Teachers Across Borders, Siem Reap Workshop, 2011

- Visible Learning (and more)...

Visible Learning

A professor from New Zealand, called John Hattie has summarised over 800 studies about studies related to what makes a student do better or worse in school. Altogether he covers thousands of studies with many million students.

He has put the results from these studies into different categories and given them a number for how effective or ineffective they are. All the studies that have a number higher than 0,4 are believed to clearly influence how a student does in school. The categories he uses are “influence from the student, influence from the home, influence from the curricula and from teaching approaches”. From his book we have taken all the things that have a high efficiency number and that we think could be of interest for you.

Summary of the results:

• Effective teaching/learning can be reached when there are clear goals, when deliberate practice is made to master that goal and when both teachers and students try to assess if, when and how well that goal has been reached. The goals that are set should be challenging and specific. To reach the goal the students should be able to choose different ways of getting there and the students should be active when they do that.

• Effective teaching/learning is reached when teachers learn to see through the eyes of the students and when the students learn to see through the eyes of the teachers, when teaching is visible for the students and when learning is visible for the teachers, when teachers become students and when students become their teachers who control their own learning, assess themselves and can help themselves to learn.

• Effective teaching/learning is reached when it is ok for students to make mistakes and when teachers give praise to them for daring to be wrong and for daring to show what they don’t understand.

• Effective teaching/learning is reached when the teacher can assess and change the strategies a student uses, for example, when it comes to learning strategies, how students build confidence, how much time the students can spend on doing something, for how and when they ask for help, for how they learn in a group with others, etc.

• Effective teaching/learning is reached when the teacher shows clear examples of what it means to master what is to be taught, when the students get more challenges and when the teacher has high expectations on them.

• Effective teaching/learning is reached when feedback is given and asked for, both about where teachers and students are going, how they get to that goal and where they go next. An example is at the end of a lesson when students talk about and summarise the message of the lesson and give that to the teacher.

• Effective learning is reached when there is a shift from rote to deep learning and to make this possible knowledge structures need to be linked at a deep level, and connected to previous knowledge and the students’ everyday experience. This is even more powerful when students know what they know and what they don’t know.

Influence from the student:

• Previous knowledge (=what the student already knows) is very important to how well a student does, especially in terms of grades. The number here is 0,7 (14th on the ranking). The ranking number here is how big this influence is compared to the other over hundred factors that are presented in the book.

• Highest on the ranking with an effect number of 1,44 is to let students assess their own performance and perhaps give themselves a grade first (before the teacher does it). The view the students have of themselves also has a rather big influence of how well they do. The number is 0,43 (60th on the ranking).

• The influence from students’ motivation is 0,48 (51st on the ranking). The influence from concentration, engagement and endurance (=how long they are able to focus on something) is 0,48 (49th place). Students’ motivation is as highest when they are good at something, when they have enough freedom, when valueable goals are set, when they get clear and specific feedback and when they get praise.

Influence from the home:

• The influence from what kind of family students come from and how much help they get from parents is over 0,51.

Influence from the school:

• Peer learning, when students teach and learn from other students is effective. The number is 0,53 (41th place).

• The influence from small groups is 0,49 (48th place) and smaller groups are especially effective if the teacher changes his/her teaching for a smaller group. Often the teacher does not change his/her teaching and that’s why the influence is not greater.

Influence from the teacher:

• The influence from the relationship between the teacher and student is 0,72.

• The influence from what the students think is a good teacher is 0,44 (56th place) and students think that good teachers create challenges, have high expectations and encourage students to study their subject and value both rote and deep aspects.

• The influence from the expectations a teacher has on his/her students is 0,43 (58th place) and the influence from that the teacher puts students in different categories is 0,61 (21st place).

• The influence from how clear the teacher makes his/her teaching is 0,75 (8th place). Clarity here is about organization, explanations, examples, guided practice and assessment of students’ learning. Clarity is also about showing clearly to the students what the goals are with a lesson and what success means compared to those goals.

Influence from teaching approaches:

• The influence from setting goals is 0,56 (34th place). The goals need to be clear and skills, knowledge, attitudes and values need to show students what they are to learn, and assessments need to be made of learning and teaching. The focus needs to be on what is to be taught and success criteria (=what is means to master what is to be learned) need to be clear.

• The influence of mindmapping (or other visual presentations) is 0,57 (33rd place).

• The influence from “building bridges” from what students already know is 0,41 (61st place).

• The influence from mastery learning is 0,58 (29th place). Mastery learning is about giving clear explanations about what is means to master what is being taught and to give examples of this. To reach this is good to let the students work a lot together, to give a lot of specific feedback, to use tests that focus on what the students know and where they need to go next and that no new material is given before a student has reached a certain level.

• The influence from feedback is 0,73 (10th place). Teachers should seek feedback on their teaching from the students. Teachers should also create challenges, set challenges that are a little bit higher than what the students can do. They should also try to make the students engaged, give the students strategies to reach the goals and assess the path towards these goals, where the student is, what the end goal is and how to get there. This assessment should be done by both the teachers and the students. As mentioned before, it is also important to look at what the student knows already and to show what it means to master what is to be taught. Feedback is more effective when the focus is more on what is correct than incorrect and the feedback needs to be clear, specific, meaningful and have a logic connection to what the student knows already.

• The influence from “formative feedback” (showing where the student is going, how well he/she is doing and where he/she is going next) is 0,90 (3rd place).

• The influence from learning something on several times instead of once for a longer time is 0,71 (12th place).

• The influence from asking questions is 0,46 (53rd place). The most effective questions are authentic questions (= questions that the teacher does not already know the answer to). Examples of those types of questions are ones starting with “why” and “how”. Check-up questions have some effect if they are connected straight to the material that is taught. It is important to practise asking questions and to learn to listen to the questions the students ask and analyse those questions.

• The influence from peer tutoring or peer learning, which is mentioned above is 0,55 (36th place). It is effective for both the one who is teaching and the one being taught and especially from older to younger students and when they have more freedom.

• The influence from letting students reflect on their learning (= to think, talk or write about learning), is 0,69 (13th place).

• The influence from testing is 0,34 (79th place). It is more effective when tests are suited to the students’ strengths and weaknesses.

• The influence from teaching study technique is 0,59 (25th place). It is important to connect study technique to what is being taught and it is effective to focus on study technique for an intensive period. When it comes to techniques it is effective to have a goal with the studies, to make summaries, take notes, plan and think about how and when different strategies can be used. Other effective strategies are for students to give themselves instructions out loud, to follow a schedule, to assess themselves, to repeat, to create pictures, to go through notes before and after lessons and for them to make to-do-lists.

• The influence from letting students ask themselves questions and expressing what they know is 0,64 (18th place). It is especially effective to do this before and after lessons.

• The influence from using reciprocal teaching is 0,74. This is about making students summarize, question, ask questions, make things clearer and predict and that these strategies are supported in the dialogue between the teacher and student when they together try to seek meaning in a text. The teacher and student then change roles between being teacher and student.

• The influence from direct instruction is 0,59 (26th place). Direct instruction is about that the teacher has a clear idea about what the goals are, what it means to do well in relation to these goals and the students need to know how they have done. The teacher also needs to create engagement, lust and acceptance. The teacher should give the students information/knowledge, then examples of what is expected and after that control how much they understand. The students need to understand before they move on and after that they practice with feedback from the teacher. By the end of the lesson the main points are covered and the lesson is summarized and made clearer. Then the students need to repeat what they have learned several times and in different situations.

• The influence of teaching problem-based learning is 0,61 (20th place). The most effective method consists of four phases, 1) understand the problem, 2) work on a plan to solve the problem, 3) carry out the plan and 4) analyse the resultat.

• (The influence from problem-based learning is 0,15 (118th place). This type of learning is often centred around the student, is done in small groups with a tutor guiding the group, has a real problem to solve and that the problems are used as tools to reach knowledge to be learned. For rote learning learning problem-based learning is not so effective or can even be negative while for deep learning it is more positive in general. The important thing is how knowledge is used rather than only focusing on getting knowledge in itself.

• The influence from learning in groups is 0,41 (63rd place). In the book collaborative learning, or, learning in groups, is compared to competitive learning and individual learning. The influence from collaborative compared to competitive learning is 0,54 (37th place) and compared to individual learning 0,24 (96th place).

Concluding comments from Hattie:

• A common problem in many schools is that teachers teach to the ”average students” (= in terms of knowledge level) in the class and miss the ones that know the least and the most. Teachers then try to create more engaging exercises instead of more challenging, talk more themselves in front of the class, ask questions that they already know the answer to, direct the students too much and make the students become “cueseekers” (=students who try to take shortcuts and who try to finish as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort). Teachers should instead create and show examples of success that are connected to the goals with the lesson.

• Teachers need to think about what is best to learn next in relation to what the students already know, what material that is the right to use, how students are kept engaged AND learn, what activities that create interest, how to create the best challenge with the learning goals and how to create structures for learning by challenges, what works best, why, for whom it doesn’t work. Teachers need to try to find out what the students think, what their goals are, how they learn and why they want to engage in what schools have to offer. Teachers also need to be flexible and know when students learn/don’t learn, where to go next and be able to suit strategies, resources and change the classroom environment for this. They also need to know what works best, compared to what alternatives, when, for whom and how much.

• Hattie recommends “deliberative practice”. It is about clearly defining what is to be learned, repeat many times, give feedback all the time and that what is to be learned is challenging and difficult, has clear goals, that students reflect along they way and that the result is assessed and compared to the goals.

• Teachers are among the most important factors for students’ learning and the teachers need to be directing, influential, caring and actively engaged in teaching and learning. They also need to be aware of what the students think and know and suit meaningful teaching after this and create meaningful and suitable feedback to each student. The teachers also need to know what the goals are, what signs of success are in relation to these goals and know where to go next to bridge where the students are at the moment in relation to the goal. They also need to be forgiving about students’ mistakes, start from what the students know already and give the students deep understanding and organise this knowledge to be able to easier retrieve and use it when needed. The students also need help from the teacher to create strategies for reflecting on how to reach the learning goals and assess how they are doing in relation to those goals.

• Hattie says that schools consist of three worlds, on teacherlead with lectures, exercises etc, on with interactions between students and one within the heads of students, with their thinking and “self-talk”. In all these different worlds the expectations, roles, structures etc are different.

• Important factors for success according to Hattie are that teachers and students are aware of learning goals, signs of success, that good and clear examples are shown, that repeated practice is made, that different teaching/learning strategies are used and that students learn with the help of other students.

Our questions in relation to “Visible Learning”:

• What do you think about this? What questions does this raise for you?

• How do you do now in your school/schools?

• Give examples of how you can use this in your school/schools, classroom/classrooms.

Lesson plan

Date:________     Class:_________    Length of lesson:________  ”Fun”-level:_______

LPP

How do we plan a field or subject?

Here are some important questions that a teacher has to think of before starting a field or a subject.

Purpose

What is the purpose with the field or subject that I will work with?

Content

What is the main content that this field or subject will deal with?

Are there any ideas from the teacher or students on other content in this field or subject?

Concretize

How do we make this field or subject concrete for the students so that they are aware of the goal with (to reach in) this field or subject?

How can we concretize the goals in this actual field or subject? Knowledge?

Working method

How do we introduce, carry through and finish this field or subject so that students gets the opportunity to develop towards the subjects’ purpose and goals?

How do we stimulate students’ linguistic development in this field or subject?

Which other subjects can be connected to this field or subject, to create a deeper and total understanding?

Grading

How and when can students’ knowledge and ability be graded in relation to this field or subject, both during the working progress and after finishing the work?

In which ways during the working progress can students be given the opportunity to show the knowledge that they were meant to reach?

Documentation

How do we document every student’s development?

How can we use the documentation to evaluate our teaching?

How do we use our experience that we have in this field and subject to relate to other fields and subjects?

How do we share our experience with other colleagues?

Model for analysis

Causes           ----->                Occurrence      ------>     Consequences            Consequences                /Problem

*Direct                                            ?                        *Individual – Society                 *Indirect                                                *In short time – in long time

                                                        *Positive – negative

                                                        *Disadvantage - Advantage

----->        Solution/Measure                    ------->                   Conclusions

*Advantage – Disadvantage with consequences                    *Generalization

* In short time – in long time                                    *Argue – for or against

*Winner or Loser of the solution

*Consequences with the solution, Individual, Society, Environment                

*Winner or loser

The teacher can use this model to analyze a problem or occurrence. The model will help the students to structure their way of thinking about a problem or occurrence and to practice the ability to making generalizations, putting things in a system and critical thinking. It will make students develop qualities to think about subjects in social studies.

Thinking qualities

Those qualities make up conceptual tools that give the possibility to reach the subjects’ principals, key concepts, core and structure.

• Summarize the subject by answering the questions; what, where, who, when, how, why, opinion
• Compare, to see similarity and difference; distinction
• Connection, relation between things, causes  
• Change of perspective in time and place
• Generalization, see pattern

• Conclusion, inference
• Discussion, argue for or against something, opinion, view
• Value, advantage – disadvantage, positive – negative for the  individual and for society, environment
• Critical thinking

Mindmapping

Mind maps include language, numbers, logic, patterns, colors, pictures and space. Both the right and left side of the brain are used.

What we remember is;

-what happened in the beginning of a learning process

-what happened in the end of a learning process

-what is associated to the knowledge or patterns that we already have

-what is strongly emphasized or unique

-what especially appeals to our five senses

-what has a special interest for an individual

Disadvantages with normal writing

-keywords are not used

-makes it difficult to remember, no colors are used etc

-takes a lot of time

-does not stimulate the brain

An example of how mind maps can be used is;

Do a brainstorming about something and compare with others. Decide on a keyword together.

It is rare that you write the same thing.

Continue to associate. You get endless creativity and it helps learning.  

We remember thousands of pictures, a lot more than than the words we remember. That says something about how powerful pictures are for learning. The reason why is that many of our mental abilities are used with pictures, colors, forms, lines, dimensions, structures, visual patterns and fantasies.

For example;

Draw a mind map with a picture, associate with pictures.

Underline words and combine with pictures and words but only pictures if it is possible.

Important; use a hierarchical structure to remember better. Also draw bigger lines or bigger letters to show what is more important.

Mind maps – Why use the them?

-saves time

-less to read

-less repetition time

-less searching

-focus on important questions

-find keywords

-better for creativity and memory

-good for associations

-much more fun

-endless thinking

-makes sense and shows the big picture

-all abilities are used which makes the brain more awake

Structure – Roles/recommendations

Technical                                Layout

-emphasize                                -use hierarchy

-associate                                -use numbers

-be clear

-develop personal style

Emphasize

-draw pictures

-use three or more colors

-use perspectives

-use several senses

-vary size on text, lines, picture

-plan space

-use enough paper

-always draw the picture in the middle

Associate

-use nodes

-use colors

-bind with arrows

Be clear

-make lines

-make thick lines

-connect lines with each other

-draw lines as long as the words

-write some keywords on each line

-text

-make groups

Break mental blocks

-add empty lines

-ask questions to the mind map

-add pictures

-be aware of endless ability to associate

Strengthen

-Repeat and it will stay in the long term memory

-Make control mind map- good for training and remembering

Solving problems

-add + or – (for good and bad ideas)

-add yes or no

-roles

-structure

-functional

-gives a history to go back to

-put into categories

Try not to use more than seven nodes, and the reason why is: that is the maximum number of things most people can keep in their short-time memory.

Another example of how mind maps can be used;

On a certain subject/mind map

-why would it be fun to…

-create …

-begin to…

-learn to…

-leave…

-go out with…

-buy a…

-believe in…

-quit one…

A good study technique with mind maps

-scan through what you want to learn, a book etc

-make a mind map of what you already know about the subject

-decide on a purpose/goal and then make a new mind map with questions you want to answer

-get a general overview, read the summary, the conclusions etc in a book

-observe the text, especially check the beginning and the end

-repeat, fill in the mind map, check questions

One way to remember is to leave the middle empty and then associate until you remember.

Creative thinking

-use different shapes

-use colors

-associate new unique ideas with old ones

-change nodes and shapes

-react on things that appeal to the senses, reflect on that content of the mind map

-react on aesthetically and emotionally appealing things, reflect

-reorganize

-arrange your conceptual standpoint

-enlarge and change size

-combine the different element above

Creative process

-create mind map, create as many ideas as you can, for about 20 min

-first arrange, classify in groups, underline, make hierarchies, combine

-let your mind map “sink in”

-rearrange your mind map again

-analyze

Group mind map

-define the subject, write goals and give background information

-do individual brainstorming/mind-mapping first

-discuss in groups of 3-5 persons, exchange ideas, add new ideas

-create a first mind map in the group, leave big space and discuss

-incubation (let the ideas “sink in”)

-rearrange again one more time

-analyze and make a decision

Use mind map for self-analysis

-help others and draw while the other person talks

Problem solving with a mind map

-use it to narrow down a problem, to search for a solution and use keywords

-can be used for answering an exam question. Write down what you know and relate to your own thoughts. Relate to facts and reflect.

Teaching

-very good when you are planning a subject.

-good when presenting something, summarizes, is quick, shows connections etc.

-good for teachers and students, can be used for a whole course

-good for projects, mind maps grow as a project grows

-use in classrooms, give a framework to students so they can associate, reflect, by themselves first, in the beginning, during, at the end of and after a lesson.

-use in examinations, combine facts with reflection

Grading – marking

-content, width and depth, theory, concept

-using own ideas, details

-using mind map technique , colors, symbols, arrows

Master mind map

-read a text and draw a picture in the middle of your mid map

-decide a time and a volume goal (how many pages to read)

-do a mind map on what you know about the subject

-define and make a mind map over your goals and motivation

-add lines to your mind map

-put it aside and let it “sink in”

-complete, add details to your mind map

-repeat, and finish your mind map (and keep on adding for as long as you want)

A master mind map can also be used to link other mind maps to it.