---
name: eliciting-evidence
description: Read this when the question is how to find out what a class is thinking during a lesson, rather than what to ask them. Use it when asked to improve questioning, check understanding mid-lesson, run a discussion, involve quieter students, or design an exit ticket or do-now — and when a teacher says the class "seems to get it" but the results say otherwise. It produces routines where every learner commits to an answer the teacher can read at a glance.
---

# Eliciting evidence of learning

Wiliam's second key strategy, delivery side. `designing-assessments` and
`hinge-questions` cover *what* to ask; this covers *how*, so the answer tells you
about the class and not about the three learners with their hands up.

## The problem

Teacher asks → volunteers raise hands → teacher picks one → teacher evaluates. That
routine is a machine for producing the *appearance* of understanding. It samples
the confident, rewards speed over thought, and lets most of the room opt out of
thinking. Wiliam's phrase for the alternative: **basketball, not ping-pong**.

Every question should serve one of two purposes, and you should be able to say
which: **to cause thinking**, or **to give the teacher information**. Serving
neither makes it filler.

## What done looks like

A routine specified tightly enough to run tomorrow: what's asked, how every
learner responds, how long the think time is *in seconds*, what the teacher does
at each outcome, and what the whole thing costs in minutes.

## Constraints

- **Every learner produces a response**, not just volunteers.
- **Everyone commits before seeing anyone else's answer.** Cards at chest height,
  boards up on a count, written commitment before movement.
- **The teacher reads the room at a glance.** If you have to walk around to see
  the answers, that's circulation — useful, but not an all-student response system.
- **Think time is stated in seconds.** Rowe (1974): teachers typically wait under
  one second; three seconds lengthens responses and increases how many learners
  respond at all. The neglected half is wait time *after* the answer.
- **Nothing here is graded.** The moment a check carries marks, learners answer to
  look right rather than to reveal what they think, and the instrument stops working.
- **The time cost is stated and proportionate.** A twelve-minute routine in a
  fifty-minute lesson has to earn it.
- **Self-reports are labelled as self-reports.** Traffic lights, thumbs and
  reaction spectra measure how learners *feel*, which correlates weakly with what
  they know — worst for the learners furthest behind, who don't know they don't
  know. Use them to start a conversation, never as evidence of understanding. Say
  this every time you recommend one.

## The four levers

**Wait time** — free, immediate, benefits everyone. For teachers who find the
silence unbearable: announce it. "I'll ask, then we all wait ten seconds."

**No hands up** — selection, random or deliberate, instead of volunteering. Two
companion rules or it fails: "I don't know" is not an exit (come back to them
after two others and have them choose between the answers), and never select
without think time first — that's an ambush, and the least confident learners
experience it as one.

**All-student response** — mini whiteboards, ABCD cards, hand signals, digital
polling, everybody-writes. The biggest single change available to most classrooms.

**Structured discussion** — think–pair–share (don't skip the silent stage, or the
faster partner does the thinking), pose–pause–pounce–bounce, say-it-better,
agree/disagree/build, random reporter named *after* the discussion.

`references/technique-bank.md` has each with its setup cost and its specific
failure mode, plus a cost-to-value ordering for teachers who can only change one
thing.

## Exit tickets

The highest-value five minutes in a lesson — *if* they're read before the next
one. One or two questions on the lesson's core idea; sortable into piles in under
three minutes for a class of thirty; **the pile determines tomorrow's starter**. If
the result won't change the next lesson, don't collect it.

## Judgement calls

- **What do you need to find out, and what would you do differently either way?**
  If there's no branch, the routine is theatre.
- **Is this a move-on-or-reteach decision?** Then it's a hinge question — route.
- **One technique, not five.** Recommend a single routine and let it bed in for a
  term. Five new routines at once produces none of them.

## Live session data

If a Nurture Signal server is connected, a live session exposes engagement
reactions, comments, questions and participation. Discover the available tools
rather than assuming names.

What it licenses:

| Data | Tells you | Does **not** tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement reactions | Self-reported energy, in real time, from everyone including the silent | Whether anyone understands |
| Comments | What some learners chose to say | What the non-commenters think |
| Questions | Where confusion is surfacing, and its shape | How widespread it is |
| Quiz / poll responses | Actual understanding, if the items are diagnostic | Anything the items didn't ask |
| Participation counts | Who is responding | Who is learning |

Use reactions and comments to decide **where to look**; use a diagnostic question
to find out **what's going on**. Reporting a reaction distribution as a measure of
understanding is the standard way engagement dashboards mislead — say so.

## Failure modes

- A great question with a poor sampling method. The commonest one.
- Think time announced but not honoured. Three seconds feels like thirty.
- "Any questions?" — elicits nothing. Ask something specific, or "write down the
  one thing you're least sure about".
- Rhetorical questions counted as checks. "Everyone happy with that? Good."
- Collecting evidence and not acting on it.