With its central argument that teachers who are passionate about what they do will yield better results, this book will be useful to both school leaders wanting to help staff get the most out of their classrooms, and teachers interested in how to improve their experience of teaching.
Visible learning for teachers: maximising impact on learning
Synopsis
Following his 2008 book Visible Learning, Hattie now focuses on supporting teachers’ classroom practice. This second book contains checklists, exercises, case studies and best practice scenarios to help teachers improve their pupils’ achievements, as well as providing step-by-step guidance for teachers on lesson preparation, interpreting learning during lessons, and post lesson follow up.
Informing these methods is Hattie’s central argument that effective teachers do much more than simply communicate content or processes: they are aware of which of their teaching strategies are working best and for which pupils; they are be prepared to understand and adapt to each of their learners and their individual situations, contexts, and prior learning; and they share their experiences of learning with their students and colleagues. This is the key to his concept of ‘visible learning’.
Hattie believes that the most powerful way of thinking about a teacher’s role is for teachers to see themselves as evaluators of their effects on students. In order to achieve this they need to be equipped to use evidence-based methods to inform, change, and sustain these evaluation beliefs about their effect, which is what his book seeks to provide them with.