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Everyone Thinks. Everyone Can Contribute.
Cold Calling and Show Calling are simple techniques designed to increase participation, improve classroom dialogue and give teachers a more accurate picture of what pupils understand.
Both are based on an important principle:
We should hear from pupils because their thinking will help the learning – not simply because they have put their hand up.
Used well, these techniques help create classrooms where participation is normal, supportive and inclusive.
They are not about catching pupils out.
They are about creating the expectation that everyone thinks and everyone can contribute.
What is Cold Calling?
What is Cold Calling?
Cold Calling means that the teacher asks a question, provides appropriate thinking time and then selects a pupil to respond.
Rather than:
“Who can tell me why…?” → Hands go up → Teacher selects a volunteer
we move towards:
Ask → Pause → Select
For example:
Teacher: “Why does increasing the temperature increase the rate of this reaction?”
Pause – pupils think.
Teacher: “Sophie, what do you think?”
The important difference is that the question comes before the pupil’s name.
Every pupil therefore needs to consider the question because everyone knows that they may be invited to contribute.
Why Use Cold Calling?
Why Use Cold Calling?
Traditional hands-up questioning can unintentionally give teachers a misleading picture of learning.
If five confident pupils continually volunteer answers, we may learn a great deal about those five pupils – but relatively little about everyone else.
Cold Calling allows us to sample thinking from across the classroom.
Used consistently, it can:
increase participation;
encourage everyone to think about each question;
reduce reliance on the same volunteers;
allow quieter pupils to contribute;
help teachers check understanding more accurately;
communicate high expectations for everyone;
create a classroom culture where participation becomes routine.
The aim is not to remove hands-up questioning entirely.
It is to ensure that:
Participation is not determined solely by who is most confident to volunteer.
Making Cold Calling Work For You!
1. Ask First – Name Second
Compare:
“Jamie, what is the answer to…?”
with:
“What evidence suggests that Macbeth is beginning to change at this point?”
Pause.
“Jamie?”
In the first example, everyone except Jamie can mentally switch off.
In the second, everyone has to think.
A useful routine is therefore:
ASK → PAUSE → SELECT → LISTEN → RESPOND
2. Build in Wait Time
Cold Calling should not mean asking a question and immediately choosing someone.
Give pupils time to think.
For more complex questions, tell them:
“I’m going to give everyone 20 seconds to think about this before I ask someone.”
Or:
“Have an answer ready – I may ask anyone.”
This changes Cold Calling from something potentially threatening into a predictable classroom routine.
3. Keep it Warm
The tone matters enormously.
Cold Calling should feel:
Routine. Calm. Supportive. Predictable.
It should not feel like:
“Let’s see if you’ve been paying attention…”
Avoid using it as a behaviour management trap.
The message should be:
“I’m asking you because I’m interested in your thinking.”
not:
“I’m asking you because I think you don’t know.”
4. Make the Question Accessible
Cold Calling does not mean every pupil receives exactly the same level of question.
Teachers know their learners.
We can vary the level of support while maintaining the expectation that everyone contributes.
For example:
“What is the answer?”
might become:
“Do you think the answer is A or B?”
followed by:
“What makes you think that?”
Or:
“Can you build on what Lewis has just said?”
The expectation remains high, but pupils are given an appropriate route into the discussion.
Cold Calling in Practice
Cold Calling can look very different across subjects.
English
Teacher: “How does the writer create tension in this paragraph?”
Wait time.
Teacher: “Lucy?”
Lucy: “The sentences get shorter.”
Teacher: “Good. Ryan, can you build on Lucy’s answer – why might shorter sentences create tension?”
Mathematics
The class has completed a problem.
Teacher: “Don’t call out. Look at your answer and decide which step was the most important.”
Pause.
Teacher: “Adam – which step did you choose?”
Adam responds.
Teacher: “Mia – did you choose the same step or a different one?”
This allows the teacher to explore the thinking behind the calculation, rather than simply checking the final answer.
Science
Teacher: “If I double the resultant force but keep the mass the same, what happens to the acceleration?”
Pause.
Teacher: “Ellie?”
Ellie responds.
Teacher: “Daniel – do you agree?”
Teacher: “Why?”
A simple recall/application question develops into classroom dialogue.
Modern Languages
After pupils have read a short text:
Teacher: “Which phrase tells us that the writer doesn’t enjoy school?”
Thinking time.
Teacher: “Ben?”
Ben identifies the phrase.
Teacher: “Amélie – how would you translate it?”
Teacher: “Lewis – what word gives us the strongest clue?”
Several pupils contribute to the same piece of thinking.
Social Subjects
Teacher: “Which factor do you think was most important in causing the conflict?”
Thinking time.
Teacher: “Aisha?”
Aisha responds.
Teacher: “Callum – give me an argument against Aisha’s choice.”
Teacher: “Erin – having heard both, which argument do you find more convincing?”
Cold Calling becomes a way of building discussion between pupils, rather than a sequence of teacher-pupil exchanges.
Practical Subjects
Cold Calling can be equally useful during demonstrations.
Teacher: “Before I make this cut, what is the first safety check I need to make?”
Pause.
Teacher: “Jack?”
Or:
Teacher: “Look carefully at this technique. What is the most common mistake someone might make here?”
Cold Calling allows the teacher to check that pupils are thinking during teacher demonstration rather than simply watching.
From Cold Calling to Dialogue
Cold Calling becomes particularly powerful when we stop thinking of it as:
Teacher asks → Pupil answers → Teacher moves on
Instead, one question can travel around the room.
Pose → Respond → Build → Challenge → Connect
For example:
“Rachel, what do you think?”
“David, can you build on Rachel’s answer?”
“Sarah, do you agree?”
“Why?”
“Michael, can you give us another example?”
“Emma, can you bring those ideas together?”
The teacher is still directing the questioning, but pupils begin to respond to one another’s thinking.
What is Show Calling?
What is Show Calling?
Show Calling applies a similar principle to pupils’ work.
Rather than always asking pupils to volunteer an example, the teacher deliberately selects a piece of work to share with the class.
This might be:
a strong response;
an interesting approach;
a common misconception;
two contrasting answers;
an unfinished response;
a solution which could be improved.
The purpose is not to showcase the pupil.
The purpose is to make the work available for everyone to think about.
Show Calling in Practice
Imagine pupils have been asked to write an explanation.
The teacher notices one response which has a strong opening but lacks evidence.
Rather than simply giving that pupil individual feedback, the response is displayed.
“Let’s look at this answer.”
“What has been done well?”
“What would make this stronger?”
“What evidence could we add?”
“Take 30 seconds and improve your own response based on what we’ve just discussed.”
One pupil’s work has now become a resource for everyone’s learning.
Comparing Responses
Show Calling can be particularly powerful when two responses are compared.
For example:
Response A
The acceleration increases because the force is bigger.
Response B
The acceleration increases because, according to F = ma, increasing the resultant force while mass remains constant produces a greater acceleration.
Ask:
“Which is the stronger response?”
Then, importantly:
“Why?”
Follow with:
“What specifically has Response B done that Response A hasn’t?”
Pupils are not simply being shown a good answer.
They are being taught to recognise what makes it good.
Using Mistakes
Show Calling can also help establish that mistakes are a normal and valuable part of learning.
For example:
“I’ve noticed three people have made a similar mistake here. Let’s look at one example. Where has the thinking gone wrong?”
The class identifies the misconception and corrects it.
This can be extremely powerful – but it requires professional judgement.
Where work contains an error, consider anonymising it or recreating the misconception yourself.
The objective is always to examine the thinking, never to embarrass the learner.
Cold Call or Show Call?
Cold Call or Show Call?
Think about what you want to make visible.
If you want to hear the thinking…
Cold Call.
If you want pupils to examine the work…
Show Call.
If you want to explore both…
Combine them.
Display a piece of work and Cold Call pupils to analyse it:
“What do you notice?”
“What has been done well?”
“Where could this be improved?”
“Who approached this differently?”
“What should everyone now check in their own work?”
Try It In Your Classroom
Try It In Your Classroom
When introducing Cold Calling, keep it simple.
Choose one class and deliberately plan three or four questions where you will use:
ASK → PAUSE → SELECT
Consider telling the class what you are doing:
“I’m going to start asking the question before choosing someone. That gives everyone time to think, because I want to hear ideas from across the class rather than always taking the first hand up.”
For Show Calling, identify one task where seeing pupils’ work would help the whole class.
Think in advance:
What type of response might be useful to share?
It could be an excellent example – but it could equally be an interesting approach or a common misconception.
Start small.
Build the routines.
Make participation predictable.
Faculty Discussion
As a faculty, use the WalkThrus material alongside this page and consider:
Where would Cold Calling work particularly well in our subject?
Are there situations where we currently rely heavily on hands-up questioning?
What kinds of questions need more Wait Time before we Cold Call?
How can we make Cold Calling feel supportive for pupils who lack confidence?
What pupil work could we routinely Show Call?
What misconceptions in our subject would be particularly useful to Show Call?
How could we use Cold Calling to move from teacher-pupil questioning towards pupil-to-pupil dialogue?
Faculty Challenge: Try → Discuss → Refine
Before your next faculty discussion, everyone should try one small change.
Try Cold Calling
Plan a small number of questions using:
Ask → Pause → Select
Notice:
Who contributes?
Who thinks?
Does the range of voices change?
What do you learn about pupils’ understanding?
Try Show Calling
Select at least one piece of pupil work and use it to generate whole-class discussion.
Notice:
What did pupils notice?
Could they identify what made the response successful?
Did pupils improve their own work afterwards?
Then bring your experience back to the faculty.
The important question is not:
“Did I use the technique?”
It is:
“What difference did it make to pupils’ thinking, participation and learning?”
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