Deliberate Cold Call

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Elicit Evidence of Learning in 02 Formative Assessment, 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

Hands up samples the confident. Random selection is fairer, but it is still chance, and chance can leave the same pupils unheard for weeks. Choosing who answers on purpose lets you reach the thinking you most need to hear: the pupil whose book worried you, the one who has not spoken since Tuesday.

Tracking participation is what makes the deliberateness honest. Memory flatters; a record shows you who has actually stayed invisible across lessons.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

A teacher keeps a simple tally of who has answered across the week. Before Friday's lesson she reads it back, finds three pupils with no entries, and plans a question for each, matched to material they have had time to think about.

Try it

A way to begin

For one class, track who answers for a week, by whatever means is least effort. Read the record before planning the next lesson and let it choose two of your questions.

What to notice

Reading what happens

• Who the record says you have not heard from. It is rarely who you would have guessed.
• How responses change once the class knows anyone might be asked, not just the raised hands.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

• 'Where appropriate' is doing real work in the card. Which pupils to press, and when a quieter route to a pupil's thinking serves better than a public question, is a call for the teacher who knows the class, not a website.

Related strategies

Where this connects

• 🎲 Cold Call Without Threat Good and Brophy showed differential questioning reinforces attainment gaps. Direct questions are equitable only when the climate supports it. Norms: no wrong attempts, only thinking. 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
• ✋ 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
• 💬 Think, Pair, Share: Disciplined Individual thinking first; paired discussion second; nominated response third. Nomination makes the report-back evidence, not just the most confident voice. Without it, the share is optional. 02 Formative Assessment · Elicit Evidence of Learning

Inclusive practice

The lens this connects with

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

• Participation and response

Technology second

Where technology fits

An approved participation tracking tool in your setting can carry the record for you, and its contribution is memory, not judgement. It shows who has stayed invisible across lessons; deciding who to call, and why, stays with you.

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Hearing from all learners rather than a self-selecting few is central to Wiliam and Black's case for assessment that happens during the lesson, while it can still change the teaching. The card’s attribution stands as published: Wiliam, Black.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Formative Assessment.