Questions? Teaching by Asking.

Why teach through questions

Engage

Lectures are boring. Really, they are. Very few people enjoy listening to another person talk at them for an hour, especially if it’s in a small group setting. If you spend the majority of your time lecturing your students, you can guarantee they won’t be paying you much attention. Especially at 10 p.m. After a sermon. After a week of school lectures. You already have all these things working against you when it comes to the engagement of your students. You already have to work to keep them from zoning out. Lecturing won’t accomplish any of that. But asking questions will. Asking questions forces your students to think. It keeps them engaged by allowing them to share their opinions. Your small group should already be established as a safe place for them, so this is their opportunity to give their thoughts without worrying if they’ll be ignored or mocked. So give them the opportunity to share, get engaged, and take ownership of their faith.

Guide

You don’t want to control the conversation, you want to guide it. Lecturing provides one-way control. Asking questions, on the other hand, not only guides the conversation, but it guides your students’ thoughts as well. You don’t want to simply throw a ton of random questions at your students. Instead, you want to structure your questions wisely to guide your students step by step to the main point of the session. You’d be surprised how much better you can guide the conversation by asking questions instead of just talking. I was once talking to a girl (not on a weekend) about several rather controversial topics that we starkly disagreed on. Instead of just spouting my opinions, I asked her probing questions about her beliefs, especially “why” questions. Slowly but surely, she began to reconsider her views without me ever stating any arguments, because I asked the right questions that guided her to the conclusions on her own. It’s easy to ignore someone when they’re just talking at you. But when they ask step by step questions, you can’t help but follow along.

Remember

We all remember things better when we a) are engaged and b) think we came up with the idea all on our own. As we already talked about, questions encourage engagement far better than lectures do. But they also set students up to feel like they have reached the conclusions on their own. Which they basically have, just with you guiding them along. If you lecture at your students, it will be in one ear and out the other. But if you ask them questions that lead the way and shepherd them to the desired goal (the main points of the session), then they are going to remember those key points far better. Why? Because they did the work. They thought through each step and arrived at the answer through their own mental processes not because you just stated the answer. It’s great for you to give your insight, but keep your small group question-oriented instead of lecture-oriented.

Learn

We just learn better when we have to think. It’s the simple truth. Lecturing allows for zoning out, and zoning out never produced any learning. Answering questions, on the other hand, forces students to think through the issues on their own and honestly learn from the session.

One method for teaching through questions:

Start at the end.

The first thing to do when curating a lesson is to establish what it is you are trying to teach. Think back to your high school math days and doing proofs, or maybe just reading a novel that you weren’t super interested in so you skipped ahead to the last chapter. In both of these cases you start with the answer and are left with the question, “but how did I get here?” This is exactly the question you need to create a train of thought.

Create a train of thought.

Creating a train of thought is my favorite way to organize a small group discussion. The way you do this is by thinking backwards. Think about what you want your students to know and then ask yourself, “what do I need to know first to understand this?” Then you repeat the question over and over until you have broken down your main point into its most basic pieces. A small example: I want my students to learn that Jesus loves them. The end: Jesus loves you. How did I get here? Well, what do I know? 3)That Jesus loves me. Why would Jesus love me? What does Jesus do that shows that he loves me, based on what I now know that love is? To understand that he is loving, I must understand 2) what love is. What is love? What does the Bible say about love? What do I know about love? Ok, but how do I know that Jesus loves me? I must understand 1) who Jesus is. Who is Jesus? What is he like? And what do we have? A train of thought. Follow these numbers 1-3 and boom, a small group discussion. 

Allowing for open discussion.

So now you’ve created this perfectly structured well organized small group, but what if it doesn’t go so smoothly. As we all know, you won’t stay on track, especially if the discussion is really good. So, how do you allow for open discussion. Well, one, let it happen. As students talk, here are some things to be thinking: How can I connect this back to my train of thought? What in my train of thought made this student say/ask that? What understanding does this student have/lack? Maybe your train of thought made sense to you, but not all of your students are following. You have to be able to see where their brain is going and audible. You don’t have to hit every point on the train of thought (you won’t). But think, what is necessary for the students to understand? Your train of thought will feel like a nice neat straight line to the goal, but the conversation will be a weaving wiggly mess. Good. It doesn’t matter how you get to the destination as long as you do. Don’t get so hung up on following your plan to a T. 

Forming good questions.

So then, how do you form the right questions. I think the most important thing is to know where you’re going. A train of thought makes this easy, but what about for your students? We’ve all heard yes/no questions are bad. This is not necessarily true. Yes/no questions can be a very powerful tool. Because the answer is forced to be either a yes or no, these questions can be very powerful in making points or creating a thought provoking tension. Also, a series of yes/no questions can be good for leading to a conclusion. Open ended questions are great, but beware of tangents and rogue discussions. Try to think about possible outcomes before asking a big open ended question. Usually open ended questions will cause students to ask questions of their own. Be ready for the discussions and questions that may come. Finally, you should know the answer to any question you ask that drives the point. Sometimes it’s ok to just ask an interesting question if the group is mature and can handle it/won’t get too off topic. For the most part, if you’re asking a question, have a reason for asking it. 

Teaching.

Finally, here are some quick tips for when you’re actually sitting in the circle. Gauge the group. Ask yourself, what do my students know already? Allow students to teach each other when possible. this builds community and a sense of independence. If students know the answers, let them say them. Don’t feel the need to clarify or comment on every student answer. if they’re right, just let them be right! Dig deeper. Don’t let students just merely recite “Sunday school” answers. Validate all answers. Recognize good answers. Celebrate when students gain new understanding. When you get asked a question, don’t just answer it. As much as you are teaching students specific truth, you’re teaching students how to think. Say, “well what do you think?” Then, show them how you might have thought through and come to a conclusion yourself.

Small Group Interns - Nic & Sophie