Wait Time & Questioning Techniques

Question Setup

Wait Time 1 (before calling on someone) 1.0 s

Wait Time 2 (after the answer starts) 1.0 s

Cold-call rate 30%

Click Ask Question to run a round.

Session Readouts

Hands raised (last round)

Avg response quality

0.0 / 10

Unique responders

0 / 24

Rounds asked

How it works

Based on Mary Budd Rowe's classic classroom research on wait time (1972/1986): the pause a teacher leaves after asking a question (Wait Time 1) and after a student starts answering (Wait Time 2) strongly changes participation and response quality. Rowe found that stretching wait time from the typical ~1 second to 3+ seconds increased response length, the number of speculative/well-reasoned answers, and the variety of students who spoke — while short wait times favoured only the fastest thinkers and produced more "I don't know" responses.

processing_time_i = baseTime(questionType) / aptitude_i + noise_i
ready_i            = processing_time_i ≤ WaitTime1
P(hand raised)      = ready_i ? 0.5 + 0.4·confidence_i : 0.06·confidence_i
quality             = clamp(readyBonus_i + 1.1·WaitTime2 + noise, 0, 10)

Recall vs Higher-Order — a recall question needs only ~1s of processing on average; a higher-order (analysis/synthesis) question needs ~3.2s, so short wait times systematically exclude students who need more time to think for the harder question.
Wait Time 1 slider — every student with a processing time under this value has time to be "ready" before the teacher calls on someone; raising it raises the fraction of the class that can genuinely participate.
Wait Time 2 slider — extra think-time given after a student starts speaking adds elaboration, raising the quality score of whoever answers.
Cold-call rate — the chance the teacher calls on a random student instead of only picking from raised hands, which increases how many different students get sampled over a session.

Watch the 3D classroom: gray = not ready, amber = hand raised, blue = called on, then the seat glows green (strong answer) or red (weak answer) once the response resolves.

Not ready / no hand Hand raised Called on Strong answer

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