Our school has recently collaborated with CORWIN learning to continue our implementation of Visible Learning and John Hattie’s work. These Visible Learning strategies are used by our teachers within their lesson to enhance their pedagogy and the explicit teaching of literacy. So what do we mean by visible learning? It is about developing an understanding of the impact of instructional efforts have on students' learning. Students, teachers, parents and school administration can determine if the learning is visible. Students have to know what they are learning, why they are learning it and what it means to have learnt it. Some things are learnt at the surface level, others at the deep level and other knowledge and skills are available for transfer to new situations. Each of these surface, deep and transfer levels of learning is important.
Visible learning for literacy requires that teachers understand which strategies and instructional routines are useful in which teaching situations. Literacy matters. Visible literacy learning happens when teachers and students are both clear about what aspect of literacy is being taught, what aspect of literacy is being learnt and how this literacy learning is being demonstrated in the classroom. Learning is a phased process where students first do surface then deep learning before transferring consolidated knowledge and skills from one situation to a new one. Transfer is both the aim of learning and mechanism for deepening learning.