Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Diligence & Obedience

BYU's Devotional Speaker on Sept. 30th (Robert Steuer) mentioned a verse from the Doctrine and Covenants in his remarks (D&C 130:19) that got me thinking.  The verse implies that there is a connection between the "knowledge and intelligence" that we gain and our personal "diligence and obedience".  

That made me wonder if there are things that instructional designers can do to illicit "diligence and obedience" in learners and what that would look like.  Does this verse apply to all kinds of learning or just spiritual learning?  I'm still trying to figure this all out.l

3 comments:

Nicky Smith said...

I think this is a fascinating topic!
My initial thought is that the diligence and obedience come when we're "good" students - doing the reading we need to do, participate actively in groups, and so on. I think these are keys in both spiritual and secular learning. The obedience & diligence to "what" is just different.

Unknown said...

So, are obedience and diligence the same thing? Or, are they two different actions?

In other words, can a person be obedient, but not diligent? Or diligent, but not obedient?

Nicky Smith said...

To me obedience and diligence conjure up different things in my mind. To me anyone can be obedient. This simply required doing what someone else has told you to do. Diligence means something more. To me it means that a person is obedient, but not just for the sake of being obedient, but because they want to be. I think that it involves one's intentions as well. Obedience has nothing to do with intention - you can be coerced to be obedient, but I don't think you can be forced to be diligent. It is more a matter of the heart - your willingness to do those things that are right. That is, it is more an attribute or quality one possesses.