Tuesday with Tiff: Asking the Right Questions

The art of a good discussion begins by asking effective questions. Most often, the best questions will not occur to you during a discussion but will result from good preparation. Take the time for thorough lesson preparation and for planning good questions. The best teachers continue to evaluate and refine their question-asking skills, even after years of service. Basic Preparation Master the material. The teacher needs to know more about the lesson than what the child is expected to learn. Although the youngest children will have simple lessons, some teachers may find that their own Bible knowledge is less than that of their older children!  If a concept presented in your lesson material is confusing or difficult to understand, ask your leader or the pastor for help. As you participate in adult Bible studies and personal Bible study, you will find that your knowledge and understanding will grow. In class, never be afraid to let a child know that you don’t know the answer to a question. After class, look for the answer and share it with the child and others in the next class meeting. Avoid yes and no questions. These kinds of questions provide little learning and little interest for the child and only reinforce what a child already knows. Yes and no questions do little to encourage discussion and, in fact, may inhibit discussion if children are worried about giving wrong answers. Start where the children are starting. Try to gauge where the children are in their knowledge. Many children in church today come from unchurched families and are unfamiliar with the Bible and church traditions. They may not know that the Bible is divided into the Old and New Testaments. In seeker classes, start with the basics and do not assume what the children know. Another challenge can be children with sporadic church attendance. They may be playing “continual catch-up” for the weeks missed. The challenge is to keep the interest of the more knowledgeable children while also meeting the needs of the beginners. Developing Questions Understanding the different types of questions can help a teacher ask the best questions for the lesson and the children. Knowledge questions. These are questions that recall information and recite facts: What are the names of the 12 disciples? In what city was Jesus born? What cities did Paul travel to? Children are familiar with this type of question from weekday school. These questions may test what the child knows, but they do not stimulate discussion. Comprehension questions. These questions help children interpret their knowledge. Such questions ask the child to describe, explain, retell or identify. Some examples: What else could the father have chosen to do when he saw his son coming down the road? Why do you think Noah obeyed God’s command to build an ark? These questions help the child move beyond just knowing the information to understanding it. Comprehension questions have no right or wrong answers, so a child can feel comfortable expressing his or her ideas. Application questions. Bible knowledge reaches a new level when the child can apply it to his or her own life. Application questions help the child to make the lesson personal and to use the information in a new setting. These questions ask the child to apply, experiment, show, solve and describe. Questions such as What are some ways God provides for you? How can you follow Paul’s example in telling others about Jesus? What are some ways we can be good stewards of the things we own? These questions move beyond “head knowledge” and into “heart knowledge.”