Waiting for Teacher: the frequency and duration of times children spend waiting for teacher attention in infant school classrooms

Following preliminary pilot studies, an observational study was carried out on the amount of time infant school children spend waiting for teacher attention during seatwork. This involved teachers and children in 20 infant classes. Each class was observed on four occasions and the number of children signalling and waiting for help was noted at the end of each successive minute. In addition, the length of time individual children spent waiting was sampled. The results showed that on average 2.66 children were waiting for assistance at any time and that this number increased as the lesson progressed. The average time spent waiting was 84 seconds. There were no appreciable differences between the numbers of boys and girls waiting. It appears, however, that children in classes whose teachers operate a queue system wait for shorter periods than in classes where hands‐up signalling is employed. 1989 British Educational Research Association