ABSTRACT
All of the teachers to whom I spoke felt that they used ‘formal teaching’ at some time, often when dealing with curriculum areas (such as spelling or computational skills) for which there were accepted ‘right answers’. Almost all of them felt that it was a useful component of their repertoire of
teaching skills and was sometimes a highly effective way of ensuring that children acquired a particular skill or piece of information. However, many said they used it more often than they wanted to, as a control device, as an expedient to help them cope with large pupil numbers and inadequate resources or because they felt compelled to concentrate on their classes’ attainment of pre-defined learning outcomes.
