Ari Hechel is studying lower secondary education at PH Zurich and recently took the opportunity to complete an exchange semester in Melbourne. There, he met John Hattie, Professor of Education Sciences, Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute and author of the much-cited meta-study “Visible Learning”. The study provides information on which methods and actions have a positive or negative impact on learning. It covers a total of 240 million pupils and is constantly being expanded.

Ari Hechel, you met John Hattie personally during your exchange semester. How did this encounter go?
I was in contact with Professor Hattie on my own initiative throughout the semester, and shortly before my departure, my fellow student Tobi and I met him for coffee. We had prepared a list of questions and he took two hours with us to answer them.

Can you share some of these questions and Professor Hattie’s answers to them with us?
We asked him what he thought made a good lesson, for example. John Hattie said that you can tell a lesson is good if the students are able to teach the material themselves to others afterwards. He explained that you should write the exam before planning the lessons. The lessons can then be designed so that the students are ready for the examination. On exams, you can also (perhaps as a bonus question) incorporate a task from the next exam.

He also spoke about the need for teachers to be more politically active: “We must dictate policy”– instead of people with no teaching experience imposing their ideas on schools and teachers.

When asked why some countries were so much better than others in the PISA studies, he replied that he was not as interested in international rankings. He recommended that we find the best schools in Switzerland and Austria and learn from them.

We also asked him how to find a good school when looking for a job. He advised us to pay attention to turn-taking in the teacher’s lounge. If only a few teachers dominate the conversation, we should avoid the school and find a different one where all the teachers regularly take turns during the conversation. We should also ask how we can develop personally at the school.

John Hattie mentioned that the first three years as a teacher are the hardest, but also the most instructive. I told him about the practical master’s phase at PH Zurich and he said it was a great programme because we could learn the most from a mix of practice and theory. He recommended the book How to Be an Effective Teacher by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong as an introduction to the profession. At the end of our meeting, he also gave us five books that he had written or co-written.

I’m currently trying to build a community with John Hattie for teachers in the first three years of teaching, because we both think there’s a great need there.

What have you personally taken away from this exchange semester for your future teaching career?
The exchange was an unforgettable experience and I would advise all students to take advantage of this opportunity. I met people from all over the globe, studied at one of the top 50 universities in the world, went on a lot of trips and gathered countless new impressions. My geography lessons will certainly be more exciting and authentic as I have now lived in Australia and travelled to New Zealand and Vietnam. I was also able to learn a lot about the history of Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam for my future history lessons.