Number 5 of the 6 Most Impactful Instructional Strategies
This article is the fifth in a series of the six MOST IMPACTFUL instructional strategies for educators from John Hattie’s study. To learn more about this study, read this introduction article and catch the first article here.
What do these sports analogies have in common?
A football field without end zones or goalposts
A basketball court without hoops
A golf course without holes
All three are missing the most important factor when playing the sport: the goal! Without a clear understanding of the goal, each sport becomes totally pointless and lacks a purpose for playing.
For too many students, this is what school can feel like. They do not understand the goal, so the practices and assessments in classes seem disjointed and totally pointless.
But what if the opposite were true? What if students not only understood the goals of their learning, but they actually tracked their learning and reflected how well they met those goals?
Hattie refers to this process as Student Self-Reported Grades or Student Expectations. When used properly and consistently, it can yield an effect size of 1.33. (Remember, anything above 1.0 has the potential to increase student learning by 50%, which equates to nearly two grade levels per school year!)
His studies revealed that teachers who are able to make learning transparent for students create a super-charged learning environment. The key to this transparency is helping students understand the specific learning goals/targets. Once students understand the goals, they can make predictions about their learning, monitor their learning progress, and then reflect on their learning after the unit/concept is completed.
Where’s the Research?
The impact of this strategy is based on 250 different educational studies, involving close to 80,000 students. The meta-analyses were conducted in multiple countries, including the United States, Germany, Japan, and the UK; the date range is 1982-2011.
What does it look like in the classroom?
Recently, CESA 6, a Wisconsin educational service agency, published an activity that aptly applies to this learning impact where “the goal is to develop student ownership of his/her academic ability and to monitor progress toward success criteria,” which is the goal of learning (CESA 6 Growth and Development Center).
Have students keep a Learning Diary. CESA 6 does not suggest an exact framework or questions, but I provided some jumpstart ideas in each step below.
Before each unit, share the specific learning targets/goals with students, and have them respond to these questions:
Which ideas remind you of content or a skill you have already learned (in this class or in a different class/level)?
Which learning targets/goals seem like they could be challenging for you? Explain why.
Based on a scale of 1 (I will struggle) to 5 (I may even exceed expectations), how successfully do you predict you will learn in this unit?
After each learning target is taught and/or formatively assessed, have students use the similar 1-5 scale to evaluate their own learning (both successes and struggles).
MOST IMPORTANTLY, at the conclusion of the unit, have student reflect on their learning by answering various questions related to their learning:
What did I specifically learn in this unit?
Where are different points in the unit where I struggled? What did I do to work through that/those struggle(s)?
How accurate was my original learning prediction? (Hopefully students will quickly see that by monitoring and taking ownership of their learning, they can push themselves towards high degrees of learning success.)
Obviously, giving students time to make these Learning Diary entries takes planning, modeling, and time, but there is absolutely no doubt that it makes specific learning goals transparent for students. Understanding the massive impact (1.33!) this can create for student learning, it is planning, modeling, and time well-spent!
Reflection Time:
Think of that one (or more) unit/concept you teach every year that seems to cause high levels of student struggle. Consider using the Learning Diary activity above to create transparent learning goals and then have students predict, monitor, and reflect their learning in writing.
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