COACHING WHAT WORKS — And what part of this title do we not understand. In many senses, coaching is the essence of teaching in that it requires deliberate listening, deliberate connecting, deliberate interventions, deliberate practice, and deliberate feedback. It is about creating dynamic classroom teams, creating positive classroom environments, actively engaging students (which typically occurs when students are actually learning and this learning becomes the incentive to learn more), observing what is happening around us, and particularly observing our own impact in the learning. These topics could be overwhelming and encyclopaedias written on each — but COACHING WHAT WORKS has gone the other way—it has aimed to capture the essence of these big themes, hence making the major messages accessible, to the point, in your face, but in a nice way. The resources both in print and on the web can be used powerfully to make the difference. I only wish I could write this clearly for teachers.

John Hattie
April 2014

John Hattie is Professor and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Deputy Director of the Science of Learning Research Centre. Over the past 20 years, Hattie has compiled what is thought to be the largest educational research study of what works best in the classroom. He is the author of Visible Learning and Visible Learning for Teachers, and co-author (with Gregory Yates) of Visible Learning and Science of How We Learn and co-editor (with Eric Anderman) of the International Guide to Student Achievement, all published by Routledge.