By Jaya Carrier
I hope you’re all having a good week! For this final bitesize post of T5, I was interested to see a synthesis of the current research about cold calling in Edutopia. This links to another bitesize post from June 2021 which is about cold calling as an effective tool for AfL.
Objectives: To understand the existing evidence about cold calling, and what makes it effective or ineffective.
Summary:
Existing evidence suggests that cold calling is effective if it’s encouraging and engaging, rather than confrontational and intimidating
The evidence also suggests that cold calling can make a more equitable environment for female students, as when asked to raise hands, male students typically speak more than female students.
The article suggests that cold calling requires a ‘soft touch’ - they suggest, for example, using phrases such as ‘I’d like to hear some ideas’.
The article suggests eight points that ensures cold calling is used effectively:
1) Focusing on the effort, not on the answer
2) Offer a ‘lifeline’ e.g. ‘Phone a friend’
3) Use students’ names consistently
4) Build on what students know - you can rephrase the question, for example, to get some more foundational or general understandings if students are unsure
5) Ensuring a warm tone
6) Call on groups of students - particularly on the back of doing group work
7) Cast the net widely - aim to maximise participation rather than cold calling the same students over and over again
8) Extend the wait time - give students additional time to formulate an answer
How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:
How am I currently using cold calling in my lessons? What impact do I find that it has? How do students respond, and how do I know?
Which of the 8 points would I like to develop further? How could I do this?
Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!
This is such a potentially useful strategy, as long as teachers have taken the time to create "a respectful environment so that all of our students are safe, secure and successful" (WA ethos). It's also important to establish protocols for any students for whom cold calling is an intimidating notion, no matter how warm the teacher's tone. That could be as simple as an agreed, discrete signal that the student can use to indicate "please, not today".
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