Note: This is the fifth post in a continuing series on learning styles in small groups. Click any of the previous posts to read:
- Overview: Why Learning Styles Are Essential for Groups
- Visual Learners in Your Small Group
- 6 Ways to Serve the Visual Learners in Your Group
- Auditory Learners in Your Small Group
As I mentioned in my previous post, a small group is an ideal environment for people with an auditory learning style. That’s true primarily because group discussions allow such people to listen to important information and ideas, then process what they’ve heard by speaking to share their reactions and opinions.
For that reason, you’ll find a lot of auditory learners in your group. In fact, statistically, there’s a good chance you’re an auditory learner yourself!
Here are some brief suggestions to help make sure the auditory learners in your group stay happy and healthy.
Discuss, Discuss, Discuss
It’s true that auditory learners prefer to perceive information and ideas through hearing, but that doesn’t mean you should spend the entire group experience talking so that your group members can use their ears. Lecturing is a bad idea, even in a room full of auditory learners.
Remember, auditory learners also need to process what they hear by speaking, so make sure to give them multiple opportunities to do so.
Read Scripture Out Loud
There are some people who very much dislike the experience of reading Scripture verses out loud. They don’t like being forced to grapple with unknown places or terms in front of others. For that reason, group leaders should never “go around the room” and make it mandatory for participants to read out loud.
At the same time, reading God’s Word out loud can be a powerful experience—especially for auditory learners. So ask for volunteers to read at least one time during a typical group experience.
Pray Out Loud
Same idea here. Forcing a person to pray out loud can lead to a lot of problems, so I don’t recommend you take that route very often. But giving auditory learners an opportunity to express themselves verbally to God often helps them process what they’ve learned or experienced in the group.
So give people a chance to pray out loud as part of your regular group time.
Sing and Make Music
Auditory learners are often musical and can be powerfully impacted by rhythms and songs. So consider making time in your group experiences for worship. This doesn’t have to be a full-blown worship service in the same mold as what your church does on Sunday morning. In fact, it’s extremely difficult to replicate a full-service worship experience in an intimate setting like a small group.
But do you have a group member who could bring a guitar or keyboard and lead participants in a few songs a couple times a month? Or could you find some songs on iTunes that complement the major themes of your discussion and play them for the group—or recommend the group to purchase those songs and play them throughout the week as a reminder of what they learned?
These would be helpful (and potentially powerful) opportunities for auditory learners.
Don’t Shut People Down
Let me finish with a final thought about a common problem in small groups: people who talk too much. Most group leaders become frustrated at some point in their experiences by a person (or people) who take what seems to be more than their fair share of the discussion time. There have been lots of methods given out for ways to “deal with” such people and get them to talk less.
But let me give a note of caution. Just because one person talks more than another person doesn’t mean anyone is actually talking too much. Remember that auditory learners prefer to process what they’ve learned through speaking. So, whereas visual learners may contemplate an important idea in silence, auditory learners typically need to talk about what they’ve heard in order to fully grasp it and apply it to their lives.
So before you take steps to stop someone from talking so much, make sure there’s actually a problem. Is the person dominating the group discussion to the point where others don’t have a legitimate chance to speak? Does the person interrupt and act rudely toward others. If so, intervention is warranted.
If not, you probably just have an auditory learner who’s doing his or her best to fully engage with the discussion.
Sam O’Neal is a Content Editor on the Adult Ministry Publishing team at LifeWay. He has a passion for seeing discipleship and full-bodied Christian education done right in the local church—especially in the context of small group communities. Sam is also the author of The Field Guide for Small Group Leaders.
