NZ study challenges world on teaching

A major new Kiwi study into what makes students succeed casts serious doubt on the importance of homework, small class sizes and even which school a child attends.

With characteristic flamboyant, ebullient extravagance ...
The huge study, based on research into 83 million students from around the world (is based on his international study of up to 200 million children .. Radio NZ), instead shows that the key to effective teaching is the quality of the feedback students get and their interaction with teachers.
Hattie's 15-year study, recently published as a book, is thought to be the largest-ever overview of student achievement. It merges results from 50,000 previous studies and a total of 83 million students.

So Hattie advises parents to fret less about which school their child attends, and worry much more about the quality of individual teachers, especially their ability to give useful feedback.

Now the stated findings have been well-reported for a considerable number of years (Ken Rowe, ACER), so perhaps what the study will show is that the results are relevant across time.

Unfortunately, in NZ a study conducted by Adrian Alton-Lee (NZCER) showed that the effect size (in student achievement) attributable to teachers was in the order of 30% - not really such that you would want a teacher teaching your toddler to safely cross the road - and some 60% attribuable to parents/famillies. What was not, and has not been considered in her study was that all that was gained was a 'snapshot at a specific point in time,' a time at which in excess of twenty teacher training providers were churning out variably trained numbers (funding according to EFT points which requires 'success' to maintain) and a corresponding deterioration in student achievement. Arguably, what she was describing was education in NZ reaching that 'tipping point' at which information acquired from parents has greater impact than that acquired from teachers ... that point at which the question,"why would you send your kids to school?" has substance. This study has had a substantial effect on educational policy.

So to put the onus for academic achievement back on to the teaching process, the 'quality of teaching' is long overdue ... aside from it being simply fundamental.

But John is not totally correct either, for one has to wonder where the 'better' teachers end up, and it is in all probability in those schools that have a tradition of academic success, that have fewer management problems, that largely source their pupils from those 'pockets' of higher socio-economic folk. The passion and intensity with which entry in to Auckland Grammar is pursued by parents wanting the best for their children attests to this ... traditional teaching practices (i.e. practice) too.

ACER - australian council for educational research.
NZCER - new zealand council for educational research.
EFT - equivalent full-time students.