John Hattie admits that half of the Statistics in Visible Learning are wrong

What to make of this? John Hattie’s book is one of the most influential books on education to appear in the last few years. For some, it has almost the status of an education bible. If the statement “Half of the statistics in ‘Visible Learning’ are wrong”, can be sustained, what consequences does it have for our teaching practice?
In this and the next post, reblogged from Ollieorange2, the author, a British mathematician and math teachter, finds out exactly what is wrong with Hattie’s statistics.

At the researchED conference in September 2013, Professor Robert Coe, Professor of Education at Durham University, said that John Hattie’s book, ‘Visible Learning’,  is “riddled with errors”. But what are some of those errors?

The biggest mistake Hattie makes is with the CLE statistic that he uses throughout the book. In ‘Visible Learning, Hattie only uses two statistics, the ‘Effect Size’ and the CLE (neither of which Mathematicians use).

The CLE is meant to be a probability, yet Hattie has it at values between -49% and 219%. Now a probability can’t be negative or more than 100% as any Year 7 will tell you.

Read more in part 1 and part 2 of John Hattie admits that half of the Statistics in Visible Learning are wrong

ollieorange2's avatarollieorange2

At the researchED conference in September 2013, Professor Robert Coe, Professor of Education at Durham University, said that John Hattie’s book, ‘Visible Learning’,  is “riddled with errors”. But what are some of those errors?

The biggest mistake Hattie makes is with the CLE statistic that he uses throughout the book. In ‘Visible Learning, Hattie only uses two statistics, the ‘Effect Size’ and the CLE (neither of which Mathematicians use).

The CLE is meant to be a probability, yet Hattie has it at values between -49% and 219%. Now a probability can’t be negative or more than 100% as any Year 7 will tell you.

This was first spotted and pointed out to him by Arne Kare Topphol, an Associate Professor at the University of Volga and his class who sent Hattie an email.

In his first reply –  here , Hattie completely misses the point about probability being negative…

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Dick van der Wateren's avatar

Over Dick van der Wateren

Als blogger en onderwijsauteur denk ik na over onderwijs en pedagogiek. In 2016 verscheen bij Uitgeverij Ten Brink mijn boek 'Verwondering' waarin ik een lans breek voor onderwijs op basis van vragen die leerlingen zelf bedenken. In 2020 verscheen mijn boek De Denkende Klas bij LannooCampus met praktische aanwijzingen om met leerlingen dieper te denken. Als vo-docent heb ik talentvolle en begaafde leerlingen begeleid die meer uitdaging nodig hebben, en leerlingen gecoacht met diverse problemen - onderpresteren, perfectionisme, levensvragen. Na een lang leven in het onderwijs en de wetenschap ben ik in 2017 een filosofische praktijk begonnen, De Verwondering, in Amsterdam. Daar heb ik gesprekken met volwassenen zowel als jongeren over levensvragen, zingeving, werk, studie, relaties.

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  2. Hattie’s research: egregious errors | Blogcollectief Onderzoek Onderwijs - 5 december 2014

    […] publication of methodological flaws in Hattie’s research (see earlier posts on this blog here and here). In addition, he is critical of the connection between Hattie’s rsearch and the […]

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  3. Statistieken in Visible Learning een miskleun van John Hattie? | LRN21 - 3 januari 2015

    […] boeken van de laatste jaren is Visible Learning van John Hattie. Blogcollectief Onderzoek Onderwijs reblogt een post van blog Ollieorange2 waarin wordt beweerd dat de helft van de statistiek in het genoemde boek niet deugt! Effect Size en […]

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  4. Eindelijk…. | marloesschimmer - 20 mei 2016

    […] John Hattie admits that half of the Statistics in Visible Learning are wrong […]

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