There seems to be no end to research on teaching methods. I often pray for it to stop, but it never does. The latest suggests that academic performance improves if children are not allowed to put their hands up in class. This ghastly old method encourages a minority of brighter pupils to dominate, says Professor William of the Institute of Education.
But teachers have known about the hands-up problem for decades, thank you very much. Children stick their hands up and shout "Miss! Miss! Miss!" for different reasons. They may not be that bright, just desperate for attention. The clever ones may just shut up and get on with it. And most teachers have worked out strategies to deal with hands-up.
In my 24 years at the chalkface teaching Music and English, I learned to encourage the more timid and explain to the show-offs that it was someone else's turn. Luckily teachers often don't have to do that nowadays, because children don't always sit in regimented rows. They often work in groups or pairs, put all their ideas together and elect a spokesperson. That way, everyone contributes.
Prof William's researchers recommend the use of whiteboards. Instead of putting hands up, pupils write on their board and hold it up. But isn't that rather gruelling for everyone? How long does it take the teacher to read all the answers on the 30 or so boards? Can she or he remember them all, select an interesting one, while also keeping an eye on what the pupils at the back are doing behind the screen of massed whiteboards? How long does the class have to wait until the last person has finished writing, and what about the poorer writers with squiggly, all-over-the-place letters? Will the teacher be able to decipher it? Or will he or she just pick the clearer ones? And while the teacher does this, do the pupils' arms tire of holding up the boards? Have the researchers thought this through?
If this method is adopted nationwide, how will the children manage when they hit the real world, where there is always some pushy toad with a big mouth who barges to the front and gets in first? Because no one gives a stuff about fairness out there.