John Hattie’s meta-analysis of educational research was groundbreaking back in 2009. As with any enduring work, I find myself going back to the study and learning new things. Now to be truthful, I am usually going to the updated versions of the meta-analysis with the Visible Learning organization compiles yearly. The list has slightly changed over the years, but the principles remain the same.
Lately I have been focused on the piece about knowing the impact that new interventions and strategies have on learning. One way I have interpreted this is to build in evaluations to new programs to understand whether they are having positive impact on student learning. If we are targeting a year’s worth of growth for all students, we need to know whether what we are doing is moving our students forward in their learning.
Like many teachers, I have often been hooked on the good feeling of doing something new and fun. I would start a new initiative that the kids enjoyed and think that learning was taking place. Often times good learning was going on and this new thing was an improvement, but there were other times when it was not an improvement. The problem is that I only found out whether learning has taken place much after the concept was taught.
What I have learned is that to ensure that new ways of teaching are having an impact with the individual group of students that we are working with, we need to build in evaluations to our changes. We need to measure whether we are causing better learning for the students that we serve.
The fact that we work with individuals who are unique is important here. The Visible Learning list of strategies is not a “plug and play” resource. Different strategies will work better with different students. We need to know our community and build relationships with our students, only then will be able to select the best strategies to move our students forward.
The structure that we have been using in order to remind us to evaluate the impact of our interventions has been the Learning Sprint. Having a structure allows us to move through different phases of new initiative without missing important pieces. I have found having a plan and a template to be extremely effective in organizing the professional learning in our school.
All of this evaluation takes place inside of the collective understanding of what a year’s worth of growth is. This is another piece of the Visible Learning study that I have come back to over and over. All teachers need to have an understanding of what progress looks like.
I have encountered many situations where a teacher struggles with knowing what a year’s worth of growth is for a student that is below their grade level. For instance, a grade 5 teacher is working with a student who is 2 years below grade level, but they don’t have a great understanding of the progression for grade 3 students.
This is where working with our colleagues and the psychological trust at a school become an advantage. The information is shared to be able to come to an understanding of what progress we should target. We can also share the strategies that may work well for students who are working at that level.
The concept of having a conception of a year’s worth of growth has remained incredibly important in my practice. In our school, we have students with a range of abilities in each class. In order to have each student achieve a year’s worth of growth, we need to know what progress looks like.
Our school’s conception of a year’s worth of growth is something we are working on and will continue to improve over the years. It must constantly be revisited in order to maintain understanding. As new staff arrive and leave, we are continually updating and refining our vision.
I encourage you to pick up Visible Learning again and to review the updated versions. I also encourage you to “Know Thy Impact”.
Corey Haley 