Visible Learning

1. Sue A. Davis
Trish Carroll
Leadership Consultants
1
Based on the
Research of
John Hattie

2. From page 154
“The major reason for
administering tests in
classrooms is for teachers
to find out what they taught
well or not, who they taught
well or not, and where they
should focus next. If a test
does not lead to a teacher
evaluating these claims, it
was probably a waste of
everybody’s time and
effort.”
1.What are your reactions to
this statement?
2.How would you begin the
discussion of this concept
within your PLC?
3. What are some ways
teachers can weave more
opportunities to give
students feedback into their
lessons?
Please, with an elbow partner, discuss this
statement and the questions related to it from
your handout.
2

3. MOVING FORWARD
KCAS
Assessment
Literacy
Characteristics
of Highly
Effective
Teaching and
Learning
Leadership
Student
Success
3
Sept.
2011
The Four
Pillars

4. Assessment Literacy – “the knowledge about how to assess what
students know and can do, interpret the results of these assessments, and
apply these results to improve student learning and program effectiveness.”
(Webb, 2002)
Assessment Literate Educators Possess these Skills:
1. How to define clear learning goals.
2. How to make use of a variety of assessment methods to gather evidence
of student learning.
3. How to analyze achievement data and make good inferences from the
data gathered.
4. How to provide appropriate feedback to students.
5. How to make appropriate instructional modifications to help students
improve.
6. How to involve students in the assessment process, and
7. How to engineer an effective classroom assessment environment that
boosts student motivation to learn.
(SERVE Center, University of North Carolina, 2004)
4

5. -0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
Effect Sizes of Influences on Achievement
from John Hattie
The benchmark: 0.40 + one year’s learning
over one year’s time
Effect sizes greater that 0.40 accelerate
student learning.
5

6. 6

7. 7

8. Student perceptions of a given teacher’s strengths and
weaknesses are consistent across the different groups
of students they teach. Moreover, students seem to
know effective teaching when they experience it:
student perceptions in one class are related to the
achievement gains in other classes taught by the same
teacher. Most important are students’ perception of a
teacher’s ability to control a classroom and to
challenge students with rigorous work.
MET Project: Measures of Effective Teaching, p.9.
Teacher Credibility
Rank 4 of 150
Effect Size 0.9
Classification High Effect
8

9. Student “C” What Students Say
C My teacher really tries to understand how students
feel about things.
C Students in this class treat the teacher with respect.
Our class stays busy and doesn’t waste time.
C My teacher explains topics in a variety of ways and
makes difficult things clear.
C In this class, we learn a lot almost every day. We
learn to correct our mistakes.
C My teacher makes lessons interesting. I like the
ways we learn in this class.
C Students speak up and share their class work. My
teacher respects my ideas and suggestions.
C My teacher checks to make sure we understand.
Comments about my work help me to understand
how to improve.
Care
Control
Clarify
Challenge
Captivate
Confer
Consolidate
9

10. The Beliefs and Commitments of
Expert Teachers—Five Attitudes
1. Expert teachers identify …
2. Expert teachers create …
3. Expert teachers monitor …
4. Expert teachers believe …
5. Expert teachers influence…
the most important ways in
which to represent their subject.
an optimal classroom climate
for learning.
learning and provide feedback.
that all students can reach the
success criteria.
students’ surface AND deep
understanding.
10

11. Above all, the expert teacher
embraces the understanding that
she/he has a tremendous impact
on student learning.
His/her behaviors influence
learning.
11

12. We must use “Effect Size” as a Starting
Point for Discussion rather than an End
Point for Making Decisions. We cannot
assume that the more we “implement”
strategies that produce the highest effect
sizes, the better students will learn. There
appears to be conflicting information that
gives us reason to be cautious.
12

13. Back to Attitudes of Expert Teachers – they can identify the most important
ways to represent their subject.
In Visible Learning, it was shown that teachers’ subject-matter knowledge
had little effect on the quality of student outcomes! The distinction is less
the “amount” of knowledge and less the “pedagogical content knowledge”,
but more about how teachers see the surface and the deeper
understandings of the subjects that they teach. Expert teachers differ in how
they organize and use their content knowledge. Experts possess knowledge
that is more integrated in that they can combine the introduction of new
subject knowledge with students’ prior knowledge; . . .
Read from page 28.
Teacher Subject Matter Knowledge
Rank 136 of 150
Effect Size 0.09
Classification Low Effect
13

14. Homework
On “lists of effect sizes,” homework has an effect size of d=0.29,
tied with “Home Visiting” at 94th out of 150 influences. By reading
further in the discussion, we learn these three things:
First, homework was studied AS IT HAS HISTORICALLY BEEN
ASSIGNED.
Second, for high schools students, homework had an EFFECT
SIZE OF .50.
Third, for elementary school students, homework had an EFFECT
SIZE OF –.08.
Questions: Why would this be true? And, does this mean we
should eliminate homework? BETTER STUDY HABITS SKILLS
FOR OLDER KIDS, INAPPROPRIATE DEVELOPMENTALLY ….
14

15. We must use “Effect Size” as a Starting
Point for Discussion rather than an End
Point for Making Decisions. We cannot
assume that the more we “implement”
strategies that produce the highest effect
sizes, the better students will learn. There
is seemingly conflicting information
15

16. Clarity of “Success Criteria” - Success criteria let students know when they have
achieved the learning goal. They must include:
A. CHALLENGE DEPENDS ON WHAT STUDENTS ALREADY KNOW, SO TEACHERS
MUST KNOW STUDENT’S PRIOR LEVELS OF ACHIEVEMENT AND
DISPOSITIONS. Not too difficult. Students need to know about 90 % of the
task.
B. COMMITMENT FROM STUDENTS OFTEN OCCURS WHEN TEACHERS CREATE
CHALLENGING LESSONS. This is a critical part of teacher planning.
C. CONFIDENCE—STUDENTS MUST FEEL THEY CAN ACHIEVE THE LEARNING
GOAL.
D. “HIGH EXPECTATIONS” HAS THE HIGHEST OF ALL EFFECT SIZES. Students have
reasonably accurate understandings of their levels of achievement.
E. CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING—STUDENTS NEED TO DEVELOP SURFACE,
DEEP AND CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDINGS, SO ALL 3 LEVELS SHOULD BE
INTEGRATED.
16

17. Examples of surface, deep and
conceptual levels of thinking (p. 55)
Levels of
Understanding
Learning Intentions Success Criteria
Uni/Multi-
structural
Recognize that light/sound
are forms of energy and
have properties
I can name one or more
properties of light and
sound
Relational Know that sound/light can
be transformed into other
forms of energy.
I can explain how
light/sound is transformed
into other types of energy.
Extended
Abstract
Understand how
light/sound allows us to
communicate.
I can discuss how
light/sound enables us to
communicate.
17

18. Self-efficacy is the confidence or strength of belief
that we have in ourselves that we can make our
learning happen.
High
self-efficacy
• Sees hard tasks as challenges rather than tries
to avoid them.
• Sees failures as chances to learn and to make a
greater effort or to look for new information
next time.
Low
self-efficacy
• Is more likely to avoid difficult tasks, which are
viewed as personal threats.
• Has low or weak commitment to goals.
• Sees failures as chances to dwell on personal
deficiencies, obstacles encountered or to deny
personal agency.
• Is slow to recover a sense of confidence.
p. 45
18

19. Page 46 Self-handicapping
Page 47 Self-motivation
Page 47 Types of Student Goals: Master,
Performance, Social
Page 47-48 Social Goals: Approach / Avoidance
Page 48 Self-dependence
Page 49 Self-discounting and distortion
Page 49 Self-perfectionism
Page 50 Hopelessness
Page 51 Social comparison
Definitions and examples for teachers to consider
in understanding students as they prepare their
lessons.
19

20. Hopelessness
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.
Occurs
when…
• The student avoids and does not engage in
achievement tasks.
• The student protects his or her sense of self by
gaining reputation or success from other
activities (i.e., naughty behaviors)
• The student does not see that achievement
gains are due to his or her actions or in his or
her control.
• The student learns to devalue school learning.
• Contexts are harsh, overly demanding or
punitive.
20

21. Part of the climate of the classroom is affected by the
climate of the school community. In one particularly
interesting study of the ramifications of trust, it was
found that the higher the level of relational trust
among the school community—principals, teachers,
students and parents — the greater the student
improvement on standardized tests. In such an
environment, not only are errors tolerated, but they are
welcomed and understood as a vital part of the
learning process. Together climate and trust are
necessary for students to gain the most from making
errors and to maximize their learning.
21

22. Making it “okay” to make mistakes and
using them as springboards to better,
higher learning, teachers communicate a
valuable lesson about life in general. By
not expecting perfection the first time
every time, the teacher reinforces the
notion that we can grow smarter, better,
and more capable.
22

23. Learning requires two major skills:
Concentration
Deliberate Practice
23

24. Deliberate Practice . . .
… must be designed to improve performance. . .
(Opportunities for practice must have a goal & evaluation criteria);
… must be based on authentic tasks . . .
(The practice must use real work and be performed in context);
… must be challenging . . .
(The tasks selected for practice must be slightly outside the learners
comfort zone, but not so far out as to produce anxiety or panic);
… must have immediate feedback on results . . .
(Diagnostic feedback must be rapid and continuous), and
… must include reflection and adjustment . . .
(Feedback requires reflection and analysis to inform behavior change).
(10,000 hours. For complex work, ten years seems to be the necessary
investment of deliberate practice to achieve expertise. Malcolm Gladwell drew
attention to the 10,000 hour rule in his book Outliers).
24

25. Feedback . . .
Three Feedback Questions:
1. Where am I going?
2. How will I get there?
3. Where do I go next?
Three Feedback Levels:
1. Task or Product Level
2. Process Level
3. Self Regulation Level
Teachers and students ask
these questions of
themselves and each other –
separately and together.
How does it “look?”
Did I do the right things?
How do I think I did and what
can I do now?
25

26. Feedback Advice –
* Don’t mix praise with feedback.
* Rapid formative assessment is more effective
than a longer school day, more rigorous math
classes, class-size reduction and 19 other
influences and is the MOST COST EFFECTIVE.
“Give dollops and dollops of
feedback,” says Hattie about the
most effective teacher activity for
student learning.
26

27. Teacher Collaboration...
The most successful method Hattie encountered for this
collaboration is the “DATA TEAMS” MODEL IN WHICH SMALL
TEAMS OF TEACHERS MEET EVERY TWO TO THREE WEEKS
AND FOLLOW A SPECIFIC STRUCTURE TO EXAMINE STUDENT
DATA, SET INCREMENTAL GOALS, ENGAGE IN DISCUSSION
ABOUT GOALS AND IMPROVING INSTRUCTION AND CREATE
A PLAN TO MONITOR LEARNING AND INSTRUCTION AND
THEN REPEAT THE CYCLE. IT IS NOT IMPORTANT EXACTLY
WHAT FORM THESE TEAMS TAKE—WHETHER THEY ARE PLC's
OR NOT. WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS THAT TEACHERS ARE OPEN
TO LOOKING AT EVIDENCE OF THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENTS
AND CRITIQUING EACH OTHER’S IMPACT TO BETTER MEET
THE NEEDS OF STUDENTS.
27

28. Important “Take Away’s” from this Session …
1. Effect Size is a starting point for discussion, not an end point for
decision-making.
2. Students know who the most credible teachers are.
3. Expert teachers have rigorous beliefs about themselves and what
they can do for student learning.
4. Teachers must establish and then communicate the success
criteria for any lesson.
5. Self-efficacy can make, or the lack of it can break, student
learning.
6. Learning requires concentration and deliberate practice.
7. Teachers need to give “dollops and dollops” of feedback.
8. School leaders must provide time for teacher collaboration.
28

29. 29
“By changing nothing,
nothing changes.”
Celestine Chua

30. Sue.davis@kedc.org
Trish.carroll@kedc.org
Donetta.trimble@kedc.org