Visible Learning Guide to Student Achievement

Schools Edition

John Hattie, Eric M. Anderman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351257824
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Visible Learning Guide to Student Achievement critically examines the major influences shaping student achievement today. A revision of theInternational Guide to Student Achievement, this updated edition provides readers with a more accessible compendium of research summaries – with a particular focus on the school sector. As educators throughout the world seek to enhance learning, the information contained in this book provides practitioners and policymakers with relevant material and research-based instructional strategies that can be readily applied in classrooms and schools to maximize achievement. Rich in information and empirically supported research, it contains seven sections, each of which begins with an insightful synthesis of major findings and relevant updates from the literature since the publication of the first Guide. These are followed by key entries, all of which have been recently revised by the authors to reflect research developments. The sections conclude with user-friendly tables that succinctly identify the main influences on achievement and practical implications for educators. Written by world-renowned bestselling authors John Hattie and Eric M. Anderman, this book is an indispensable reference for any teacher, school leader and parent wanting to maximize learning in our schools.

Chapter 1

Understanding achievement

The first edition of the International Guide to Student Achievement was designed as a comprehensive resource examining and summarizing influences on student achievement. In that book, we asked an international array of scholars to discuss the major research-based correlates of achievement. The primary aim of this revised edition (Visible Learning Guide to Student Achievement) is to provide educators with a more user-friendly compendium of research summarizing these major influences – and with a particular focus on the school sector. As educators throughout the world seek to improve student learning outcomes and thus to enhance achievement, the information presented in this book provides practitioners and policy makers with up-to-date research on academic achievement, along with relevant research-based instructional strategies.

The original Guide contained nine distinct sections. In that first edition, each section contained a series of short chapters focusing on a larger thematic topic. For example, one section (“Influences from the Teacher”) contained 18 brief entries, each written by experts, regarding the various ways in which teachers influence student achievement. Each entry had a similar organizational structure, including (a) an introduction, (b) a brief summary of research evidence, (c) recommendations, and (d) conclusions.

Although the previous edition was rich in information, it did not include summary information for each section that provided educators and policy makers with a brief synthesis of major research findings in each area. In this updated edition, each section begins with a brief summary of the major influences on achievement associated with that particular section. This is followed by a few of the key entries from the original Guide, all of which have been recently updated by the authors to reflect recent research developments. Each chapter then concludes with a user-friendly “summary table” that synopsizes the key research-based influences on achievement from that chapter. Both the summaries provided at the start of each chapter and the summary tables provided at the end of each chapter succinctly identify the major influences on achievement, as well as practical implications for educators. All of the summary information reflects both the entries from the original Guide and research findings from the updated entries.

What is achievement?

In this section, we briefly (re)introduce the elusive concept of “achievement,” in order to provide a framework for the book. Academic achievement is a universally valued educational outcome. Valuing of high achievement is engrained in the fabric of many societies. Parents want their children to achieve at high levels, administrators want their schools to be high performing, regional school leaders (e.g., superintendents) want their regions’ aggregated achievement to be strong, and even politicians want local and national data to be indicative of high achievement. Indeed, throughout much of the world, children learn from an early age that high achievement is necessary in order to succeed both professionally and financially.

It is impossible to avoid the constant messaging that emphasizes the value of achievement in society. For example, the valuing of achievement is accentuated through highly publicized results of large-scale internationally comparative studies (e.g., the Programme for International Assessment [PISA] and the Trends in International Mathematics Science study [TIMMS]), which regularly report that students in some countries achieve at higher levels than others. Achievement scores are also used as a tool to measure the effectiveness of schools or of specific teachers (with these scores being reported widely and publicly). There are even reminders about the importance of achievement in seemingly unrelated aspects of daily life; for example, it is not uncommon for real estate agents to emphasize that a home that is for sale is in a high-achieving neighborhood and thus has more financial value (Seo & Simons, 2009).

Defining achievement

Whereas achievement is highly coveted, there is no universal agreement on what truly constitutes “achievement.” Achievement can be defined in many ways. In the first edition of this book, Guskey (2013) wrote an introductory chapter that provided a framework for understanding this broad construct. Guskey defined achievement, in its simplest terms, as “the accomplishment of something” (p. 3). Guskey noted that in education, achievement is closely tied to learning goals; these could be a student’s personal learning goals, curricular goals or teacher’s instructional goals, as well as a host of other types of goals.

Guskey identified several significant points that should be considered in discussions of student achievement. Those include the following:

• Learning goals (and achievement outcomes that are tied to those goals) can be classified across three dimensions: cognitive goals, affective goals, and psychomotor goals. Thus, assessments of achievement can focus on cognitive, affect, or psychomotor outcomes (or any combination of those outcomes).
• There are many conceptualizations of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor achievement outcomes. For example, there are many types of achievement outcomes that can be assessed in the cognitive domain (e.g., memorization of facts, ability to solve problems, etc.), the affective domain (e.g., engagement, socioemotional outcomes), and the psychomotor domain (e.g., running speed, performing a specific gymnastics routine).
• School curricula often emphasize cognitive achievement outcomes; nevertheless, achievement in the affective and psychomotor domains, while often not assessed regularly, represent achievement outcomes that should not be ignored. In recent years, educators have begun to recognize the importance of affective outcomes in particular (e.g., Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2019; Frey, Fisher, & Smith, 2019).
• Although achievement can be thought of as a summative construct that encompasses multiple content areas, achievement is usually examined within specific content areas (e.g., mathematics, reading, chemistry, etc.). Moreover, there is some variation in content areas that are taught and assessed across countries.
• Achievement can be conceptualized both in terms of attainment of knowledge or skills (i.e., what a student has learned at a particular point in time) or improvement in knowledge or skills (i.e., changes in academic performance over time). Both attainment and improvement are valued outcomes, but they represent different types of achievement and need to be assessed differently.
• Measures of achievement are not all created equal; some measures more accurately assess achievement than do others. Thus, the reliability and validity of measures of achievement should be considered in the reporting of achievement outcomes.
• Measures of achievement are designed for many purposes. For example, measures of achievement can be used to assess:
  • Learning upon completion of a specific unit of instruction
  • Learning within a specific course
  • Readiness for postsecondary education
  • Eligibility for instructional support services

It is essential that the purpose for which an achievement measure was designed is aligned with the ways that achievement outcomes derived from those measures are being reported and used.

What variables are associated with achievement?

This book is about correlates of and influences on achievement. Some of the most commonly considered correlates of achievement include demographic variables (e.g., socioeconomic status, age, or gender), noncognitive variables (e.g., motivation and engagement), school-related variables (e.g., school size, school grade configurations, etc.), and instructional practices (e.g., grouping practices, technology usage, etc.) (Hattie & Anderman, 2013; Hattie, 2009). But in addition to the more typically discussed correlates, achievement also is related to an enormously wide range of other variables (some of which may seem quite odd!). Indeed, a careful examination of the research literature indicates that scholars also have examined the relations of achievement to variables as diverse as body-mass index (which is weakly and negatively related to achievement) (He, Chen, Fan, Cai, & Huang, 2019), homelessness (which is, for the most part, related to lower achievement) (Manfra, 2018), and dietary intake (which is related to achievement through a variety of mechanisms) (Burrows, Goldman, Pursey, & Lim, 2017), among others.

The remaining chapters in this book include discussions of correlates of achievement within specific categories. We have tried to provide information about the correlates of achievement that are most often discussed in the literature and valued by practitioners. The original Guide contained nine distinct sections; in this updated version, the former “sections” have been repurposed into shorter chapters. The chapters specifically examine the following influences on achievement:

• Influences from the student
• Influences from the home
• Influences from the school
• Influences from teachers and classrooms
• Influences from the curriculum
• Influences from teaching strategies

In the original Guide, we included separate sections examining influences from teachers and classrooms; in this new version, those have been combined into one comprehensive chapter. The original Guide also contained two sections that are not included in this updated book. Those included an initial section that contained six entries examining multiple perspectives on understanding the broad concept of achievement and a final section that examined achievement from an international perspective, wherein there were distinct entries examining achievement across a variety of nations (e.g., Russia, Finland, Ghana, and South Korea).

Summary

We believe that this new edition will serve as a practical and useful guide. School personnel throughout the world constantly work toward enhancing students’ academic achievement. We hope that the information contained in this book, which is all rooted in science, can help educators, administrators, and policy makers in their daily work. Numerous interventions, innovations, and novel instructional practices are introduced daily in schools throughout the world; it is our hope that this book can assist educators in critically examining their daily practices and the implementation of new strategies in light of research on correlates of academic achievement.

References

Burrows, T., Goldman, S., Pursey, K., & Lim, R. (2017). Is there an association between dietary intake and academic achievement: A systematic review. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 30(2), 117–140. https://doi.org/10.1111/jhn.12407

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). (2019). What is SEL? Retrieved from https://casel.org/what-is-sel/

Frey, N., Fisher, D., & Smith, D. (2019). All learning is social and emotional. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Guskey, T. R. (2013). Defining student achievement. In J. Hattie & E. M. Anderman (Eds.), International guide to student achievement (pp. 3–6). New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York, NY: Routledge.

Hattie, J., & Anderman, E. M. (2013). International guide to student achievement. New York, NY: Routledge.

He, J., Chen, X., Fan, X., Cai, Z., & Huang, F. (2019). Is there a relationship between body mass index and academic achievement? A meta-analysis. Public Health (Elsevier), 167, 111–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2018.11.002

Manfra, L. (2018). Impact of homelessness on school readiness skills and early academic achievement: A systematic review of the literature. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-018-0918-6

Seo, Y., & Simons, R. A. (2009). The effect of school quality on residential sales price. Journal of Real Estate Research, 31(3), 307–327.

Chapter 2

Influences from the student

The entries in this chapter focus on influences from the student. By “influences from the student,” we are referring to four distinct types of influences on achievement. First, sometimes academic achievement differs based on student demographic differences. For example, there often is much rhetoric in the media about gender differences in achievement or the effects of socioeconomic status on achievement; variables such as gender and socioeconomic status vary by student and interact with the larger social contexts in which students reside to exert their influences on achievement. In this chapter, our contributing authors present evidence to help separate fact from fiction with regard to these descriptive variables.

Academic achievement is also related to students’ attitudes and dispositions (i.e., students’ feelings, perceptions, and psychological characteristics), as well as to cognitive variables (e.g., students’ current levels of cognitive development). These variables also vary greatly among students; thus within any given classroom anywhere in the world, there is likely to be variability in students’ motivation, engagement, attitudes toward school, level of cognitive development, etc. Some of the entries in this chapter examine variables that are malleable (e.g., attitudes, motivation, and engagement), whereas other chapters focus on more enduring variables (e.g., personality traits). The chapters on cognitive variables focus in particular on the relations of developmental aspects of cognition to achievement.

Finally, there are many social (i.e., contextual)...