Fair ways to call on students
By Arhum Waheed · Published · Updated
With hands-up questioning, the same five students answer everything and the rest learn they can switch off. Random calling solves that, but done badly it creates a new problem: a student frozen in front of the class, facing a question they had no time to think about.
This guide covers the research behind random calling, the one real design choice (repeats or no repeats), question scripts that work, and how to adapt the routine for anxious students. The step-by-step button routine is on the classroom spinner page itself, so this guide focuses on the teaching side.
What the research actually found
Wait time. Mary Budd Rowe analysed more than 300 recordings of elementary science lessons. She found teachers waited about one second for an answer before repeating the question, rephrasing it or moving to someone else. When teachers stretched that pause to three to five seconds, students' answers got longer and they gave more unprompted, relevant contributions. Students the teachers had rated as "slow" also answered more often, and fewer questions went unanswered (Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1974). In a 1986 review in the Journal of Teacher Education, she put the threshold at about three seconds. Below it, changes made little difference. She also described a second pause, after a student answers, which matters just as much: wait before you react, and the student often adds to their answer.
Frequent cold calling. Dallimore, Hertenstein and Platt (Journal of Management Education, 2013) observed 632 students in 16 sections of a required undergraduate accounting course. In sections with a lot of cold calling, 77% of students answered questions voluntarily, against 55% in sections with little cold calling. Comfort with taking part in discussion rose over the term in the high-cold-call sections and didn't change in the others. These were university students, not school students, so treat the finding as encouraging rather than settled for younger classes.
No hands up. Dylan Wiliam's formative assessment work popularised "no hands up except to ask a question," with names drawn at random, often from lolly sticks. When he trialled it with a Year 8 class for the BBC in 2010, teachers settled on a compromise: pick two students at random, then ask whether anyone wants to add something. That gave the keen volunteers a way back in. Wiliam also points out that random picking only samples a few students. He pairs it with all-class responses, such as mini-whiteboards, at least once every 20 to 30 minutes.
Random calling suits checking understanding: short questions, quick answers, many students. A discussion where students build on each other's ideas needs a different structure.
The real choice: repeats or no repeats
Lolly-stick advice often says to put the stick back after each pick, so a student who has just answered can't relax. The classroom spinner does the opposite by default: Remove winner after spin (no repeats) takes each picked name off the wheel, so everyone answers once before anyone answers twice.
Both approaches have a cost:
- With repeats (remove-winner off), nobody is ever safe, but coverage is patchy. Our guide on how random a spinner wheel is works through the odds: on a 30-name wheel spun 30 times, about a third of the class never comes up.
- Without repeats, everyone gets a turn, but a student picked in the first minute knows they're off the hook.
The fix I'd use is to keep remove-winner on and close the loophole with follow-up questions. After the spin, direct the next question to someone who has already answered: "Ava, do you agree with Noah? Why?" Wiliam calls this "basketball, not ping-pong." The ball moves between students instead of bouncing back to the teacher every time. Picked students stay involved, and the wheel still guarantees nobody is skipped.
A worked example: 28 students, two lessons
Say a Year 8 class of 28 starts each lesson with a 15-minute review of 8 questions, with two spins per question.
- That's 16 picks per lesson, so the round finishes partway through the second lesson. With Remove winner on, the spinner saves only the remaining names in your browser — there is no full-roster backup — so the remaining 12 names are waiting next lesson on the same computer.
- Tip: keep a copy of the full roster. Press Copy before the first spin of a new round (or keep the list in a note). Your full roster is then on the clipboard, ready to paste back in when the round ends.
- When one name is left, SPIN switches off. That student answers last, and you paste the roster back in.
Two picks per question also follows the BBC compromise: the second student builds on the first, and you can open the floor after that.
Questions worth spinning for
The spinner makes the pick fair. It can't make the question worth answering. A few patterns:
| Instead of | Try | Think time |
|---|---|---|
| "What is photosynthesis?" | "A plant sits in a dark cupboard for a week. What happens to the starch in its leaves, and why?" | 20–30 s |
| "Who knows 7 × 8?" | "7 × 8 is 56. How could you work out 7 × 9 from that without starting again?" | 10–15 s |
| "Any questions?" | "Which step of today's method would you most likely get wrong in a test?" | 30 s, after a pair talk |
| "Is this sentence right?" | "Rewrite this sentence so it's clearer, and say what you changed." | 30 s |
The routine stays the same: ask, wait, then spin. If you spin first, 27 students stop thinking. Say "Thirty seconds to think, then I'll spin," and actually count it. Rowe's threshold is about three seconds; in practice, allow 5–10 seconds for recall and 20–30 for "explain why."
Making it kind as well as fair
- Warm call. "After the pair discussion I'll spin for two people to share what their partner said." Reporting a partner's idea is less exposing than defending your own. For quick partners, use the Pairs option on the random team generator. With an odd number, one pair becomes a group of three.
- "Can you come back to me?" The student can ask this. Spin again, then return to them after one or two answers. When you come back, ask them which answer they found most convincing so far. They still answer, just with more time.
- Partial answers count. "I got as far as the second step" is a real answer. Spin for the next student: "Can you take it from there?"
- Use the second pause. When a student stops talking, wait three seconds before you respond. They often add the most useful part of their answer in that gap.
- Individual plans come first. If a student has a plan that limits cold calling, leave their name off the wheel and check their understanding another way. The wheel is still fair to everyone on it.
- Never spin for consequences. If the wheel picks who tidies up, students learn to dread it.
Absences, late arrivals and privacy
Absent: delete the line before the round starts. Spinning and skipping the name tells the room who is missing. Late: add the name as a new line, and they join the current round. Two students share a name: write "Maya R." and "Maya T." Identical lines are merged into one slice.
With Remove winner on, only the names still on the wheel are saved in this browser on this device — there is no full-roster backup — and names aren't sent anywhere when you spin. Keep a separate copy of the full class list so you can paste it back when a round ends. Copy share link puts the names inside the link, so follow your school's policy before sending it to a co-teacher. On a shared computer, press Clear all at the end of the day.
Frequently asked questions
Doesn't cold calling make anxious students more anxious?
It can, if it's rare and comes without warning. In Dallimore and colleagues' study, comfort with taking part rose when cold calling was frequent and routine. Give think time, use pair talk first, allow "come back to me," and follow individual plans.
How long should I wait after asking a question?
At least three seconds, which was the threshold in Mary Budd Rowe's research. Allow 5–10 seconds for recall questions and 20–30 seconds for questions that ask students to explain.
Should picked students be able to switch off?
No. Keep remove-winner on so everyone gets a turn, and send follow-up questions to students who have already answered ("Do you agree with Noah?").
Should I spin before or after asking the question?
After. If students know who is answering before they hear the question, everyone else stops thinking.
What happens when only one name is left?
The wheel needs at least two slices to spin, so that student goes last. Paste your full roster back in to start a new round. Because only remaining names are saved with Remove winner on, you'll need the copy you kept (or Copy before the first spin of the round).