On a recent school visit, I was observing a lesson with a senior leader. We had a quick chat outside the room and discussed the fact that the majority of the teacher’s questions had either been answered by students calling out or by students with their hands up. We spoke about why this was a problem – how it makes it less likely for all students to participate, how it leads to poor behaviour, how it weakens the assessment data gathered by the teacher – and how we could fix it, principally by challenging calling out and targeting our questions deliberately.

At that point, my co-observer said something to me that I hear a lot:

Our children won’t answer questions if they don’t have their hand up

Of course, it’s part of my job to try and help teachers do things differently, and I can’t do that if they don’t think it will work. I always try to be honest, and sometimes that means I have to be forceful:

Ok, so I’m really sorry but I just can’t accept that. If I’d seen a teacher ask questions like that – you know, to students who they know should be able to answer it, but don’t have their hands up – and the student had just clammed up or whatever, then maybe I’d agree with you and we would have to figure out a different route to engage the whole class. But I haven’t seen that – I haven’t seen a teacher try it – so I can’t accept that your students won’t do something when I’ve seen it work in so many schools.

Candour and honesty are important, and ultimately I am of the belief that teaching is a profession that could do with a bit more honesty – keep it professional and collegiate to be sure – but we owe it to each other and to our students to be honest. I know that when I first started receiving feedback like this I found it quite hard, but it did way more for my practice than other types of feedback.

In this particular case, the conversation continued:

Hm, ok. But won’t they just say “I don’t know”?

We’ll respond in a second, but it’s worth noting that I’ve spoken like this now to dozens of teachers and leaders, and with the extremely rare exception, people rise to it. They might feel challenged by it, but they are always thoughtful and considered. The leader in this case didn’t argue or resist, they took it in, thought about it, and made an entirely reasonable counterpoint.

Let’s continue:

Yup, that could happen. When you’re first starting out, I’d suggest saying something like this “cool, no problem. I’m going to ask somebody else and then come back to you so you can show off your knowledge.” You then ask the question to another student – and in this case you might pick someone who you think is highly likely to know the answer – and then bounce it back. When the first student then gets it right, say something like “amazing, well done – keep it up and you’ll get it first time next time.” This should work at first, and get students used to the idea of being called on, and then you can gradually change your strategies to increase accountability on them for participating, but we can talk about that another time.

Crucially, you can’t criticise without providing solutions. You aren’t there for a power trip, you’re there to help. Interestingly, this particular event continued:

Right I get that, but I think our students won’t respond well to it.

And there we have it again – within the space of 5 minutes, two invocations of “our students won’t.” So we run the tape again:

Right, so like with before I find that really hard to accept. I think if you tell a student you’re coming back to them, you’re super polite and supportive, I think students will rise to that. If we were wandering around lessons and we saw teachers trying something like this and it wasn’t working, then sure we could have that conversation first, but I’m pretty sure that if your teachers try it they can pull it off.

The conversation continued, and we agreed – again, despite my co-observer feeling challenged by it. As before, whilst I don’t particularly enjoy these conversations I think they are important. The reason why I’m mentioning this one specifically is because of what happened next:

It turned out that later on in the day I was actually observing the leader that I was with for these conversations. I watched the teacher about to ask a question, then visibly pause themselves and tell the students they were going to ask somebody of their choosing. They then targeted a particular student. That student said they didn’t know, and the teacher told him that they would come back to him. They went to somebody else who got it right, bounced it back to the first student who then got it right. The teacher kept asking questions like this, and by the fourth question students were answering immediately and naturally.

I’ve written before about expectations, and how it isn’t enough to just say to people that they need to set high expectations. We need to tell people want that means, what it looks like, and how you actually do it. The examples above are just one way in which we can set higher expectations of our students, and of ourselves.

So, if you ever find yourself saying “our students won’t…” well, maybe, if you try it, your children will.