Visible Learning: A classroom guide for making thinking and learning evident across your school.
Main, P (2021, October 26). Visible Learning: A teacher's guide. Retrieved from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/visible-learning-a-teachers-guide
The term 'visible learning' was coined by Education Researcher John Hattie (2009) as an extremely simple concept. According to the visible learning concept, learning must be as seen and as apparent as possible, and not assumed. Visible Learning methodology indicates that the teachers educate the students about what they are supposed to learn, how to learn, and how they can assess their progress. John Hattie's Visible Learning Approach makes teachers assessors of their effect on student learning.
Visible Learning helps teachers find new, more effective ways to teach by using technologies and innovative techniques. It is essential that teachers use these techniques to ensure good student outcomes, as teaching methods must adapt to the ever-changing nature of today's education landscape. Visible Learning encourages teachers to assess the progress of their students and continuously refine their teaching practices in order to maximize learning potential.
Visible learning strategies involve a teacher observing and analyzing student data in order to understand individual learning needs, set goals and objectives for the students, effectively implement differentiated instruction, and engage students in their own learning. These practices allow teachers to craft more personalized learning experiences which can keep students motivated while ultimately improving student performance.
Visible Learning allocates an enhanced role for teachers as they begin to evaluate their teaching. According to John Hattie, visible learning and intelligent teaching take place when teachers begin to see learning from the eyes of students and guide them to become their teachers.
To measure the effect of visible learning, Hattie performed the statistical analysis on millions of students through 'effect size' and compared the experimental effect of many teaching strategies on student achievement, e.g. learning strategies, feedback, holidays and class size.
John Hattie used over 68,000 education research projects and 25 million students to research what makes the student learning the most successful. According to Hattie's meta-analyses chapter of Visible Learning, the greater the effect size, the more beneficial the approach. Whatever is at or greater than 0.4 is seen as the "Zone of Desired Effects." Hattie contends that school learning and teachers must focus their energy on enhancing skills with the help of these approaches. According to John Hattie, visible learners are the students who can:
Visible learning is greatly dependent upon the visible teaching strategies i.e. actions and attitude of the teacher. To become a visible teacher, a teacher must be active, transparent, engaging and passionate in their own learning and teaching the students. Enhanced role for teachers involves teaching in the most visible and deliberate ways. John Hattie believes that the visible teachers possess the following eight important mind frames. Visible teachers:
The visible learning research data is organized according to the effect sizes, based on John Hattie's work for his series of books titled Visible Learning. In John Hattie's research paper with Gregory Donoghue 'Learning Strategies: A Synthesis and Conceptual Model' one area they discussed was surface, deep and transfer learning. According to Hattie, 'when' and 'what' possess equal importance in the instruction which affects learning. Teaching strategies that support learners' surface-level learning are not equally effective for deep learning, and vice versa. Using the correct approach with the correct stage of learning is an important lesson to be learned. Below is the model of learning proposed by Hattie.
Surface Learning: Surface Learning is not the same as superficial learning. Surface Learning occurs when students are first exposed to strategies, skill matters and concepts. It is crucial because it offers a foundation for millions of students to think more deeply. Following are three ways to develop and scaffold surface learning:
Deep learning is the time when learners consolidate their knowledge and apply and broaden some surface learning understanding to boost deeper conceptual knowledge. This can be considered as an optimum point that frequently takes up more time of instruction but can be achieved only when deep learners have the essential understanding and deep thinking to go deeper. Some of the teaching tools for deep learning include:
Transfer learning [is] the level at which learners take their consolidated understanding and abilities and apply their knowledge to a new context and different scenarios. It is also a period when learners can think metacognitively, reflecting on their knowledge and learning. Some examples of transfer learning are as follows:
It is important to identify exactly which part of the traditional or virtual teaching worked well and led to visible student learning. To implement this in a classroom, students need to understand what they are learning, what is the purpose of learning, how to check their learning, and why it was important to have learned. For achieving these goals, teachers need to check various influences on the achievement of students using success criteria and learning intentions on an everyday basis. According to Hattie, student success criteria and learning intentions can improve student learning two to three folds, which greatly contribute to teacher clarity.
An area, which is mostly seen as a barrier to learning, but Hattie does not believe is 'class size.' According to Hattie’s research, class size had no major impact on learning. There were other interventions such as effective feedback, peer tutoring, time on task, and appropriate cues, all have a major impact on student learning. These can help teachers understand which positive factors they should consider including in their classroom environment.
Also, Hattie is a strong believer in student voice and student control on learning especially in terms of their feedback. Students' feedback whether it relates to what they find engaging and what they don’t find engaging, all have a positive impact on students' classroom learning.
These days, many reformers say that schools have been failed in empowering problem-based learning. But, Hattie thinks differently about the power of teachers. Evidence from Psychology suggests that school leaders, teachers and school-aged students should aspire to improve and Hattie provides ways to do that.
This continues to be a central obstacle for classroom practitioners. The cognitive work that students engage in remains hidden inside their heads. If we are to advance student learning we need to have access to their thinking. At Structural Learning, our focus has always been on moving student thinking forward. In order to do this, we need to project children's thoughts into a space where we can see them.
Our block building pedagogy makes visible thinking a classroom habit. The blocks are used to organise information and make conceptual connections. Because the students are not struggling to remember lots of information, we are freeing up the working memory to engage in deep thinking. We have been developing various thinking routines that enable children to adopt the concept of thinking dispositions. The universal thinking framework has also led to the development of thinking in students.
This new taxonomy is enabling educators and students to think through complex tasks. The key idea is to have names and definitions for the types of deep thinking involved in the process of learning. This has led to significant school-wide achievement for many of our members.
Although it is nice to know that learners liked a lesson or activity or that the teacher thinks that a lesson went satisfactorily, liking is not all that matters. Current Evidence of academic achievement shows that a teacher must know the impact of lessons on student learning—and this impact must be visible. Teachers must begin with lessons that have clear learning intentions and ensure that the students must know what they need to accomplish and how. Teachers must give feedback very soon after completing a lesson or project so that students can apply what they have learnt to improve their process of learning going forward.
An important consideration is that there are other models of teaching that schools can embrace. Researchers such as Rosenshine have contributed a lot in this area. Achievement in school has undergone an almost forensic examination in recent years. The metadata available to the education community is enabling school systems to make well-informed decisions about instructional practice.
If your school wants to make thinking more visible in your classrooms, please watch the film below to find out how you can get involved.
The term 'visible learning' was coined by Education Researcher John Hattie (2009) as an extremely simple concept. According to the visible learning concept, learning must be as seen and as apparent as possible, and not assumed. Visible Learning methodology indicates that the teachers educate the students about what they are supposed to learn, how to learn, and how they can assess their progress. John Hattie's Visible Learning Approach makes teachers assessors of their effect on student learning.
Visible Learning helps teachers find new, more effective ways to teach by using technologies and innovative techniques. It is essential that teachers use these techniques to ensure good student outcomes, as teaching methods must adapt to the ever-changing nature of today's education landscape. Visible Learning encourages teachers to assess the progress of their students and continuously refine their teaching practices in order to maximize learning potential.
Visible learning strategies involve a teacher observing and analyzing student data in order to understand individual learning needs, set goals and objectives for the students, effectively implement differentiated instruction, and engage students in their own learning. These practices allow teachers to craft more personalized learning experiences which can keep students motivated while ultimately improving student performance.
Visible Learning allocates an enhanced role for teachers as they begin to evaluate their teaching. According to John Hattie, visible learning and intelligent teaching take place when teachers begin to see learning from the eyes of students and guide them to become their teachers.
To measure the effect of visible learning, Hattie performed the statistical analysis on millions of students through 'effect size' and compared the experimental effect of many teaching strategies on student achievement, e.g. learning strategies, feedback, holidays and class size.
John Hattie used over 68,000 education research projects and 25 million students to research what makes the student learning the most successful. According to Hattie's meta-analyses chapter of Visible Learning, the greater the effect size, the more beneficial the approach. Whatever is at or greater than 0.4 is seen as the "Zone of Desired Effects." Hattie contends that school learning and teachers must focus their energy on enhancing skills with the help of these approaches. According to John Hattie, visible learners are the students who can:
Visible learning is greatly dependent upon the visible teaching strategies i.e. actions and attitude of the teacher. To become a visible teacher, a teacher must be active, transparent, engaging and passionate in their own learning and teaching the students. Enhanced role for teachers involves teaching in the most visible and deliberate ways. John Hattie believes that the visible teachers possess the following eight important mind frames. Visible teachers:
The visible learning research data is organized according to the effect sizes, based on John Hattie's work for his series of books titled Visible Learning. In John Hattie's research paper with Gregory Donoghue 'Learning Strategies: A Synthesis and Conceptual Model' one area they discussed was surface, deep and transfer learning. According to Hattie, 'when' and 'what' possess equal importance in the instruction which affects learning. Teaching strategies that support learners' surface-level learning are not equally effective for deep learning, and vice versa. Using the correct approach with the correct stage of learning is an important lesson to be learned. Below is the model of learning proposed by Hattie.
Surface Learning: Surface Learning is not the same as superficial learning. Surface Learning occurs when students are first exposed to strategies, skill matters and concepts. It is crucial because it offers a foundation for millions of students to think more deeply. Following are three ways to develop and scaffold surface learning:
Deep learning is the time when learners consolidate their knowledge and apply and broaden some surface learning understanding to boost deeper conceptual knowledge. This can be considered as an optimum point that frequently takes up more time of instruction but can be achieved only when deep learners have the essential understanding and deep thinking to go deeper. Some of the teaching tools for deep learning include:
Transfer learning [is] the level at which learners take their consolidated understanding and abilities and apply their knowledge to a new context and different scenarios. It is also a period when learners can think metacognitively, reflecting on their knowledge and learning. Some examples of transfer learning are as follows:
It is important to identify exactly which part of the traditional or virtual teaching worked well and led to visible student learning. To implement this in a classroom, students need to understand what they are learning, what is the purpose of learning, how to check their learning, and why it was important to have learned. For achieving these goals, teachers need to check various influences on the achievement of students using success criteria and learning intentions on an everyday basis. According to Hattie, student success criteria and learning intentions can improve student learning two to three folds, which greatly contribute to teacher clarity.
An area, which is mostly seen as a barrier to learning, but Hattie does not believe is 'class size.' According to Hattie’s research, class size had no major impact on learning. There were other interventions such as effective feedback, peer tutoring, time on task, and appropriate cues, all have a major impact on student learning. These can help teachers understand which positive factors they should consider including in their classroom environment.
Also, Hattie is a strong believer in student voice and student control on learning especially in terms of their feedback. Students' feedback whether it relates to what they find engaging and what they don’t find engaging, all have a positive impact on students' classroom learning.
These days, many reformers say that schools have been failed in empowering problem-based learning. But, Hattie thinks differently about the power of teachers. Evidence from Psychology suggests that school leaders, teachers and school-aged students should aspire to improve and Hattie provides ways to do that.
This continues to be a central obstacle for classroom practitioners. The cognitive work that students engage in remains hidden inside their heads. If we are to advance student learning we need to have access to their thinking. At Structural Learning, our focus has always been on moving student thinking forward. In order to do this, we need to project children's thoughts into a space where we can see them.
Our block building pedagogy makes visible thinking a classroom habit. The blocks are used to organise information and make conceptual connections. Because the students are not struggling to remember lots of information, we are freeing up the working memory to engage in deep thinking. We have been developing various thinking routines that enable children to adopt the concept of thinking dispositions. The universal thinking framework has also led to the development of thinking in students.
This new taxonomy is enabling educators and students to think through complex tasks. The key idea is to have names and definitions for the types of deep thinking involved in the process of learning. This has led to significant school-wide achievement for many of our members.
Although it is nice to know that learners liked a lesson or activity or that the teacher thinks that a lesson went satisfactorily, liking is not all that matters. Current Evidence of academic achievement shows that a teacher must know the impact of lessons on student learning—and this impact must be visible. Teachers must begin with lessons that have clear learning intentions and ensure that the students must know what they need to accomplish and how. Teachers must give feedback very soon after completing a lesson or project so that students can apply what they have learnt to improve their process of learning going forward.
An important consideration is that there are other models of teaching that schools can embrace. Researchers such as Rosenshine have contributed a lot in this area. Achievement in school has undergone an almost forensic examination in recent years. The metadata available to the education community is enabling school systems to make well-informed decisions about instructional practice.
If your school wants to make thinking more visible in your classrooms, please watch the film below to find out how you can get involved.
