Why Your Questions Aren't Working

Knowing the Bible and knowing how to teach the Bible are two completely different skills.

You can love Scripture deeply, prepare faithfully every week, and still walk out of class wondering if anything actually landed. If that's been your experience, you're in the right place.

This session introduces you to Bloom's Taxonomy — a research-backed framework that describes how learning actually works. It was developed by educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom in 1956, and it reveals something that changes everything for Bible teachers: learning happens in levels. When we skip the lower levels and jump straight to deep questions, we're asking students to do something they're not yet equipped to do. That's not a student problem. That's a sequencing problem and it's completely fixable.

By the end of this session, you'll understand why your questions aren't getting the responses you hoped for, and you'll have a clear picture of the six-level framework you'll use for the rest of the workshop.

Coming up in Sessions 2, 3, and 4, you'll get practical tools for building questions at every level — starting with the foundational levels that make everything else possible, and building all the way to the higher-order thinking skills that help students become independent Bible students.

Before you move on, open your workbook to the Session 1 Reflection Worksheet. The questions there will help you take an honest look at your current teaching habits. You’ll discover where you're strong, and where this framework might change things for you. Then choose one action step from the Session 1 Application Worksheet to complete before Session 2.

One question asked at the right level can open a door that a hundred well-intentioned questions couldn't. Let's get started.

Helpful to know: This workshop is designed for Bible teachers at every level — from someone teaching their very first Sunday school class to a ministry leader who's been teaching for decades. If you've never heard of Bloom's Taxonomy before, you're in exactly the right place.