The single most effective way to improve education

The single most effective way to improve education is to raise the quality of the feedback pupils get and their interaction with teachers. It is pupils’ ability to assess their own performance and to discuss how they can improve with the teacher that makes the most difference.

John Hattie, discussing what actually makes a difference in the classroom.

John Hattie reviewed more than 800 meta-analyses, which included a total of over 50,000 studies, analysing the experiences of more than 80 million school-aged pupils. The result, Visible Learning, has been called the "holy grail" of teaching. It lists 136 classroom interventions in order of effectiveness.

His conclusion that the single most important intervention is a more supportive relationship between the student and teacher aligns with my belief that at the end of the day, it's teachers that matter.

Hattie goes on to say that teachers should work together to improve their teaching.

Too many teachers believe the essence of their profession is autonomy. We hardly ever get together and look at each other’s teaching. That is a major hindrance to working collectively. I can’t imagine many other professions where that happens.

(As a side note, I'd argue that this is independence, not autonomy.) But the collaboration that he recommends me of one of Elizabeth Green's discussion of jugyokenyku.

Both of these recommendations—improving student-teacher relationships and improving teacher-teacher collaboration—align with my belief that collaboration is the best way to experience a breakthrough and create something amazing. I would be a very happy parent if my son was able to experience as much of this as possible while he's in school.