Hands up or not?
Young children shooting their hands up to answer a question is the enduring image of the primary school classroom. But now it seems that this age-old tradition could soon come to an end, with teachers being advised to pick out children to answer questions, says The Times.
The initiatives are an attempt to help the thousands of “invisible children” who excel in school at 7, but fall behind in key subjects such as English and maths, by the time they are 11.
Children in the comfort of the home environment generally feel confident to ask questions of parents knowing the answer will tailored to encourage. Swap this for the crowded classroom of 30 and a lot of that confidence evaporates. Many children lack the self confidence to stand out in a busy class and put a hand up. Not necessarily any indication of ability and perhaps a surprise for parents to learn that their child is so quiet in class.
Although the criticism of Government policy attempting to micromanage the role of teachers will invoke reaction there is something at stake here. We really do need to ensure that these “invisible children” are engaged, hands up or otherwise. The maxim that for every hand that goes up eight others would have liked to ask the same question and benefit from the answer should not be overlooked.
The significant “Every Parent Matters” policy also issued by the DfES proposes the positive engagement of parents in the schooling process. Parents are to be encouraged to re-adopt a more interactive role at home to reinforce the lesson content. The use of modern teaching resources used in school can also be used at home to practice the lesson content at the pace of the child and tease out those unasked questions.
Children, teachers and parents would be the benefactors of this contagious interaction.
