And inspections of the underperforming ones often find that they make insufficient use of whole-class teaching, phonics, or other traditional methods.

ECONOMIST: Plowden��s progress

Before Plowden, whole-class teaching got a bad name because it often led to teachers droning on while their pupils dropped off.

ECONOMIST: New skool rules, OK? | The

Mr Galton reckons that 35% of the primary-school day is now spent on whole-class teaching, up from 15% a few years ago.

ECONOMIST: Plowden��s progress

Ofsted has been campaigning for schools to make more use of whole-class teaching, whose neglect it regards as one of the reasons for under-achievement in other subjects.

ECONOMIST: School curriculum

He argues that excessive use of whole-class teaching might mean pupils spending so long being lectured about mathematics that they never get to solve equations for themselves.

ECONOMIST: New skool rules, OK? | The

These countries all have high aspirations, highly competitive school systems, and an emphasis on whole-class, formal teaching.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Education | What Kelly does next

In teaching maths, for instance, both those countries spend more time on basic arithmetic than on deeper mathematical ideas, emphasise mental arithmetic, rely on standard teaching manuals and favour whole-class (as opposed to group) teaching.

ECONOMIST: Education and the wealth of nations