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Hattie says ‘effect sizes'
are the best way of answering the question ‘what has the greatest influence on
student learning?'. An effect-size of 1.0 is typically associated with:
• advancing learners'
achievement by one year, or improving the rate of learning by 50%
• a correlation
between some variable (e.g., amount of homework) and achievement of
approximately .50
• A two grade leap in
GCSE, e.g. from a C to an A grade
Below is Hattie's table of
effect sizes.
|
Influence
|
Effect Size
|
Source of Influence
|
|
Feedback
|
1.13
|
Teacher
|
|
Student's prior cognitive
ability
|
1.04
|
Student
|
|
Instructional quality
|
1.00
|
Teacher
|
|
Direct instruction
|
.82
|
Teacher
|
|
Acceleration
|
.72
|
Student
|
|
Remediation/feedback
|
.65
|
Teacher
|
|
Student's disposition to
learn
|
.61
|
Student
|
|
Class environment
|
.56
|
Teacher
|
|
Challenge of Goals
|
.52
|
Teacher
|
|
Peer tutoring
|
.50
|
Teacher
|
|
Mastery learning
|
.50
|
Teacher
|
|
Homework
|
.43
|
Teacher
|
|
Teacher Style
|
.42
|
Teacher
|
|
Questioning
|
.41
|
Teacher
|
|
Peer effects
|
.38
|
Peers
|
|
Advance organisers
|
.37
|
Teacher
|
|
Simulation & games
|
.34
|
Teacher
|
|
Computer-assisted
instruction
|
.31
|
Teacher
|
|
Testing
|
.30
|
Teacher
|
|
Instructional media
|
.30
|
Teacher
|
|
Affective attributes of
students
|
.24
|
Student
|
|
Physical attributes of
students
|
.21
|
Student
|
|
Programmed instruction
|
.18
|
Teacher
|
|
Audio-visual aids
|
.16
|
Teacher
|
|
Individualisation
|
.14
|
Teacher
|
|
Finances/money
|
.12
|
School
|
|
Behavioural objectives
|
.12
|
Teacher
|
|
Team teaching
|
.06
|
Teacher
|
|
Physical attributes
(e.g., class size)
|
-.05
|
School
|
Terms used in the table
• An effect size of
0.5 is equivalent to a one grade leap at GCSE
• An effect size of
1.0 is equivalent to a two grade leap at GCSE
• ‘Number of effects
is the number of effect sizes from well-designed studies that have been
averaged to produce the average effect size.
• An effect size above
0.4 is above average for educational research
This work supports the initial findings of a study by academics at Salford University which
showed a strong correlation between the built environment where teaching takes
place and test results in reading, writing and maths. Lighting, circulation,
acoustics, individuality and colour were revealed to affect pupils' progress in
the year-long study of achievement by 751 children in seven primary schools in
Blackpool. It found eight out of 10 environmental factors displayed significant
correlations with the pupils' performance and the report's authors concluded:
"This clear evidence of the significant impact of the built environment on
pupils' learning progression highlights the importance of this aspect for
policymakers, designers and users."
But Gove has dismissed the significance of the
findings. A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "There is no
convincing evidence that spending enormous sums of money on school buildings
leads to increased attainment”.
Clearly the most significant factor is Feedback, so
the DFE may be on safe ground. If we look at the quality of teaching the
learning will improve. Hattie has made clear that ‘feedback' includes telling students what
they have done well (positive reinforcement), and what they need to do to
improve (corrective work, targets etc), but it also includes clarifying goals.
This means that giving students assessment criteria for example would be
included in ‘feedback'.
As well as feedback on the
task Hattie believes that students can get feedback on the processes they have
used to complete the task, and on their ability to self-regulate their own
learning. All these have the capacity to increase achievement. Feedback on the
‘self' such as ‘well done you are good at this' is not helpful. The feedback
must be informative rather than evaluative. This kind of feedback is now an expectation
in good and outstanding lessons as part of the new OFSTED framework in the UK
which I feel is rather reassuring.