Focus 1 Questioning
Cold Calling and Cold Call Variations
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Our collective focus for the Autumn term is around questioning. The research tells us that the most successful teachers ask many questions, involving as many students as possible, probing in more depth to check for understanding. Furthermore, students who were asked more questions following instructional activity performed better academically than students who were asked less. Specifically we are working to ensure that every student's voice is valued in the classroom and we are achieving this by the use of personalised targeted questioning as opposed to a culture where only students with their hand up are offered the opportunity to respond. "Cold Calling" is the term given this method of questioning. Alongside this technique our teachers are working to use a range of "Cold Call Variations" to support students for whom being asked to respond in class presents more of a challenge.
Is there a problem with "Hands Up"?
Many students keep their hands down, and may not even listen to the teacher's questions.
You only learn what one student thinks, not how all the rest would have answered.
Students don’t discuss their answers and correct each others’ misconceptions.
The best students answer quickly, so there is little time for the others to think out their own answers.
Research shows that classes with "high" cold-calling rates caused students to volunteer to answer more questions over time.
Why may a student not put their hand up?
If a student has heard someone in the class already articulate their viewpoint then they may feel like their comment wouldn’t add anything new, even if they actually had a more nuanced view that might enhance the discussion.
They may be afraid of how they’ll be perceived socially
If they are a perfectionist they may be afraid of not communicating their answer exactly right
They may be generally shy/reserved/self-conscious
They may have a partially formulated thought, that they think may not be worthy of class discussion
They may have raised their hand before and were not called on so may think there’s “no point”
They might feel their answer is to too simple
These are some exemplar questions that our teachers will be uisng with students.
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