Don Tapscott, in Growing Up Digital, lists eight shifts in learning styles for teenagers. The way I learned things as a teen was linearly. For lots of cultural reasons, teens no longer learn that way.

This is important when we begin to think of evangelizing and catechizing teens in the catechumenate process. If we approach faith formation the way we came to faith, we’ll fail to bring the teens in our lives to true conversion to Jesus Christ. Here are the shifts Tapscott outlines:

1. From linear to hypermedia learning

Books, especially textbooks, are linear. TV is linear. Movies are usually linear. The Internet is not linear. Online games are not usually linear. Teens today access information in an interactive and non-structured way. Their learning style is different than the way most of us learned new information. If we want to communicate the good news, we have to do so in a way that fits with their postmodern, hyperlinked, seemingly distracted method of sending and receiving information.

How is your catechumenate for teens more like surfing the Internet and less like reading a textbook?

2. From instruction to construction

Schools all across the country are abandoning traditional pedagogy and shifting to creating learning cultures. We can do the same thing with teens in the catechumenate. Instead of seeing ourselves as teachers who are broadcasting information, we can involve the teens in designing their own formation processes and activities.

How is your catechumenate for teens involving them in creating their own faith formation process?

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3. From teacher-directed to student centered

There is always a difference between what I want to teach and what the learner wants to learn. When I was a teen, I learned what the teacher wanted to teach. If we want to engage teens in a significant faith formation process, we have to let go of what we want to teach them; we have to shift focus to what the teens want to learn.

You might think this makes the catechist less important, but the opposite is true. By staying focused on the teens’ own goals for faith formation, the catechist is challenged to stretch into new teaching methods and content.

What is one way your process could be more focused on the faith formation goals of the teen?

4. From absorbing material to learning how to learn

It is easy to give people fish. It is more difficult to teach them how to fish. As RCIA catechists, if we can teach the teens how to teach themselves, we will have given them the gift of lifelong faith formation—no matter where they are or what circumstances they are in.

What is one tool you can turn over to the teens in your process so they can do their own exploration of the faith?

5. From school to lifelong learning

When I graduated from high school, I thought I would go to college, learn a profession, and work at that profession the rest of my life. Of the four professions I have had since then, none of them relate to my college degree. Young people today do not expect to be working in one job for their whole lives. They are already lifelong learners. Except when it comes to faith issues. We have to change that.

Can you name three characteristics of your teen catechumenate that enable lifelong learning?

6. From one-size-fits-all to customized learning

When people ask how to catechize teens, I always want to answer, “Which one?” Today’s teens grew up with a totally customized world, made possible by digital media. We have to provide customized faith formation based on each teen’s background, talent, learning style, and spiritual development.

Can you identify one way in which you can move to a more customized faith formation process for the teens in your RCIA process?

7. From learning is torture to learning is fun

Is faith formation the highlight of the week for the teens in your process? If not, why not? If Jesus Christ is the answer to their deepest longing, it is our job to introduce them to Christ in such a way that they are over-awed by the experience.

What is the most awesome thing about your faith for you? How will you share that with the teens in your RCIA process?

8. From teacher as transmitter to teacher as facilitator

Imagine this. You divide your teams into two groups. Both groups are given the task of creating a game that is both fun and challenging. The purpose of the game is to solve a mystery—the mystery of the Trinity. Both teams have access to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (online), the parish priest, Catholic Updates or similar resources, their parents and grandparents, and you. The game must include references to liturgy, Scripture, and your parish practice. Their goal is to design the game to be played by middle-school children. The winner of the contest is the team that gets the most middle-schoolers to play their team’s game and enjoy it.

Not only will the teens learn about the Trinity, they will also be teaching the middle-school children about the Trinity. And all you did was point the way.

What is another way you might serve as a facilitator instead of a teacher for the teens in your RCIA process?

If we can make these eight shifts in the way we form teen catechumens in the faith, we will have an exciting church filled with the passion and excitement of young Christians.