John Hattie VISIBLE LEARNING FOR TEACHERS —Maximizing Impact on Learning
Visible Learning for
Teachers is a powerful read. John Hattie
summarizes 15 years of evidence based research and purposefully answers the
question, “How do we maximize achievement in our schools?” He clearly states
what actually works and how can we implement best practices in our own
classrooms and schools. Hattie’s practical approaches provides opportunities
for both the visible learner and visible teacher to consistently experience
successful outcomes.
Here are my personal ah-ha moments and
reminders while reading Visible Learning for Teachers. I truly tried to narrow it down to 10, but it was
just impossible to do so.
“For any particular intervention to be
considered worthwhile, it needs to show an improvement in student learning of
at least an average gain—that is, an effect size of at least d = 0.40—the “hinge
point” for identifying what is and what is not effective” (pg. 3).
“What is most important is that
teaching is visible to the students, and that the learning is visible to the
teacher. The more the student becomes the teacher and the more the teacher
becomes the learner, then the more successful are the outcomes” (Hattie, 2009)
(pg. 21).
“The key issue is that children may
think differently from adults/teachers, which means that attention needs to be
given to how and not only to what the child is learning” (pg.43).
“The most important task is for teachers
to listen” (pg. 81).
“Teachers who speak of ‘learning styles’
are labelling students in terms of how they (the teachers) think the students
think, and thus overlooking the fact that the student can change, and learn new
ways of thinking and can meet challenges in learning” (pg. 89).
“The focus of decision-making is more
about developing the strategies of learning to achieve the success targets, and
less about implementing a particular teaching method” (pg. 120).
“Nuthall (2005) found that most
feedback that students obtained in any day in classrooms was from other
students – and that most of this feedback was incorrect” (pg.138).
“Disconfirmation can be more powerful
than confirmation” (pg. 139).
“Celebrate success, but examine it”
(pg. 141).
“Teachers too often see assessments
feedback as making statement about students and not about their teaching, and
hence the benefits of feedback from such testing are often diluted” (pg. 141).
Replace your dinner conversations to, “What
was the best thing that you did today (other than playtime)?’ to ‘What feedback
did you receive from your teachers today?’” (pg. 150).
“The important distinction, however, is
to move from the notion of ‘instructional leaders’ (which places too much
emphasis on the instruction to ‘learning leaders’ (which places the emphasis on
student and adult learning)” (pg. 175).
“We need to move from the prepositional
divide of assessment as ‘assessments of’ and ‘assessment for’ to assessment as
feedback for teachers” (pg.185).
"Not all teachers are effective, not all
teachers are experts, and not all teachers have powerful effect of students” (Hattie,
2009) (pg. 190).
“My role, as a teacher, is to evaluate
the effect I have on my students.’ It is to ‘know thy impact’, it is to
understand this impact, and it is to act on this knowing and understanding” (pg. 23).
For a more comprehensive summary of his
synthesized research findings here is a link to Hattie presenting to a captive Ted
Talk audience on what really matters for student achievement. Hattie on Ted.
