Visible Learning into Action

International Case Studies of Impact

John Hattie, Deb Masters, Kate Birch

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317525455
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Recently at the Visible Learning Conference, Professor John Hattie stood up in his opening address and said, "I'm looking at you all and thinking 'What if I got this wrong?'" I feel the same way when educators ask to visit and I always end up in the same place – that Keilor Views is a living, breathing example that he didn't. -- Charles Branciforte, Principal of Keilor Views Primary School, Melbourne, Australia

Visible Learning into Action takes the next step in the evolving Visible Learning story. It translates one of the biggest and most critically acclaimed education research projects ever undertaken into case studies of actual success stories, implementing John Hattie's ideas in the classrooms of schools all around the world.

The evidenced case studies presented in this book describe the Visible Learning journeys of fifteen schools from Australia, USA, Hong Kong, UK, Sweden, New Zealand and Norway and are representative of the VL international community of schools in their quest to ensure all of their students exceed their potential for academic success. Each school's story will inform and inspire, bringing to life the discussions, actions and reflections from leaders, teachers, students and families.

This book features extensive, interactive appendices containing study guide questions to encourage critical thinking, annotated endnotes with recommendations for further reading and links to YouTube and relevant websites. Drawing on the latest research into the major principles and strategies of learning, this essential resource is structured into five parts:

• Know thy impact;
• Effective feedback;
• Visible learners;
• Inspired and passionate teachers;
• The Visible Learning School.

Visible Learning into Action is aimed at any student, teacher or parent requiring an up-to-date commentary on how research into human learning processes can inform our teaching and what goes on in our schools.

Part I Know Thy Impact

Chapter 1 Keilor Views Primary School Australia

DOI: 10.4324/9781315722603-1

For me, the two questions that drive things from the leadership point of view are “What evidence do you have that you are making an impact?” and “How do you evaluate that evidence?” So the principal needs to involve the teachers by saying, “Is this good enough?” and “Is there evidence that this is good enough?” and then “What are we doing in light of that evidence?”

… Now this notion about impact requires opening up classrooms. It has to do with looking at what the impacts on student learning are, looking for evidence in the artefacts of students’ work, and then leading those dialogues and discussions. For example, “What does progress look like in your area?”, or “What does challenge look like to you?” And then, particularly in a high school setting, “How do you know that each student is making progress across all the subjects?”

Interview with Hattie (2013, p. 15)

Essentially, knowing thy impact means connecting what we do as educators with what happens to learners. At Keilor Views Primary School, this continual inquiry into impact drives improvement at all levels.

Context

Keilor Views Primary School was formed in January 2010 from the merger between Keilor Downs Primary School and Calder Rise Primary School. It is located in Australia, 25 kilometers north west of Melbourne in the suburb of Keilor Downs, and on the former site of Keilor Downs Primary School. Since the merger, this “new-old” school has gone through a process of regeneration, including a major building program. This has seen the refurbishment of 10 classrooms and the construction of six additional classrooms, a library, and an outdoor sports facility.

Figure 1.1 Welcome to Keilor Views Primary School1

Keilor Views has 420 students, ranging from the preparatory level (five years old) to year 6 (11–12 years old). The students are ethnically diverse, with many speaking a language other than English. Many are from homes where the income is below the national average.

The 24-member teaching staff is drawn largely from the two former schools. It is led by principal Charles Branciforte. His senior leadership team consists of assistant principal Matt Borg and leading teachers Gloria Puopolo and Rita Scuteri. Rita is also the school’s teaching and learning coach.

The school’s motto is “Vision, Integrity, Pride.”

Overview

Professional learning has always been prioritized at Keilor Views Primary School, but the journey has not always been straightforward. Prior to the schools’ merger, Charles was principal at Keilor Downs Primary School. He had a strategic plan for improvement that included professional development for himself as a leader of teaching and learning. The curriculum focus was on literacy, with educational consultant Sally Slattery employed to mentor and coach selected teachers. Sally also took on the role of critical friend to the leadership team. This approach bore fruit but could not be sustained due to the expense of the merger process. Instead, building on what they had learnt, Matt and Rita implemented an internal coaching model supported by a new reading assessment system. In the meantime, Charles worked with the regional education authority to establish a professional development conference center. This initiative has provided a revenue source that has helped fund new professional learning initiatives. One of these was the employment of consultant Sue Costello, who supported staff in the use of exemplars as an approach to literacy assessment. This led on to an interest in Visible Learning and the school’s inclusion in a 2012 study tour to New Zealand organized by Cognition Education and the Keilor/St Albans Network. Alongside other schools in the network (including Monmia School, whose story is also told in this book), the school was convinced by what they saw in the Visible Learning schools they visited. They consequently embarked on a Visible Learning journey of their own that has seen impressive improvements in student outcomes.

This story is primarily focused on the concept of “Know Thy Impact.” It looks at how teachers and leaders at Keilor Views Primary School are learning to look for evidence of their impact on students, considering this evidence through their students’ eyes and taking on board the lessons for their own learning and practice.

Featured leaders

This story is based primarily on the reflections of the guiding coalition as a whole, but three leaders are quoted directly:

In 2013, the state government acknowledged principal Charles Branciforte’s success as an inspirational leader of learning by making him the Victorian Primary Principal of the Year. Charles explains, “Our learning community is what motivates me; it motivates me to provide excellent learning opportunities and to provide the best possible resources for our kids, our staff, and our learning environment. What drives and inspires me is providing opportunities for kids from diverse backgrounds to succeed.”

Matthew Borg has been the assistant principal at Keilor Views Primary School since January 2012. He has been a specialist teacher, classroom teacher, and leading teacher. Matt says, “My passion in teaching and learning is to amplify every opportunity for the students we teach; together, we work out what’s worth keeping.”

Rita Scuteri began her teaching career at Keilor Downs in 2005 and was given the role of literacy coordinator in 2009. At the same time, she was given the opportunity to receive coaching from Sally Slattery and to work with Matt on the new reading assessment system. Rita says, “This was the beginning of the journey for me. It suddenly all became clear! I understood how simple pedagogy and explicit practices could transform the learning that occurred in the classroom.” Today, she is helping to drive changes to the school’s curriculum and pedagogical practices through coaching and the Visible Learning whole-school improvement strategies.

Keilor Views Primary School's Visible Learning story

What were the desired student outcomes?

While the merger of the two schools provided a significant challenge, it also gave the school community the opportunity to redefine its aspirations for students and to revisit its basic beliefs and practices, evaluating them in light of their contribution to the intended student outcomes:

This was a unique position to be in. We seized the opportunity to have a deeper look at “what was worth keeping.” We reviewed everything from our uniform and logo to what would stand as our school’s core values and our core purpose. In order to ensure enduring success for our students, our values and purpose would remain fixed at the same time as we ventured into the process of exploring, trialing, and developing strategies and practices that enable adaptation to a changing world.

(Charles Branciforte)

By 2011, Charles and his team knew that student achievement was not where they wanted it to be. While their data told them that previous initiatives had led to improvements, the situation remained that students were not progressing at the national average. There were pockets of success, especially in literacy, but there was also considerable variation in student achievement across the school. This is exemplified in Figure 1.2, which shows reading progress in one class, over one year.

Figure 1.2 Reading benchmarking data

Figure 1.2 reflects the situation at an early stage of implementation and demonstrates that the use of a new tracking sheet and newly-devised benchmarking system was already having an impact. It made the growth patterns clearly visible so they could be interpreted, analyzed, compared, and discussed. This sort of clarity is essential if teachers are to understand their impact.

As a consequence of the classroom observations and walkthroughs that had become a normal part of the school’s routines, the leadership team had a good idea of what was going on inside classrooms. This was affirmed through implementation of the Visible Learning^plus tools and processes, such as student interviews and focus groups. It was clear to the team that students were often not at the center of teaching and learning and certainly did not have the understandings and strategies they needed to “see themselves as their own teachers.” When the student focus

group were asked about what they thought a “good learner” looked like or did, they made the following responses, most of which indicated a passive approach to learning:

• “Listen to the teacher.”
• “Doing their work.”
• “Well-behaved.”
• “Listens.”
• “Not distracted by others.”
• “Always listens to the teacher/attentive to the teacher.” “Tries their hardest.”
• “Tries their best.”
• “Starting their work straight away.”
• “Very little talking/don’t talk very much.”
• “Head down.”
• “Does neat work.”
• “Focused.”
• “Asks questions.”

The opportunity to visit successful Visible Learning schools in New Zealand demonstrated what could be: that students with the skills and capabilities of visible learners are able to achieve the kinds of learning outcomes that make for success and fulfilment in later life.

As a consequence of this inquiry, the school decided that its central purpose was to support each student to achieve “at least one year’s growth for one year’s work.” Its strategic outcome for students – the outcome through which this purpose would be achieved – was to grow students as visible learners.

This is our aspiration for Visible Learning in our school: All students at Keilor Views Primary School will show a greater than year’s growth for one year’s input in all learning disciplines and they will exhibit qualities of assessment-capable visible learners. The language of learning, assessment, and feedback will be embedded across the school.

(Keilor Views Primary School, Visible Learning Plan, 2013)

What knowledge and skills did the teachers and school leaders need to support these outcomes?

Following the trip to New Zealand, Keilor Views Primary School joined with 21 other sch...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Overview and introduction
• PART I Know Thy Impact
• PART II Effective Feedback
• PART III Visible Learners
• PART IV Inspired and Passionate Teachers
• PART V The Visible Learning School
• In conclusion
• References
• Index