Cold Calling in Accounting Courses: Impact on Participation, Volunteering and Comfort

Abstract

Calling on a student whose hand is not raised is viewed by many instructors as punitive, fearing that a student who is cold-called will feel uncomfortable, or worse, humiliated (Dallimore et al. 2005). This study is designed to examine the impact of cold-calling on students’ participation in class discussions and their comfort participating in discussions. The research design involved gathering data in 16 sections of a single undergraduate accounting course from questionnaires administered to students and from classroom observations of instructors’ and students’ behavior.

The primary results indicate that cold calling is effective not only at increasing the number of students who participate in class discussions, but also at increasing the number of students who answer questions voluntarily. Further, more questions are asked and answered in high cold calling environments. These findings suggest that students are more engaged in the discussion in classes in which instructors use cold-calling. Further, cold-calling does not reduce students’ comfort. Especially notable is that cold calling does not reduce the comfort of those students who begin the course indicating that they do not like class discussion very much. Finally, we find that students attendance in class is not affected by the cold calling environment.

The fact that cold calling can be done fairly intensively without making students uncomfortable provides support for the utilization of this instructional strategy to engage more students to participate more actively in class discussions. These findings are especially important in light of a recent study that shows significant positive relationships between frequency of participation, comfort participating in class discussions and student learning (Dallimore et al. 2009). That is, if cold calling increases student participation in class discussions, which has a significant positive relationship to learning, then cold calling may lead to greater learning.

Keywords: cold calling, class discussion, class participation, student comfort

JEL Classification: A22