Teaching Mathematics in the Visible Learning Classroom, High School (Corwin Mathematics Series)

Just as impressive of the other visible learning titles. This is another must read.

good practice

I found this volume to be really helpful. A famous quote has offered that 'timing is everything' in life but these authors suggest that in the classroom, timing may not be everything but it is extremely important. It is not always WHAT you do in the classroom… but equally important is WHEN you do it. That was a great takeaway for me.

At least, that’s the premise/promise of the data-driven Visible Learning approach to teaching. Their researchers and authors arrive at conclusions about which of all possible approaches are worth trying when teaching various subjects within math through meta-analyses of an enormous database of studies done in the area. One wonders if these studies, in general, were more well-constructed and interpreted than those in other areas of research, which have come under increasing scrutiny due to the replication crisis, among other issues. Some of what I read in the introduction to this book made me wonder a little bit. Right there on page 1 we are introduced to four teachers whose classrooms we will be following throughout the book, and we are told that they all take as axiomatic that, “Every student can learn mathematics, and they need to take responsibility to teach all learners.” I’m just not sure everyone can “learn mathematics”, and even if that were true, the responsibility to learn is ultimately the student’s. No one can force information into someone else’s head. (And are they really asserting that everyone on earth is capable of learning every area within mathematics, even advanced mathematics? That seems highly doubtful to me. That is more of a dogmatic political assertion than a statement necessarily describing reality.) Reading further in the introduction, the authors discuss the importance of taking into account effect sizes when deciding what approaches are worth trying. This is a supremely important point, as it’s easy to get over-excited by the results of studies with small effect sizes. You want to make sure you are trying approaches that have the potential to yield the highest measurable results, not wasting time, effort, and money only to move things forward a relatively tiny bit. But I sense some potential problems here with how effects are being measured. They state that ability grouping shows an effect size of 0.12, well below the 0.40 effect size threshold that makes an approach worth trying. But the devil may be in details not disclosed here. I wonder to what extent this effect size holds true across the board, on people towards the top of the class as well as those towards the bottom. Are certain students’ best interests being sacrificed to the gods of “everyone can learn mathematics”? Maybe not, but I wonder. When they move on to discussing the effect size of using calculators in the classroom, they get much more nuanced with their discussion, answering the sorts of detailed questions one might ask. Why no such discussion around ability grouping? My other reservation about this book is that I wonder if they are making all of this way too complicated. The teaching of mathematics in public schools has been around for two centuries, during much of which your average person was more literate and numerate than they are today. Maybe schools should simply go back to the older ways of conducting classes, which yielded the country a much more educated populace. But then there wouldn’t be all these jobs and all this money for research and researchers and academic publishers. I’m giving this book four stars because, despite many reservations, there is a lot of depth of knowledge here, and a lot that teachers can take away from this. It’s worth reading and thinking about all of these topics.

The books starts great with the barometer of influences in a nice graphic that every educator should see, and the book emphasizes there is NO ONE WAY or BEST WAY to instruct mathematics. Which is good to see acknowledged, some of these books get preachy. Each chapter has success criteria that helps the teacher effectively use the strategies provided and there are great "I Can...." statements with each chapter. There are reflective thinking questions provided in each chapter. The side bars are filled with a lot of "teaching takeaways" to give ideas of what works well. The book is focused on mathematical practices, even a section on Mastery Learning and how to get there. The appendices include color coded list of effect sizes, another with a planning guide template, and even one on learning criteria. However, the material in this book does not warrant an over investment. You would probably only need one of these for an entire department to share. Without department planning and evaluation, you might be stuck on an island using this book. Overall its a solid addition to your knowledge base. You might want to see if your library has it before making an investment.