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• SMS & LMS 1
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• SMS & LMS 5
• SMS & LMS 6

 

John Hattie and a dedicated group of researchers from Auckland University in New Zealand have released a summary of findings following their distillation of over 500 000 studies of the effects of influences on student achievement. The study presents teachers with a summary of what we may have suspected for many years . . . that teachers really do make a difference.

A more full report is available from http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/staff/index.cfm?P=8650

The paper argues that we can restrain teachers by presenting more restrictive curricula, textbook prescription and greater accountability or we can focus on what really makes a difference . . . . . empowering better teaching practices by focussing on what works.

Ignoring the interaction effects, which are too often, minor, then the
major sources of variance are six-fold.

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Students which account for about 50% of the variance of achievement. It is what students brings to the table that predicts achievement more than any other variable.

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Teachers who account for about 30% of the variance. It is what teachers know, do, and care about which is very powerful in this learning equation.

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Home which accounts for about 5-10% of the variance – considering that the major effects of the home are already accounted for by the attributes of the student. The home effects are more related to the levels of expectation and
encouragement, and certainly not a function of the involvement of the parents
or caregivers in the management of schools.

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Schools which account for about 5-10% of the variance. Schools barely make a difference to achievement. The discussion on the attributes of schools – the
finances, the school size, the class size, the buildings are important as they
must be there in some form for a school to exist, but that is about it.

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Principals are already accounted for in the variance attributed to schools and mainly, I would argue, because of their influence on the climate of the school. Principals who create a school with high student responsiveness rather than bureaucratic control (i.e., more like a primary school atmosphere than an Intermediate and unlike so many NZ secondary schools), who create a climate of psychological safety to learn, who create a focus of discussion on student learning have the influence.

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Peer effects which accounts for about 5-10% of the variance. It does not matter too much who you go to school with, and when students are taken from one school and put in another the influence of peers is minimal (of course, there are Distinguishing Expert Teachers from Novice and Experienced Teachers. 3 exceptions, but they do not make the norm). My colleagues, lead by Ian Wilkinson, completed a major study on peer influences and perhaps we are more surprised by the under utilisation of peers as co-teachers in classrooms, and the dominance of the adult in the room to the diminution of the power of the peer.

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Choosing wisely what to put your energy into!