WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Several years ago I was introduced to a new skill. I had no idea about the impact that this training would have on my life, my teaching, my group leading, and my relationships with people. This skill is coaching. Oh, not the kind that you see in a football, basketball or baseball game. This skill teaches a person the disciplines or listening and asking good questions.
WHAT DO I DO? What I have found is that learning these 2 disciplines can also help someone to be a better teacher. It isn’t the teaching where you download a bunch of information from you the teacher to the student. It is a way to help the student discover truth and wrestle with God’s Word for themselves.
Asking good questions involves these adjustments:
- Learning to ask instead of tell.
- It means that you seek to help the student discover for themselves instead of you giving them the right information.
- It means learning to ask open ended questions. Simply put, if you ask a question and someone can answer with yes or no, you have asked a close ended question.
- Ask questions with how, or what if, or describe for me.
The point is to ask questions that cause the student to have to describe their answer rather than give you the facts. When you are using this skill in your teaching, be sure to prepare by writing out your questions beforehand and ask the question to yourself and think about how you would answer that question. If your answer is yes or no, go back and try again. Happy Asking!!!
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