Cold calling or inclusive questioning?

This post was prompted by an exchange on LinkedIn. Rachel Higginson, experienced education consultant and founder of Finding my Voice, posted this under the title: When cold calling is too cold. Let me quote an extract:

There has been a concerning and consistent theme in pupil voice sessions that I have conducted over the last year.

Cold calling is having a negative impact on learning.

Pupils express how they spend the entire lesson anxious about their impending turn and they also explain how this impacts their ability to concentrate on the lesson itself.

Interestingly this is also related to what happens when they don't get it right. They talk about lack of acknowledgement and shame and embarrassment.

She goes on to write:

At Finding My Voice we call cold calling, 'Inclusive Questioning'.
This is a deeply inclusive strategy which is intentionally warm...

1) Classroom Culture is based on shared and established Social Norms: 'We are imperfect', 'We think aloud'.

2) Quality questioning is standard. Teachers know what to ask, when and the purpose. For open questions, paired talk first can support thinking.

3) Inclusive questioning is not 'random'. Teachers know learners and ask the right question, in the right way to the right learner.

4) Warm receipt, regardless of 'quality' of the response, the reaction from the teacher is consistently warm. Acknowledging effort, 'Interesting but not quite' is far better than 'Noooo, anyone else?'

I was interested to read about the negative feedback from students on cold calling. My first reaction was that this must depend a good deal on how skilfully and sensitively hands-down questioning is carried out. It could easily be considered scary by pupils — I would have the same feeling when sitting in a class. It may also be disliked by some pupils for another reason I'll mention below.

Rebecca was not attacking the principle of cold calling, more so the name and how it's carried out. I rather like the term inclusive questioning. It may be a little less precise than cold calling or hands down questioning, since it could also include an element of hands-up questioning. A common objection to the term cold calling is that it has a negative connotation in other walks of life — who likes getting a cold call? As a teacher, I was more in the 'hands-up' camp, even though I was aware of the obvious danger of the same pupils always responding. I think I was probably wrong, but would still argue that there is a place for hands-up. Hands-up could also be considered inclusive in the sense that it allows the confident and high-attaining students to shine from time to time. If I were a high-achiever sitting in the room and rarely got asked a question I think I would feel frustrated.

I imagine there are still many teachers doing traditional hands-up questioning and who risk neglecting the quieter, less confident students. Former Head and consultant Tom Sherrington writes really well about inclusivity in the classroom and how skilled questioning is a powerful tool in a teacher's repertoire. If you want to think more about this, have a look at this excellent post of Tom's.

To conclude, bearing in mind the particular nature of classroom questioning in languages — I'm thinking display questions, 'circling', true-false, either-or, etc, as well as the desire to keep up pace and encorage quick, fluent* responses — I still see that case for combining 'cold-calling' with some hands up, along with choral responses, to keep the class running fast and smoothly. As always, it's all about the quality of delivery — a subtle combination of timing, tailoring questions to individual students, warm responses, encouragement, corrective feedback where appropariate (usually not too much and including 'recasts'). It's also about choosing the right type of question in the moment or moving away from questions to simple transformational or substitution drills or 'correct my false statement'-style interactions. Not to forget the mini-whiteboard, of course.

For more on how language teachers can make great use of questioning, try this post.

* Fluency in second language acquisition research is not just about speaking with flow and little hesitation, it's also about speed of recall, which is essentially a mental process. How quickly can we accurately retrieve words and chunks? A fast pace in lessons can help develop speed of reaction and fluent retrieval.