Hands up if you’ve got a better answer

Civitas, 1 June 2007

It’s been a week of tussles for education. As the grammar school row within the Conservative Party rumbles on – Graham Brady quits but then the Tories appear to ‘climb-down’, as education secretary Alan Johnson put it – the only thing about Tory policy which is clear is that the party is in disarray. Alan Johnson’s contribution to this week’s education debates has however not been limited to commentary. The education secretary’s attentions have been on the other set of schools some regard as ‘elitist’ – private ones. Johnson wants independent schools to do more to justify their charitable status. In what comes across as a bit of an own-goal in light of New Labour’s tireless emphasis on education, Johnson has proposed that one way to do so would be for private schools to ‘lend’ their teachers to the state sector. The implication is that private school teachers are better. This is something which would doubtless be hotly contested by the many who argue that it’s the conditions in private schools which are better, rather than the staff. Talk of private vs. state sector conditions brings us on to today’s education controversy: the Department for Education and Skills’ warnings over the dangers of getting children to put up their hands in class.

The DfES report argues that current teacher questioning techniques are leading some children to slip behind. Their report argues that less demanding pupils are at risk of becoming, what they term, ‘invisible children’. These children, the report argues, can be ignored by their teachers as they do not demand attention. One of the DfES’s suggestions is that schools cease to engage in whole class questioning i.e. no more ‘Hands up who can tell me…’ Instead, the authors of the report like the idea of teachers spending time with small groups. Although this isn’t quite what the DfES has in mind, small groups are something which most teachers also like the idea of. In many cases it is the sheer number of pupils, especially in primary school, which is leading to pupils being left behind. When a teacher is faced with 30 – or even 30 plus, the case for a worrying 19% of Key Stage 2 classes – children, they are all too likely to have to focus on the most ‘demanding’ children, simply to prevent chaos. Schools today often complain that teaching has become more about ‘crowd control’ than pedagogy. And this is what is so frustrating about this report from the DfES. Seemingly randomly it identifies whole-class teacher-questioning as the problem, whilst ignoring the gamete of real problems so often the direct result of DfES policy.