Children learn more quickly if the brightest are prevented from putting their hands up

6-9-2010

Schoolchildren learn more quickly if the brightest and most confident are prevented from putting up their hands, according to a teaching expert.

Those who are less willing to answer teachers' questions rapidly switch off when a minority dominate, according to Professor Dylan Wiliam, deputy director of the Institute of Education at London University.

He is pioneering an alternative technique in which all children in a class are made to answer questions, by writing their answers on small white boards they are given. They then reveal their answers simultaneously to the teacher.

A variation is to ask all the children to answer a 'yes or no' question posed by a teacher, by holding their thumbs up or down.

Prof Dylan tried out his approach on a class of 13-year-olds at Hertswood school in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.

He will outline his educational theories in two, one-hour BBC2 programmes to be aired later this month, called The Classroom Experiment.

He told The Sunday Times that the children and teachers "hated it at the beginning".

He said: "The kids who were used to having a quiet time were rattled at having to do something; the ones who were used to showing off to the teacher were upset."

Prof Dylan also advocates not telling children their marks, but only what they got right and wrong, and holding physical education classes at the start of every day "to get the blood flowing". (Telegraph)