What does Hattie say about ability grouping?

Myth: Ability grouping is effective Reality: Professor Hattie says many educators believe grouping students by ability allows teachers to customise learning to students' learning pace. However the opposite is true – it has little impact on achievement.

What is the effect size of Hattie ability grouping?

Hattie found a positive effect size of 0.12 for ability grouping. The EEF found a negative effect size: -0.09. This puzzled me when I first saw it. The EEF – The Education Endowment Foundation – was set up by Michael Gove with the intention of providing a more solid empirical basis for education.

What does research say about ability grouping?

Students who are not in high ability groups are not harmed academically by ability grouping and may gain academic ground in some cases. Ability grouping does not have negative effects on student self-esteem and appears to be slightly positive for lower achieving students.

What is the concept of ability grouping?

Ability grouping is an educational method of splitting a group of students into smaller groups based on ability. Student abilities may be based on students' true abilities or their estimated abilities. Grades, standardized assessments, and classroom achievements can be used to group students.

Why is ability grouping controversial?

Ability grouping is a controversial topic in education. Some proponents argue that it is a necessary tool to ensure that all students receive the individualized instruction they need to succeed. Others assert that ability grouping is a form of segregation that can lead to tracking and stigmatization.

Professor Hattie on ability grouping

What are the arguments you have heard against ability grouping?

It is tempting to move students to a higher level of the same skill, but developing depth and mastery through application, articulation and number fluency leads to higher levels of achievement. So students might be tackling different ways of dealing with the same mathematics but they are not grouped by ability.

Is ability grouping good or bad?

Ability grouping increases student achievement by allowing teachers to focus instruction, proponents say. Teaching a group of like-ability students allows teachers to adjust the pace of instruction to students' needs.

What is one critique of ability grouping?

The thorniest issue concerning grouping and the gifted is whether the gifted are needed in the regular class room to act as role models for other students and whether this "use" of gifted students is more important than their own educational needs.

What are the cons of ability grouping?

Detractors of ability grouping state that the lower learning groups are disproportionately filled with poor and minority students, according to the NEA Research Spotlight on Academic Ability Grouping.

What are the 4 types of ability grouping?

Subject-based ability grouping. Within-class ability grouping. Like-ability cooperative grouping. Cross-grade grouping by achievement level.

How does ability grouping benefit students?

A faster pace: Gifted students can sometimes grow bored or even act out when they finish their work or catch on to a concept much faster than their peers. However, in groups or classrooms that use ability grouping, gifted students can move at a faster pace along with their peers of the same ability level.

How many schools in the US use ability grouping?

Nearly half of middle schools (48 percent) assigned students based on ability, which is higher than the 40 percent of high schools, 32 percent of combined schools, and 24 percent of primary schools using this method.

What are the problems with mixed ability groups?

If students are very different, conflicts can arise, including arguing, disruptive behaviors, and even bullying. Creating mixed-ability groupings that are effective is a difficult task and requires strong classroom management skills.

How do you explain John Hattie effect size?

For example, a John Hattie effect size of 0.7 means that the score of the average student in the intervention group is 0.7 standard deviations higher than the average student in the “control” group. In other words, it exceeds the scores of 69% of the similar group of students who did not receive the intervention.

What is John Hattie known for?

John Hattie is Emeritus Laureate Professor at the Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia. He is one of the world's best-known and most widely read education experts, and his Visible Learning series of books have been translated into 29 languages and have sold over 1 million copies.

What's the problem in ability grouping in early childhood?

One reason is that children's academic achievement is often a correlate of social status in early childhood years (Rubin et al., 2006). Grouping children by ability levels may either increase or flatten the social hierarchy in the classroom, which then shape their social experiences with peers.

Is ability grouping equitable?

There is little evidence that tracking or grouping by ability produces higher overall achievement. I conclude that grouping and tracking rarely add to overall achievement in a school but often contribute to inequality.

What are the three advantages of grouping?

Grouping helps in gaining systematic knowledge of things. It also gives a general idea about all members of a group and the differences between members of different groups. It is convenient to work with all members of a group knowing their properties.

What is ability grouping for gifted students?

Grouping is the practice of placing students with similar abilities, interests, or needs in the same class or group for instruction. Grouping can be done within a classroom, across a grade level, or across a school.

Which of the following is a basic assumption underlying the practice of ability grouping?

A basic assumption underlying the practice of ability grouping is that intelligence is an inherited trait.

What is ability grouping for facilitating learning?

The learning group acquires knowledge through the process of working on a problem, and does not need to solve the problem or reach a consensus. Learning groups function best when the facilitator understands that what the learner does is more important to learning than what the teacher does.

Is ability grouping illegal?

Hansen (1967), the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that although ability grouping was not unlawful when it served legitimate educational objectives, its application in the District of Columbia was discriminatory and constituted a violation of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment ...

Should gifted students be grouped together?

Research shows significant academic achievement gains for gifted learners who are grouped with others of similar interest and abilities. Also, ability grouping is found to have positive effects on motivation and attitudes towards learning, as well as helping gifted learners to develop a more realistic self perception.

Should students be separated by intelligence?

In fact, on average, separate gifted programs do not seem to be effective, and separating higher-achieving and lower-achieving students can be actively harmful to lower-achieving students.