What really matters in education?

Education expert John Hattie’s advice to an incoming Government: address teacher variability and forget about autonomy.

In a recent interview with former ABC journalist and Rudd Government minister Maxine McKew, Professor Hattie said the biggest problem we have in schools is the variability among teachers.

“It doesn’t mean to say that they’re all good or they’re all bad, but that differential experience is a major problem. If we can attend to that, we can make a huge difference,” he said.

Professor Hattie warned the additional money for schools that has been promised by both sides of politics needs to go into teaching expertise.

“My worry is, though, we’re going to spend money on the peripherals of schooling. I notice in the current plans, many States have invested heavily in Teacher Aids in schools. Now, throwing [in] more adults is not going to be the answer, when we know from Peter Blatchford’s work that Teacher Aids have a zero to negative impact on the kids,” he said. “Instead, we should be considering how we can actually take the expertise we have and make it all excellent. If we do that, we can make a dramatic difference.”

Professor Hattie highlighted the high quality of work already happening in many schools.

“I can see some stunning stuff that’s happening in our schools in Australia, where principals, school leaders and teachers work collectively to understand the impact they’re having on all their students,” he said. “There are some stunning examples out there, and that’s what I’d like to see more of.”

He was also critical of policies proposed by both major parties to increase school and principal autonomy.

“It’s not absolutely clear what ‘more autonomy’ actually means, and I think that it’s part of the politics of distraction,” he said. “It appeases many people to think that principals have these kinds of autonomies. Certainly the principals like it, the parents like it. But I can’t find much evidence anywhere that giving more or less [autonomy] makes any difference to what happens in the classroom, and that’s the concern I have.”