High Yield Strategies That Support Teaching and Learning

This week we reviewed the work of two researchers, Robert Marzano and John Hattie.  I was familiar with the ideas of Robert Marzano but John Hattie was new to me.  Here is a quick summary of their strategies. (Thank you to Laura Greenstein)

Marzano’s Best Strategies (Find a summary of some here)

Robert Marzano analyzed 395 studies and calculated effect sizes for instructional practices shown to contribute to higher levels of student achievement.

1. Identifying similarities and differences

2. Summarizing and note taking

3. Questioning by teachers and students

4. Chunking learning

5. Nonlinguistic representations such as mental images, graphs, acting out content

6. Collaborative learning

7. Setting objectives and providing feedback on progress

8. Generating and testing hypotheses

9. Activating prior knowledge via questions, cues, advance organizers

John Hattie: “Visible Learning” (Read more here)

John Hattie did a meta-analysis of thousands of studies to determine the most effective strategies for improving student learning outcomes.

1. Self-Assessment and Reflection

2. Formative Assessment

3. Vocabulary Building

4. Problem Solving                      

5. Instructional Quality                            

6. Direct instruction                

7. Remediation Feedback                                                   

8. Class environment (culture)

9. Challenging yet feasible goals                               

10. Peer tutoring                      

11. Mastery learning

The strategies I chose to focus on were identifying similarities and differences and problem solving. Much material can be packed into an activity where students have to see similarities and differences. Both strategies support students in extending and applying knowledge to gain deeper understandingof a concept. As teachers develop lessons the strategies to be considered are only one part of a successful teaching and learning experience. As stated in the article Technology in Schools:What the Research Says by Metiti Group and Cisco Systems, " Researchers find that extracting the full learning return from a technology investment requires much more than the mere introduction of technology with software and web resources aligned with the curriculum. It requires the triangulation of content, sound principles of learning, and high-quality teaching—all of which must be aligned with assessment and accountability."

Another key quote form the above mentioned article is this, "The research on the effect of technology in learning is emerging. Overall, across all uses in all content areas, technology does provide a small, but significant, increase in learning when implemented with fidelity." This statement surprised me because I assumed that technology provided more than a small impact on learning. I immediately looked at the publishing date of the article and noticed that the dates listed are 1992-2006. I was reminded of the rapidly changing nature of the use and study of the effect of technology in education.

The overarching theme to consider when using technology to support high yield teaching and learning is that effective planning is multifaceted. The technology used is only one piece the equation. Teachers must start with the goals for learning. Then one must consider who needs to learn it and how they learn best. Consideration must be given to how learning will be measured and how the measurement data can be applied to next steps for learning.