Literacy hour leaves 'no time for thinking'

Researchers from Durham and Leicester Universities have found that teachers feel under pressure to keep up the pace of the literacy hour and are asking children questions which require only brief and unreflective answers, rather than taking an open-ended approach that allows the children to express their views at length. The study found that just one in ten of the spoken contributions children make during the literacy hour is longer than three words, with only five per cent longer than five.

The Study of Primary Interactive Teaching (SPRINT) project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, found that teachers faced with tough Key Stage 1 targets feel obliged to stick to their lesson plans if children try to explore subjects that do not fit in conveniently. One teacher told a researcher, 'There are no allowances made for the fact that the children are very young... they may come in with something exciting that happened that they are desperate to share with you and sometimes it sounds cruel, but you have to say, "Can we talk about that later?" because you're aware of your timetable.'