“if we look at the typical classroom it is clear some students participate and some students don’t. Some students are trying to answer every single question the teacher asks. They’re thinking all the time, and those students are getting smarter and smarter and smarter. There are other students who are trying to avoid getting called on… Teachers rarely if ever call on them, and so those students are forgoing the opportunity to get smarter. If you are allowing students to choose whether to participate in your classroom, you are exacerbating the achievement gap.” (Dylan Wiliam)
For questions to effectively collect evidence for students' learning and inform the next steps in teaching, students should only be able to put their hands up to ask a question. All students should expect to be accountable for all questions. For this to happen smoothly and to avoid biases, teachers need a randomisation tool such as choosing students from paddle pop sticks or using a random name generator. Classtools.net and Class Dojo have a free tool random name selection.
See the video below to see how random student selection can work in a classroom.
See this news article from The Age on "No Hands Up" strategies at Frankston High School.