Hand raising is a common method in schools and a way for students to engage in the classrooms turn-allocation (Andersson & Haglund 2006, p 35), but not all benefit from it. According to Dylan Wiliam (2011) hand raising divides the students by putting the students that participate in hand raising at an advantage versus the students that do not. This study aims to examine hand raising as a phenomenon and the students and teachers thoughts about hand raising. The main research questions were:

• How do the students perceive hand raising?

• How do the teachers reflect upon hand raising?

• How is hand raising usedas a tool by the students?

The main reference to this study has been senior lecture Fritjof Sahlströms (1999) thesis Up the Hill Backwards. On International Constraints and Affordances for Equity-Constitution in the Classrooms of the Swedish Comprehensive School, were he debates around hand raising as a method for interaction with teachers and students. This study has also raised issues from social psychology such as norm and that humans are affected by the mere presence of other humans.

The study has come about using both observations and group-intervjues with students from the range of six to eleven and a singel group-intervju with teachers. Results from the study shows that students consider hand raising as a method for keeping the classrooms atmosphere composed and that they raised their hands if they know the answer. The teachers discussed the difficulties concerning turn-allocations.