VISIBLE LEARNING

FOR TEACHERS
EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING:
(RE)DISCOVERING HATTIE’S ONGOING RESEARCH
EDUCATION’S ”HOLY GRAIL”?
• Published Visible Learning (2009)
• Visible Learning for Teachers (2012)
• Educational gospel or an attack on
education?
• Hattie saw it as a chance to show what
make a difference to students
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
• Mentimeter slides
META-ANALYSIS EXAMPLE
(HOMEWORK)
• Outcome = student achievement
• Influence = homework
• Research = 161 studies (100K+ ppl)
• Effect = (d=0.29 overall, d=0.08 for
elementary, d=0.5 for secondary)
• Conclusion – Secondary students are
better able to self-regulate and monitor
their work and time
VISIBLE LEARNING FOR TEACHERS (2012)
• More than 800 meta-analyses
• 52,637 studies
• 240,000,000 students
• 146,142 effect sizes
• Overall effect size for all aspects
studied is d=0.40
• https://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learning-achievement/
 WHAT DOES D=0.40 MEAN?

• “hinge point”
• 1 year’s learning/growth for 1 year of an investment
META-ANALYSIS EXAMPLE
(CLASS SIZE)

• Reducing from 25-30 students to

15-20 is about 0.21
• Teaching specific programs to assist
students in test taking is 0.27
• Hattie suggests that the effect sizes
are similar but one is much less Yes,
difficult to resource… but…
• Does reducing class size help?
CLASS SIZE … D=0.21
WHAT SHOULD TEACHERS AIM FOR?
• Hattie notes that “almost everything
works”
• ”All that is needed to enhance student
achievement is a pulse.”
• 0.4 target is based on the average
effect of what HAS happened, not
necessarily what WILL happen
 WHAT DOES NOT MEAN?

• This is not a “decision making” point, but a place to start

discussions about the effect teachers can have on students.
 Classroom Spaced v. Mass
Reducing Class Management 0.35 Practice 0.6
sizes 0.21
Feedback Micro-Teaching/
Student
0.7 Video review of
control over
lessons 0.88
learning 0.02

Self-
Suspension/Expelling Students -0.2
reported
grades
1.33
THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS…
• Summer Vacation effect -0.02 • Corporal Punishment in the home
• Lack of sleep -0.05 -0.33

• Family on welfare/state aid • Moving between schools -0.34

-0.12 • Depression -0.36
• Parental military deployment • Boredom -0.49
-0.16 • Deafness -0.61
• Television -0.18 • ADHD -0.90
• Students feeling disliked -0.19
• Suspension/Expelling Students
Teacher
-0.20
• Retention -0.32 Control?
SO WHAT CAN
WE CONTROL?
CENTRAL MESSAGE OF
VISIBLE LEARNING FOR TEACHERS
”…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.
The message is that the evidence is about student learning --
particularly progress…” (pg. 170)
CHOOSING THE WRONG DRIVERS FOR WHOLE
SYSTEM REFORM, MICHAEL FULLAN (2012)

• Powerful centrality of the learning-instruction-

assessment nexus (PLCs)
• Using the group to accomplish this learning-
instruction culture (PLCs)
• New teaching innovations powered by technology
(SAMR)
• Create a system where you know our impact
(formative assessment system)
• Synergy among these four
 4. Teachers see assessment as 5. Teachers engage in dialogue, not
feedback about their impact. monologue.

3. Teachers want to talk more 6. Teachers enjoy the challenge

about the learning than the and never retreat to “I’m just
teaching. doing my best.”

2. Teachers believe that success

and failure in student learning is
about what they, as teachers, did 7. Teachers believe that it is their
or did not do… We are change role to develop positive
agents! relationships in classrooms and
staffrooms.

1. Teachers believe that their

fundamental task is to evaluate the
effect of their teaching on students’
learning and achievement. 8. Teachers inform all about the
language of learning.