Visible Learning Plus: An introduction
Teacher only day December 2016
Do Now:
Activity One part one and part two: How do we learn?
a) Choose one of the problems on the handout provided and spend five minutes trying to solve
it. As you are attempting to solve the problem, think about the processes and strategies you
are using to try and solve it.
(see separate handout)
b) Think-pair-share: You have just worked on a difficult problem.
I.
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Think about the following:
Which problem were you most comfortable with solving? Why?
What specific strategies did you use and why?
How easy is it to identify your problem-solving strategies i.e. how you attacked the
problem?
II.
Pair up with someone at your table and discuss your answers. Think about your
experience in relation to your students. Discuss the following question:
How do our students learn?
(see separate handout)
Learning intention:
By the end of today’s session, you will:
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Have clarity about what current research says about how students learn.
Have clarity about what role we play as teachers in this learning.
Be introduced to some basic elements of Hattie’s Visible Learning Plus model.
Success criteria:
By the end of today, you will:
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Understand that three key inputs that drive learning combine cognitive (skill, knowledge,
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content) and affective (emotional) elements.
Understand that teachers can influence both of these elements.
Reflect on the extent to which you already use specific strategies to develop the key inputs
for each student.
Long term success criteria:
Our vision is that teachers and students at St Andrew’s College will have a shared
understanding of
how learning happens in the classroom and use this to develop more effective learners.
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Visible Learning: what are Hattie’s key messages?
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John Hattie believes the fundamental role of a school is to help students exceed their
potential.
He developed the idea of visible learning to represent the most powerful influences on
teaching and learning, those most effective for student learning.
An effect size measures the impact of a particular influence or strategy on learner
achievement. They include contributions from the student, home, school the curricula and
teacher.
The mantra of Visible Learning relates to teachers seeing learning through the eyes of
students, and students seeing themselves as their own teachers
‘Know thy impact’: Teachers are change agents
As teachers, we are in a powerful position to influence what a student learns and how they learn.
“Teaching students how to learn is as important as teaching
them content, because acquiring both the right learning
strategies and background knowledge is important - if not
essential – for promoting life-long learning.”
John Dunlonsky, Professor of Psychology Kent State University, Ohio
Hattie’s Visible learning is about having a set of mind frames to ensure learning is
maximised.
Visible learning is about teachers and leaders seeing themselves as change agents. In other
words, student achievement patterns can be changed by what we do (or don’t do).
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
Activity Two: Mind frames Self Reflection
To what extent are you demonstrating the 8 mind frames to maximise learning in your classroom?
Rate yourself from 5 (I demonstrate this all the time) to 1 (I don’t yet demonstrate this)
Mind frame
Self assessment
(5 all the time – 1 not at all)
1. I evaluate the effect of my teaching on my students’
learning and achievement
2. I see myself as a change agent: what I do or don’t do is
important for the success of my learners
3. I see learning (not teaching) as being at the core of what I
do
4. I seek out feedback; assessment allows me to evaluate my
impact on student learning
5. I engage in dialogue with my students to find out what’s
working and what is not
6. I enjoy challenge and never retreat into ‘just doing my best’
7. I actively develop positive relationships based on learning in
the classroom and am a supportive colleague
8. I use the language of learning and am passionate and
promote growth.
Self reflection:
What am I doing well?
What do I need to do differently?

Activity Three: Learning at StAC
In groups of four, discuss and list your answers to the following questions. Be specific, so
that this information is clear to another group:
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What does effective teaching and learning look and feel like at St Andrew’s College
for teachers?
What does effective teaching and learning look and feel like at St Andrew’s College
for students?
(see separate handout)
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Visible Learning Plus: a model to make learning visible
Hattie has identified three key inputs that allow learning to take place:
Key inputs that affect learning:
Cognitive
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Prior knowledge and achievement: ascertain this and teach them
accordingly
skill
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Working memory, fluency working to mastery, so skill is automatic,
beliefs, encouragement and expectations from the student’s
cultural background and home
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Learning dispositions: attitude / habits of mind / emotional strength
/ resilience, resourcefulness, reflection on learning, relational ability
Affective or emotional
will
/ social sophistication
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Level of confidence / self-belief / self-efficacy
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Level of anxiety / regulation of negative emotions
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Enjoying challenge and motivation for learning: focusing on the
meaning of what is being learned, aiming to develop own meaning,
thrill
relating ideas together, making connections with previous
experiences, asking questions about what is being learned,
discussing ideas with others, reading widely, comparing different
perspectives, enjoying challenge / struggle – this is where learning
sticks)
A summary:
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Prior knowledge is strongly associated with how much new knowledge a learner
will acquire and what they bring with them from home.
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The dispositions and level of self-efficacy a learner has about themselves and
their learning is strongly associated with how well they perform a task and how
much they will learn.
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Orientation towards mastery and intrinsic motivation are generally
associated with increased learning and performance.
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Environmental factors by and large have a low impact on how much we are able to
learn.
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Other important elements:
A critical component in maximising learning:
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Knowing what success looks like plays a role in goal-orientated behaviour and motivation.
When students are made aware of the nature of success for the task, they are more likely to
be more involved in investing in the strategies to attain that target.
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Clear success criteria
Advanced organisers
Clarity about what progress in looks like in that context
The ability to monitor that progress / success
Important, but less of an effect on maximising learning:
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Managing the Learning environment (quiet space, sleep, nutrition)
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Student control over learning (student choice less effective than students knowing what they
are learning, why they are learning it and having high expectations).
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Activity Four: Self-reflection: how do I develop these three elements in my own
classroom? Complete the survey below to reflect on the extent to which you are already
developing skill, will and thrill in your own classroom.
Activity: To what extent am I already developing the skill, will and thrill in my classroom?
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This is commonplace and systematically embedded in my teaching practice.
This exists in my class but couldn’t yet be considered commonplace or routine.
This is not yet established in my teaching practice.
Thinking about your own teaching practice, consider the following statements and rate them
accordingly:
My
Statement rating
classroom
I believe all students are capable of success.
I use learning intentions.
I use success criteria.
I share the learning intention with the students, so they always know what they are
learning and why.
I provide my students with exemplars of what success looks like.
I plan or co-plan what success looks like with my students.
I collaborate on what the learning intentions will be with other members of my
department or faculty.
I plan my lessons to account for how much (and what type of) support I need to provide
different learners.
Learning intentions and success criteria are embedded in my planning documents.
I discuss regularly with my students how learning intentions and success criteria indicate
their overall progress.
I share what progress looks like with my students.
I provide opportunities for my students to reflect on and identify the progress they make.
I support my students to set personal learning goals.
I encourage my students to set ambitious goals.
I plan for my students to re-evaluate their goals regularly.
I design lessons and activities that deliberately focus on developing learning dispositions.
I talk explicitly about learning processes (how to learn) with my students.
I deliberately teach students that making mistakes and putting effort into learning
contributes to more advanced learning. The harder the brain works, the better the quality
of the learning.
I design lessons and activities that deliberately focus on developing learning strategies.
I use a range of types and examples of evidence from students to inform my teaching and
learning programme.
I deliberately teach students that the teenage brain has the capacity to learn and to
remember things better than it ever will again.
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Self reflection:
What am I doing well?
What do I need to do differently?
Looking ahead to 2017:
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Make the practice of sharing learning intentions and success criteria visible in all
classes.
Unpack how we as teachers can work to develop the skill, will and thrill for our
learners.
Unpack the science of how we learn by exploring the three key phases of
learning:
Surface
knowledge
Deep learning
Transferral of 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.”
Hattie and Donahue
(in review) Learning Strategies: A synthesis and conceptual model
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Understand how specific strategies work at each phase of learning.
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Use specific strategies to develop students’ learning dispositions, their will.
Understand how SOLO can be used to make progress visible for teachers and learners.
Develop each student’s capacity to answer the following questions with each of our classes:
Where am I going? (learning intentions / goals / success criteria)
How am I going? (self-assessment / self-evaluation)
Where to next? (progression / new goals)
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Reflections from this session:
Key points
Thoughts
What does this mean for me?
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