John Hattie’s Top Ten Visible Learning Takeaways –
Number Nine: Teacher Clarity
This is the second of a ten part series that serves to highlight the most significant findings and their applications to our classrooms from Hattie’s 2012 work, Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning.
Number 9 – Teacher Clarity
One of Hattie’s most important themes is the importance of teachers effectively communicating the intentions of lessons and what success looks like in relation to these intentions. Hattie cited Fendicks 1990 study on teacher clarity where he defined this principle as “organization, explanation, examples and guided practice, and assessment of student learning.” (2009)
Application to the Classroom
Consider how your use of effectively written learning targets paired with rubrics that reinforce these expectations play key roles in maximizing your teacher clarity.
In Classroom Instruction That Works by Dean, et. al. (2012), there are four recommendations for setting objectives in the classroom:
- Set learning targets that are specific but not restrictive.
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- Communicate the learning targets to students and parents.
- Connect the learning targets to previous and future learning.
- Engage students in setting personal learning goals.
Hattie, J., Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement (2009)
Hattie, J. Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning (2012)
Shute, V.J., Focus on Formative Feedback (2008)
Effect size image retrieved from: http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/what_works.htm
Maxwell image retrieved from http://quotesgram.com/care-john-c-maxwell-quotes/#9PWYZjgpMN
