Schools should let pupils go back to putting their hands up to answer questions again after many banned the tradition, says Government schools Tsar

• Traditional technique has been 'going out of fashion' over the past decade
• Some heads banned the practice in favour of choosing children at random
• Tom Bennett said it is a 'tragedy' that teachers were now using 'gimmicks' 
• Teachers warn technique only leads to most confident pupils answering  

By Steph Cockroft for MailOnline

Published: 01:40 EST, 9 September 2015 | Updated: 02:35 EST, 9 September 2015

Tom Bennett, who is heading a working party to guide teachers on improving class behaviour, said teachers should make children put their hands up

Teachers should make children put their hands up to answer questions in lessons, the Government's new school behaviour tsar has said. 

The technique has apparently been 'going out of fashion' for the past decade, with some experts believing it leads to only the most confident children answering.

Some 'progressive' heads have also banned it in favour of picking children to answer at random.

But Tom Bennett, head of a working party to guide teachers on improving conduct in class, said it was a 'tragedy' that teachers were now using 'gimmicks' instead of the more traditional method.

Other more modern ways of encouraging pupils to answer questions include asking each studens to hold up answers on whiteboards and the lollipop method, which involves writing the name of every child on a stick and selecting one at random.

The former Soho nightclub bouncer told the Sunday Times: 'I would like to see traditional techniques such as a hands up culture in schools again.

'The tragedy is that for so long now teachers have been taught gimmicks. Most of these new techniques are ineffective.

'Teachers are going into classrooms without armour, with no proper strategies for dealing with difficult behaviour. All this must end.'

He added that teachers should use their 'common sense'. 'They are perfectly at liberty to ask a child who does not have their hand up to answer,' he added.   

But teachers said the 'hands-up' practice should only be one element of a wider strategy to get pupils to engage in the classroom.

Kim Knappett, president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I myself use the lollipop sticks with children's name on so you can randomly pick out who is going to answer a question.

'Otherwise I would name a child because I think they need to be drawn back in. Sometimes children don't put their hands up because they don't feel confident at speaking.'

The technique has apparently been 'going out of fashion' for the past decade, with some experts believing it leads to only the most confident children answering (file picture)

Dylan William, emeritus professor of education assessment of the Institute of Education at London University, has been a champion of stopping children raising their hands.

He added: 'It doesn't really matter very much whether students raise their hands. What matters is if the teacher is only choosing the ones with the hands up with the answer to a question.

'If they are, then they are only hearing from a small proportion of the class and they are making decisions about whether the class is ready to move on on the basis of bad evidence.' 

Mr Bennett, who was appointed in his new role in June, has taught religious studies and philosophy in east London schools for ten years and has written several acclaimed books on ‘behaviour solutions’ for schools. 

His new role follows warnings by schools watchdog Ofsted that low-level disruption in classrooms, such as swinging on chairs and chatting, can lead to children losing up to 38 days of learning every year.