“The Case for Cold-Calling. . .” I hadn’t finished reading the title before I started thinking, “I need to respond with the case against.” But I read on and changed my mind. The article proposed an approach to cold-calling that mitigated many of the objections
The limitations of traditional online discussion boards are well-known. Yellowdig is an alternative that I have used to simplify grading, encourage student-driven conversations, and engage students so that they consistently participate throughout the semester. With familiar, social media-like features, Yellowdig is an LMS-integrated discussion tool
I recently checked the class rosters for two online courses that I would begin teaching in a couple of weeks and saw that I had 32 students in one and 28 in the other. These numbers may not be considered a lot by some instructors,
In a commentary about to be published in College Teaching, author and teacher Ellen Ballock writes about a set of student papers she found disappointing. I’m guessing that will resonant with most of us. Teachers regularly get work from students that just doesn’t measure up.
In an era of hyper-focus on students’ academic performance, is it possible that schoolwork is actually too easy? I recognize that this might seem a strange question, given how much we hear of stressed-out students, slogging through hours of homework and blizzards of standardized tests.
I am thankful for Jennifer Trainor’s insightful “Assignment Details: What if You Provide Too Many?” She raises what should be a real concern for teaching professors: Am I doing too much for my students? In other words, are teachers compromising student learning when we compose
Ever since reading the article about how Professor Ashok Goel used bots to enhance the student experience for his computer science class, we have been wondering how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in education. At our business school, we do not use this technology
This installment of our continuing series on assignments is devoted to assignment clarity. We believe that many good assignments fall short of achieving what faculty expect because students struggle to understand what they are to do and why they are doing it. The assignment description
Most teachers still lecture a lot despite evidence showing that straight lecture is less effective than teaching approaches that more actively engage and involve students. I don’t think that conclusion rules out didactic instruction. Sometimes it makes sense to just “tell” students about the content.
Let’s never read student writing again. In fact, let’s not even talk about it.
Not because student writing is dull or unworthy of serious readers. No, let’s stop talking about student writing because it doesn’t exist—or at any rate, shouldn’t exist.
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Several points merit making here. With most techniques, it’s not the technique per se, but how it’s used, which is to say few techniques are inherently good or bad. Most can work well and most can function poorly. Sometimes our fixation with the technique obfuscates this larger truth.
More often than not, the difference is in the design details—sometimes in very small details. This approach to cold-calling is such a good illustration of that. One of the things that makes being called on so anxiety provoking for students is not knowing what you’ll be asked and not having time to prepare an answer. But having the questions beforehand enables students to come to class knowing the answers. Most students aren’t afraid to speak if they know the right answer.
The example also illustrates another feature of most techniques. They can accrue a range of outcomes, some of which may be unrelated to the technique itself. In this case, students essentially get a set of review questions that then structure how they prepare for class. Answers to those questions give students the working knowledge they need to more deeply master the new material that will be presented in class. It’s also an approach that gets students engaged with each other. Before class, there’s reason to talk; to explore the questions, exchange answers, and explain answers.
But the outcomes accrued are not always positive. Most techniques can also hinder or compromise efforts to learn. Calling on students puts them on the spot. If they give an incorrect or poor answer and it’s corrected in a less than constructive way, that student may be less willing to participate voluntarily in that class and in other classes.
Techniques need to be unpacked. They rest on premises and make assumptions about teaching, learning, and students. In the case of cold calling, it’s the belief that it’s okay to make students speak when they haven’t volunteered to do so. What if they have nothing to say? Declining to answer has implications—and most of them aren’t positive. It makes the student look unprepared and, if it’s regular occurrence, apathetic. Not knowing the answer (especially not knowing lots of answers) raises questions about ability. Then there’s the assumption that participating is a viable part of learning. What if the content can be learned by listening, reading, and private study? Why should students be required to talk about content that can be mastered without conversation? The point here is not the correctness of the assumptions related to cold-calling but the need to unpack techniques. They often look like straightforward approaches, but looks can be deceiving. There’s usually more to a technique than first meets the eye.
Finally, techniques don’t exist in splendid isolation. They are used in conjunction with other techniques, which means they influence and are influenced by each other. These connections and relationship should also be explored. All of these features of techniques impact the learning experiences of students. They deserve more than a quick reaction and superficial assessment.
Sarah H. Kollat (2018) The Case for Cold-Calling: Initiating Active Participation in the Classroom, College Teaching, DOI: 10.1080/87567555.2018.1463506