Elevating Teaching and Learning in Institute

The Challenge and Opportunity

“Without the gospel and inspired guidance, many [young adults] are wandering in strange paths and losing their way. . . . You are living through a critical period of your life. The choices you make—mission, education, marriage, career, and service in the Church—will shape your eternal destiny” (Robert D. Hales, “Meeting the Challenges of Today’s World,” Ensign or Liahona, November 2015, 44).

“The world today is more challenging than it was 13 years ago. Our young men and young women have many more distractions to sidetrack them. . . . What we need now is the greatest generation of young adults in the history of the Church. . . . We need vibrant, thinking, passionate young adults who know how to listen and respond to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. . . . It’s time to raise the bar . . . for your entire generation” (M. Russell Ballard, “The Greatest Generation of Young Adults,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2014, 67–68).

“You and I need to be much better than we are now. . . . We need to educate the rising generation more deeply and more powerfully than we have ever done before or than anyone has ever done before. . . . I believe the young people who will come to us will be ready for—and will want to receive—much more than we give them now” (Kim B. Clark, “Encircled About with Fire,” [Seminaries and Institutes of Religion satellite broadcast, Aug. 4, 2015]; lds.org/broadcasts).

The Current Situation

Institute is in a prime position to provide young adults with the help they need in order to face the challenges of their daily lives and to influence the world for good. While many active young adults are currently being blessed by the institute program, there are many more active and less-active young adults that do not understand the value of institute. In addition, many of those who initially come to institute either do not complete the semester or do not return in subsequent semesters.

So why do young adults—a group that has such an intense need for spiritual guidance—not come to institute? To better understand this question, Seminaries and Institutes of Religion (S&I) asked over 2,000 young single adults in 10 different countries what would cause them to make institute a priority and why some don’t currently come to institute. Their answers are both inspiring and instructive and align beautifully with what Church leaders have asked institute to accomplish.

Young adults want institute to:

Help them increase their commitment to the Savior.
Be a spiritual experience focused in the scriptures.
Be relevant to their circumstances.
Provide a chance to learn from and share with each other.

When these things happen in institute, young adults report that the teaching is engaging and inspiring, and they want to be at institute. In focus groups young adults were able to collaborate on the following statement, which identifies what they want institute to be: “I strengthen my commitment to Jesus Christ and gain guidance for life through institute. I seek to apply truth from scriptures and modern prophets. I grow stronger while I learn from the Spirit and others as we share life experiences and our understanding of truth.”

When these things don’t happen in institute, young adults choose other priorities.

What Is Our Response?

In order to respond to this challenge and opportunity (and with the approval of the Church Board of Education), S&I is making some of the most significant changes ever made to the institute program. We have confidence that the impact on young adults will be very positive.

This confidence is supported by evidence of the results reached in seminary last year. With the introduction of new requirements in seminary, more students attended, read the scriptures, and demonstrated their understanding of key doctrines. As a result, more youth received credit than ever before. Youth in seminary are learning to fulfill their role in the learning process, and as they do, they are becoming better prepared for young adulthood.

To align with the challenges and opportunities young adults face, institute is making these significant changes:

Elevating student expectations: As young adults work toward institute graduation by meeting the elevated expectations, they will increase their commitment to the Savior and His gospel.
Elevating teacher expectations: As more is asked of students, the expectations for teachers will also increase so they can better help young adults meet the challenges they are facing.
New institute courses: Four new courses were created. These courses are meant to be cornerstones of a young adult’s religious education and are required for institute graduation.

Elevating Student Expectations

To better help young adults face the challenges and opportunities they have, we are elevating the expectations of institute. The elevated expectations include:

Emphasizing regular attendance and participation in institute classes.
Requiring an ecclesiastical endorsement to qualify for graduation as they strive to qualify for the blessings of the temple.
Providing elevated learning experiences that help young adults apply what they are learning to their current circumstances.
Inviting young adults to complete course readings from the scriptures and the words of modern prophets to emphasize the importance of a regular, systematic study of the gospel.

The blessings associated with these elevated expectations include young adults:

Having spiritual experiences that are focused in the scriptures, which will help them feel inspired and assisted in their daily lives.
Increasing their commitment to the Savior.
Sharing what they are learning and strengthening each other, both inside and outside of the classroom.
Learning the gospel in ways that are relevant to their lives, circumstances, questions, and needs.

These elevated expectations and their resulting blessings are the reasons why institute graduation is more emphasized now than it has been in the past. All young single adults ages 18–30 who have not graduated from institute or a Church university should be identified and encouraged to enroll. Special emphasis should be given to inviting and retaining high school seniors, returned missionaries, and recent converts. Married young adult students and young single adults who have already graduated from institute or a Church university should be encouraged to attend as it meets their needs.

Elevating Teacher Expectations

All of these significant changes rely on powerful teaching and appropriate classroom environments. Therefore, teachers will prayerfully self-assess and continually strive to improve at engaging hearts and minds of students through teaching that hastens full conversion.

Teachers should ponder the Fundamentals of Gospel Teaching and Learning as they consider how they can:

Invite the Holy Ghost into the learning experience and focus on Jesus Christ in every lesson to help students deepen their commitment to the Savior.
Ensure that teachers and students have powerful experiences with the scriptures and the words of modern prophets both in and out of class.
Ensure students understand the relevance of the doctrine discussed in class.
Invite students to think carefully about the things being studied, and encourage them to share what they are learning with one another. This will help students feel connected to and be part of the class.

S&I personnel must understand the importance of graduating from institute, the new graduation requirements, and the reason for these changes. They should also help students, local leaders, and parents understand these changes.

New Institute Courses

Four new courses were written to help young adults increase their commitment to the Savior and His restored gospel and Church:

Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel
Foundations of the Restoration
Doctrine and Teachings of the Book of Mormon
The Eternal Family

Why were these four courses selected?

The topics for the Cornerstone courses were selected because of their preeminence in establishing a foundation of testimony for any Latter-day Saint—namely a testimony of Jesus Christ, the restoration of His Church and gospel, the role of the Book of Mormon, and the centrality of families in the plan of salvation.

Individually and collectively, these courses will help young adults establish cornerstones of faith and commitment to Jesus Christ and to His restored gospel and Church.

These courses are centered in the scriptures. They include a study of the teachings of modern prophets that help young adults learn how to discover truth for themselves.

How do these new classes meet the needs of young adults?

Many young adults have studied the scriptures sequentially at home, in seminary, and on their missions. Cornerstone courses will build on young adults’ previous gospel study experiences. Students will study these courses using all of the standard works as well as teachings of the modern prophets. Every young adult who graduates from institute will have studied key passages, doctrines, and significant events in Church history.

These courses will assist students in applying gospel principles in ways that are relevant to their current circumstances. Students will consider questions and issues in the context of the scriptures and the teachings of modern prophets.

As individuals study all of the standard works, these separate testimonies are woven together in a way that will bring promised blessings—the scriptures will “grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace . . . and bringing [God’s children] . . . to the knowledge of [His] covenants” (2 Nephi 3:12; see also Ezekiel 37:17, Boyd K. Packer, “Scriptures,” Ensign, Nov. 1982, 51–53).

These new courses will help young adults make institute a priority. Making institute a priority will help increase enrollment and participation in institute, which will help more young adults receive the blessings associated with regular attendance.