Cold Call Without Threat

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Participation & Equity in 04 Questioning & Discussion, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

Good and Brophy showed that questioning is rarely distributed evenly: teachers direct more questions, and harder ones, to the students they expect more from, and the gap reinforces itself. Cold calling answers that problem only if the climate supports it.

Direct questions are equitable only when a wrong answer costs nothing. The norm the card names carries the whole strategy: no wrong attempts, only thinking.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

A named pupil offers an answer that is wrong. The teacher treats it as thinking to work with, asks what led them there, and later in the lesson comes back to the same pupil with a related question. The second ask is the message: being wrong did not remove you from the conversation.

Try it

A way to begin

Establish the norm before you lean on it: name it with the class, and hold the room to it the first time a wrong answer draws a reaction.

What to notice

Reading what happens

• What actually happens after a wrong answer: your response, and the room's.
• The body language of quieter pupils when names are used. Relief and dread look different.
• Whether your harder questions still drift towards the same few students.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

• Climate is the precondition, not an optional extra. If cold calling in this class would feel like exposure, the norms come first, and how fast to move with a particular anxious pupil is a call for the teacher who knows the class, not a website.
• Hands down is the companion routine; this card supplies the conditions that make it fair.

Related strategies

Where this connects

• ✋ Hands Down Wiliam shows hand-raising distorts who answers. A small group volunteers repeatedly; the rest disengage. Remove hands and direct to named students. Every student should be asked. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Participation & Equity
• 📊 Track Who You Ask Good and Brophy found teachers direct harder questions to higher-attaining students. Track participation across lessons. Patterns invisible in the moment become visible on paper. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Participation & Equity
• 🎙️ Deliberate Cold Call Select who answers deliberately, not at random. Track participation so nobody stays invisible across lessons. Where appropriate, target the students whose thinking you most need to hear. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning
• ⏰ Wait Time 1: After You Ask Rowe found most teachers wait under one second before speaking. Extending to three seconds increases the length and complexity of responses. Silence is thinking, not a gap to fill. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Wait Time & Thinking Space

Inclusive practice

The lens this connects with

Through the inclusive practice lens, this is one of the approaches that may reduce barriers around:

• Access and participation

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Good and Brophy's work on teacher expectations is the evidence base here; Wiliam's case for questioning every student rests on the same distortion it documents. The card’s attribution stands as published: Good & Brophy; Wiliam.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Questioning & Discussion.