“I hear a half-right answer and move on anyway”

When a student gives you most of an answer, your own knowledge fills in the rest. You know what they meant, so you hear the complete idea, and "yes" is out before you have decided anything. Rounding up also feels kind: the student took a risk, the answer was close, and holding out for the missing piece can feel like punishing the effort. Nobody is being careless here. The reflex comes from expertise and warmth, which makes it hard to catch.

It holds because everyone leaves the exchange feeling good. The student hears "yes" and feels successful, the class keeps its pace, and the gap between nearly right and right stays invisible until it surfaces weeks later in a test or a pile of marking. Meanwhile the class quietly learns that close enough counts, and that finishing an answer is your job. Changing it means changing what happens in the few seconds after an answer lands, and the techniques below do that in two broad ways: some help you hold out, warmly, for the complete answer, and some hand the answer back to the student to improve or take further.