Peer Audience

There are three great learning experiences in life: learning from a master, becoming a master and learning with your peers.  Learning with your peers over coffee and  late night hours has to be one of life's great experiences.  Sitting in the mission field on a week long service trip learning real time life lessons is incredible.  Opening the Bible and studying verse by verse through the text when you don't have to teach but rather learn alongside others is awesome.

There are times though that you will have to teach your peers who may or may not always be your friends. Teaching your peers takes humility because they are smart (you hope!) and learn at your same level.  Perhaps you are teaching an expertise that this peer group is still mastering or doesn't yet know.  You will face many questions and will rejoice in the fact that teachers showed up to learn (what an audience!). 

Perhaps you are teaching a varied audience, in an interactive way, that has a peer component.  You will face challenges, clarifications and questions about your potentially varying peer perspective.  Humility and sharing is critical with this component of the audience.  I say, "Let them teach from where they are."  What an opportunity for other audience members to learn from excellent teachers.  This is a great opportunity to watch the peers joust a bit and refine teaching for the rest of the audience.  Further, audiences love learning from audiences.  They often are more accepting of that which is taught by "one of their own", that is, someone sitting in the audience. The wise teacher in the varied audience will make sure that he or she manages the "peers" only to ensure that heady, too advanced discussions do not destroy, deter or bore the learning of others. 

Perhaps you find yourself in an audience containing "peers" that have distinctly different opinions and teachings.  Hearing new ideas is great but sometimes the peers almost seem to be getting agressive and pushing their own opinion rather than be participating in a learning experience.  Usually, people like this are not really "peers" but peer wanna-bes because, if they were peers, they would not push their thoughts at the cost of dividing followers.  Redirection is the best tool for the teacher of the "opposing peer".  You can specifically call on another person, refer to another peer or defer to a new point - in essence, move on.  Redirection is not to avoid answering valid questions.  Redirection is to spare other audiences from confusion or needless division.

Teaching in a non-interactive environment will certainly have less of the liabilities of the opposing peer or the potential "getting off of course" of the interactive environment.  However, the teacher in this environment should remember that his goal is to pass truth.  The standards demanded by peers do not drop just because there is no interaction.  The teacher of peers must present solid, refined and clear arguments when teaching peers regardless of environment.

A peer group that has gathered to learn learns together with little need for a teacher of the group.  Most of the challenge while teaching peers is found in the interactive and/or controversial environments.  Humility, a ready ear and redirection are the best tools for the teacher in this environment.