New Buzzwords: Visible Learning

I thought that today I would start by sharing the above clip: John Hattie's 9 Mindframes for Visible Learning. It's a pretty simple clip… but sometimes it's the "simple" things that have the biggest impact.

Visible Learning means an enhanced role for teachers as they become evaluators of their own teaching. According to John Hattie Visible Learning and Teaching occurs when teachers see learning through the eyes of students and help them become their own teachers.

Things are changing in education and it is really exciting.

Here are some ways I have incorporated visible learning into my own classroom:

Student-Teacher Conferences

I am a big fan of student-teacher conferences. I was only recently introduced to them, and I began conferencing with writing. However, I've now incorporated it into most facets of learning. To make conferencing easier and quicker… I created these books to tick off what students can do/ are achieving. Some of these checklists I have found online and the writing conference checklist was created by a colleague. They cover the literacy and numeracy continuums assisting with data collection and plotting. All you need is a highlighter and a listening ear.

By conferencing, you're also enabling your students to take ownership over their own learning. They are being given authentic and constructive feedback which they can apply to their work right then and there. Students have a chance to talk through their ideas, share their understanding and ask questions.

Pre and Post-Testing

John Hattie's fourth mind frame is: I see assessment as feedback to me.

Analysing students pre- and post-test data

This has to be the biggest change that I've made to the way that I approach teaching and learning so far. I used to assess students learning at the conclusion of a unit or topic. Now I am testing students before beginning a unit or topic (pre-test) and I'm analysing that data. I group students according to what they already know or what they need to know. I look at trends, and keep track of areas that I need to focus on. At the conclusion of the unit or topic, I still assess students learning, however, I am now comparing their post-test results against their pre-test results and noticing the improvements. I am evaluating what worked and what didn't work. I'm figuring out why some students are achieving more than others.

I am also sending the pre-tests home. This is enabling parents to know what students can and can't do and to help them know how they can help at home. I staple a little slip to the front cover and students pick an area that they want to focus on and improve.

An example of a pre-test that is ready to be sent home.

Students Rating their Learning/ Understanding

There's so many ways you can do this. Sometimes I ask students to give themselves a rating (from 0-4) on how they've performed or how they've understood what they've learned. Other times I have students use red, orange or green stickers to indicate how well they have grasped a topic (green for confident and can teach others; orange for being able to complete the task with some help; and red for needs to help to complete task).

This is a page from their Goal Setting Booklets

I think it is important to ask students how the feel they are going. To ask them how well they understand what they've been learning. And even to get them to rate your own performance as their teacher.

By doing so, we as professionals, can evaluate our own performance and then improve upon it.

I guess at the end of the day, we're all on a learning journey. I still have a long way to go myself. However, I have come to the realisation that the more visible learning is in my classroom, the more my students achieve.

Want to know more?

Check out what I've written about Goal Setting Booklets or Bump It Up Walls