I check in frequently with John Hattie's book "
Visible Learning for Teachers" (2012) and I was fortunate to have attended his session on the greatest impacts on student learning a few years back. The beauty of his work is that he eliminates the guessing games in education so we can sift through the "bells and whistles" and focus our team efforts on areas of greatest impact; below is a video on this exact topic of
Teacher Efficacy and the impact strong culture and beliefs can have. We will view this video on October 4 as well.
The minimum bar that is set by John Hattie is not at 0 - it's at .4 or a year of student growth for a year's academic input. Again, 95% of the "stuff" we do in education works. However, many of the things we try don't result in as much growth as other practices, therefore we must focus and evaluate our own impact (as teams) on getting at least one year of student growth for one school year input. Remember, one academic year is ~165 days!!
As I mentioned during many PD Days, and will again on October 4, some of our students come to us a year or more behind so a year's growth is simply not enough to close their gaps, especially after the large break due to the pandemic. Luckily, his analysis shows that certain practices can result in multiple year's growth in one school year = like having a strong PLC Culture (strong teacher efficacy) = 1.57 effect size (nearly 4 years of student growth in one year if committed to with fidelity)& Students Self Reporting their progress and their "grades/achievement". See the attached below for other key effect sizes.
So, how effective is your PL team?
"The conclusions in 'Visible Learning' by John Hattie ( 2012) were cast as six signposts towards excellence in education, as follows" -
1. Teachers are among the most powerful influences in learning.
2. Teachers need to be directive, influential, caring, and actively and passionately engaged in the process of teaching and learning.
3. Teachers need to be aware of what each and every student in their class is thinking and what they know, be able to construct meaning and meaningful experiences in light of this knowledge and understanding of the students, and have proficient knowledge and understanding of their subject content so that they can provide meaningful and appropriate feedback such that each student moves progressively through the curriculum levels.
4. Teachers and students need to know the learning intentions and the criteria for student success for their lessons, know how well they are attaining these criteria for all students, and know where to go next in light of the gap between students' current knowledge and understanding and the success criteria of 'Where are you going?', 'How are you going', and 'Where to next?'
5. Teachers need to move from single idea to multiple ideas, and to relate and then extend these ideas such that learners construct, and reconstruct, knowledge and ideas. It is not the knowledge or ideas, but the learner's construction of this knowledge and ideas that is critical.
6. School leaders and teachers need to create schools, staff-rooms, and class environments in which error is welcomed as a learning opportunity, in which discarding incorrect knowledge and understandings is welcomed, and in which teachers and students can feel safe to learn, re-learn, and explore knowledge and understanding.
