The death of teaching: It’s good to talk

That’s right! And what about the xylem... Anyone?

At least no hands were raised.

The conversation, or classroom discussion, or teacher input – call it what you will – had been ebbing and flowing around the classroom for six or seven minutes. It was an unremarkable recap of the previous lesson on respiration, which I’d also observed.

But just like last time, the students drifted off, their small lights of learning gently extinguished through sheer tedium.

Of the hundreds of lessons I’ve observed, failures to manage classroom talk are the most common features of the most unsuccessful lessons. Of the last 30 lessons I have seen, shortcomings in the teacher’s management of discussion/engagement of the whole class have been a feature in more than 20. Scale that up and there are many thousands of teachers who are getting this wrong.