Book Review - Visible Learning for Teachers

Hello again! I want to thank all of you who are reading my blog.  I hope one day that more and more people enjoy my writing, but I never want to lose sight of the fact that a few of you have been loyal readers from the beginning.  

I wanted to address a second point.  One of my colleagues called me out on my off and on poor syntax.  It made me laugh.  "Healer, heal thyself ....."  Yes, I admit that I make mistakes.  Even we mighty teachers of English are not perfect when it comes to using English.  I had one of my Chinese students actually explain grammar to me a couple nights ago.  I explained to him that sometimes grammar is just intuitive and maybe I couldn't explain the rule, but I knew right from wrong.  As an American, English speaker and writer my ability is sometimes clouded by my enjoyment of pop culture and basically my lack of attention at times.  I am not using it as an excuse.  I am merely stating that sometimes I am just in the "zone" writing and not paying attention, so poor language use creeps in and haunts me.  I apologize to all of you out there and perhaps I will endeavor to edit a bit more before I post.  

Okay, the book I want to briefly talk about is a particular favorite of mine, John Hattie's Visible Learning for Teachers  Spoiler Alert!  This book breaks down into one easy statement; intervention works.  Essentially Hattie has synthesized over 15 years of research and produced his best practices; which he details in the book.  The meat of the book is a guide to preparing, delivering and reflecting on a lesson.  This all occurs in part two of the book, approximately 100 pages of a book of slightly more than 160 pages in total.  In this section Hattie talks about preparing the lesson, starting the lesson, how a lesson flows, where feedback is needed and used, and ending a lesson.  As stated before he makes use of his extensive research to provide examples of what has worked well before based on the data.  One term he uses that always gets me to the point of why I teach and that is when he terms teachers as activators.  We are what begins the process of learning much like a catalyst in a chemical reaction.

The first section reinforces this as it talks about where we get ideas for our teaching methods and how important a role teachers play in the overall learning process.  The final section discusses "Mind Frames".  He speaks to the mind frames of teachers, school leaders, and administration.  Again the point is that good teachers are an important asset, but they have to be backed up by good leaders and good administration.  We all make up a part of a team.

The book also has a great section on data for those that like to see the numbers.  In the appendices Hattie breaks down his data for all to see.  For example he rates the effectiveness of different influences on achievement.  One of the highest is student expectations.  Hattie's studies show that students generally achieve to their expectations.  With this in mind it is necessary as a teacher to raise those expectations.

I highly recommend this book to any teacher looking for some breakdown on preparing and delivering lessons.  It is a short but thoughtful read and full of great ideas.

• Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. London: Routledge.
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