Know Thy Impact

Visible Learning For Teachers by John Hattie

Review by Justin

John Hattie is a person that I admire.  He would be the most globally recognised kiwi born educational theorist around.  Many teachers that have come through Auckland University will most likely know of Hattie. 

The most powerful thing about Hattie's book is that it is not a single educational idea that John has come up with and researched.  Rather Hattie decided to take as much educational research as he could find (over 800 separate research projects over 15 years involving over 240 million students) and do some meta analysis. 

Hattie formulated at means of quantifying the 'effect' of different factors of education.  That is he's examined the positive (and negative) influences various teaching decisions have had on learning.  For example he quantified  that good feedback is four times as effective in improving learning as finding secluded place for study. 

Hattie begins by pointing out that in his time dealing with hundreds of schools and thousands of teachers that most of us are doing 'good' things.  But he wanted to be able to see the effect of what we do and work out what are the 'best' things we could be doing.  

I found that this book was very good for thinking about what I'm doing in the classroom as a teacher.  It made me rethink my practice, and deeply consider the impact I'm having on learning.  What's more I seriously began to think about expanding my practice and trying new things to become a better teacher. 

The downside of this book is that Hattie is ultimately an academic.  The reading and theory can get fairly heavy (and this is the easier 'how to' version for teachers).  I found that some of the chapters merged into one.  The last 80 pages are all appendices of sorts. 

I would recommend that all teachers read the intro and conclusion as Hattie really lays down the challenge of improving learning at the feet of teachers.   He presents a persuasive argument and sets about trying to expand our horizons in education. 

Ultimately this is great book for those staff wanting answers to the question - How can I maximise learning in my classroom?

This was one of the youtube clips that led me to this book by Hattie...