Visible Learning is a research based approach to developing life-long learners. It is based on the research of Professor John Hattie and his metastudy involving over 300 million students and what has the most impact on student progress at school.
All staff have had extensive professional learning on these ‘high impact’ strategies and use them in learning experiences provided for children from Kindergarten to Year 6 at St Mary’s.
We believe all students can and will learn; every student should experience at least one year’s growth over the course of one school year.
Teachers and school leaders gather evidence in our school and classrooms to create and implement a plan for making learning visible for all students.
Learning intentions, co-constructed success criteria, quality feedback, goal setting, planning, collaborating and building and maintaining a growth mindset are all critical in developing visible learners.
At St Mary’s we know learning is supposed to be challenging. We know that challenges can be difficult, however they help us grow. This is known as The Learning Pit. James Nottingham designed The Learning Pit to help students think and talk about their learning. It can be described as a child-friendly representation of Vygotsky’s (1978) zone of proximal development in that it describes the move from actual to potential understanding. It can help develop a growth mindset (Dweck, 2006).
All of us are challenged to get into the pit. When we are in the pit we are taking risks, trialling ideas, making mistakes and LEARNING!