One of the phrases I sometimes hear teachers say is, “Who can tell me…?” usually followed by a question.
“Who can tell me why the Romans invaded Britain?”
“Who can tell me what we learned about coastal erosion?”
“Who can tell me what happens at a circus?”
And increasingly, when I hear those four words, I find myself thinking less about the question that follows and more about the teacher’s thinking. I wonder: who, in your head, are you hoping will answer? Why them? And what will their answer tell you about everyone else? That might sound like a very small distinction. But it does make me wonder.
This is not me explaining what Cold Call is, or arguing that Cold Call is better than hands-up questioning. For the purposes of this post, I’m going to assume you’re already using it.
I want to explore what happens before the Cold Call. Because I think a key part of a Cold Call happens before the Cold Call: the thinking behind it.
Cold Call is not the clever bit
Cold Call is a powerful technique in inclusive teaching because it means we don’t rely on the students who are quickest to put their hands up. Everyone needs to think, everyone needs to listen and everyone knows they might be asked.
But Cold Call as a technique isn’t an indicator of quality questioning. For example, I could ask a question and randomly select a pupil to answer. (Don’t get me started on lolly sticks with names on. Remember when we did that?) Or I could ask exactly the same question, but deliberately choose a pupil because I have a particular reason for wanting to hear their answer and need the information to inform my in-lesson decision-making. For me, the more interesting process isn’t “Who can answer this?” It is “Whose answer will give me useful information?”
From “Who can tell me?” to “Does X know?”
When I am planning questions, I want to be thinking: Does X, Y or Z know? And if X knows or doesn’t know, what does that tell me about what to do next?
Perhaps a group of pupils struggled with a particular question in the retrieval practice at the start of the lesson. I’ve then explicitly retaught the knowledge. I might deliberately Cold Call one of those pupils later. I’m not simply interested in whether that child can answer. Their response gives me useful information about whether the reteaching has worked for pupils who had a similar starting point.
Equally, perhaps I know that a particular pupil demonstrated secure understanding in the previous lesson. I might ask them a question that requires them to make a connection, explain their thinking or apply their knowledge in a new way.
Perhaps another pupil is less confident with the content. I might begin with a simpler question and then build the complexity: “What is the definition of…?” “Can you give me an example?” “Why does that happen?” “How does that link to what we learned earlier?”
It’s only a phrase, why have you got such a big problem with it?
It’s not a massive issue, but let me explain. The phrase “Who can tell me?” makes me curious. Not because I think it is a terrible phrase, or because I think teachers should stop using it. But when I hear it repeatedly, it makes me wonder about the thinking behind the question. Has the teacher decided who they want to hear from? Do they know what they are trying to find out? Have they thought about what they will do with the answer? Are they confident to explain it themselves, or are they looking for help from a student?
This gives me a useful starting point when I’m working with a teacher than simply telling them to stop saying “Who can tell me?” Sometimes the teacher has thought all of this through and “Who can tell me?” is simply the phrase they use. Fine. There’s nothing to fix. But sometimes it reveals something worth exploring.
This is not a criticism of the teacher. We’ve all done it. I’ve certainly asked questions in lessons because I was genuinely wondering what pupils knew. But I think teaching can be better than wondering who knows. We can be more deliberate.
Asking pupils to do the teacher’s job
There is another version of this that I notice.
“Does anybody know why it rains?”
“Does anybody know what coastal means?”
“Can anybody tell us what happens at a circus?”
Sometimes these questions are right to ask. Perhaps we’re deliberately activating prior knowledge or finding out what pupils already know. But sometimes, if I’m honest, they make me wonder whether the teacher is hoping that one particularly knowledgeable and articulate child will provide the explanation for everyone else.
I hope I’m not sounding too negative here, but it’s part of the reason I have a problem with this phrase. I get why we ask for contributions to difficult concepts. To hear from a child’s perspective. Also, maybe we want to make the lesson interactive. So we ask, “Does anybody know…?” and hopefully someone puts their hand up and gives a beautifully articulated answer. Phew. But if they get it wrong, the whole class has heard an incorrect explanation and, for some students, particularly those who are less secure, that may be what they remember.
On a separate note, if the concept is something students need to learn, perhaps I didn’t need to find the child who could explain it. Perhaps I needed to explain it. That isn’t to say that we should never ask pupils what they already know. We absolutely should. But if my purpose is to assess prior knowledge, I want to assess it deliberately. A quick Turn and Talk might allow me to hear several pupils’ thinking before I Cold Call. A whiteboard response might allow me to see what everyone knows. A carefully chosen question might reveal a misconception. But most of the time the most efficient thing to do is simply to tell pupils the thing I know they need to know.
Coaching to develop teachers’ thinking
I’m in a position to have worked with and observed many teachers. This concept of “thinking behind the question” is something I tend to explore with more experienced colleagues.
1) It’s useful first think about why we are asking and to explore the different purposes particular questions might have and what information I will recieve. For example,
Sometimes I’m checking whether recently taught knowledge has stuck.
Sometimes I’m hunting for a misconception.
Sometimes I’m trying to find out whether pupils can make a connection between two pieces of knowledge.
Sometimes I’m deliberately asking an easier question to build a pupil towards a more complex response.
Sometimes I want to gauge prior knowledge and experience of a topic.
Sometimes I want to challenge a pupil who has demonstrated secure understanding with a higher-order question.
Sometimes I want to know whether to reteach, move on or decide who to go to first during the “you do” activity.
2) Once we have established the purpose, I often find it useful to model planning how I will pose the question.
Perhaps I will ask a tricky question and I want pupils to rehearse their thinking before anyone answers: Think → Turn and Talk → Cold Call.
Perhaps I’ve just taught some factual knowledge and I want to check it quickly: Short question → Cold Call → Short question → Cold Call.
Perhaps I want to know what every individual pupil understands: Question → Whiteboards → Scan → Respond.
Perhaps I want to hear a particular answer from a pupil who I know has struggled with this concept: Think time → targeted Cold Call.
Perhaps I want to hear a sophisticated explanation from a pupil who has demonstrated secure understanding: Deliberately selected pupil → higher-order question.
3) Let’s imagine we’ve considered the purpose and how to ask the question. If I want to use a cold call then I need to think about who the question would be targeted at. This can be done in two ways.
More general - for example a currently low attaining student, a currently high attaining, students who had a misconceptions in the previous lesson or in the retrieval practice. I have seen some really thoughtful examples of this in planning, where teachers or scheme writers add prompts in planning such as CLA or CHA – currently lower attaining or currently higher attaining, after the questions.
More targeted - I’ve seen some teachers use written annotations on planning or teacher mark books with specific students names
I love deliberate practice as a form of CPD. And to really develop this skill, the deliberate practice isn’t in practising the delivery of the question it’s in modelling and practising the thinking. This sort of planning is about the teacher asking themselves: Why I’m asking this question, how I will ask it and who will I ask it to? That is intellectual preparation.
After that we can look at all the things we can do with the information, the data, the answers we get. But that’s a post for another day!
An opportunity to improve
I don’t think “Who can tell me?” is a problem to eradicate. It is simply one of those little things I notice when I’m observing teaching that can give me somewhere to start.
It’s an opportunity to be curious: explore, think deeply and refine our craft. Good questioning doesn’t start when the teacher asks the question. It starts when the teacher plans it.