let parents know their children‘s spiritual growth.
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 16

• A teacher: help children to learn Bible knowledge well, understand (better of) the
Bible better.
• Babysitter: help parents to look after children during worship time, build a non-
threatening class and comfortable environment, and protect children in any
environment conditions.
The importance of understanding the role of Children's Sunday School teachers
The church Children and Youth Committee's mission statement: “our goal is to reach out
to children and youth in the community we serve in order to give them an intimate
knowledge about God and a strong foundation in the Christian faith that they will carry with
them for the rest of their lives.” (Retrieved from http://www.socbc.org/about/ministries)
Children's ministry is the main part of the Gospel mission. Children's Sunday School
teachers are the key to learning in the Bible class, they help children to build a strong
relationship with God which would benefit the rest of children life.
U.S Chinese Baptist Church Gospel Ministry

Adult ministry (ages 17- 50)

Children ministry (ages under


16)
Seniors Minisry (ages 50+)

Children's ministry is part of Gospel Ministry; they are the future of Gospel ministry

Recognize the responsibility of Children's Sunday School Teachers:


• Maintain attendance records and new students' contact information
• Lead and run the class in meaningful Bible study.
• Follow the teaching material, and create interesting activities based on class
content.
• Pray in the classroom, encourage children to pray and engage in the class
activity.
• Build positive relationships with children in the class.

“Sunday School Teacher Role Principle”----- Characteristics of Children’s Sunday School


teachers, which C& Y committee of the church created:

• A Godly model: A good Sunday School teacher will not just speak well, the students will
observe teachers’ behaviors to see if they match what the teachers teach them. “Set an
example for the believers in speech, in life, in love and in purity.”( I Timothy 4: 12)
• Caring: children are sensitive, they can sense your attitude, they need to be protected
when they get hurt, and they need to be comforted when they feel bad. Caring for them
means love. Showing them love will help them to learn to love and care for
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 17

othersCommitted: A Sunday School teacher needs to have commitment to the students


and the other co-workers.
• Prepare early. Teachers needed to get to their Sunday School classroom a half hour before
it starts (9:15am) in case some students come early. Children's Sunday School class
teachers need to prepare teaching material well for the class and students before the class
start. To prepare the class teaching material early will help teachers understand the class
content well, and then will be able to help the students understand well
• Always praying: This will be request at the beginning of the class, and at the time when
closing the class. Teach and encourage students to pray for their friends, parents and
churches.
• Security and Safety concepts: be conscious of security and safety concepts in the
clasroom, be aware of harmful situations and protect children from them.
• Always Communicate: be a good listener and encourager to the students, understanding
their situations and helping them to conquer their difficulties through Bible scripture;
good communication with the other co-workers and parents.
The 2nd Performance Task: For solving the issues of daily security concerns and other risk
management factors in young Children’s Sunday School classrooms, after the training workshop
learners will be able to follow the daily check-in and check-out system, and they will be able to
identify risk management factors in the classroom.
A. Daily Responsibility (Every Sunday, 9:45am to 12:30pm):

• Children Check-in:
Parents need to check in for their children, and sign on the attendance sheet.
Students mark their names with a sticker on the attendance sheet in the class also.

• During Class:

All I-pads, laptops, cellphones are not allowed to be brought into the classroom.
No hot drinks are allowed to be brought into the classroom.
When students go to drink or restroom they must be with a teacher assistant.
No students are allowed to be left alone in the classroom.
Classroom door will be closed.
A class must have at least two adults (teacher and teacher assistant)
No strangers or other parents are allowed to stay in the classroom.
Children who are under 7 years old will have 1 teacher or Teacher Assistant, a ratio of
6 students in the classroom.

• Children Check-out:
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 18

Teacher does not release children out of the classroom until parents come to pick
them up.
Parents need to sign and be recognized, then they can pick up their children.
The 3rd Performance Task: learners will improve communication ways with the other co-
workers by using smart phone calendar system.
Learners will be able to use the smartphone app to communicate effectively with other co-
workers in the church children's ministry which eases the SME, Wong from having to repeat the
same work, and which helps the co-workers work better for running the Children's Sunday
school program.
Teachers and Teacher Assistants usually don’t follow the serving schedule without receiving
weekly reminder emails, so a lot of miscommunication has taken place. For instance, teachers
and teacher assistants don’t know when they are on duty in the Children’Sunday School class
because they forget to check the teaching schedule; or a teacher goes out for vacation and finds
out tomorrow is their teaching day. It is necessary to use a technology to remind teachers and
teacher assistants one to two weeks in advance to avoid the Children Associate, Wong, having to
find someone in a hurry.
Learners will have to demonstrate their ability to follow directions (procedural) and to
recognize (conceptual) and manipulate (procedural) the technologies. Learners need to have
smartphones or a laptop. Learners need to have smartphones and know what the calendar is.
Learners need to know how to use a smartphone and download the app into their cellphones;
learners need to identify what type their smartphones are, I-phone, Android, or the others.

The procedure will be as follows:


• Give Teacher and Teacher assistant their schedules

• Set up teaching schedule:


A. Introduction of apps: these apps will help learners set electronica reminder emails two
weeks in advance.
A. Identify the smartphones and app
✓ I-phone, I-pad: use mail app
✓ For Samsung device: use the email app
✓ For other android device: use gmail app
B. Download & Practice
B. Mark their teaching schedules on electronic calendar
Set the auto remind email for two weeks in advance.

Can’t teach in the Sunday School for the week?


Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 19

The process of being absent the Sunday School Teaching

Contact with
got electronic Let the Children
the other
reminding children Associate will
teachers for
emails two associate know send emails let
finding co-workers and
weeks before the change
substitute parents know
teaching (email,phone)
(email, phone)

After the workshop training learners will understand and identify their roles in the church
and the whole of gospel ministry.
Learners will be able to acknowledge the insecurity factors in their classroom and will be
able to follow the class security principles and practice them; also learners will be able to
identify dangerous situations and take action to protect children from harmful situations when
disaster happens, such as if there is a fire.
Learners will be able to make their own serving calendars on smartphones, and they will be
able to use technology, apps, emails, smart phone to communicate with the other co-workers
weekly and monthly.
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 20

Learner Analysis

OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT

Learners: All young children's Sunday School teachers in the church will be invited to
attend the training workshop. Because each young Children’s Sunday classroom has one teacher
and one teacher assistant, which follows the rule of the ratio of 1 to 6 for taking care of children
better, so it is necessary that all teacher assistants have the workshop training as well. The
teacher assistants will be put in as sub-learners since their job is assisting teachers’ work; they
follow and match teachers’ steps.
Parents and people who are interested in serving in young Children’s Sunday School
classes will be considered to be sub-learners also. Young Children’s Sunday School classes need
the cooperation of parents for running the Children’s Sunday School program smoothly.
The workshop training will be given in the church on a Saturday afternoon after discussing
with all teachers and co-workers. In the whole project, the workshop will teach the learners to
understand and clearly identify their roles as sowers in the Gospel ministry; the project will teach
learners how to provide better safety in Children’s Sunday School classes, and teach learners in
learning and using apps to effectively communicate for the purpose of enhancing and facilitating
a Sunday School program.

Data Collection and Procedures

First of all, the trainer of the workshop needs to know the basic information of all the
learners. There is one department that the designer wants to talk with. It is Children and Youth
Committee in the church, which is in charge of all the children events and its teaching within the
church. The Children's Associate, who arranges the children Sunday school class teaching
schedule, Wong, has all the learners’ basic information, such as the number of learners, names,
ages, contacts and class level teaching assigned. Also she should have the other co-workers’
contact and names, such as the pastor, and parents.
Then for collecting teachers’ teaching experience information gaining and spiritual growth,
the trainer will follow three procedures. First, talk with the SME who has been working in the
program for one year. For the information that the Children's Associate does not know, talk with
the Children and Youth committee members who have been working in this field for over one
year. They would know more information about the Sunday School teachers’ teaching
experience, such as how long they have been teaching, and the parents unofficial oral feedback.

Third, it is necessary to give interviews to the teachers. The interview could be 10-15
minutes, which has three main questionnaires: what do you think are the roles of Children's
Sunday School teachers and teacher Assistants; what brings you to serve in Children’s Sunday
School Class; do you have any work experience with children. This will take place by phone
calls or face to face talking in church right after Sunday worship service before starting the
design. It would take 120 minutes to 200 minutes totally besides the appointments making for
collecting learners’ information.

LEANERS’ CHARACTERISTICS
There are seven children's Sunday school teachers, six teacher assistants, they are all Christians
and church members.
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 21

General Characteristics

The basic requirement of Children’s Sunday School teachers and teacher assistants in
SOCBC (Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church)
• To have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that is portrayed in their personal and
public lives.
• To be a member of SOCBC and faithfully attend.
• To be at least 16 years of age to be a teacher.
• To be led of God to minister to children.
• Speak English frequently, read and write English well.

There are seven children's Sunday school teachers and six teacher assistants. They are all
Christians, which were qualified by the basic requirement of Children and Youth committee and
the whole church.
English is the teaching language, all teachers and teacher assistants can speak fluent
English, and most of them speak English and Mandarin Chinese.

Teacher Group: ages are 30- 50 years old. Besides one male teacher, all the teachers are
females. All are well educated, five of them have a graduate school degree or above, three of
them are graduate school students majoring in Education. They were all born in other countries,
main-land China, Malaysia or Taiwan. They immigrated to America for study or work, and all
have good educational experience. All of them had educational experience abroad, and they all
have graduate school degrees or are currently seeking a graduate degree in the United States.
This is good for communicating with the diverse students bilingually or with those who have
different cultures, which means they would understand the training materials well.

Teacher assistants group: In the six teacher assistants group, their ages are from 13-15
years old, all of them are girls, and all of them are in middle schools. All of them were born in
the U.S; all of them were native English speakers and understand or speak basic Mandarin
Chinese, which means they can help the students who don’t understand Chinese or English in
Sunday School class.

Parents group: They all have ability to speak, write and read English, they all have busy
schedules like teachers have. Since they are the sub learner group, I will consider them as sit in
on the workshop training if they are interested.

Prior work Performance Relevant to the Workshop Training


Learners already have the skills as follows which trainer or instructional designers do not
need to consider.

Feature of Children's Sunday School Class. For the learners group, they have been
serving in these programs for more than one year; they know what the feature of Sunday School
teachers are. Although there is one teacher who just became a member of the church, she had
served and taught in Children's Sunday School class for many years.

Work experience with Children. All learners have children working or volunteering
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 22

experience. All teachers are parents beside one teacher in the group, who is a graduate student in
Education, and she had work experience in the church for years and worked in the daycare
before. Some of them, like those in the teacher assistants group, may not have previous children
work experience, but after one more year of running a program, they are gaining the experience.
They like children, and they willing to serve children ministry in Jesus Christ. They understand
and know this serving do not have any rewards, prizes or salary; this is free work which is an act
of serve towards God instead of people.

Skills
Language skills of learning group: All learners speak English in teaching, have the
English reading and writing skills, and have the ability to communicate in English with students
and the other co-workers very well.
Some learners are bilingual and can speak American English and Mandarin Chinese; some
of don’t. All teacher assistants know and understand Mandarin Chinese which could help the
teachers who don’t know Mandarin Chinese.
Teachers and teacher assistants work together to keep the classroom safe and have good
discipline.
Addressing the language skills is necessary because some children in the young Children’s
Sunday School class only speak Chinese because they just came from China or only speak
English because they are second generation immigrants. The teacher and teacher assistants have
the ability to work together well for serving in the Sunday School classes. The instructional
project will be given in English.

Technology skills: Seven teachers and six teenager teacher assistants all have smartphones
and internet experience, and they are able to check emails by smartphones, or communicate with
others through emails and utilize the smartphone technology.

Adult Learners
For the teachers group, all learners are adults; their ages are 30-50 years old. To adults, time
is an important consideration (MRK&K, 2011, p. 63). All learners in the group are full-time
students, full-time workers, or full-time mothers. They all have busy schedules. Even on Sunday
some children attend Chinese School, soccer games, swimming teams, etc. After Sunday Church
service, some parents, who are also Sunday School teachers, need to send their children to these
activities; they also have busy schedules on Sunday.

Learning Styles
Learning styles are traits that refer to how individuals approach learning tasks and process
information (MRK&K, 2011, p. 63). Considering that the learners groups have different ages and
experience, learning styles are up to individual’s experience, personalities and cultures. The
learning groups have different ages, from different backgrounds but also have a common culture
value which is based on the Bible, so they will have different learning styles.
Through talking with them, trainers should make activities to help them approach learning
tasks.
Personal and Social Characteristics
For the teachers learning group, most of them are also parents, they want their children to
learn more and live by the Bible. They expect their children to live Christian lives through Bible
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 23

learning, they want their children or students to worship and learn the Bible in a safe and secure
environment. But because of some previous work experience or current experience address they
may not realize some behaviorism may place children in an unsafe situation. For example,
bringing hot drinks to the classroom, letting children run to find their parents in the whole church
building, etc. This could be changed through workshop training by giving examples and
Children’s Sunday class principles.

DESIGN IMPLICATION
The learner characteristics gave me the following important implications for my project.

First, trainers need to motivate the learners to attend the workshop training by creating
posters in English and Chinese which could draw learners’ attention by the close feeling of their
native language. Although all learners have different backgrounds, they all know and understand
Chinese culture, and they all know English very well and also know Mandarin Chinese. I would
consider Bible value as the foundation since this is a church project. I will design the project
based on the Bible, which will input Bible Scripture. Since some learners have Chinese
background, and some of them were born and raised here, such as the teacher assistants, I will
design and give group discussion in English and Mandarin Chinese.

Second, since the main learners group, Children’s Sunday School teachers are adults, they
all have busy schedules, like we mentioned in the prior paragraphs, they are full time workers,
full time graduate students, and full time house wives, and they usually have very busy schedules
on weekdays, even Sundays. On Saturday morning they usually want to have a rest after whole
week days busy mornings. For considering learners’ busy schedules, the instructional project
would choose an appropriate time for learners. I will propose Saturday afternoon as a possible
consideration since it will ease most of the learners’ pressured schedules, and this perhaps will
motivate them to come to the training workshop too.

Third, the learning group will offer a safe and secure environment to children. Previous work
experience may help them to take care of children basically, but they may not realize some of
their behaviors may involve students in a dangerous situation, such as hot drinks without lids in
the classroom. In this section, the designer or trainers will be necessary to tell of the potential
risks or dangerous factors in the classroom, remind and require teachers to understand and
identify the risks consciousy, then change their behavior. The learning process is the process of
changing behaviors.

Fourth, since “some Adults may prefer to cooperate in groups and socialize together,
small-group activities and an atmosphere for interaction during breaks are important. Adults
want to know how the course‘s content will benefit them. They expect the material to be
relevant, and they quickly grasp the practical use of the content (MRK&K p. 63), the trainer or
designer could input activities to activate the class atmosphere. Since one or two learners have
been teaching in Children’s Sunday School classes for years, I will design one section of my
instructional project for them to share about their teaching experience.

Lastly, since teacher assistants group are young, middle school aged students, in
considering their feeling of isolation in the whole team, the instructional design would consider
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 24

dividing learners to two small groups, for small group activities. Learning quiz will be given to
the group
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 25

Instructional Design

Instructional Plan
Based on learners’ characteristics, they all have busy schedules, and all of them are
volunteering to serve in the Sunday School program without payment, so a short workshop
training will be a good forum to meet the go.als which facilitate the program running smoothly
and effectively. The workshop includes three steps:
I. Pre-workshop: promote workshop training, encouraging all teachers and teacher
assistants to attend the workshop, and prepare the workshop. It will take four weeks
to six weeks.
II. Workshop presentation day: instructional workshop training day. It will take 2.5 to
3.0 hours.
III. Post-workshop: performance assessment by observing to see if the workshop training
has been effective. It will take two to three weeks.

I. Pre-workshop: Promotion and Preparation


A training program in industry requires an infrastructure to implement and deliver
instruction. The instructional designer is responsible for program promotion. This may
involve preparing advertising for the employee newsletter, sending promotional email
announcements to supervisors…. (MRK&K, 2011, p.417).

A. Steps of promotion of the training workshop to all learners (teachers and teacher
assistants)
Communication is the main factor in this section, communication is central to the
diffusion process (MRK& K, 2011, p. 408).

The 1st week


• Find available resources and get expectation and suggestion through interview or meeting
from SME.
• Get all current learners’ names, numbers, and their contact information (emails, phone
numbers) through the Children and Youth Committee.
• Identify and get in touch with all teachers and get to know their teaching experience.
The 2nd-3rd week
• Have a personal and individual talk with learners (include teachers and teacher assistants)
by phone or face to face for the workshop invitation, offer possible days as options to
learners, and find out a common available date and time for the training.
• Send group emails to all learners, confirming the date, time, and workshop place.
• Contact the church worship team with an announcement to be printed in the Sunday
bulletin. It would be preferred to do it as early as possible, suggest at the 2 nd week based
on learners’ characteristics.
• Contact the leaders of small fellowship groups for announcement of training workshop.
• Design and create a workshop poster which includes the workshop date, time, location,
and print three of them. Post them on the notice board of the Sunday School classroom,
the door of the worship hall, and on the fellowship hall announcement board. The poster
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 26

should be well designed, with children's pictures or Bible scripture which is related to
Children's ministry. “Children make great props for gadget commercials. They're cute—
like lil mini grown-ups with years before the regret sets in. They also say the darndest
slogans.” ( retrieved from http://valleywag.gawker.com/tv-commercials-use-cute-kids-to-
exploit-panic-over-tech-1619118971)
• Make an announcement about the church workshop on Sunday of the 3rd week after
worship service.
• Send group invitation emails reminding learners of the date, time, and workshop training
place during the 3rd week.

The 4th week


• Send the first reminder emails before the week of the workshop date, and remind what
teachers need to be prepared to bring (Bible, smartphone)

The 5th-6th week


• Send another reminder email to all learners.

B. Prepare the Workshop: things needed to be done before the workshop.

• Find SME (Subject Matter Expert) in the current Children’s Sunday School program. The
SME could be an experienced Children’s Sunday School teacher or a Children and Youth
committee member who is in charge of the program. “The Subject Matter Expert is that
individual who exhibits the highest level of expertise in performing a specialized job,
task, or skill within the organization.” (Retrieved from
http://www.isixsigma.com/dictionary/subject-matter-expert-sme/)
• Create “Good Standard of Sunday School Teaching Principles”with the Children and
Youth Committee.
• Find the training workshop place which is convenient to the learners. The church
fellowship hall will be a good place which includes all resources which the workshop
training needs. It includes PowerPoint projector, tables, chairs, pens, writing board and
enough room for activity.
• Look for material (pictures or quotes) which compares the roles of Children's Sunday
School teachers and other school teachers, to help teachers understand their roles in
Children ministry.
• Find material to compare Babysitter and Children’s Sunday School teachers. Find what is
common and what the difference between the two of them is.
• Find materials and make instructions for a daily security guide and disaster security guide
with Children and Youth committee.
• Find material and make instructions for smartphone calendar usage and google+ calendar
usage. Print out the paper instructional handout for technology steps.
• Prepare small quiz questions and activities for teachers which meet all the learning
objectives expected.
• Find and prepare activities which meet the learning objectives.
• Ready the PowerPoint Slide show which is packed with all the training materials that are
planned to be presented on the workshop day.
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 27

II. Workshop Presentation Day:


It is the Instructional message delivery day. The workshop will take 2.5 to 3.0 hours, it
includes three sections in the process.
A. Introduction
B. Body conception of Sunday School teacher roles ( 10-15 minutes)
1. Security training
2. Technology benefits our work
C. Assessment Performance
The process as the table presents:

• Introduction: Opening of 1. Prayers


the workshop 2. The brief introduction of Children’s
Sunday School history
3. What have we accomplished?
4. Why is it important?
• Body (part): how can we 1. Conception of Sunday School
do better ? teacher roles
2. Security in daily life and disaster
day.
3. Technology benefits our work.
• Assessment of Performance 1. Activities during workshop
2. 2 to 3 weeks lesson observation
after workshop training

A. Introduction: introduce the necessity of this workshop training.


It includes three sections which follow the time line:
1. ( 2-3 minutes) Have prayer.
2. (3 minutes) The brief history introduction of children's ministry in the church
since it was founded.
a. What was the program like before?
b. Who started the program?
c. How many students and teachers did it have?
3. (5 minutes) What we have accomplished?
Introduction of current Children’s Sunday School program .
a. The number of students
b. The ages, classes, and types
The number of serving co-workers includes the specific numbers of teachers, (teacher
assistants, and other co-workers.)
c. Ask a question of the audience: is our program growing? (Yes or No); Are
we happy with what we have accomplished? ( yes or no)

4. ( 5 minutes) Why what we have been doing is important.


• Bible scripture: “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 28

old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6; NKJV). Or the other Bible
scripture which shows the importance of children's ministry.
• Help children learn and memorize inspirational Bible verses and stories,
through learning the Bible, they will carry God’s Word wherever they go.
• Give the past Sunday School students’ pictures on slides and their grown-
up pictures on the PowerPoint with nice background music. The purpose
of designing this is for connecting the past and present, showing the
important results of the learners' service.
B. Body Part: how can we do better?
Ask questions: Is it perfect enough? How can we do better?

1. (30 minutes) Conception of Sunday School teacher roles, it includes three


sections:
• (5 minutes) Open Discussion of Sunday School Teacher, two questions will
be given:
o Who do you think Sunday School teachers are, based on your
experience?
o How do you define your roles in Children’s Sunday School?

• (15 minutes) Misconception of children’s Sunday School teachers.


Many churches or parents think that children 's Sunday School teachers are
babysitters.

a. Some common demonstration of the misconception of children’s


Sunday School teachers:
o Parents ask children to find Sunday school teachers as soon as they get
to church; even it is not worship time.
o Parents don’t sit with children during the worship time, and they ask
children to sit with teachers even when it is not Sunday School time.
o Children’s Sunday School should also serve for the adult Sunday
School classroom.
o Church members don’t care about children's ministry programs
o Etc. examples from the learners.
b. Questions to ask: are we babysitters? (yes or no)
The table of Children’s Sunday School teachers vs. Babysitter/ outside
teachers

Common Difference
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 29

Babysitter • Take care of children • Gospel sower


• Identify children’s • Help and guide children
needs to grow in spirituality.
• Build bonding • A model for students
relationship with • A bridge between
children children and parents in
• Build comfy spiritually
Sunday school environment for • A spiritual teacher for
teachers children children
• Bridge between • A Bible knowledge
parents and children person, has spiritual
• Love children maturity
• Serve for the world • No payment
• Serve God

• (5-10 minutes) The correct conception of children’s Sunday School


teachers by giving experience. Children’s Sunday school teachers’
sharing.
a. Gospel sower, give reasons
b. Help and guide children to grow in spirituality.
c. A model for students
d. A bridge between children and parents in spiritually
e. A spiritual teacher for children
f. A Bible knowledge person, has spiritual maturity .
g. No payment
h. Serve God

SOCBC Expectation of Young Children’s Sunday School Teacher Roles ----- Good
Standard of Sunday School Teaching Principles-by Children and Youth Committee

• A Godly Model: A good Sunday School teacher will not just speak well, the students will
observe teachers’ behaviors to see if they match what the teachers teach them. “Set an
example for the believers in speech, in life, in love and in purity.”( I Timothy 4: 12)

• Caring: children are sensitive, they can sense your attitude, they need to be protected
when they get hurt, and they need to be comforted when they feel bad. Caring for them
means love. Showing them love will help them to learn to love and care for others

• Committed: A Sunday School teacher needs to have commitment to the students and the
other co-workers.

• Prepare Early. Teachers needed to get to their Sunday School classroom a half hour
before it starts (9:15am) in case some students come early. Children's Sunday School
class teachers need to prepare teaching material well for the class and students before the
class start. To prepare the class teaching material early will help teachers understand the
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 30

class content well, and then will be able to help the students understand well

• Always Praying: This will be request at the beginning of the class, and at the time when
closing the class. Teach and encourage students to pray for their friends, parents and
churches.

• Security and Safety concepts: be conscious of security and safety concepts in the
clasroom, be aware of harmful situations and protect children from them.

• Always Communicate: be a good listener and encourager to the students, understanding


their situations and helping them to conquer their difficulties through Bible scripture;
good communication with the other co-workers and parents.

2. (40 minutes) Classroom Security in weekly Sunday school.


• Security notice of regular Children’s Sunday School program

a. Regular Children's Check-in and check-out process:


Step 1: 9:45 am Children check in with parents

Step 2: Parents need to sign the registry sheet

Step 3: teachers give parents and students color stamps on hands (each
child has different stamp color, but the same as their parents)

Step 4: 12:20pm, parents come to classroom for picking up children


within the same stamp color which is checked by teachers and teacher
assistants

b. Potential insecurity/ distracting factors in classroom.

o Hot drinks or drinks pictures (hot teas, coffee, glasses, bottles pictures
will be given in the PPT)- explain the reasons
o Knife
o Electronic products (I-pad, unsilenced cellphones)

2. (40 minutes) Technology benefits our work: Learners will be able build their
serving calendars by smartphones or emails, and they will be able to use
technology, apps, emails, smart phone to communicate with the other co-workers
weekly and monthly.

• Brief introduction of current communication situation: Emails are being sent out by
one person, the children associate every week.
• Why do we need to use smartphone or google+ calendar to help us communicate?
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 31

a. Ease work for co-workers


b. Avoid repeating message, too many emails sent out by one person

c. It is necessary to communicate with co-workers:


o For running program smoothly.
o For serving better for children in Jesus Christ.

• Instructions for technology usage


o Handout for learners to identify their smart cellphones
o Help learners without smart phones to build google+ calendar.
o Instruction of usage (Download, Open, Set)
o
• Open the file of Children’s Sunday School teachers shifting schedule
• Help them to mark calendars; serving dates on their smartphones calendar, set at two
weeks previous reminder.

I. Post-workshop: performance assessment by observing to see if the workshop training is


effective and if it meets the goal. It includes two sections, at the end of the workshop and
in the coming two to three weeks after the workshop.

• ( 30-45 minutes) At the end of the workshop: design quiz for learners
which match the content of workshop.

1. Divide into two to three small groups, roles identify: identify Sunday
School teachers and babysitters.

2. Group Contest: give an example of insecurity factors in the classroom,


give a reason why it is not allowed in the classroom

3. Give specific steps in the process of children checking in and check-out


system in regular children’s Sunday School. Why is it important?

4. Winning group can win a prize which could be designed by Sunday School
students.
• After the workshop (2-3 weeks) class observation. Have the observation made
by the children and youth committee members, and see if the teachers'
performance has improved after the training workshop.

Rationales

According Gagne’s nine events of instruction, at the beginning of a lecture, the


instructor should gain attention from learners. (Retrieved from
https://kevinthelibrarian.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/part-3-instructional-design-models-
for-teaching-library-workshops-gagnes-nine-events-of-instruction/)
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 32

That’s why the instructions are designed as in this process. In this instructional
design, I didn’t follow exactly Gagne’s nine events of instruction, but kept some of
necessary ones. For instance, according to Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, at the
beginning of the instruction we should gain the learners’ attention. That was why at the
beginning of the workshop I designed the instruction giving a brief history introduction
of children's ministry in the church since it was founded. Because most of the volunteers
don't know the history of Children’s ministry in SOCBC ( Southern Oklahoma Chinese
Baptist Church). From personal talking and interviews with the learners, I know that the
learners would love to know what the young Children’s Sunday School program was like
in the past.
Since the main learners are adults, the workshop is designed as 2.5 to 3.0 hours,
considering teachers’ busy schedules. For considering sub-learner characteristics,
teenagers are teacher assistants, so for the group discussion the groups are divided
randomly so they won't have a left out feeling.
Since this is non-profit organization program, all learners have volunteered to serve
in the program, so a short workshop is the best way to give them training.
According to the behaviorism theory, learning is the change of behavior. Based on
the theory, the design was created to let teachers realize the insecurity factors in the
classroom, and then they could make changes in their behavior. For instance, teachers
bring hot drinks to the classroom without realizing that they could harm the students. But
addressing this part in the workshop would help the teachers understand and realize the
potential danger, and then they would make a change.
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 33

Evaluation & Assessment Design Assignment

Overview of the Evaluation& Assessment Design

Evaluation and Assessment are essential in the process of an instructional design. This
assignment is to design the assessment and evaluation components of the instructional unit, for a
Children’s Sunday School teacher’s workshop training project. The purpose of this assignment is
to design evaluation components that clearly and effectively support the instructional goal. This
assignment has two sections, an Evaluation and an Assessment section. The goal of the
instructional design is to facilitate the Children’s Sunday School program's running effectively in
the Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church with three learning objectives:
Learners will understand and identify their roles in the church and children’s ministry as
that of a gospel sower.
Learners will be able to maintain the check-in and check-out system, acknowledge the
insecurity factors in the classroom and will be able to follow the class security principles and
practice them.
As we stated previously in the paper, all learners must have smart phone[s] with connecting
email account, after the workshop the learners will be able to record and build their personal
serving calendars on their smartphones, and they will be able to check emails by smart phones to
communicate with the other co-workers weekly and monthly.
Evaluations are used for the purpose of making judgments about the worth or success of
people or things (MRK&K, 2011, p. 272). For accomplishing the learning goals, I will conduct
two types of evaluation, including the formative summative evaluation, summative evaluation
and confirmative evaluation in my evaluation plan.

Before Training Workshop:


It is formative evaluation when I interviewed the SME, the current young children’s Sunday
School teachers, teacher assistants, and Children and Youth Committee for collecting information
and data. Formative evaluation is a type of usability evaluation that helps to "form" the design
for a product or service. Formative evaluations involve evaluating a product or service during
development, often iteratively, with the goal of detecting and eliminating usability problems
(Usability Professionals Association, 2010. Retrieved
fromhttp://www.usabilitybok.org/formative-evaluation).

During Training Workshop:

Formative Evaluation:
Formative evaluation is used to provide feedback to designers for making course
improvements (Sterbinsky& Ross, 2005). The function of a formative evaluation is to inform the
instructor or planning team how well the instructional program is serving the objectives as it
progresses. Formative evaluation is most valuable when conducted during development and
tryouts (Morrison et al., 2007, p. 272).
Formative evaluation could take place before the instructional design is approached; also it
could take place during the process of instructional design.

There are three instructional objectives in this workshop, and these instructional/ learning
objectives have been stated at the beginning of this paper. A direct relationship between
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 34

instructional objectives and test items must exist. Thus, it is customary to derive test items
directly from the objectives (MRK&K, 2011.p.298.)
I. In the first section of instructional objectives, learners will be able to identify or
recognize their teaching roles as that of a gospel sower.

A. First of all, before approaching the first learning objective, as the instructional project is
designed, all learners will have a learners’ group discussion for helping teachers out of
the misconception that Children’s Sunday School teachers are babysitters. For helping
them identify their roles, a learners ‘group discussion would be considered an
instructional way.
Learners’ Group Discussion:
o What is common between Children’s Sunday School Teachers & Babysitters?
o What is the difference between Children’s Sunday School Teachers &
Babysitters?

The discussion form will be passed to the learners during the first section of the workshop.

Group Discussion Form for learners:

The things in common and differences between Children’s Sunday School teachers and
babysitters.
Children’s Sunday School
Teachers Babysitters
Common

Difference

The key answers for the group discussion from the instructor:

Children’s Sunday School Teachers Babysitters


Common • A look-after person who sees to children’s physical needs (such as restrooms
needs, emotional needs, etc.)
• A safe keeper of children
• A friend of children
• A bridge for parents & Children
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 35

Difference • A mature Christian who accepts Jesus • No classroom needed


Christ as her/his life savior. • No Bible learning
• Children’s spiritual friend. • Personal belief is not involved.
• Familiar with and have great • Working place usually at home.
knowledge of Bible. • Supervised by parents.
• Teach children to learn Bible words & • Receive payment from parents.
stories, teach them living within Bible
teachings.
• Having class in church.
• A gospel sower in children’s hearts
• Supervised by church and parents.
• No payment, all volunteered.

Common misconception of Children’s Sunday School teacher roles in church:

✓ “Hey, I just got to church, and I have my Bible class in 5 minutes, I know you are one of
the teachers, and you are not the teacher for this month, and there is no children’s Sunday
school class, but can you watch the children?”
✓ “Children, go to find your teachers, don’t come to see me until the church service is
finished.”-----a mother just got into the church building.
✓ “Hey, can you please watch these children, make sure they are quiet, we have Bible study
in here.”-----a church member told a teacher assistant who is a teenager.
✓ “Go to sit with your teachers.”------During the worship time, a mom told her kids.
✓ “I don’t think it is necessary to have teacher training for Children’s Sunday School
teachers, just find someone who loves children.”

Tips for Children’s Sunday School teachers to help them avoid the common misconceptions
of their roles:

Tip 1: Sorry, Children's Sunday School service is only offered at:


• 9:45-10:45am
• 11:20am-12:30pm
Tip 2: I need to go to my Bible class too.
Tip 3: Tell children to sit with their parents until it is Children’s Sunday School service time.
A. After the first instructional section, a small quiz will be given to group learners. All
learners will be divided into two teams, Blue Team and Red Team. For encouraging
learners who are involved in the workshop training, and for bringing an active
atmosphere, a game quiz will be given. All the questions will be covered in the contents
of the first of instructional objectives:
Quiz will be designed to “rob to answer,” and put it into Power Point Slides, with each
question worth 10 points, 15 points, or 20 points. The purpose of designing of the score
questions for motivating learners involve to the instruction within light atmosphere.
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 36

A. If a Children’s Sunday School teacher loves children, she will be fine to be a


10pts Children’s Sunday School teacher, she doesn’t have to be a Christian. Yes/ No
Why?

B. Children’s Sunday School teachers don’t need to talk with parents. Yes/ No
10pts. Why?
C. Tell three things of that Sunday School teachers& babysitters have in common.
15pts.
D. Tell three points of differences between Sunday School teachers & babysitters.
15pts
F. Situational question:
20pts. A church member just came to church with her four children, she told her children
to sit with you during the worship time, what would you do?

During the short quiz, the instructor will get feedback from the learners through the quiz,
some learners may give wrong answers, and the instructor would have an obligation to
explain the correct answer to the learner and the whole group. This is the process of
formative evaluation.

II. Second instructional objectives have three aspects:


A. Learners will be able to acknowledge the insecurity factors in their classroom
and will be able to follow the class security principles and practice them;

During the workshop, the instructor will list on the board the insecurity factors which
the learners give, and then will discuss the insecurity factors in the classroom.

• Security notice of regular Children’s Sunday School program


✓ Hot drinks: could be spilled out to hurt children
✓ Scissors: put on the high place which is higher than children, it could be fell
off and hurt children.
✓ Strangers kidnapping children.

Stuffs that are allowed & not allowed in the classroom, and give the explanation.

Allowed Not Allowed


Cellphone for emergency use only for Hot drinks
teachers Soft drinks
Bible Knives
Bottled water Electric products such as I-pad,
Laptop for teaching usage Food
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 37

Small quiz will be given to help learners building the consciousness of insecurity factors,
such as hot drinks. Behaviors change start with the change of consciousness.

Multiple choice is the most useful and versatile type of objective testing. Typically it is best
to use from three to five alternatives (MRK&K2011, p.303.) Since this is brief, I will only give
three multiple choice quiz questions:

Q1: What is allowed to be taken into the classroom by the teacher for emergency use only?
A. Hot drinks
A. Sesame Chicken
B. Bottled water
C. Cellphone
Q2: What things would be NOT allowed in the classroom?
A: Hot drinks & Soft drinks
B: Knives
C: Electric products such as I-pad.
D: Food
E: ALL of above
Q3: The purpose of the checking in system in the Sunday Children’s classroom:
A: All of them
B: For serving parents and children better
C: For considering children’s security
D: For avoiding kidnapping
Q4: The usage of scissors in the classroom:
A: NOT allowed to take into the classroom
B: Can use it for teaching by giving students’ instruction of its usage
C: Can put anywhere
D: Not allowed to put on a high place.
The key answers for the questions: D, E, A, B & C
Summative Evaluation:

Tests will be given to the learners. Summative evaluation permits a designer or instructor
to reach unbiased objective answers to evaluate questions concerning expected program
outcomes and then decide whether the program is achieving those outcomes. (MRK&K, 2011, p.
354).
First one, right after the workshop, a test will be given to the learners to evaluate the
outcomes of the training workshop, the basic procedures for determining program effectiveness
in summative evaluations are similar to those described earlier for formative evaluations. The
first step is specifying program objectives (MRK&K, 2011, p.358.) and here, I will use a data
collecting instrument.

Test of Children’s Church Sunday School Workshop Training


1st part:
1. What are the qualities of a Sunday School teacher?
a. Love children
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 38

a. Must be a Christian who has been baptized.


b. Good Knowledge of the Bible
c. All of the above
1. What things are not allowed to be taken into the classroom?
a. Hot drinks
a. I-pad
b. Food
c. All of the above
2. What is allowed to be taken into the classroom?
a. Teachers’ cellphone
a. Knives
b. I-pad
c. Whatever I want
4. Why will hot drinks not be allowed to be taken into the classroom?
a. It is funny
a. It is hot, and it is not safe for children since they may touch the drink and the hot
drinks may be spilled on them.
b. Because children would want to drink it
c. It is allowed to be taken into the room
5. Scissors are not allowed in the classroom. Yes/ No
6. Drinks will be not allowed in the classroom. Yes/ No
7. Why do we need to have a children check-in system for Children’s Sunday School class?
8. A mom asked children to sit with you during the worship time, and she sat on the other
side of the worship hall, what would you do as a Sunday School teacher?
9. Tell at least three differences between Sunday School teachers & Babysitters?

10. How many of emergency doors does the church building have? Where are they?
11.
The 2nd part: the bonus question:
1. Do you think the workshop training is helpful? Y/N
2. Which is your most favorite part of the workshop training?
3. How often do you want to have a workshop training?
a. Every 3 months
a. Half year
b. A year
c. I don’t care
4. Which part do you think is most helpful? Why?

5. Which part do you think is least helpful? Why?

After testing, I will ask all learners to divide into two groups for correcting each quiz
question, no grades would be given, but two groups will discuss and correct the wrong answers
of the question, and explain the reasons to each other. This could be considered as formative
evaluation and summative evaluation process. By discussing and correcting these quiz questions,
learners would understand the instruction better. The reason for designing the test with no
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 39

grading is because all learners are volunteers; I want to motivate them better to serve in the
young Children’s Sunday school program instead of demotivated them by grades.

Post Workshop Training

Confirmative Evaluation:

For the second learning objective, learners will be expected to be able to follow the Sunday
school class check-in and check-out system. Since the regular check-in process is very important
to avoid children’s being kidnapped, every learner in the workshop will be required to remember
and practice it. The instructor has already been offered the sheet of regular children's Check-in
and check-out process, and it is posted in the classroom.
A checklist can be used to determine whether sequential steps in a procedure or other
actions are successfully performed (MRK&K, 2011, p.321.)

The children’s Check-in& Check-out Process:

Step 1: 9:45 am Children check in with parents

Step 2: Parents need to sign the registry sheet

Step 3: teachers give parents and students color stamps on hands (each child has a
different stamp color, but the same as their parents have.

Step 4: 12:20pm, parents come to classroom for picking up children with the same stamp
color, which is checked by teachers and teacher assistants.

After giving the workshop, the instructor would not know if the learners changed the
behavior, such as if they practice the learning from the workshop, if they will practice the
learning skills from workshop. Observation is useful for evaluating performance; it can provide a
valuable source of information about student attitude (MRK&K, 2011, p. 331.) After three to
four weeks, Children and Youth Committee, SME should give teachers three to four classroom
observations. Also SME could give observation for learners (teachers and teacher assistants) and
check is they follow their teaching schedules on each Sunday.

Observation Form

Low Some High


Learner’s attitude

Use the check-in & Check-


out system

Follow the process of


check-in check-out system
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 40

Follow the classroom


Allowed & Not allowed
rule
Respond to reminder email
of teaching duty

The observation would take place after three to five weeks by the Children and Youth
Committee for evaluating the workshop training. If some learners failed to follow the check-in
and check-out system, the SME and instructional designer could consider having a face-to –face
talk with the learners, to emphasize and explain the necessity of the system.
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 41

References

The Bible, New International Version. (2011). The Book of Proverbs; 22:6, Retrieved from
http://biblehub.com/matthew/19-14.htm
The Bible, New International Version. (2011). The Book of Mark,19:14, Mark. Retrieved from
http://biblehub.com/matthew/19-14.htm
Baptist Press: News with a Christian Perspectives. (2014). Chinese Baptists strive for multiplying
churches. Fielding, L.

Does Sunday School Training Make a Difference? Retrieved from http://bsfbc.info/wp-


content/uploads/2011/03/Does_Sunday_School_Training_Make_a_Difference.

Bobo, Kim, Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max. Organizing for Social Change: A Manual for
Activists in the 1990s. Cabin John, MD: Seven Locks Press, 1991. Chapter on "Designing
and Leading a Workshop," pp. 124-131.
Kevin the libraries, Part 3: Instructional Design Models for Teaching Library Workshops —
Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, Retrieved from
https://kevinthelibrarian.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/part-3-instructional-design-models-
for-teaching-library-workshops-gagnes-nine-events-of-instruction/
McLeod, S. A. (2007). Skinner - Operant Conditioning. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html
Morrison, G.R., Ross, S.M., Kalman, H.K., and Kemp, J.E. (2011). Designing Effective
Instruction (6th ed.). NY: Wiley
Sixsigma, Subject Matter Expert – SME, Retrieved from
http://www.isixsigma.com/dictionary/subject-matter-expert-sme/
Smith, P.L., & Ragan, T. J. (2005). Instructional Design (3rd ed). Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc
Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church, History of Church, Retrieved from
http://www.socbc.org/about/church-history
Sterbinsky, A., & Ross, S. M. (2005). Assessment: Formative evaluation. In V. A. Anfara, Jr., P.
G. Andrews, & S. B. Mertens (Eds.), The encyclopedia of middle grades education.
(pp.122–126). Greenwich, CT: Information Age
Usability Professionals Association. (2010). Formative Evaluation, Retrieved from
http://www.usabilitybok.org/formative-evaluation
Wag, V. TV Commercials Use Cute Kids to Exploit Panic over Technology, Retrieved from
http://valleywag.gawker.com/tv-commercials-use-cute-kids-to-exploit-panic-over-tech-
1619118971
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 42

Subject Matter Expert Feedback

After spending fourteen weeks designing, I needed to get feedback from subject matter
experts for my Children’s Sunday School teacher training project. The purpose of having subject
matter experts’ feedback is to redefine the project to meet the needs of the Children’s Sunday
School in Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church.
There are three subject matter experts in the project. They are Wong, Pastor Morris, and
Irene.
Before starting to introduce my other two SMEs, I want to explain why I put Wong as an
SME for this project. Wong is a graduate school student in the Education College at the
University of Oklahoma. She is a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Oklahoma as
well. She has experience and educational background with children. Since 2007 she has been
volunteering in the children's ministry for this church, and last year she worked for the church as
a Children's Associate, to coordinate the children's programs in the church. Currently she is a
member of the Children and Youth Committee, and she is doing the same job as a Children's
Associate while the church doesn’t have one, which means that she is in charge of all young
children's activities and programs in the church. Wong currently is in charge of the young
children’s Sunday School program, and her volunteering job includes coordinating all co-
workers and volunteers for young children activities, ordering teaching material (booked),
creating Children’s Sunday School teachers’ teaching schedules, and teaching Children’s Sunday
School classes.
Wong knows the program well, and she sees the gap between children program growth and
Children’s Sunday School teachers’ needs. She is the person who has initiated the workshop
training ideas. As I mentioned in the project before, Wong is me.

For reviewing the project I interviewed myself:


• Did my material cover what I want to change?
• Did you miss anything? What else should I add? Or change?
• If this project is implemented in the other churches, which are like SOCBC ( Southern
Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church), if they have the same problems, what would you re-
consider?

I wrote a note to answer these questions:


Currently the project has three learning objectives, which are the needs of the Children’s
Sunday School program. All three learning objectives are necessary, based on my past and
current work experience in Children's Ministry. Basically these three learning objectives are the
thing[s] that I want to accomplish. They are learning objectives.

At this point this project covers the issues that I have seen in the Children’s Sunday
School program, but it looks this project is just a beginning. It should (to) have a follow up
workshop training such as a Children’s Sunday School teaching workshop.

This project is based on the current issues that the Children’s Sunday School program has
in SOCBC (Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church), but it covers general issues in other
Children’s Sunday School programs. Actually most solutions could be revised and implemented
into other young Children’s Sunday School program of small Chinese Baptist Churches as well.
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 43

Considering the use of the document in the future, how would you keep the document,
will you make a PDF document or PPT slides to cover the workshop training content, will you
upload it to the SOCBC website?
The learning objectives look “unstable,” although you were trying to say the same thing,
but people may misunderstand what you really wanted to say. That part needs to be revised.
During the self-talking, I found it is very necessary to see SME before finalizing the
project. It is necessary to revise the project, giving special care to review I the learning objectives
part that is the foundation of this project.
After revising the project, it is necessary to consider how to save the document for future
new Sunday School teachers training.
Although during the designing of my project, I set myself as SME, but since I’m the
project designer as well, there must be some blind spots in the project, so I would ask the other
two subject matter experts to give me feedback(s) for insight into what I have missed.

In the past couple of weeks, I have talked and discussed my project with them, and
I didn’t really set up a time to meet with my SMEs individually. I see them every Sunday in the
church, Southern Oklahoma Chinese Baptist Church, and I’m one of the Children & Youth
Committee members, and we have been talking about children's ministry service all the time,
almost every Sunday.

I called Pastor Morris for a phone interview about my project; it took about forty minutes.
Pastor Morris lived in Singapore thirty years for ministry work. He has been working in our
church since 2001, he understands Chinese culture, speaks Chinese well, and he is (well an
experienced Bible preacher. Since this is a church workshop, I needed to find someone who has
gospel ministry work experience, to help me to find what I haven’t considered. I chose Pastor
Morris as one of the SMEs, there are several reasons: .
• He is very spiritual and religious in his beliefs;
• He is familiar with ministry and good at it, and he sees the big scope of the whole
ministry; H[e] knows and understands American and Asian culture very well;
• Since all learners are church members, so he knows the learners very well (in spiritually).
• He knows my project very well, for he has been reading and helping my English writing
for my project.

The phone interview took about forty minutes. Since he has been reading my paper I didn’t
need to show him my whole project physically.
He gave me some feedback as follows: When we talked about the audience, he suggested
to me to expand the learner groups to be invited to attend. In this project the major learner group
is Children’s Sunday School teachers, and the sub- learner group is teacher assistants. He
suggested including parents, all volunteers and people who are interested in serving in the
Children’s ministry as learners too. Since parents need to be familiar with the security system,
such as the check-in and check-out Sunday School security system, then they would know how
to cooperate with Sunday School teachers every Sunday.
To be honest I didn’t see it was necessary including parents in the training workshop until
I heard him mention the students' check-in and check-out system. It is a blind spot I had. I
missed one involved group, maybe I should consider including parents in the learning group, or
Running Head: SOCBC YOUNG CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL 44

contacting parents by emails, and let them know the procedure of the check-in and check-out
system.
Pastor Morris said he thinks it is a good project overall if we consider having a follow up
workshop in the future, and we put this workshop project as the beginning of the training.
We also talked about the promotion, and he gave me some tips about how to choose a workshop
date before launching the workshop since teachers are very busy, and the church may have other
activities. This reminded me of one thing that church has a calendar which I can use for picking a
date.
For promotion, he suggested for me to contact every small group leader for helping with
promotion. This way it would not only remind learners, but also would promote the workshop to
more people who are interested in serving in children's ministry. This is a very interesting point,
it could ease SME, Wong’s works, and it would be easier than the promotion that I had planned.
For the first learning objective section, he suggested for me to bring experienced Sunday
School teachers to share experience which would help to reach the learning goal.
My third SME is Irene, She was chair of Children and Youth Committee, she has two
teenage boys, and she is very passionate about Children’s ministry. I think she is a good mentor
of the Children's ministry. I didn’t really set up a time to meet with her individually since I see
her every Sunday in Children’s church, and she is one of the Children & Youth Committee. We
have been talking about Children's ministry service all the time. I talked about my project, what I
have been doing, and I emailed her my project.
We talked on the phone. She suggested for me to consider the learner characteristics; she
thinks I should emphasize the part of the culture group. She also pointed out the bug in my
project. In my project my target learning group is current Children’s Sunday School teachers and
teacher assistants, but how old are the “children” that I consider? In other words what age(s)
level class of teachers will be my group learners? That is really a good point! I have been writing
“Children’s Sunday School Teachers,” but what are the ages of these children? Will I include
teenagers’ Sunday School teachers? She asked if I put Children’s Sunday School teachers, which
includes teenagers’ teachers, would the teenagers be comfortable to have a stamp for check-in
and check-out every Sunday? Young kids may like that, but teenagers may refuse to do that, so
what should be done?
I have to say I never thought about that. She made a good point. I will change the part, and
I probably will take teenagers' Sunday School teachers out of this workshop training. I should
make it clear who will be the learners of the workshop training, and also I need to make a change
in my promotional poster and clarify the age levels of classes whose teachers should come.
Overall after talking with all SMEs, I found that my project needed to be revised, and it is
very necessary. Talking with SMEs to help me to find blind spots in my project is very important.
If an instructional designer wants to have a good design, an SME is not only the start of the
designing journey, but also they are good blind spot finders at the end of the project.

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