Question formation can greatly assist, or doom, a group discussion. Make sure your question is formed in such a way as to encour-age differing thoughts. Avoid questions that can be answered with a yes or no. Some possible question formats might include the following:
A. How do you feel about . . . ?
B. How can we change the situation?
C. What do you think has led to this situation or way of thinking?
D. Why do you feel as you do?
How, why, and when questions will often be more successful in stimulating discussion.

Too often, questions asked in church are given single, “pat” answers, given with little thought. There is a story of a junior teacher describing a squirrel, asking his class what it was, and a boy saying it sounded like a squirrel, “But … I’ll say it’s Jesus!” Adult classes sometimes mirror this type of thinking.

Following are a couple ways to encourage your class to learn by brainstorming:

Using a whiteboard, and writing down answers in a list can help students think more deeply about issues. (One technique this writer was taught was to always add a new bullet point after being given an answer; doing so creates a mindset that there are more possible answers.)

Depending on the question and type of lesson, creating a mind map (writing down various concepts, scattered on the board, then drawing lines indicating the relationships between them) may also be an effective way of exploring an issue.