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Int Rev Educ (2011) 57:219221
DOI 10.1007/s11159-011-9198-8
BOOK REVIEW
John Hattie: Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement
Routledge, Abingdon, 2008, 392 pp, ISBN 978-0-415-47618-8 (pbk)
Ivo Arnold
Published online: 2 May 2011 The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
This book by John Hattie Professor of Education at the University of Auckland is the culmination of more than a decade of research during which he and his team have set out to summarise and synthesise the empirical research on the effects of various educational inuences and interventions on student achievement. Probably due to the huge scope of this project comprising 800 meta-analyses, more than 50,000 smaller studies and more than 80 million pupils this study has been widely acclaimed. According to a review in the Times Educational Supplement, Hatties work reveals teachings Holy Grail.
Hattie starts from the observation that in education everything seems to work, as educational interventions of almost any kind seem to have a positive effect on student achievement. He then proposes to move beyond everything goes, towards the development of a barometer of what works best. To this end he applies the tools of meta-analysis to a huge body of empirical research and calculates effect sizes (denoted d) for 138 inuences in the following domains: student, home, school, teacher, curricula and teaching approaches. Hattie neatly presents the effect sizes in a graphical barometer and convincingly argues that only effect sizes higher than 0.4 are in the so-called zone of desired effects (in other words, are worth the effort). Prior to presenting the barometers and effect size rankings, Hattie develops his visible learning story, which is summarised in the following quote: Visible teaching and learning occurs when learning...