Asking better questions - understanding the different types of questions

There's no getting around it: asking effective questions is at the heart of leading a good Bible study.  This is the first in a series of posts designed to help those who lead studies get better at their work of asking questions.

There are many different types of questions we can ask as we lead a Bible study.  Broadly speaking, these could be considered from two perspectives: the type of answer they elicit, and their function in the discussion. 

Different types of questions, in terms of the type of answer they elicit

Closed questions – can sometimes be described as questions which are answered either yes or no; more broadly, it can be any question where the answer is limited; there are such things as a ‘wrong’ answer

Open questions – questions where there are several different ways of answering, and where it’s much harder to say that a given answer is ‘wrong’

Different types of questions, in terms of their function for a study

Seeking opinion – when you’re just ‘going fishing’ to find out what people think; this is what a good sharing question does, and it works best if it’s non-threatening and non-controversial

Either/or ‘controversies’ – this is a great question type to have up your sleeve, since it asks group members to commit to a ‘position’ on a particular issue, and it gives you the opportunity to control the point of comparison in the two options given; if asked well, this type of question can ‘pin people on the horns of a dilemma’, which will have great value for sparking healthy debate between your group members; a good ‘either/or’ question will often be somewhat artificial – the choice presented may not actually be completely realistic, but simply useful for exposing a particular attitude or idea; for this reason, though, in most cases the artificiality of the question should normally be conceded in the end

Probing – when you simply want more information on something, maybe to help the group ‘hear’ a point that has been made, or because you want someone to unpack their idea more; it’s not quite the same as challenging them to defend their point of view; rather it is simply asking them to expand on their point of view

Challenging – when you want someone to defend an idea that has been given in an answer; this might be when someone says something ‘wrong’, and you want to expose it by helping them see there is not good evidence for it, or when someone says something ‘right’, and you want the rest of the group to understand why it’s right; this is a more ‘aggressive’ question type than probing or seeking opinion, and therefore the way you ask it may vary depending on the person; at times someone might look a bit shell-shocked at the fact that you have asked them to defend their viewpoint, and you may need to assure them that you think they are really on to something, but you want the group to understand why – this will probably happen most when someone offers a ‘lone voice’ opinion against the direction in which the rest of the group is heading

Information – when you’re eliciting straight facts from the group; not much more to be said!

Interpretation – asking them to do something with whatever facts you have elicited; maybe in order to explain the relationship between two facts, or to explain the reasons that something may have been said/written in the way that it has been

Synthesis – when you get the group to ‘put things together’ and ‘join the dots’, either by making connections between different elements in the passage that you are studying, or between the passage you are studying and other parts of Scripture

Summary – when you want the group to distil their discussion down to a sound-bite; this is a really important ‘review’ technique when you will probably use when you come to the end of one section of a passage before moving on; aside from the value it has for the group, in helping them get clarity on the discussion to that point, its greatest value is giving you, as a leader, clear and instant feedback about a) whether the group understands the section you have just studied – if they haven’t, they won’t be able to answer a summary question!, and b) whether their understanding of the section you have studies is correct – if it’s not, they will summarise it in a way you’re not happy with!

Application – when you ask group members to move from the abstract to the personal, whether that is as individuals or as members of a Growth Group, congregation, church, community etc.