Our Catechism / Methodology

Methodology

A Family Catechism is designed to be used to help with the discipleship process of the entire family. As such our benchmarks have been correlated with Classical Education’s 3-tiered Pedagogy and Bloom’s Taxonomy for Learning. The breakdown for this is as follows:

​Tier One is Memorization. It employs the 1st -3rd levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This first stage is appropriate through approximately 5th grade and is primarily concerned with only what the Evangelical Methodist Church teaches. ​

• Knowledge > What happened after…? How many…?​ Comprehension > Can you distinguish between…? What differences exist between…? Can you provide an example of what you mean…? Can you provide a definition for…?​
• Application > Do you know another instance where…? What factors would you change if…? Can you apply the method used to some experience of your own…? From the information given, can you develop a set of instructions about…?​

​Tier Two is Analysis and Evaluation. It employs the 2nd – 5th levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This second stage is appropriate from approximately 6th to 12th grade and is primarily concerned with looking at what the Evangelical Methodist Church teaches within the larger context of Christian History and the many divergent streams of Doctrinal thought. This allows the disciple to understand how the EMC is distinct from other Christian denominations. ​

• Application > Do you know another instance where…? What factors would you change if…? Can you apply the method used to some experience of your own…? From the information given, can you develop a set of instructions about…?​
• Analysis > How was this similar to…? What was the underlying theme of…? What do you see as other possible outcomes? Can you compare your … with that presented in…? How is … similar to …? What are some of the problems of…? Can you distinguish between…? What was the problem with…?
• Synthesis > Can you design a … to …? Can you see a possible solution to…? If you had access to all resources, how would you deal with…? What would happen if…?​

​Tier Three is Communication. It employs the 4th – 6th levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This third stage is designed for Adults and is primarily concerned with training the disciple to be able to clearly articulate what the Evangelical Methodist Church teaches to others in their community.​ Once completed, this final stage of the Catechesis should result in a Disciple that is truly Missionally-minded.

• Analysis > How was this similar to…? What was the underlying theme of…? What do you see as other possible outcomes? Can you compare your … with that presented in…? How is … similar to …? What are some of the problems of…? Can you distinguish between…? What was the problem with…?
• Synthesis > Can you design a … to …? Can you see a possible solution to…? If you had access to all resources, how would you deal with…? What would happen if…?​
• Evaluation > Is there a better solution to… Judge the value of… Do you think … is a good or a bad thing? What changes to … would you recommend? How would you feel if…? How effective are…? What do you think about…?​

​So, while all of our Essential Doctrinal Ideas are covered in this Catechism, the approach is differentiated at each Tier as necessitated by the developmental readiness of the learners. If you or your child struggle at one Tier, consider trying the one before it. Conversely, if you or your child find a particular Tier too simple, consider moving to the next Tier.

For this reason, we recommend using a dynamic equivalency translation such as NLT at first because it reads in a more natural modern English format. Understanding that you should work your way up to a more literal word-for-word translation such as the ESV over time.

​In addition to designing the Catechism with the recognition that there are differing degrees of developmental readiness, we also wanted to be sensitive to the fact that even when people share the same readiness level they do not necessarily learn in the same way. As such, we developed Access Points which are essentially recommended approaches and supplemental materials for differentiating instruction in order to enrich the learning experience and bring the Core Concepts to life.