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Hattie and the impact of Soft Skills on learning

Why a targeted development of transversal, personal, socio-emotional and learning skills has a positive impact on academic achievement.

The key to learning success for students at all levels is the development of soft skills and interdisciplinary competencies. Hattie has demonstrated the impact of such skills on multiple occasions in his meta-analysis.

For reference: anything with an effect size above 0.40 is considered to have an above-average impact on learning success or learning outcomes.

The following cross-disciplinary competencies are above-average in effectiveness:

-Problem-solving skills and strategies (effect size 0.68): Learners learn how to approach problems systematically and how to analyze them in order to find solutions.

-Metacognitive strategies (0.69): Learners consciously and actively analyze their learning process. They are provided with strategies to analyze their learning and thinking. They are able to adapt their learning behavior and are given tools to do so.

-Management of attention and emotion (0.52): “Self-regulation” develops the ability to effectively manage one’s own attention, motivation to learn, and emotional state while learning.

-Cooperative learning (0.40): Teamwork, learning from one another, and providing mutual positive support; social skills facilitate knowledge transfer and positively and effectively support the learning process.

-Programs for fostering social skills (0.39): These school programs deliberately and systematically promote respectful interaction, conflict resolution skills, and empathy in the classroom and throughout the school.

-Creativity (0.40): Fostering creative skills supports the learning process and enhances performance in developing solutions.

Crucial is the focus on—and thus the promotion of—social-emotional competencies on the part of teachers as well. Empirical evidence, and above all Hattie’s analysis of meta-studies, has repeatedly demonstrated the positive impact of teachers:

-Teacher-student relationships (0.52): The foundation for a successful, effective, and supportive learning environment is a relationship between learners and teachers based on trust and mutual respect. Interest in the learners, along with a learning culture that is tolerant of mistakes and encouraging, not only impacts well-being but, above all, has a positive effect on learning outcomes.

-Clarity of teachers (0.75): Transparent learning goals and expectations, clear assignments, and transparent and fair success and assessment criteria have a very strong effect. They help learners better assess their own learning progress.

Repeating a grade (-0.16 to -0.44, depending on the sub-study): On the flip side of the learning effect, repeating a grade has, with few exceptions, a shockingly negative impact on improvements in academic performance. Here, too, the influence of cross-curricular competencies comes into play. Repeating a grade has no positive effect unless, at the same time and in parallel, systematic and intensive work is done on the conditions for success or failure. Learning competencies, learning strategies, structured work, optimization of learning conditions, targeted support for learners’ weaknesses, and the targeted promotion of additional cross-curricular competencies and socio-emotional skills—as well as strengthened collaboration with parents—bring about change. Simply holding a student back without implementing these measures offers little promise of success.

Source: John Hattie (2008). Visible Learning. A synthesis of over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement.

The key to learning success for students at all levels is the development of soft skills and interdisciplinary competencies. Hattie has demonstrated the impact of such skills on multiple occasions in his meta-analysis.

For reference: anything with an effect size above 0.40 is considered to have an above-average impact on learning success or learning outcomes.