The Holy Grail of Educational Research

 

John Hattie

A group of researchers headed by John Hattie began a project in 1990, mostly based in Australia to synthesize educational research in a mammoth way that had never been done before.  Fifteen years later the results were published under the title of Visible Learning by Professor John Hattie.  The study focused on student achievement.  What worked best and what didn't work so well were ranked from multiple meta analysis studies.

What makes this so impressive is the size of the study.  There  were over 800 meta-analysis analyzed and synthesized.  This included 50,000 studies and many millions of students.  Each topic (e.g. class size, retention, teacher clarity etc.) was given a combined effect size score so all efforts toward student achievement could be compared to others as to their effectiveness.    

With a study this large teachers can see at a glance how some of the methods they are using in the classroom stack up to other competing methods.  Plus, we can examine different programs over the years that have been popular in school districts and around the world as to whether or not they were effective or were there better methods out there that would better serve the students.

There have been challenges as to the varying quality of the different studies being compared.  Still, because of it's wide scope and large numbers it is definitely worth examining.  I picked a few studies that would definitely relate to teaching mathematics.  Take a look and see how you and/or the programs you use would compare.

• Providing formative evaluation........0.90
• Teacher clarity..................................0.75
• Feedback..........................................0.73
• Spaced vs. mass practice..................0.71
• Meta-cognitive strategies.................0.69
• Vocabulary Programs.......................0.67
• Self-verbalization/questioning.........0.64
• Problem-solving teaching................0.61
• Teaching strategies...........................0.60
• Cooperative vs. individual...............0.59
• Direct Instruction.............................0.59
• Mastery Learning.............................0.58 
• Worked Examples............................0.57
• Goals................................................0.56
• Classroom Management..................0.52
• Small Group Learning.....................0.49
• Motivation.......................................0.48
• Questioning.....................................0.46
• Quality of teaching..........................0.44
• Expectations....................................0.43
• Matching Style of learning..............0.41
• Time on Task...................................0.38
• Computer Assisted Instruction........0.37
• Homework.......................................0.29

This list is far from complete but you can see it gives us lots to think about.  I will be referring to this study in several of my upcoming blog posts.  To me it is quite an eye opener.  I hope you find it valuable as well.

• Hattie, John A. (2008). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. ISBN 0-415-47618-6.
• https://robertslavinsblog.wordpress.com/2018/06/21/john-hattie-is-wrong/