Daniela Silva

CeRP del Este

Didactics II
Prof.: Lilia Ferragut

Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning

John Hattie

After reading the summary of John Hattie’s Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing
Impact on Learning by Jenn David-Lang, I am left with plenty of intellectual nourishment. The
main idea discussed here is the justification for making teaching and learning visible. This
means, making clear what students are learning and what the teacher is teaching.
A common theme along the summary is the notion that we should be focusing on
students’ learning, and that is an idea that I can surely get behind. In my opinion, it is best
highlighted in the following quote: “Too often, professional development focuses on how to
teach, not on how students learn.”. I believe that many times we are too focused on what we
are doing, how we are going to give instructions, stand in class, write on the board, etc. that
we forget about the other major component of the lesson: the students and their learning
processes. Although we must not overlook our role and stop being intentional and careful
planners, we must also consider students’ experiences and be aware of the effect our
teaching is having. As Adrian Underhill said, “ The lesson plan should serve the people, and
not the other way around”.
Another point that I would like to highlight from the summary stems from the idea of
making students their own teachers, with the aim of becoming lifelong learners. Not only is
this related to the 21st Century Skills, but it also transforms the dynamic of the lessons.
Moreover, as the text notes, teaching students strategies or different ways to learn cannot be
separated from “regular lessons” and condensed into a “study skills” course, as this has
proved ineffective. Instead, teachers should aim at integrating the practice of these skills into
everyday lessons, and be deeply linked to the content being taught through the exercise of
high-level thinking.
Furthermore, and related to the last point, is the idea of self-reported grades. Even
though the text demonstrates its efficacy when it comes to learners’ achievement, the author
is also aware of its limitations, stating that “...two groups of students were not as good at
predicting their performances – minority students and lower-achieving students. It has
proved difficult to improve the confidence levels of these two groups of students.”.
Confidence is strongly linked to learning, even more so if we think about learning English,
where we have to deal with a lot of uncertainty at first. While striving for academic success,
we must not dismiss students’ emotional and social domains. On this note, I greatly enjoyed
the strategy of making students compare their work to academic goals and not other
student’s work. I think this is a much healthier and productive way of having students
“compare” their work to something.
As stated before, this reading was tremendously insightful. I think it truly empowers
students and helps teachers direct their attention to them and to the effect that their teaching
is having on students’ learning. As the author mentions, not only students should become
their own teachers, but also teachers should become learners of their own teaching.