Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement |  | Author: John Hattie
Publisher: Routledge
Category: Book
List Price: $47.95
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Seller: Speedy Hen
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 9,798
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 392
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 0415476186
Dewey Decimal Number: 370.1523
EAN: 9780415476188
ASIN: 0415476186
Publication Date: December 24, 2008
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Product Description
This unique and ground-breaking book is the result of 15 years research and synthesises over 800 meta-analyses on the influences on achievement in school-aged students. It builds a story about the power of teachers, feedback, and a model of learning and understanding. The research involves many millions of students and represents the largest ever evidence based research into what actually works in schools to improve learning. Areas covered include the influence of the student, home, school, curricula, teacher, and teaching strategies. A model of teaching and learning is developed based on the notion of visible teaching and visible learning. A major message is that what works best for students is similar to what works best for teachers â an attention to setting challenging learning intentions, being clear about what success means, and an attention to learning strategies for developing conceptual understanding about what teachers and students know and understand. Although the current evidence based fad has turned into a debate about test scores, this book is about using evidence to build and defend a model of teaching and learning. A major contribution is a fascinating benchmark/dashboard for comparing many innovations in teaching and schools.
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| Customer Reviews:
View from the research mountain January 23, 2009
G W PETTY (Hay on Wye UK)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
Few books on education persuade us to see more truthfully and anew, or show us the way to do better for our students. This one does both.
Hattie has spent decades collecting data and conclusions from over 800 authoritative summaries of research, to compute average `effect sizes' which measure the impact of a host of influences on student/pupil attainment.
Class size, discovery learning, gender - almost every conceivable influence, strategy, or factor is here, including I'm afraid, your personal bandwagons and bêtes noires. Hattie then compares these factors by putting them on the same scale to find those that have the greatest impact on student achievement.
Having climbed to the top of this mountain of educational research he can see a very long way, and there are many surprises, each verified by repeated research. Did you know that students learn almost twice as well if they share a computer than if they have one each? Do you know why? Do you know that certain types of structured active learning with strong teacher control work miles better than discovery learning or problem-based learning?
He looks at factors and strategies associated with students, home, curricula, and schools, but finds that if we want to improve learning, we must concentrate on what teachers do - and how they conceptualise the teaching process.
What emerges from this book is far more than a monumental data-set showing what works best and why, vital though that is. He develops a model urging us to change our perceptions so that students see themselves as their own teachers - and teachers see learning through the eyes of their students. You won't find the detail in this massive overview, but Hattie does indicate where to go to get it.
This book is the most objective, wide ranging and authoritative summary of education research we are likely to see this decade. There is little comfort here for governments, or for the educational establishment, but there is illumination for both. To ignore this book is to remain wilfully blind to what really matters in education. (The reviewer, Geoff Petty is author of Teaching Today and Evidence Based Teaching)Evidence Based Teaching: A Practical Approach
A book who's time has come. June 7, 2009
Peter Jeans (Australia)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
A book who's time has come.
This is a detailed contribution to the educators library, on the important theme- what affects educational outcomes for our students. Given the size and detail, it is best suited to the educated professional, but is also accessible enough for the educated reader - though having little opportunity to affect any change may prove frustrating.
The book is broken down into sections looking at the different influences on outcomes such as the influence from home, school reforms, principal, and teacher and teaching practices etc. Within these sections all the influences are assessed using a statistical comparison called 'effect size'. This aims to be a common scale on which to measure effectiveness- a nice speedometer type graphic is used to indicate the rating for each item.
Think sending a child to an 'elite' child will turn them into a rhodes scholar? On average this makes no significant difference.
Think keeping a child down a grade if they are not progressing is a good idea? The opposite is often the case with student learning bottoming out for up tp three years.
Think the lauded 'direct instruction' technique is chalk, talk and worksheets? Think again, it is a particularly effective and misunderstood technique involving modelling, practice, feedback and application.
Read on and see what the current evidence indicates- and it is not always what we want to hear.
Noteably most influences are positive- but the aim of the work is to find out what has a significant influence so that efforts can be made on practices that are more effective. In contrast to one of the other reviewers - there are some questions that are not answered in this book - namely which interventions work best with which types of students? It is great to know what 'on average' is more effective, but this is qualified by the fact that each intervention varies in effectiveness in different studies. This variance should be a source of further study so that we can know which strategy to use and when it is most appropriate to use it.
The other issue that is not acknowledged by some reviewers here is that the measure of success in this type of study is purely academic - did they learn more content or skills than at the beginning and in contrast to a control group. What it also does not tell us about are the other outcomes that are important too - were the students more engaged in their learning, did they become better learners, did they learn other (real word) skills that are useful, and did they learn to get along and work together better? These are all important outcomes that young people arguably need to learn to survive in a fast changing, modern world.
The other qualifier I would need to add is that some areas- such as the effective use of technology are largely dependent on the skill of teachers to design instructional practices that are complimentary and sophisticated enough to be effective. Currently teacher capacity in this area is still emerging and so the results here I would have to conclude are tentative, or at least open for review. The more recent works of Robert Marzano have shown far more promise in this area- particularly for interactive white boards.
As with all strategies, procedures or practices - no two practitioners, classrooms or school communities are alike and the research evidence presented by the late Graham Nuthall in "The Hidden Lives of Learners' indicated that a good educator continually modifies and adapts 'what works' at the chalkface every day. This would then be a qualifying consideration when analyzing the book. Hattie himself lists other including the cost of the intervention, and from memory I think the complexity of implementation is also discussed. So don't use the work as a recipe book for state intervention in schools!
Overall an extremely informative book - sorts the wheat from the chaff, but must be read critically and in concert with other books from authors such as Marzano and Nuthall.
Education = Immature Profession August 2, 2009
Danaher M. Dempsey Jr. (Western Washington, USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book is needed by any parent with a child in school. Hattie makes it known that education is driven by fads and ideology not empirical research. This is the book everyone needs who wishes to distinguish practices that are extremely likely to produce positive results from those that do not. YOU need TO BUY this BOOK, if you read this far.
Hattie concludes this tour de force with "Project Follow Through" which clearly demonstrated what worked, the result was education decision makers decided to throw increasingly large amounts of money into practices they would like to have work. You guessed it those practices still do not work.
[effect sizes from "Visible Learning" by Hattie : the hinge effect value of 0.40 or greater indicates an intervention is likely to bring success]
Seattle's current math direction is centered on:
a. Inquiry based teaching (0.31)
b. Problem based learning (0.15)
c. Differentiated Instruction (no empirical evidence)
Consider the effective practices Seattle chooses not to use:
a. Project Follow Through's recommendation for Direct Instruction (0.59).
b. Problem Solving teaching (0.61),
c. Mastery Learning (0.58), and
d. Worked Examples (0.57).
These four innovations are not only effective but could be easily combined into a deliverable package. Instead Seattle chooses to buy expensive to deliver programs that do not work.
Seattle blunders on and your school and district is likely to do the same.
Medicine went from an immature profession to one based on evidence because the clients demanded it.
These days the immature profession of education appears headed to being an infantile profession. Only with lots of pressure will it become a mature profession.
page 254:
A major area in education research should be why we continue to believe many claims about "what works best " when there is no evidence for these claims. .......
The likelihood of the claims in this book (Visible Learning) having a major effect will depend more on whether schools can turn, as did much of medicine, to evidence based claims.
page 257:
There is a preference for the teaching method that fits the latest ideology and rarely are these methods assessed by evidence.
BUY THIS BOOK .. or continue being hoodwinked by pseudo-experts. Then, at least you will be able to write coherent letters of protest.
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