It’s no picnic when you ask a question and not a single student raises their hand to answer. Seconds pass like minutes.

It makes sense, then, that teachers see the first raised hand as a lifeline and pounce. Mary Budd Rowe’s groundbreaking research on wait time demonstrated the flaw in that approach, concluding that calling on someone too quickly discourages deep thinkers from participating and puts an end to class discussion before it has a chance to start.

In 2021, researchers added a new wrinkle, examining the effect of peer collaboration on classroom participation. In the study, 9th-grade students responded to teacher prompts under 3 scenarios: 1) They immediately shared their answer; 2) they had a full minute to think about their response before raising their hand; 3) they exchanged ideas with a partner before sharing with the class—the strategy known as think-pair-share.

Predictably, wait time boosted hand-raising rates by 30%, but partnering led to a 70% increase over immediately calling on students, yielding top marks for promoting lively discussions.

When a question is posed, what holds kids back? “I was unsure of my answer” and “I didn’t want to be the center of attention” were common explanations. By giving students a partner to test out fledgling ideas, teachers can alleviate the pressure of being the first to speak up.