John Hattie observed that we often think our profession is defined by autonomy or the ‘let me do it my way approach’. The problem with autonomous practice is that it isn’t informed by data and evidence but by assumptions and ideology. Without looking at student data, we aren’t looking at the reality. I came across … More From I think to we know
John Hattie caused a stir when he gave advice to teachers to ‘just shut up’ at a conference last month in Parramatta. He said teachers need to stop spending their time talking and start listening. Stephen Covey in his Seven Habits talks about the need for empathetic listening and Daniel Pink recently reflected on the … More Students are our best teachers
Many years ago I saw a powerful film called Mr Holland’s Opus . It was a moving portrait of the thirty year career of a high school music teacher whose passion for music influenced the lives of so many students. I think it ranks alongside Dead Poets Society. What prompted me to think about Mr Holland’s … More A concert and a cook-off
I’ve enjoyed my short visit to Learning and Teaching Scotland. As is often the case with these sorts of visits you get so much out of the informal discussions, some of which can go on well into the evenings! The generosity of time and sharing of professional expertise of these busy people is always amazing. You … More Adding value
Thanks to Mark Walker for sharing a recent interview with John Hattie in the Melbourne Age. Hattie is currently in Australia, continuing the Visible Learning crusade and making a lot of common sense. Australian principals are mired in tasks that don’t have much influence on how their students perform academically. Thirty-two per cent of their time is … More It’s a matter of principals
In embracing an evidence-based educational model, schools in Wellington NZ are ditching traditional homework in favour of more real-world and fun activities like crosswords, boardgames and reading comics. The move away from ‘homework for homework sake’ is aimed at nurturing children’s interest in reading and other creative activities. The principal of Karori Normal School has … More Crosswords or colouring?
When Professor John Hattie visited our diocese last year, he mentioned something quite astounding and profound. When teachers are together in staff rooms, they only spend five minutes on average, talking about teaching. We know that when teachers are in learning spaces they ‘do’ the business of teaching, but we also know that it is … More The work we do
How many of us have fond memories of Year 9 science? I suspect most of us don’t unless we had a natural aptitude for the subject. The reality is it probably had something to do with the way the subject was taught – a one size fits all approach to science that was far removed from our lives and yet … More The science of learning
Michael Fullan recently addressed 100+ of our aspiring leaders in the context of leading change and learning in their schools. This was a marvellous experience for leading teachers to be exposed to someone of Fullan’s calibre – armed with research and case studies on what makes an effective school leader. It is evident that one … More The ‘f’ word
The task we have set ourselves of building a high performing system has been challenging but our work has been enriched by the ideas and input of great educational change agents like Michael Fullan, Stephen Heppell and most recently, John Hattie. On 19 October, more than 600 educators came to hear John Hattie deliver the 2009 Ann … More John Hattie
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