Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning

by John Hattie

In November 2008, John Hattie s ground-breaking book Visible Learning synthesised the results of more than fifteen years research involving millions of students and represented the biggest ever collection of evidence-based research into what actually works in schools to improve learning.

Visible Learning for Teachers takes the next step and brings those ground breaking concepts to a completely new audience. Written for students, pre-service and in-service teachers, it explains how to apply the principles of Visible Learning to any classroom anywhere in the world. The author offers concise and user-friendly summaries of the most successful interventions and offers practical step-by-step guidance to the successful implementation of visible learning and visible teaching in the classroom.

This book:





links the biggest ever research project on teaching strategies to practical classroom implementation

champions both teacher and student perspectives and contains step by step guidance including lesson preparation, interpreting learning and feedback during the lesson and post lesson follow up

offers checklists, exercises, case studies and best practice scenarios to assist in raising achievement

includes whole school checklists and advice for school leaders on facilitating visible learning in their institution

now includes additional meta-analyses bringing the total cited within the research to over 900

comprehensively covers numerous areas of learning activity including pupil motivation, curriculum, meta-cognitive strategies, behaviour, teaching strategies, and classroom management.

Visible Learning for Teachers is a must read for any student or teacher who wants an evidence based answer to the question; how do we maximise achievement in our schools

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, School, Psychology, Leadership, Read For School

269 pages, Paperback

First published December 17, 2012

About the author

John Allan Clinton Hattie ONZM (born 1950) was born in Timaru, New Zealand, and has been a professor of education and director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, since March 2011. He was previously professor of education at the University of Auckland.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

This meta-analysis of 900 (my head hurts) studies on what works in education (sweet mystery of life!) is not the sort of thing you read cover to cover in narrative glory. I've been reading it in spots for two months, but finished it in a burst over the past few days. It contains interesting information on what works and what doesn't work. For instance, the Top Ten Influences on Student Achievement:

Self-reported grades/student expectations
Piagetian programs
Response to intervention
Teacher credibility
Providing formative evaluation
Micro-teaching
Classroom discussion
Comprehensive interventions for learning-disabled students
Teacher clarity
Feedback

And the Bottom Ten Influences:

Ethnic diversity of students
College halls of residence
Multi-grade/Multi-age classrooms
Student control over learning
Open vs. Traditional
Summer vacation
Welfare policies
Retention
Television
Mobility

What Hattie hammers home is learning and its preeminence over teaching. "It's the learning, stupid," might be a mantra for you, especially if you teach and obsess over your teaching. Please don't. Obsess over their learning.

Also, when you observe another teacher's classroom, focus on and take notes on the kids -- what they do, what they say, whether they appear to be learning. Ask them what the target goal is in learning. Do they even know? Do they know what's next? Do they know WHY they are doing what they're doing -- its place in the big picture?

Similarly, if someone observes your classroom, ask them to focus on the kids more than you. There's the rub. You can teach like the second coming of Mr. Chips, but if the kids aren't learning anything, what good is any of it (spare for your ego)?

Again, this book is about studies and what they bear out for practices, but it certainly doesn't go into lesson plans, specific activities, etc. It's more the principles you need to be grounded in. Take it from there and Godspeed....

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there was some interesting analysis in here of how students learn, I eventually became overwhelmed with all the statements about what an effective teacher "should" do for each and every one of his/her students. One passage actually made me feel queasy at the thought of how far removed his description of an ideal learning environment was from the realities of my classroom. With a survey of over 900 meta-analyses of educational research, the author found a very large number of factors that can have a positive effect on student learn ... during lesson planning, during lesson delivery, in classroom culture, in student and teacher mindsets, etc. While I marked some strategies that I thought I could implement early in the book, by the end I didn't know what to do with all the recommendations and I just wanted it to be over.

While the author kept claiming that good teachers should know where all the students are in their current thinking and should provide effective, engaging pathways to get each and every one of them to the learning objective, this book failed in both aspects. It only laid out an idealized learning environment without acknowledging existing classroom challenges and providing no effective description about how to transition from what is to what "should" be. It was WAY too far outside my own "zone of proximal development" as a teacher, and I felt what any learner can feel when the learning objective seems hopelessly out of reach - frustration, anxiety and resentment.

[Jonathan Peto · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of this book is a professor in Australia who directs the Melbourne Education Research Institute. In 2008 or so he published this book: Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. It is a summary of hundreds of meta-analyses. (A meta-analysis is when a researcher combs research databases and analyzes the results of a number of studies. Some meta-analyses are based on hundreds of studies, others on only tens of studies, and so on.) Each meta-analysis related to variables that affect (or might affect) learning, such as feedback and ethnicity. He (and his team, I presume) calculated an effect size for each variable and expressed it as a decimal, for the sake of comparison. He determined that an effect size of 0.4 is “important because it is close to the average effect that we can expect from a year’s schooling.” This information is thought-provoking and worthwhile because most variables have a positive effect, but those with an effect size less than 0.4 are actually low, less than what you’d expect from a year’s schooling.

This book, Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning, helps teachers (administrators, school systems...) use the results of Hattie’s meta-analyses to improve learning in their classrooms or schools. When scientists explain that the earth goes around the sun, that mankind originated in Africa, that matter is made from smaller particles, I have to take it on faith, for the most part, and I'm not impressed by someone who tries to tell me that climate change is phooey when they obviously know nothing about the science behind it. Same here. Lot of research involved. Are you really going to discount it so that you remain comfortable and safe? Really?

The main message is that teachers must know their impact on students. We must focus on their learning (and we can’t do it alone), which means you guys and gals can burn the calories of a lumberjack or rock and roll drummer up there at the interactive white board or whatever and have an extremely entertaining teaching style and not have enough impact. Please, do that, entertain, it has an impact (teacher-student relationships? 0.72), but there are other practices that must be present too. By the end, Hattie recommends mind sets, such as engaging in dialogue not monologue, such as seeing assessment as feedback about your impact on learning. Before that are chapters about lessons and how to plan and execute them while being mindful of the effect sizes of various variables on learning. Hattie states that “it is important to note that there is nothing new in this book or in Visible Learning.” True, but don’t discount it. How many basic story plots are there? Was Einstein the first to conceptualize the ideas of mass and energy? Visible Learning is new in similar ways, perhaps. It’s given me quite a few things to think about, experiment with, and attempt to change.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I apologize to every teacher friend who is going to have to deal with me prattling on about Hattie's research. It's a shift in focus I wish I would have gone through while still in the classroom.

The major takeaway is that my role as an educator is not to "teach content" but to measure the impact of my choices. If I am constantly measuring my impact, I will improve my instructions.

"Know thy impact" is the elevator pitch. This is a tattoo worthy reminder while teaching. But, I don't get tattoos, so I will have to add it to my personal pedagogy.

"Be demanding, fair, and caring. Know thy impact." Sounds about right.

[Matt Carton · Rating 4 out of 5]

While 10 years old, this greatly supplements the aims of Grading for Equity. I hope to develop a decent framework for my team’s PD as I synthesize this information. I should mention to my colleagues that Chapter 9, “Mind frames teachers, school leaders, and systems” is essential reading.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book expertly explains what schools need to do to help all children learn, with statistics and research to back it up. I especially appreciate Hattie's explanations when the evidence goes against common sense, as on class size--he points out that smaller classes haven't made a difference because evidently teachers continue to teach the same way whether they have 35 or 18 students. So the answer on class size is, "Not yet, but maybe it would make a difference if teaching strategies took advantage of the smaller size."

However, the "how's" are missing. Huge factors such as feedback, relationships, student self-efficacy, etc., are huge strategies/abilities to master. Each one needs a book of its own, almost! There's also a huge need for deep leadership development to properly support teachers. And, time for teachers to learn and collaborate...

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a disappointment. I was hoping that this book would provide insight into explicitness in teaching and learning. Instead, I read each page waiting for the book to start. Unusually for me, I only took two pages of notes from the book.

This book offers arguments that are self evident and obvious. Teachers need to maintain standards of achievement. Teacher's interventions matter to student learning. It is important that teachers communicate with each other.

Obvious stuff.

I rarely regret buying a book because I gain enough insight to provide a foundation for further research. In the case of _Visible Learning for Teachers_ I cannot work out why I bought it. I will not consult it for future projects.

[robertjwbrown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The research behind this and the huge meta-analysis on 'what works' is commendable. Hattie stresses that almost any teaching method can have a positive effect size, therefore one should accept the standard or bar for effect size should be high (he averages to 0.40, in which the assertion is these types of strategies can elicit 'one years growth for one year of teaching.') This changes the conversation from 'what works' to 'what works best'. Although there is debate on the authenticity and validity of these meta analysis' the findings are based on and that many of these findings are already well known.

There are some interesting ideas, such as the main focus for teachers should be on 'learning' as opposed to 'teaching' and 'evaluation' over 'method' - the idea that you can teach your ass off but what good is it if the effect of it is naught? Although, I think he overstates this focus - 'how' you teach certainly Informs how much students learn.

What is jarring for me is that despite the myriad of research which mostly supports Hattie's ideas on learning effective sizes, is the lack of practical application advice and explicit ways to achieve this. A teacher can make deductions and are apt at the method of praxis, however, this appears incongruous with the key messages of this book - making the learning 'visible'. This is especially pronounced when considering over 25 million students were observed and 50,000 or so studies were synthesised.

[❀ Diana ❀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a few tips that could work on the Romanian educational system, yet some of these are often overlooked as too much of a hassle to be implemented.

-1 star for the constant promoting of the efficiency of the book... one must not overlook the cultural, societal and socio-economic state + values of a region/area

-1 star for the quite 'utopian' view of the practical tips offered throughout the book.

[Adrian Buck · Rating 3 out of 5]

An effect size is a statisitic that measures the difference between doing something and doing something else. As a teacher I was introduced to the concept in E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning. Unsurprisingly the volume was full of recommendations such as "present words as audio narration rather than on screen text". The reason for the recommendation is that the learning outcomes of two versions of a multimedia lesson, one with narration, the other with text were compared; and the narration was clearly more effective than the text. All of these recommendations were concrete, and adopting them seemed a matter of common sense. This is great, I thought, if only someone could do this for classroom teaching.

Well, John Hattie has tried and Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning is the result. It's a good book, well considered, well structured and well written, but it has left me with serious reservations about whether anyone, Hattie included, can provide 'proven guidelines' for classroom instruction. The reason for this lies in the differences between multimedia learning and classroom instruction; one is a product, the other is a process. You can sit a thousand people down in front of a computer, show them he same multimedia lesson, test them, make an isolated change to the lesson, show it to another thousand people, test them and draw valid conclusions about which version of the lesson is more effective. Much to the frustration of educational administrators everywhere, teachers are not computers, my colleagues and I couldn't present the same material with isolated changes to groups of thirty, let alone a thousand.

Classroom teaching is not merely an interactive activity, e-learning can be interactive. Classroom teaching is a group, real time, interactive activity. Each time I teach, I modify my material - sometimes radically - to reach I what think are the individual and collective needs of my students. I don't do it as well as a computer theoretically could, but no computer has been programmed to do it all. Hattie is aware of this, he refers to the need for differential teaching, his whole discussion on feedback focuses on how tightly differenciated teaching needs to be to be effective, but he also admits his approach cannot overcome individual difference between students. The techniques he recommends still produce winners and losers, but he claims they maximise the impact of learning over the population of learners. I remind myself: if little Johnny fails his maths test it's a tragedy, if a million fail it's a statistic.

What Hattie does not admit is the unfortunate consequences of this for his whole project. The effect sizes of multimedia instruction can be scientifically measured, because variables can be isolated. The effect of classroom instruction cannot be scientifically measured, because the variables cannot be isolated. This becomes apparent when you compare recommendations from the the two books; "present words as audio narration rather than on screen text" vs "teachers provide feedback appropriate to the point at which students are in their learning, and seek evidence that this feedback is appropriately received". This first is an easy box to tick, but how does the scientific observer tick the Hattie box? 'Appropriate' looks like a value judgement to me. Hattie's recommendations are also a lot vaguer than those culled from 'the science of instruction'. They have to be because they are compiled from meta-studies rather then individual studies of E-learning. As I said its impossible to reproduce the same experimental conditions for classroom teaching, and impossible to study the same population sizes. The effect sizes that Hattie is calculating are based on finding similar studies and aggregating their results: similar, not the same. In order to match the studies up, specific details of the research have to be omitted as not relevant. The omission of these details makes these results less concrete, more vague. As I read on, and stucture of Hattie's argument became apparent, it seemed to me that effect sizes in Hattie's work became less a source of scientific instruction, and more a support for educational ideology.

The ideology that Hattie is implicitly advocating is that schools should be about learning. There seems nothing obviously shocking about that until reflecting that there is an awful lot of educational endevour that the impact on learning of which cannot be readily quantified. I have the fond notion that I should be educating for citizenship. And there is a core of knowledge here, facts which can be tested about our institutions and how they theroretically work. But most political concepts are essentially contestable , and to subject a student's knowlege of citizenship to test, would quickly result in a political debate. Hattie's focus on 'learning' is an attempt to avoid these debates about education itself. Another fond notion I have is that education should expose students to new experiences and activities, again not it is not obvious how to measure the impact of a school trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, reading Shakespeare in class, or performing in a school play. There is no discussion of this in Hattie's recommendations, and so no evidence that he rejects this kind of educational activity, but the relentless focus on activities where d >= 0.4 (the statististically most impactful) means they are going to be sidelined at least. What slowly comes into focus is a kind of Gradgrindian, positivist view of education: not one I find inspiring.

Despite the title, "Visible Learning for Teachers", a suprising number of his recommendations can only be put into practice by school managers. By the end of the book it clear that this should not be surprising, he's not a great fan of teacher autonomy. Teachers should be distracted from their own ideas of what effective teaching is; teachers should not be lectured about what changes are going to take place in their school's educational philosophy; instead teachers should be put into groups to told to discuss exclusively the impact of their teaching is having, and how to improve it. Initially the idea of having paid time to discuss effective teaching with colleagues, paid time to plan and experiment with lesson plans and curricula sounds great. But once the realisation sets in that teachers will to be held accountable for what each of their students learn, and what their students learn will be determined by what an effect size can be calculated from, it all becomes very distopian. I felt - perhaps misguidedly - I could understand why in Australia (Hattie's home turf) and the UK, teacher retention is such an issue, whereas in twenty years of teaching in Hungary, I only know of two young teachers who have left the profession - and in both cases for better pay.

Perhaps low teacher retention is not a problem in the long term, it creates the environment where computer driven instruction can be happily introduced. Such a situation would be a boon for Hattie, he could calculate his effect sizes with so much more confidence.

[Azat Sultanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Students need to know what's going on in the class: success criteria and how to get there should be clear to everyone, where you are now in reference to the desired level and what's your next step to get closer to the desired level. All this is going on in a feedback loop, scaffolded by an empathizing teacher who constantly uses formative assessment to plan the most efficient action plan to implement in the next several lessons.

[Hannah Howell · Rating 5 out of 5]

ALL teachers need to read this! A compilation of evidence of what has been proven effective or ineffective for students based on EVIDENCE! We have been doing so many things wrong because we just "think" they are working without really knowing. This book eliminates the wondering teachers often do and explicitly maps out what they should be doing if they want to be effective in having their students reach success. I wish I would have read this years ago!

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 5 out of 5]

Denna bok fick mig att tänka igenom hur jag gör mitt jobb. Jag ser framförallt förhållningssätt i boken, delvis sådana som var medvetna, men också sådana jag aldrig tänkt på. Jag rekommenderar den varmt.

[Harry]

lots of great research insights. not, as it turns out, a thrilling narrative.

[Erin McDonnell-Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Visible teaching and learning occurs when learning is the explicit and transparent goal, when it is appropriately challenging, and when the teacher and student both (in their various ways), seek to ascertain whether and to what degree the challenging goal is attained" (p. 17-18)

"Powerful, passionate, accomplished teachers are those who:
- focus on students' cognitive engagement with the content of what it is that is being taught
- focus on developing a way of thinking and reasoning that emphasizes problem-solving and teaching strategies relating to the content that they wish students to learn
- focus on imparting new knowledge and understanding, and then monitor how students gain fluence and appreciation in the new knowledge
- focus on providing feedback in an appropriate and timely manner to help students to attain the worthwhile goals of the lesson
- seek feedback about their effect on the progress and proficiency of all of their students
- have deep understanding about how we learn
- focus on seeing learning through the eyes of the students, appreciating their fits and starts in learning, and their often non-linear progressions to the goal, supporting their deliberate practice, providing feedback about their errors and misdirection, and caring that the students get to the goals and that the students share the teacher's passion for the material being learnt." - (p. 23)

"For [effective] feedback to be received and have a positive effect, we need transparent and challenging goals, an understanding of current status relative to these goals, transparent and understood criteria of success, and commitment and skills by both teachers and students in investing and implementing strategies and understandings relative to these goals and success criteria" (p. 151)

!!!!!Observation suggestion: don't observe the teacher teaching, observe the students learning!!!!!

Visible learning-checklist for end of lesson:
(1) Teachers provide evidence that all students feel as though they have been invited into their class to learn effectively. This invitation involves feelings of respect, trust, optimism, and intention to learn.
(2) Teachers collect evidence of the student experience in their classes about their success as change agents, about their levels of inspiration, and about sharing their passion with students.
(3) Together, teachers critique the learning intentions and success criteria, and have evidence that:
A. students can articulate the learning intentions and success criteria in a way that shows that they understand them
b. students attain the success criteria
c. students see the success criteria as appropriately challenging
d. teachers use this information when planning their next set of lessons/learning
(4) Teachers create opportunities for both formative and summative interpretations of student learning, and use these interpretations to inform future decisions about their teaching.(p. 155-162)

"The major message in this book is that enhancing teacher quality is one of the keys--and the way in which to achieve this is through ensuring that every teacher in school has the mind frame that leads to the greatest positive effect on student learning and achievement... It is going to happen through enacting deliberate policies to support schools with the resources to know about their impact, and esteem them when they (the schools) demonstrate their impact on all students" (p. 191)

[Jon Den Houter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this book only because I had such high expectations for it. John Hattie is famous for conducting, within educational research, the mother of all meta-analyses: an analysis of 800+ meta-analyses, which encompassed 52,637 studies and about 240 million students and provided 146,142 effect sizes. Based on this, I expected this book to detail how to implement the very best strategies, methods, mindsets, etc. to achieve the best educational results. According to his mother of all meta-analyses meta-analysis, Hattie found the top ten most effective educational interventions are as follows (each is listed with its effect size; Hattie says that an effect size over 0.40 is good and should be the standard expectation for all teachers to achieve with their students over the course of each school year):

1 Self-reported grades/Student expectations 1.44
2 Piagetian programs 1.28
3 Response to intervention 1.07
4 Teacher credibility 0.90
4 Providing formative evaluation 0.90
6 Micro-teaching 0.88
7 Classroom discussion 0.82
8 Comprehensive interventions for learning disabled students 0.77
9 Teacher clarity 0.75
10 Feedback 0.75

(You can find all the interventions ranked highest to lowest by googling "Hattie effect size list.")

I was so excited to learn about these programs, but now that I have finished the book, I still don't know what micro-teaching is, for example, or how to achieve teacher credibility or clarity in my own classroom. Since this was what I was expecting to learn, this book was a letdown, hence my three-star rating.

So what *was* this book about? Unfortunately, it is just another book on how to improve education, written by an educational researcher and consultant, based largely on his experience. Over the course of the book, Hattie discussed the implications on student learning from probably about 15-20 studies--this is a far cry from the 52,637 studies he has analyzed. I was hoping he would take the creme de la creme of the 50,000 studies he analyzed and distill them into principals we teachers could follow. But as Hattie himself says,

It is important to note that there is nothing new in this book or in Visible Learning. The messages and evidence are based on a study of prior literature, on what has worked successfully in so many classrooms. As noted in the introduction, there is no new program, no new acronym, no new ‘Gee whiz, let’s do this for a while!’; instead, it is a recognition of the critical importance of understanding how excellent teachers think! (p. 156).

In my opinion, Hattie uses the prestige of his exceptional work on effect sizes to sell an unexceptional educational book. He filled Visible Learning for Teachers with analogies to education that he learned from his experience coaching cricket, with information from educational studies he himself conducted, with lessons from his consulting work in various schools in New Zeeland, and with implications for teaching from a handful of research studies--some of which correspond to the top interventions based on effect sizes, but many that do not. With all due respect to Hattie, I didn't read the book to learn about these things.

I would recommend to teachers looking to implement the best practices in their classroom--those with the highest effect sizes--that you search out the research studies of these top educational interventions and read them directly.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

A certain method for mediocrity and that is about all:

> What a student brings to the classroom each year is very much related to his or her achievement in previous years: brighter students tend to achieve more and not-so-bright students achieve less. Our job as teachers is to mess this up, by planning ways in which to accelerate the growth of those who start behind.

Otherwise, the usual empty talk coming from an academic paper pusher. The guy seems to have next to none experience working in the filed, but he draws "from millions of students", by doing what most people call a meta-study. And although useful in theoretical research, just throwing up studies generally amounts to nothing, as most studies in humanities have nothing to do with sciences and are there to serve the preconceived ideas of the study boss or of the grant giver. Hattie seems the wrong person to understand the large quantity of studies just thrown in as his reasoning is shallow at best:

> So, before the lesson is planned, the teacher must know what a student already knows and can do.

So all Hattie needs are God-like teachers to follow some shallow observations of his. Never mind the students, his junk is well sold and his pension plan is safe.

[Chase Parsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where do education buzz-terms like “best practices” and “success criteria” come from? Educators, have you ever seen the “effect size” speedometer-looking chart about influences in education (i.e. anything over .40 is learning “progress”)? This book is your answer. Where I work, John Hattie’s “Visible Learning for Teachers” has been extremely influential in the past decade. Administrators use its vocabulary, our teacher evaluation reflects his findings, and more.

My overall summary of my feelings for the book is this: Hattie’s work is worthwhile, but it is not the end-all.

First off, here were some of the parts I liked.
- The daunting work John Hattie has done. Anyone who complies hundreds of meta-studies and tries to make sense of it all is impressive! A noble goal.

- His conclusion about teachers – they make a huge impact, they need to be warm individuals (good sports), and they need to constantly be thinking and communicating with peers about the effectiveness of what they are doing in hopes to further refine their craft. “Know thy impact".

Next, it was interesting to read through the “Influences on Achievement” (Appendix C). We only get a list, and Hattie discusses some of them in the book, but I would have liked to have heard a bit about each category. Some were difficult to define. Some of the pieces I noted:
- The highest category is student expectations at 1.44! Students are very good about predicting how they do on tests and in classes, and this is a GIGANTIC number. Is this a case for the emphasis of grit, goal-setting, and attitude? I think it is!

- Teacher credibility was .90 – #4 overall! I take it this is in the eyes of students? Surprisingly, teacher education was really low (.09)...does this vary? Teacher expectations were .44.

- Learning style preference (kinesthetic, verbal, auditory) are shams and count for very little.

- Classroom discussion was high - #7 at .82.

- Charter schools scored poorly at .19. Summer vacation was -.02! The worst was mobility at -.034 and television was 2nd worst.

Finally, here are some critiques I have and points to think about:
- The book was quite dry. There were no pictures (other than data), and a limited amount of humor.

- What Hattie recommends for collaboration is highly unrealistic where I work (Washington state, US). He recommends teachers collaborate (i.e. PLC time) for 15-25 hours a WEEK (pg. 191)! This is not feasible. He also wisely suggests that accountability should not be a factor in these discussions and that all the data he has put together should only be a starting point for what works. I agree, but I am not sure that everyone is taking his research the same way. Our teacher evaluations for example reflect lots of his findings.
- I think the reality I see in teacher collaboration is far different. In my experience, despite good intentions from good teachers and administrators, teachers are set up for failure. We do not have even close to the amount of time to collaborate like Hattie suggests, and when we do meet, it is often forced and sometimes toxic, because teachers fear getting in trouble and/or being forced to do something they are not comfortable doing. And PLCs/teacher collaboration can be very problematic. Coaches cannot make meetings, teachers have IEP meetings (Special Ed) or something else to do, some don't care as much (retiring soon, overwhelmed, etc.) and will just go the easiest route, some have an agenda, rookies are not as experienced and are often not seen as equals, teachers from other subject areas are forced to teach out of their expertise, administrators demand the group do something they don't want to do, etc. Hattie mentions “presentism” – teachers can get so busy and overwhelmed that they only worry about present issues, and I think this is an unfortunate reality for many American teachers.

- Another related killer in all this are the plethora of standards teachers must teach. Some of Hattie’s teaching suggestions take a lot of time to do (peer review, Piaget stuff, etc.). I teach mostly World History. We have to cover 19 common core literacy standards (some of which are massive, like writing a research essay), and something like 39 content standards, many of which have multiple parts! My AP World History class is extremely fast-paced and I constantly have to make decisions about what to emphasize and what to cut. I know some about Finland's education system and that is a far more humane one. I am not sure what schools in New Zealand and Australia are like (Hattie's turf).

- Next, I was not impressed with Hattie’s emphasis on English, Math, and sometimes Science. Clearly, that is where all the data comes from because that is what test data we have. What about my field – social studies? What about PE? Art? Etc. Different subjects and grade levels demand different outlooks, right?

- I questioned some of the semantics in this book. Hattie hates “worksheets” but loves “guided practice.” He hates lecture but loves “direct instruction” (.59). He defines direct instruction as a class that: starts off with learning intentions (targets), outlines success criteria, engages students, has a presentation, gives guided practice, reviews what was learned (closure), and gives independent practice. I think that, for me, I do this quite often, and my students have given me very positive feedback about it. But instead of praise, many might see a teacher in front of the room and automatically think “lecture” and the activity as a “worksheet.” I still don’t understand what a worksheet is as Hattie defines it, but I am guessing it is just busy work/a waste of time activity.

In closing, this was an interesting book to read and it has been quite influential. It is a good starting point, but I am weary of people in education perverting some of his findings into unfair accountability and expectations on educators.

[Mothwing · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading and re-reading parts of this book and still find it a really helpful resource and starting point for meaningful change. I'm not sure it deserves its status as the Teaching Bible (TM) that it is given over where I am, but there are very many good points that I'd have liked to see filled with more practical tips and resources for implementation (i.e. more resources of formative assessment).

[Jeanine · Rating 2 out of 5]

John Hattie needs to learn to write a read-able book. I read this for work over the summer and it was excruciating. This book could have been reduced to a Google slides presentation. Good ideas were presented in a horrible book.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Hattie has reduced tens of thousands of educational studies to a basic measure, "effect size", to identify what works. He presented this in a 400-page book, "Visible Learning", which is structured by intervention, saying what works and what doesn't. That report on his research pointed to useful things but didn't give teachers a lot of guidance on how to use that knowledge to improve their teaching. After all, "feedback" gets only a few pages to decode its subtleties but the implementation of a decent feedback system needs more than that. Hence this book, "Visible Learning for Teachers", which has as its structure the basic shape of a lesson: preparing, starting, learning, feedback, and evaluation.

Language shapes thought. Orwell knew it, probably better than Sapir and Whorf (the linguist, not the Star Trek character) knew it. In English we talk about "teaching" and "learning" as two different things. And, in education, we talk about "teaching" far more than we talk about "learning", because "teaching" is what we control. Hattie's point (and, to be fair, many others) is that what really matters is "learning": schools exist to help kids learn and develop, and learning happens from other kids, independently, and with the assistance of adults.

But it gets really interesting when you realize that "learning" is what teachers must constantly do. When teachers learn what students know and how they view the world, teachers can fill the gaps and best help the student learn. The questions that teachers ask themselves about learning are what governors of a company must ask the CEO: "is there progress, and how do you know?". By collecting evidence to inform the way you run a classroom, you can aim better in your teaching, and "Visible Learning for Teachers" shows teachers what this path looks like.

The other element that stood out from this book for me was the idea that improvement isn't something that we do to ourselves, and it's certainly not something that can be done for us by others, but rather the best mechanism for success is to get teams of teachers working together. In one wanky sense this is building "a community of practice", a term that stumbles off the tongue with a lack of grace comparable to that of "person of colour", but working together opens the door to economies of scale as groups improve together, to the honest equality of shared vulnerability, to the "none of us are as smart as all of us" idea of better solutions from diverse informed groups.

The methods and processes outlined in these next chapters often cite the importance of teachers critiquing each other, planning together, evaluating together, and finding many other ways in which to work together. I acknowledge that this is a resource-intensive claim. The plea is to find ways in which to resource this learning together within schools, because this would be a much more effective and efficient use of educational funding than that typically spent on the peripheries and structural issues of schooling – which so often have less effect, such as offering summer school (d = .23), reducing class size (d = .21), ability grouping (d = .12), open learning communities (d = .01), extra-curricular programs (d = .17), or retention (-.16). Accomplishing the maximum impact on student learning depends on teams of teachers working together, with excellent leaders or coaches, agreeing on worthwhile outcomes, setting high expectations, knowing the students’ starting and desired success in learning, seeking evidence continually about their impact on all students, modifying their teaching in light of this evaluation, and joining in the success of truly making a difference to student outcomes.

The book is still lacking. I admit I'm not the target audience: I'm in governance, not administration or teaching. But when I put on my amateur-teacher hat (e.g., as a parent who helps his kids with homework and tries to help them learn things over the holidays) I struggled to pin down precisely how I get feedback on progress through the day. There's an art to instantaneous assessment, to useful and meaningful measures of progress that aren't (as Joseph Payne put it) "continually pulling up the plants to see the condition of the roots, the consequence of which is that all good natural growth was stopped." I presume this is what teachers work together on, but I'd love to listen in on such a session to hear how to approach this.

Some things that caught my eye:

Expert teachers and experienced teachers do not differ in the amount of knowledge that they have about curriculum matters or knowledge about teaching strategies – but expert teachers do differ in how they organize and use this content knowledge.

I liked this discussion of different mindsets that make learning easy or difficult:

Self-efficacy This is the confidence or strength of belief that we have in ourselves that we can make our learning happen. Those with high self-efficacy are more likely to see hard tasks as challenges rather than try to avoid them, and when they have failures, they see them as a chance to learn and to make a greater effort or to look for new information next time. Those with low self-efficacy are more likely to avoid difficult tasks, which they view as personal threats; they are likely to have low or weak commitment to goals, and are more likely, in ‘failure’ situations, to dwell on personal deficiencies, obstacles encountered, or to deny personal agency, and they are slow to recover their confidence.

Self-handicapping This occurs when students choose impediments or obstacles to performance that allow them to deflect the cause of failure away from their competence towards the acquired impediments. Examples include procrastination, the choice of performance-debilitating circumstances (for example,‘the dog ate my homework’), engaging in little or no practice for upcoming tasks, having low-challenge goals, exaggerating obstacles to success, and strategically reducing effort. In the event of failure, the person has an immediate excuse. We can reduce self-handicapping by providing more success in learning, reducing the uncertainty about learning outcomes, and teaching students to become better monitors of their own learning.

Self-motivation This can be towards intrinsic or extrinsic attributions: is the learning itself the source of satisfaction, or are perceived rewards the sources of satisfaction? ‘How do I reinvest in learning more?’,‘How do I move to the next, more challenging task?’, and ‘Now I understand . . .’ are examples of the former. ‘Is this on the test?’, ‘Do I get a sticker?’, and ‘Is this enough to pass?’ are examples of the latter. A combination of both is probably needed, but the more the balance moves towards intrinsic motivation, the greater the investment in learning, which then leads to greater learning gains. Too much external motivation can lead to shallow learning of the surface features, completion of work regardless of the standard, and completing work for the sake of praise or similar rewards.

Mastery goals arise when students aim to develop their competence and they consider ability to be something that can be developed by increasing effort. Performance goals arise when students aim to demonstrate their competence particularly by outperforming peers, and they consider ability to be fixed, and not malleable or able to be changed. Social goals arise when students are most concerned about how they interact with, and relate to, others in the class.

Self-dependence This can occur when students become dependent on adult directives. In many gifted classes, especially, students can aim to do everything that the teacher asks of them to the point that they do not learn how to self-regulate, self-monitor, and self- evaluate. While they may gain esteem and success in tasks by attending to these directives, their longer-term success is far from assured when these directives are not present. I have met so many bright students who work for extrinsic reasons, develop self-dependent strategies, and start to fail when they are expected to regulate their own learning (especially when they attend university).

Self-discounting and distortion This can be invoked by students ‘dismissing’ information such as praise, punishment, or feedback as neither valuable, accurate, nor worthwhile. For example, when a teacher tells a student that he or she is doing a great job, the student's reaction may be to discount this by claiming ‘She always says that,’ ‘She's only trying to make me feel good,’ or ‘It's only because it's neat, not because it's correct’

Self-perfectionism This comes in many forms: we can set such demanding standards for ourselves that, when they are not met, we see it as failure; we can demand that resources be perfect and blame their absence (for example, a lack of time) when we do not succeed; we can procrastinate because conditions are not perfect for success; we can attend to irrelevant details and overzealously invest time in tasks that may not be worth the increased investment; or we may have an ‘all or nothing’ approach, believing that the task is not at all or very much worth completing. While there can be a sense of pleasure derived from taking painstaking effort, there are more likely to be negative consequences.

Hopelessness This refers to the student expecting that achievement gains will not occur for him or her and that he or she is helpless to change the situation. In such a situation, the student avoids and does not engage with achievement tasks, protects their sense of self by gaining reputation or success from other activities (such as naughty behaviour), and does not see that achievement gains are due to his or her actions or in his or her control. Such hopelessness is likely to come from prior academic failures, holding beliefs that achievement is not readily changeable, but is more likely to be fixed, low levels of self- efficacy, not valuing school learning, not having appropriate learning strategies for the task, and from being in a context that is harsh, overly demanding, or punitive (Au, Watkins, Hattie, & Alexander 2009).

Social comparison This is ever-present in classrooms. Students often monitor others’ behaviour for cues and attributions to explain or enhance their own conceptions of self. For example, very successful mathematics students might have a high maths self-concept in an average maths class, but after being sent to a gifted maths class, their self-concept could plummet as they compare themselves with this new cohort. Marsh et al. (2008) has termed this the ‘big fish, little pond’ effect. It is essential to teach such students that they can have multiple sources of comparison, so as to reduce any negative effect (Neiderer, 2011). Low self-esteem individuals often use social comparison – particularly comparing to those less fortunate than themselves – and they often attempt to present themselves as more confident to impress others and maybe even themselves. Public boasting, however, can create an impression of competence and engender dislike of the student among peers – particularly when they become aware of that student's actual poor performance.

When students invoke learning rather than performance strategies, accept rather than discount feedback, set benchmarks for difficult rather than easy goals, compare their achievement to subject criteria rather than with that of other students, develop high rather than low efficacy to learning, and effect self-regulation and personal control rather than learned hopelessness in the academic situation, then they are much more likely to realize achievement gains and invest in learning. These dispositions can be taught; they can be learned.

Sandra Hastie (2011) asked about the nature of goals that students set for themselves in the middle school years. She found that, at best, students set performance goals such as: ‘I aim to complete the work faster, better, or make the work longer.’ She then carried out a series of studies to teach the students to set mastery goals (‘I aim to understand the concepts’), but these were not as successful as teaching the teachers how to help students to set mastery goals. The teachers were provided with strategies to show students how to set and write personal best goals, the value of SMART goals (that is, those that are specific, measurable, ambitious, results-oriented, and timely), how students can break goals down into micro-goals, what challenge meant in a goal, what success looked like relative to the goals, and how students could fill in a self-review questionnaire diary. The diary invited students, assisted by their teachers, to write down three goals for themselves based on the unit that they were about to study. They were then provided examples of what success in relation to the goal looked like and rated themselves after each lesson.

One of the fascinating notions is how challenge is related to what we know: in most schools tasks, we need to already know about 90 per cent of what we are aiming to master in order to enjoy and make the most of the challenge (Burns, 2002). In reading, this target is somewhat higher: we need to know more like 95–99 per cent of the words on a page before we enjoy the challenge of reading a particular text (Gickling, 1984). Anything less than 50 per cent virtually assures that students are likely to be not engaged and their success will be limited.

we ran a series of workshops (N = 438 teachers) aimed at determining the level of performance on a set of reading items. Teachers were asked to answer 100+ items and then place bookmarks between sets of items that best represented their concept of Level 2 of the New Zealand curriculum (usually completed by years 4 and 5 students) and Level 3 (years 6 and 7), up to Level 6 (years 11 and 12). During the first round, they did this independently and their results were then shown to all teachers in the group. After listening to each other's reasoning about the skills and strategies that underpinned their decisions, they completed a second round in groups of four or five teachers. The mean item at each level hardly changed across the teachers – indicating that, on average, teachers in New Zealand have similar conceptions of the levels of the curriculum. But the variability among the teachers dramatically reduced (by 45 per cent) after they listened to each other. By simply undertaking this exercise, the judgements made by teachers as to what is meant by student work at different levels of the curriculum became much more consistent

Yair (2000) asked 865 Grades 6–12 students to wear digital wristwatches that were programmed to emit signals eight times a day – leading to 28,193 experiences. They were asked to note ‘Where were you at the time of the beep?’ and ‘What was on your mind?’. Students were engaged with their lessons for only half of the time; this engagement hardly varied relative to their ability or across subjects. Most of the instruction was teacher talk, but such talk produced the lowest engagement.Teachers talk between 70 and 80 per cent of class time, on average. Teachers’ talking increases as the year level rises and as the class size decreases!

Cooperative learning is certainly a powerful intervention. It exceeds its alternatives: for cooperative learning versus heterogeneous classes, d = 0.41; for cooperative versus individualistic learning, d = 0.59; for cooperative versus competitive learning, d = 0.54; and for competitive versus individualistic learning, d = 0.24. Both cooperative and competitive (particularly when the competitive element relates to attaining personal bests and personal levels of attainment rather than competition between students for a higher ranking) are more effective than individualistic methods – pointing again to the power of peers in the learning equation. Cooperative learning is most powerful after the students have acquired sufficient surface knowledge to then be involved in discussion and learning with their peers – usually in some structured manner. It is then most useful for learning concepts, verbal problem-solving, categorizing, spatial problem-solving, retention and memory, and guessing–judging–predicting. As Roseth, Fang, Johnson, & Johnson (2006: 7) concluded: ‘. . . if you want to increase student academic achievement, give each student a friend.’

(on "kids have different learning styles" [kinaesthetic, aural, visual, etc.] idea)

There is much evidence that students are assigned quite different styles by different teachers (Holt, Denny, Capps, & De Vore, 2005), and the common measures are notoriously unreliable and not predictive of much at all. The most extensive review, by Coffield, Moseley, Ecclestone, and Hall (2004) found few studies that met their minimum acceptability criteria, and the authors provided many criticisms of the field, such as too much overstatement, poor items and assessments, low validity and negligible effect on practice, and too much of the advocacy being aimed at commercial ends.

Perhaps the most simplistic labelling is to assume that there are but two ways of learning: a male way and a female way! The difference in effect sizes between boys and girls is small (d = 0.15, and this favours boys) – more specifically, for language, d = 0.03, for maths, 0.04, for science, 0.07, for affective outcomes, 0.04, for motivation –0.03, but there are much greater differences in motor activities, in which d = 0.42. Janet Hyde (2005) has completed the largest study, summarizing 124 meta-analyses and many millions of students on this topic; she speaks about the gender similarity hypothesis. Across her four major outcomes, the differences slightly favoured girls in communication (d = –0.17), and boys in achievement (d = 0.03), and social and personality (d = 0.20) outcomes. In relation to the last of these, boys are more aggressive (d = 0.40), are more likely to be involved in helping others (d = 0.30) and in negotiating (d = 0.09), but the greatest differences relate to sexuality (for arousal, d = 0.30; for masturbation, d = 0.95). Girls were much higher on attention (d = –0.23), effortful control (d = –1.10), and inhibitory control (d = –0.42) – that is, girls display a greater ability to manage and regulate their attention and inhibit their impulses: skills that are most useful in classrooms. [...] It is simple: the variability among boys and among girls is very large – and much, much greater than the average difference between boys and girls.

[Kevin Parkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay first things first: This is a technical book. There’s nothing inherently good or bad about technical books. They are needed, and they serve a purpose. But they can also be dry and complex. He claims this book is a follow up to his previous book, and an attempt to take the first book to the masses. But I believe he has failed in that regard. At the very least, this shouldn't be confused as a light read. It requires close reading and careful attention. It’s also one of the few books I regret reading as an audiobook, as I feel like I missed out, and perhaps some of the tables or other visuals could have made this book clearer for me.

There are so many good things I can say about this book. The first thing I’ll say and the thing I am most grateful for is the author’s most essential messages: (a) Know thy impact, and (b) Just about ANYTHING makes an impact in education, so it’s not about “does this make a difference,” it’s “what can I do to make the BIGGEST difference.” There were so many other parts of the books where I was like, “Dang that’s a really interesting way of thinking about it, and he articulated that point so well!” Good points throughout.

The author is notorious, and perhaps one of the strongest academic researchers of our time. There are a lot of amazing things about that. At the same time, that strength is also one of his greatest weaknesses. He is so clearly a researcher. I get very little practitioner vibes from him. I heard a quote recently (paraphrased): “You get a PhD if you want to understand the world. You get an EdD if you want to change the world.” John Hatie is the epitome of PhD. The book is an absolute ton of things schools must attend to. Frankly, I’m left feeling “Where the heck do I begin?” The book didn’t seem to easily flow to me, so it was like being bombed again and again and again with more things for which I had to be responsible.

He also mentioned a few times that colleges spend TOO MUCH time teaching education majors about diversity. I don’t know, maybe that’s an appropriate message in New Zealand. But in America, that’s a shockingly troublesome claim.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. I only wish I had read this and made notes and was able to discuss each chapter with others. Some of the key things I got out of this book: The biggest impact on students comes from a teacher's mindset because teachers are "agents of change". It is important for teachers to work together to constantly monitor their effectiveness, as that is the overall thesis Hattie argues. He has the most comprehensive set of data, but also notes that none of it is new, he has just evaluated and observed what characteristics of a teacher are the most effective. He challenges us to monitor our own effectiveness, and help students get meaningful feedback. Feedback is effective, but not when it is done in certain ways. I.e. when students don't understand it, or it does not show them where they go from that point. Teachers also tend to dominate the classroom, but Hattie challenges us to consider how this is done and how effective it is. We need to turn our strategies not towards teaching but learning. How do students learn? Students accurately can rate their understanding of material before taking a test in his studies. It makes me ponder how to allow more reassessment in my classes-my next big goal. Overall, lots to think about!

[Jesús Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro debería ser leído por todos los maestros ya que da muchas ideas sobre cómo enseñar y ojalá pronto pueda ser traducido porque en nuestro medio hay gran ignorancia sobre estos temas y donde priva “el rollo” la demagogia y la ideología.

Esta obra está basada en otro libro previo escrito por el donde recopiló miles de investigaciones sobre los factores que inciden y favorecen el aprendizaje . Lo que ahora hizo fue decir , si ya sabemos cuáles son estos factores entonces vamos a decírselo a los maestros para ayudarlos a enseñar mejor. De esto trata este libro ya que su máxima es “ maestro conoce los efectos de tu enseñanza”

Muy recomendable para que los docentes hagan visible el aprendizaje obtenidos por sus estudiantes y a partir de esa información mantenga lo que les funciona y eviten lo que no

[Brandon Nas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hattie's seminal work will take me years to unpack the research and explore the implications of his findings. While his thesis is intriguing, albeit demanding, “The message in this book is that teachers, schools and systems need to be consistently aware, and have dependable evidence of the effects that all are having on their students — and from this evidence make the decisions about how they teach and what they teach,” I found that his "List of Influences on Student Achievement" in Appendix C to be the most pertinent part of the book for me. The research presented here is compelling though and leaves me wanting for practical strategies about how to implement self-reported grades, Piagetian regimes, response to intervention, and other high-impact teaching strategies.

[Andy Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book claims to distill all the different instructional methods and philosophies, and give an effectiveness score for each one. It is inspiring to read, but as I tried to put the principles into practice, I slowly realized that I had filled my head with these idealistic ideas and overlooked the basics. After watching a video interview of Katherine Birbalsingh, I concluded that the book was largely affected by a more liberal educational philosophy than I agree with. There is some good information and reminders in the book, but it comes off as a holy grail or exhaustive distillation of educational ideas, leading the initial reader astray and eventually leaving the reader disappointed. Take the nuggets, leave the chaff.

[Ann Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate Hattie’s desire to synthesize hundreds of research articles in a way that illuminates what has actual effect sizes. I didn’t appreciate the vague generalities of the book and it was just really a bit of a slog. Our district is rolling out professional development based on Hattie’s work this next year, so I wanted some background into his work. I like the focus on “visible learning,” because I think many teachers focus on how they’re teaching without looking at whether students are actually learning. Also, being a reflective practitioner and working as a team with colleagues is important. I have one of his books devoted to K5 literacy, I’ll read that and see if I can glean anything else. His work is interesting for sure though!

[Karin Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that allows educators to see practices and mind sets that have the most impact. I appreciated that all educators can have an impact, but it may not sufficient for a student's growth. It's about evaluating lessons or teaching and determining how they affected student's to determine if it was "enough." I'm taking away these five key ideas from this book:

Plan intentionally and evaluate the results
Be clear in the learning intentions and success criteria and ensure that students know these as well
Embrace mistakes - teachers and students
Have students evaluate their own learning
Be prepared to present the material in a different way for some students (thinking UDL here)

[Catherine Wall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoying this book and it's very in depth look at teaching and more importantly, Learning. Hattie repeats over and over, in different words, Know thy Impact. I loved reading the reviews of this book as well as the content! They range from 'Duh!' to 'Genius!'. Every teacher will have a personal take on his message. But for me just starting out, I am finding it very interesting and helpful.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense. Very dense. However, it's some good insight into some overlooked aspects of education, specifically learning. It honestly is going to take a major culture shift in order to change the state of education in this country or anywhere. And it's not an easy fix. No silver bullets here. Just hard work, a change in mindset, endurance, and patience. Knowing where to start is going to be the tricky part.