10 Steps to Develop Great Learners: Visible Learning for Parents

by John Hattie, Kyle Hattie

What can concerned parents and carers do to ensure their children, of all ages, develop great learning habits which will help them achieve their maximum at school and in life? This is probably one of the most important questions any parent can ask and now John Hattie, one of the most respected and renowned Education researchers in the world draws on his globally famous Visible Learning research to provide some answers. Writing this book with his own son Kyle, himself a respected teacher, the Hatties offer a 10-step plan to nurturing curiosity and intellectual ambition and providing a home environment that encourages and values learning. These simple steps based on the strongest of research evidence and packed full of practical advice can be followed by any parent or carer to support and enhance learning and maximize the potential of their children. Areas covered Anyone concerned about the education and development of our children should read this book. For parents it is an essential guide that could make a vital difference to your child's life. For schools, school leaders and education authorities this is a book you should be encouraging every parent to read to support learning and maximize opportunities for all.

Genres: Education

207 pages, Hardcover

Published April 8, 2022

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

[Nita · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some pearls of wisdom in this book. However, I found it an annoying read, for three reasons:

1. It needs a very good proofread - lots of sentences with missing words, run on sentences, sentence fragments, a missing closing bracket... it bothered me. Especially in a book on education.

2. It needs editing. The tone is quite rambling, and repetitive in places.

3. The tone. A lot of "don't do this, never do that" which I found quite demoralising. At one point the authors contradict themselves saying not to ask children what they learnt at school, only to insist a few paragraphs later that you need to talk with them about what they're learning at school.

I was quite disappointed to see that research is not actually in favour of learning through play as being the most important thing.

I feel like this book is aimed at 'tiger moms' who need their kids to be top of the class.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some passages I found interesting:
"One of the many beauties of New Zealand is that there is a rich Maori parenting tradition of whanau, which is more than just direct family. It encompasses values, histories, and traditions from the ancestors and community in which a child belongs."

"We are not supportive, however, of the notion that parents are a child's 'first' teacher - as this too often confuses the role of parent and school teacher. We argue that the role of parents is to be parents first and always be the 'first learner', demonstrating and being open to learning, talking the language of learning, and instilling the skills and thrills of learning with their children."

"[Spock] popularized the idea that we now take for granted - that children are entitled to live, grow, and be happy and challenged."

"If children do not learn how to cope with challenges, failures, and errors during infancy and childhood then they are poorly set up for later schooling and life. The aim is to let them enjoy the desirable struggles of learning while they are young, and let them strive for more challenging heights: Do not overinflate their gifts."

"We present these ways of thinking as 10 parenting mind frames for learning - ten critical ways in which parents need to think about their role, and which guide their actions and behaviors and how they talk and listen."

"You do not have to agree with them, but you need to hear, feel, and show you understand their viewpoint."

Three methods of parenting - permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative

"Play can be a worthwhile activity in itself but play for learning requires much skill to set up and enact. We will look later at the research on play to build a balanced argument about the place of play for learning, but for now we note - play is fun, and having fun is critical to childhood."

"For example, instead of 'clean your room', say 'in cleaning your room there should be nothing left on the floor, everything is put away in drawers, and your bed is tidy'. These 'success criteria' not only help make the nature of the task clear, but they also provide a benchmark for when 'good is good enough'."

"Successful parenting involves adults seeing themselves through the eyes of their children, and children learning to become their own teachers."

[N.J. Danatangelo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where to start with this one? Although there is some interesting content here, it is incredibly hard to look past the sloppiness of it all. This book is riddled with errors: grammar, missing words, etc. I barely passed English class, but I thought I was going crazy reading this, given the number of mistakes. I also have issues with how they try to shoehorn in a number of theories into the mind frames when there doesn't appear to be any link at all. For example, they shove Self-Determination Theory into Mind Frame 2 - 'I make reasonable demands and am highly responsive to my child.' What? How does SDT fit in here? The same can be said for the discussion around Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development in Mind Frame 5 - 'I love learning.' I find both SDT and ZPD really interesting theories, but how the hell do they fit with those mind frames? I have read a lot of the criticisms of Visible Learning and Hattie’s approach to meta-analyses, and after reading this, it sort of feels like he is just churning out books and content to keep the money machine of his consultancy business rolling on. Really disappointed.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

must read

Another Great book by Hattie and a must read for parents. A lot of lessons learned along with the case and data and common sense. Highly recommended

[Kevin Demel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I skimmed this book but may only reread it if I was going to teach other kids.