Inductive presentations could be understood as deductive presentations turned upside down. Instead of stating propositional truth at the beginning, inductive reasoning begins with questions. As the progression of thought continues, various tentative or partial truths may be stated. Or the in-progress conclusions could be false, demonstrating a necessity to keep digging. At the climax of presentation, the key truth is finally stated, after which application is made.
In our lessons, the “God’s Word for Today” may be used for such a presentation, leading the class in a series of questions and truth statements, at the conclusion of which could be stated the “Central Truth.” (Please note that the writer’s presentation style for this section may NOT be inductive. Deductive reasoning may include questions. But the various questions in this section may help you to teach the lesson inductively.)
Inductive reasoning seems to have special appeal to men who often are used to tinkering with cars or computers, trying out various hypotheses until finally arriving at the solution.

If all presentation styles could be boiled down to two, the categories remaining would be deductive and inductive.
Deductive presentations and reasoning is typically what is most familiar to us. A propositional truth is stated upfront and the rest of the lesson is spent explaining or defending that truth. The basic structure of our lessons, especially the “Biblical Perspective” section, follows this style. The central truth proposes the scriptural principle and then the outline and various comments support this statement.
Many of us have grown up with this style of teaching, both in school and church. Deductive reasoning in teaching the Bible promotes the authority of God’s Word and is easily fits a lecture method of teaching. This style of teaching has appeared to be easily conducive to teaching women, although it should not be considered to be effective only in teaching one gender.

Teacher, we appreciate you for your dedication and hard work in making God’s Word come alive for your students each week. The good teacher spends much time in preparation and delivery and too infrequently gets credit for the investment made.
This quarter of “Tips for Teachers” will focus on various ideas you can use to create variety in your teaching. It is understandable that different teachers will use different methods and styles to present their lesson, and that over time a teacher may find the style most suited to him or her and use it almost exclusively. There is a danger, however, that stability may create boredom. Therefore, the ideas presented are offered for your consideration and experimentation.
While the teacher is expected to regularly instruct the student - to teach him or her what God’s Word says and how to apply it to one’s life, there remains the need for the teacher also to remain teachable, ready to learn, so that he or she can more effectively teach others.