As educators, we spend each day talking with our students, asking questions, listening to their responses, observing their work, and giving feedback. At the end of more than seven hours of interactions with 24 students, I have made countless mental notes: Nivek knows letter sounds
“Students need to know their learning target— the specific skill they’re supposed to learn— or else ‘feedback’ is just someone telling them what to do.” -Susan Brookhart Have you ever been given feedback by someone who doesn’t know your situation or your intended goals, or who
An excerpt from the white paper Collaborative Leadership: How to Inspire Your Leaders to Become Learners Peter DeWitt has his own take on leadership. DeWitt, a longtime teacher and principal, is now an author, leadership coach, education consultant, Education Week columnist, Visible Learning trainer working with
Researchers must treat their findings with ruthless objectivity to avoid dreaded “cargo cults.” And educators should consider doing the same. Back in 1960, the great British filmmaker David Attenborough visited Tanna Island in the South Pacific to document the lives of the islanders. What he witnessed
It’s been 9 years since Professor John Hattie’s Visible Learning was first published and his research took the education world by storm. Since then, there have been more and more books about Visible Learning published every year by John Hattie and other education experts like
The Annual Visible Learning Conference was held July 9 and July 10 in Chicago, IL. When I got there, an employee at the hotel asked me, “What is the conference about?” A group of friends that I was re-connecting with after 15 years asked me,
Just Google “growth mindset” and it won’t take long to uncover the storm of controversy over this popular theory. It’s well-known by now that several studies have shown that mindset has a low effect size of 0.19 (Nottingham, 2018). Proponents say mindset is being done wrong; the opposition
While the Visible Learning research has been spread all over the world and has been transforming schools and the way we teach, we can’t be blind to the questions and criticisms that have also arisen from that spotlight. I’d like to take this opportunity to address
Education researcher John Hattie’s ground-breaking research about the factors that influence student achievement gives us much to think about in terms of our habits and practices. It helps us to prioritize initiatives, counteract negative influences, and get rid of practices – such as retaining students
While the concept of student-owned assessment is becoming more widespread, ways to engage and activate students as assessors are less familiar. John Hattie (2012) describes assessment capable learners as those who ask where they are going, how they are going, and where to go next.