Rev. Dan Schroeder lays out a 12-week plan for moving the class from passive listening to active learning
Weeks 1-2
Give the participants 30 seconds to write down their thoughts on a question you pose. Example: “Take 30 seconds and write down as many reasons as you can about why it’s important that we have a seminary for training our pastors.” After 30 seconds, ask for volunteers to share what they wrote. After hearing a couple responses, ask if there are any new thoughts that haven’t been shared. This is a great activity for those who are introverts. It allows them to think and process.
Weeks 3-4
After they have had 30 seconds to record their thoughts about a question you pose, have the participants share with a person next to them. This is Think-Pair-Share. Give them about a minute so that both people can share their thoughts with each other. Then ask for volunteers to share with the larger group. After hearing several responses, ask if there are any new thoughts that haven’t been said yet. If you think it would be helpful, you could first ask a question, following the pattern you used in weeks 1-2, and then ask a second question using Think-Pair-Share.
Weeks 5-6
After giving 30 seconds for the participants to record their responses to your question, have them share with a person next to them. Then have the pair choose the answer they think is most important. Ask for volunteers to share their most important answer with the larger group. Again, if you think it would be helpful, you could first ask a question, following the pattern of weeks 1-2 or 3-4.
Weeks 7-8
Ask the class members to take 30 seconds to write down their thoughts about a question you pose. Have them share their thoughts with a person next to them. Then, have them join with another pair and ask the four of them to decide on what they think are the top two most important responses to the question. For the sake of variety, mix up the questions by using the formats from weeks 1-6.
Weeks 9-10
Have them form groups of three to five people. (You may have to assign people. If possible, try not to have more than five people in a group, but also be sensitive to separating spouses or other natural groupings.) Give them an activity to do together. Pick someone to be the spokesperson (e.g., the person with the longest hair or the most jewelry, or the person with the birthday closest to a particular date). If the person isn’t comfortable being the spokesperson, allow that person to designate someone else. Give the groups a set amount of time for the activity (e.g., 2 minutes). Let them discuss, and then ask for a sampling from the groups. (Not every group needs to be heard from.)
Weeks 11-12
Have them form groups of three to five people. As in weeks 9-10, give a certain amount of time to discuss a learning activity. When the time is up, have each of the groups get together with another group to share what they discovered. After designating a spokesperson, have the combined groups decide on their top three choices to share with the larger group.
I would recommend having the group follow the format of weeks 9-10 and 11-12 for a few weeks after this. You’ll have to gauge how your class is adapting to each level before deciding to move on, but it is my impression that many people want to discuss and dialogue with their fellow participants more than we pastors might think they do. I have generally found that once they have the opportunity to learn through dialogue and have gotten used to discussion as a part of your Bible study, the conversation level increases and people look forward to the classes.