Track Who You Ask

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

Almost no teacher believes they distribute questions unevenly until they see their own record. Good and Brophy found harder questions drifting to higher-attaining students, below the level of anyone's awareness, which is why the remedy is a record: patterns invisible in the moment become visible on paper.

You cannot adjust a habit you cannot see, and memory will not supply this picture. A week of tally marks will.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

A teacher prints the seating plan and keeps a rough tally for a week: a mark for each question asked, a second mark when the question was a demanding one. By Friday the plan shows two desks that were never asked anything, and the demanding marks clustered on one side of the room.

Try it

A way to begin

One class, one week, tally marks on a printed class list or seating plan. Rough is fine; rough data you collect beats precise data you never do.

What to notice

Reading what happens

• Who was never asked at all.
• Where the harder questions land, and whether the pattern follows attainment, as Good and Brophy found.
• The gap between what you predicted the tally would show and what it shows.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

• Hands down and cold calling change who you ask; tracking is how you find out whether they are actually working. The three cards make one system.
• What to do about a pattern once you can see it is a judgement about individual pupils, and it is yours.

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
• 🎲 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
• 🎯 Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce Wiliam’s PPPB: pose the question, pause, direct to one student, then bounce the answer to another. The bounce keeps all students alert and spreads thinking across the whole room. 04 Questioning & Discussion · Participation & Equity
• 🌎 Every Voice, Every Time Eliciting evidence only works if every student can respond. Offer written, verbal, visual and digital means of expression. The method you choose decides who gets to show what they know. 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

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Good and Brophy's expectation studies showed differential questioning operating below teachers' awareness, which is exactly why the remedy is a record rather than a resolution. The card’s attribution stands as published: Good & Brophy.

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