8/13/2018

How Students Learn Share or tweet your thoughts

Improving how students approach learning

When teachers see learning through the

eyes of their students and students see
themselves as their own teachers

Use the Twitter handle #HowStudentsLearn

Learning intention Success criteria

By the end of today’s seminar you will:
“Develop your understanding of how student’s learn and
how teachers can use this knowledge to improve learning
outcomes”.
By the end of the seminar you will be able to:
• Identify some strategies that work well for different
phases of learning
• Share three key messages from today’s learning

The Visible Learning research Effect on achievement over time

How did it work and what did it say?

Professor John Hattie

Typical effect size
The University of Melbourne Senior
Research Consultant (Visible Learning plus) 0 1.00
0.40
• 800+ meta-analyses
• 50,000+ studies Decreased Zero Enhanced
• 250+ million students

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Distribution of effects Do we teach students “how to learn?”

Number of effects

25,000.00 • ???
20,000.00

15,000.00

10,000.00

5,000.00

0.00

How do we teach students “how to learn?”

The search for strategies = 400+ The evidence

Brain Gym
Collaborative Highlighting & Practice Testing
Re-reading
1. Visible Learning – (2009, 2012)
Underlining
Problem Solving
Comprehension Interleaved Practice Retrieval Cueing
Selecting Main Idea
2. Lavery, 2009
Keeping Records
Monitoring Self-monitoring
Concept Mapping Monitoring
Learning Styles Self-questioning 3. Dutch team
Critical Thinking
Techniques • Dignath, Buettner & Langfeldt (2008)
Discussion Groups Distributed Practice
Self-regulation Elaborative • Donker, de Boer, Dignath, Kostons & Werf (2013)
Listening & Notetaking Sleep Interrogation
Memorisation Summarisation Environmental
Structuring
4. Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan & Willingham (2013)
Mindfulness Think Aloud
Mnemonics
Planning
Time Management
Underlining &
Error Monitoring
Examination Skills
5. Hattie, Biggs, & Purdie (1996)
Highlighting Help Seeking
Practice & Rehearsal
6. The SLRC meta-analysis – Hattie & Donoghue (2016)

60
Pre-test/quiz on study strategies
50
Study strategies Effectiveness?
40 Summarising material you are learning

Underlining and highlighting

No. of meta-analyses

30

Practice/self-testing
20
Keyword mnemonics

10 Distributing practice out over time

Self-explanations linking new knowledge to
0
<-.3 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4+
known knowledge

-10 Effect-sizes Rereading or reviewing

.53
Average

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and the answer is…

“Teaching students how to learn is as Study strategies
important as teaching them content, Summarising material you are
learning
because acquiring both the right learning Underlining and highlighting
strategies and background knowledge is Practice/self-testing
important – if not essential – for promoting Keyword mnemonics
lifelong learning.” Distributing practice out over time
Self-explanations linking new
Dunlosky, 2013 knowledge to known knowledge
Effectiveness?
Helpful only with training in how to
summarize
Generally not very effective
Very effective in many circumstances
Benefits generally short-lived
Very effective in many circumstances
Effective in some circumstances

Rereading or reviewing Distributed reading can be helpful, but

only when you know the material

A Model of Learning A Model of Learning

The Will: Dispositions

RESILIENCE emotional
strength
RESOURCEFULNESS cognitive
capability
REFLECTION strategic
awareness
RELATING social
sophistication

A Model of Learning A Model of Learning

The Thrill
MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES
• Deep, Surface, Achieving: Motives and
Strategies
• Challenge

SUCCESS CRITERIA
• Seeking to understand what success looks
like
• Having a sense of the standards desired

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A Model of Learning A Model of Learning

A Model of Learning What is learning?

The process of developing sufficient

surface knowledge to then move to

deeper understanding such that one can

appropriately transfer this learning

to new tasks and situations

Work works at the different phases of learning?

The Skill – Prior knowledge

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The Will – Dispositions The Thrill – Motivation

Knowing success Environmental structuring

Surface acquiring Surface consolidating

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Deep acquiring Deep consolidating

Transfer

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Summary of key messages

The major messages
from this meta-synthesis of learning strategies
1. There is a right time for interventions and use of learning strategies.

For example:
Problem based learning is more effective in the
“deep” phase of learning

Surface phase of learning ES = 0.15

Deep phase of learning ES = 0.54

The major messages

from this meta-synthesis of learning strategies
1. There is a right time for interventions and use of learning strategies.
2. We have an over-emphasis on surface knowing in our schools

Learning strategies 90+% are surface

Teacher questions 90+% are surface
Lesson observations 90+% are surface
Test analyses 90+% are surface
Visible Learning 90+% are surface
We privilege a grammar of surface learning

The major messages The major messages

1. There is a right time for interventions and use of learning
strategies.
2. We have an over-emphasis on surface knowing in our schools
3. The mantra should be: “Surface to deep to transfer”.
1. There is a right time for interventions and use of learning
strategies.
2. We have an over-emphasis on surface knowing in our schools
3. The mantra should be: “Surface to deep to transfer”.
4. Be mindful of the importance of Skill, Will, and Thrill elements
5. Don’t underestimate how hard it is to transfer knowledge
6. There is a difference between “acquiring” and “consolidating”
learning
7. Learning strategies should be taught in context
8. All strategies can be taught
9. Making errors is fundamental to learning

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Errors are a natural by-product
of exploratory learning
Meta-analysis --- Keith and Frese (2008)
Surface learning around new tasks
deep learning
“I’ve never missed more than 9,000 shots in my
career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve
been trusted to take the game winning shot and
missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again
-0.15
in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
0.56

Surface learning to familiar tasks 0.20 - Michael Jordan

Far transfer to (new problems)
– deep learning 0.80

3–2–1 Visible Teaching – Visible Learning

When teachers SEE learning through the eyes of the student
• List three things you have learned in this session about
strategies that work well for acquiring or deepening
surface knowledge
• What are two points you would like to share with a
colleague when thinking about the implications of your
learning so far?
• Identify one thing you will do back in your school as a
result of attending this seminar today.

and when students SEE themselves as their own teachers

Contact us

www.visiblelearningplus.com

@VisibleLearning

www.facebook.com/visiblelearning