Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement

by John Hattie

It seems that the quality of teaching and the nature of the student interactions are the key issues, rather than the compositional structure of the classes.

Results from one meta-analysis of ability/achievement grouping (Lou et al., 1996) show a slight advantage of within-class grouping compared to no grouping in promoting student learning (mean effect size d = 0.17).

small groups using cooperative learning perform better (mean effect size d = 0.28)

Lou, Abrami, and d'Apollonia (2001) found that small-group learning had significantly more positive effects than individual learning with computer technology on student achievement, group task performance, and several process and affective outcomes.

The effects of small group learning were significantly enhanced when students had group work experience or instruction, where specific cooperative learning strategies were employed, and when group size was small.

Overall, there is very little compelling evidence of a compositional effect related to whether a class is single- or mixed-sex.

Overall, there are negative effects for students who are retained, and there are more positive effects in the long term for promoted students than for retained students— even when matched for achievement at the time of decision to retain or promote.

Retention has been found to have a negative effect on academic achievement in language arts, reading, mathematics, work-study skills, social studies, and grade point average.

being retained one year almost doubled a student's likelihood of dropping out, while failing twice almost guaranteed it.

Holmes (1989) concluded that it would be difficult to find another educational practice on which the evidence is so unequivocally negative

Being retained one year almost doubled a student's likelihood of dropping out, while failing twice almost guaranteed it.

retention is the second greatest predictor of school drop-out (Foster, 1993).

although holding students back is practiced to some degree in rich and poor schools alike.

It would be difficult to find another educational practice on which the evidence is so unequivocally negative (House, 1989).

the smallest were in reading and writing.

Why

curriculum compacting or telescoping,

Instead, we may need to question the negative social impact on gifted students if they are not accelerated!

Levin (1988) asked, if acceleration is so beneficial for gifted students, why could it not also be used with non-gifted students? Hence, his Accelerated Learning program aims to accelerate the learning of at-risk students so that they are able to perform at grade level by the end of elementary school. These programs involve high expectations, specified deadlines for meeting educational requirements, stimulating instructional programs, planning by all staff, and using all available community resources. The evidence, however, is limited from a meta-analysis standpoint: Borman and D'Agostino (1995) claimed Accelerated Learning had “highly promising evidence of effectiveness” although the overall effect size was only d = 0.09.

Programs in which students mastered more mature ideas had higher effects than those with a broader investigation of the regular curriculum.

Teachers with more years of teaching gifted students had greater (d = 0.88) effects than those with no or limited experience (d = –0.06).

the teacher; that is, the teacher had the ability to identify and quickly act on potential behavioral problems, and retained an emotional objectivity (d = 0.71).

These factors are related to what Langer (1989) called situational awareness or mindfulness.

Studies using teacher rating scales were less likely to show evidence of reductions in disruptive classroom behavior than those using behavioral observation methods.

students treated in classrooms specifically established for disruptive students were more likely to show less disruptive behavior than students treated in regular classrooms. Similarly, Reid, Gonzalez, Nordness, Trout, and Epstein (2004) found a d = 0.69 effect from programs to provide treatments for emotionally disturbed students.

cognitive-behavioral therapy in reducing disruptive behaviors in school settings. The overall effect size was d = 0.29; the effects were greater for the lowest socioeconomic students, but similar whether administered by a teacher or not,...

Peers can assist in providing social comparisons, emotional support, social facilitation, cognitive restructuring, and rehearsal or deliberative practice.

We all like to think that our school is different; that somehow the culture, people, neighborhood, or special status of our school are unique. Any such differences however, relate to concerns that have little effect on achievement. In most western countries, take two students of the same ability, and it matters not which school they attend. That does not seem to stop the search for the point of difference for schools, and a lot of time spent debating school structural issues: the size of school, the class sizes, the tracking, and the finances—which are among the least influences on student achievement. Many of these matters concern teachers’ working conditions, and while I am not suggesting that we should cease to strive for excellent working conditions, focusing our concerns on these matters can be to the detriment of debating more critical matters that affect student achievement outcomes.

He concluded that “school uniform policies do not significantly alter eighth-grade students’ perceptions of their schools’ safety climate” (p. 109), and indeed had a negative effect on principals’ perceptions of the safety climate of the school.

At middle school, both students and principals had stronger negative views about school safety after the introduction of school uniforms.

school uniform policies had no effect on academic achievement in elementary school but a significant n...

Brunsma concluded that “uniform policies negatively affect all aspects of academic achievement when analysed at the school level” and when such policies are implemented in largely minority high schools, then they are “likely to further exacerbate the academic achievement problems witnessed in these schools” (Brunsma, 2004, p. 132). Further, they had no effect on pro-school or pro-peer attitudes, o...

The most powerful effects of the school relate to features within schools, such as the climate of the classroom, peer influences, and the lack of disruptive students in the classroom.

The influences that are close to zero include mainstreaming, ability grouping, class size, open versus traditional classrooms, multi-grade or age classes, and summer vacation courses.

When students were asked about their best teachers, the common attributes were teachers who built relationships with students (Batten & Girling-Butcher, 1981), teachers who helped students to have different and better strategies or processes to learn the subject (Pehkonen, 1992), and teachers who demonstrated a willingness to explain material and help students with their work (Sizemore, 1981).

The variation in teacher effectiveness is much greater for mathematics than reading outcomes (11 percent on average for mathematics compared to seven percent for reading).

The teacher effects are much larger in low socioeconomic schools, which suggests that the distribution of teacher effectiveness is much more uneven in low socioeconomic schools than in high socioeconomic schools, or as they commented “in low-SES schools, it matters more which teacher a child receives than it does in high-SES schools” (Nye et al., 2004, p. 254).

videotaped role play with debriefing.

theory, demonstration, and practice, as well as feedback and coaching,

then enabling the students to attain these goals by monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of their teaching, while constantly aiming to see learning through the eyes of the students, and creating a safe and cooperative climate to make and learn from errors, from each other (teacher, student and peers), and optimize the feedback to the student about what they are learning.

The current model seems more related to an extended view of parenting than becoming a behavior change agent!

Parent these kids

it is likely that subject matter knowledge influences teaching effectiveness up to some level of basic competence but less so thereafter (see also Monk, 1994).

My books they do so little for my students

did find a relation between teaching effectiveness and the number of education courses taken (d = 0.37), student teaching grade (d = 0.34), and the number of years of teaching experience (d = 0.33).

examined the Coleman (1966) data and found a significant positive association between teachers’ verbal ability and student outcomes.

verbal ability is a correlate of many important attributes (usually not measured in these studies) such as flexibility, empathy and content knowledge, and such correlates should not be confused with causes.

possibly because they were less prepared for the inner-city schools.

Watch it!

as rated by students, are those who challenge, who have high expectations, who encourage the study of their subject, and who value surface and deep aspects of their subject.

They found that instructor expressiveness had a substantial effect on student ratings but a small effect on student achievement. In contrast, lecture content had a substantial effect on student achievement but a small effect on student ratings.

perceived teaching skill and knowledge of the subject (r = 0.50), planning and organizing the course (r = 0.47), rapport with students (r = 0.31), and feedback (r = 0.31), but the rating was not correlated to the difficulty of the course (r = –0.02).

students were reasonable accurate in evaluating their own progress in the course (r = 0.47), which also attests to the accuracy of student evaluations of their own learning and probably of the influences of the teacher.

Given the value of student evaluations as an index of teaching and their own learning, it is therefore discouraging to note that teachers do not seem to learn much fr...