Practice Cold & Warm Calling

What is cold calling?

Cold calling is calling on students regardless of whether or not they have their hands raised.

Why is it important?

  • It creates a more engaging discussion.
  • It’s inclusive and ensures more perspectives will be heard.
  • It’s efficient and saves you the time (and awkward silence) of having to wait for a student to volunteer an answer.
  • It creates accountability. If students know they’ll be called on they’re more likely to come to class prepared to speak.
  • The majority of our students appreciate cold calling for the reasons mentioned above, as long as it is non-punitive, friendly and done respectfully.

How do we do it?

  • Set expectations during the first class and explain rationale for cold-calling (e.g., that it is not punitive).
  • Select questions to fit your purpose. Are you trying to get students to create, evaluate, analyze, apply, understand, or remember? (Please refer to these question stems adapted from Bloom’s Taxonomy for examples.)
    • Pre-determine what questions you want to ask, when, how and to whom (specifically -- be sure to use students’ names as much as possible). Decide on your response for incorrect answers (i.e., reframe answer, rephrase question, ask for clarification, call on another student, etc.).
    • Consider the difficulty level of the question being asked (e.g., is it appropriate for a cold call?). Cold calling is effective for open-ended, higher order analytical questions.
    • Build in wait time (before calling and after students respond). Allow some space for students to collect their thoughts. Pose the question to the entire class before calling on someone directly.

Sample Techniques and Language for Cold/Warm Calling

Straight cold call

  • “Can someone walk me through the high level case facts?” Pause. “[Name]?”
  • Consider using a random name generator tool. Here are some additional versions that are embedded in the CBS Powerpoint Template. To use these slides you will have to do the following:
  • Copy the relevant slide and paste it into the new slide deck.
  • Manually edit the wheel to include student names.
  • To animate the wheels, the presentation must be in SlideShow mode. For the 30 and 60-name wheels, click somewhere inside the wheel (but not in the center) to make the wheel spin. For the 20-name wheel, click in the center. For all the wheels, click a second time to stop the wheel.

Link to exercises and other comments

  • Use poll responses to cold call:  Should Zara own stores? “[Name], you said no – why?”
  • “[Name], do you want to answer that question?”
  • “[Name], do you want to address that comment?”

Build in reaction time

  • Email students “Next time we talk about Walmart, I’m going to ask this question...”
  • “[Name], can you walk us through X & Y?” Write on board or discuss to give student time.
  • “I’m going to come to you in a couple of minutes to respond to this, so get ready.”
  • Preview the list of questions that will be asked.

Warm call students with relevant experience

  • Remember student backgrounds and, in real time, ask for “the person who did X” to participate.
  • “[Name], you went through a merger, tell us what happened.”
  • Email students with relevant backgrounds to speak about X in the next class.

Warm call quieter or confused students

  • “Let’s hear from someone who hasn’t spoken.”
  • “Let’s hear from this area of the room.”
  • “You look like you have something to say.”
  • “I’d like to hear from someone who has an opposing view.”
  • “I’d like to hear from someone who isn’t sure how to start.”
  • “We aren’t going forward until someone asks a question.

For more information, please check out the presentation from our previous Cold Calling 101 faculty development workshop. In addition, you may find one of the below "random name picker" tools helpful: