Excellent tactic.

I have more than once made the mistake of isolating attention on one student for an infraction or response that I felt was a learning experience for other students. I vividly remember one young woman who was speechless but incensed by my directing a question to her when she was obviously not paying attention. During her silence, in a stupid attempt to let her vent, I repeatedly asked her what she was thinking. To her credit, she eventually blurted: "I wish I could kill you!"

Chinese students receive withering criticism from teachers (and parents) throughout their years in school. But Chinese teachers routinely criticize the class as a group and the individual students in private or in punishing grades. Chinese students are not accustomed to the 'give and take' that occurs in western 'Socratic' teaching. As a result, direct negative interaction with a teacher in front of the entire class has an emotional impact far above that experienced by Western students in the same situation.

This is not to suggest that we should attempt to teach like Chinese teachers.