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The Hidden Lives of Learners
The Hidden Lives of Learners takes the reader deep into the hitherto undiscovered world of the learner. It explores the three worlds which together shape a student’s learning – the public world of the teacher, the highly influential world of peers, and the student’s own private world and experiences. What becomes clear is that just because a teacher is teaching, does not mean students are learning.
Using a unique method of data collection through meticulous recording -audio, video, observations, interviews, pre and posttests - and the collation and analysis of what occurred inside and outside the classroom, Graham Nuthall has definitively documented what is involved for most students to learn and retain a concept. In the author’s lifetime the significance of his discoveries and the rare mix of quantitative and qualitative methods were widely recognised and continue to be one of the foundation stones of evidence-based quality education.
This book is the culmination of Professor Graham Nuthall’s forty years of research on learning and teaching. It is written with classroom teachers and teachers of teachers in mind. But realising time was short and that his life’s work was laid out in learned papers for fellow researchers, he wrote this brief but powerful book for a much wider audience as well: for all those who seek a better understanding of classroom learning.
After completing his PhD at the University of Illinois, Graham Nuthall returned to take up academic positions at the University of Canterbury New Zealand. Throughout his long and distinguished career he continued to work closely with his academic colleagues in the USA and other countries
He served on the editorial boards of international journals including Journal of Education for Teaching, Social Psychology of Education, Journal of Classroom Interaction and was Joint Editor of Teaching and Teacher Education: an International Journal of Research and Studies. His work has been translated into several languages and he was a visiting fellow at Stanford, London, Illinois and other universities. The recipient of many awards including The Royal Society of New Zealand’s Science and Technology Medal, The McKenzie Award for Excellence in Research in Education, Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, his students and those he worked with remember him as warm, empathetic, and inspiring.
"Teachers who care about students and learning will be fascinated by the student voices that speak on the pages of this book, and what those voices reveal about learning in classroom settings, The Hidden Lives of Learners is a generous gift from Graham Nuthall to teachers everywhere."
- Greta Morine-Dershimer
Using a unique method of data collection through meticulous recording -audio, video, observations, interviews, pre and posttests - and the collation and analysis of what occurred inside and outside the classroom, Graham Nuthall has definitively documented what is involved for most students to learn and retain a concept. In the author’s lifetime the significance of his discoveries and the rare mix of quantitative and qualitative methods were widely recognised and continue to be one of the foundation stones of evidence-based quality education.
This book is the culmination of Professor Graham Nuthall’s forty years of research on learning and teaching. It is written with classroom teachers and teachers of teachers in mind. But realising time was short and that his life’s work was laid out in learned papers for fellow researchers, he wrote this brief but powerful book for a much wider audience as well: for all those who seek a better understanding of classroom learning.
After completing his PhD at the University of Illinois, Graham Nuthall returned to take up academic positions at the University of Canterbury New Zealand. Throughout his long and distinguished career he continued to work closely with his academic colleagues in the USA and other countries
He served on the editorial boards of international journals including Journal of Education for Teaching, Social Psychology of Education, Journal of Classroom Interaction and was Joint Editor of Teaching and Teacher Education: an International Journal of Research and Studies. His work has been translated into several languages and he was a visiting fellow at Stanford, London, Illinois and other universities. The recipient of many awards including The Royal Society of New Zealand’s Science and Technology Medal, The McKenzie Award for Excellence in Research in Education, Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, his students and those he worked with remember him as warm, empathetic, and inspiring.
"Teachers who care about students and learning will be fascinated by the student voices that speak on the pages of this book, and what those voices reveal about learning in classroom settings, The Hidden Lives of Learners is a generous gift from Graham Nuthall to teachers everywhere."
- Greta Morine-Dershimer
174 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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632 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 20, 2020
“Many have argued that the real business of teaching is the business of changing the well-established but inaccurate beliefs that all students have.“
I can’t believe I waited so long to read this book, the accolades it’s received are well and truly deserved, to say this is one of those “must read“ books for anyone in education is as true a statement as you’re ever likely to hear.
Its fundamental premise appears to be that far from filling empty vessels, the greater challenge for teachers is that these vessels are already in many ways full, but often full with all sorts of content that complicates and obfuscates their attempts to learn whatever it is we are trying to teach. Whether that is the contextual distractions in their environment, the distractions and misconceptions proffered by their peers, or their own misconceptions, these three “worlds” they inhabit are worlds every teacher needs to understand if they want to be successful.
What I think makes this book unique is the way it so fundamentally centres its focus on what actual students really experience. They went to such great lengths to capture everything these kids hear and say and do and then pored over it and did an incredible job of summarising it into a relatively short book all of us to learn from.
What are you waiting for?
I can’t believe I waited so long to read this book, the accolades it’s received are well and truly deserved, to say this is one of those “must read“ books for anyone in education is as true a statement as you’re ever likely to hear.
Its fundamental premise appears to be that far from filling empty vessels, the greater challenge for teachers is that these vessels are already in many ways full, but often full with all sorts of content that complicates and obfuscates their attempts to learn whatever it is we are trying to teach. Whether that is the contextual distractions in their environment, the distractions and misconceptions proffered by their peers, or their own misconceptions, these three “worlds” they inhabit are worlds every teacher needs to understand if they want to be successful.
What I think makes this book unique is the way it so fundamentally centres its focus on what actual students really experience. They went to such great lengths to capture everything these kids hear and say and do and then pored over it and did an incredible job of summarising it into a relatively short book all of us to learn from.
What are you waiting for?
January 20, 2023
Great stuff in here—fascinating linguistic and ethnographic stuff at the student level. Interesting frameworks of teacher influence, peer influence and self influence—and claims abt how much kids already know when you’re teaching them
June 10, 2018
An insight into the individual learner, which is very different to the other evidence-based teaching books. The book focuses on research done in the classroom, as opposed to the lab, and measures and observes many things, such as: Previous and post-teaching knowledge, microphones on the students in the lesson, an observer noting down the students behaviour during the lesson to see what those students are focusing on (the content, doodling, friends, etc), and post-teaching interviews with the students to see what they thought about their own learning and where it had come from (teachers, friends, books, etc).
Well worth a read.
Well worth a read.
June 19, 2016
One of those books that changes how you think about how children learn
February 4, 2020
[…] much of the knowledge students acquire comes from their peers, and when it does, it comes wrapped inside their social relationships.’ #dezinvanhetboek
September 4, 2021
I think interesting this content
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 9, 2019
A sacriligeous opinion in education, but I wasn't overly enamoured? I don't know, I was bored. Plus put off later in the book when Nuthall twice comments on the relative attractiveness of students. I get it- students have weird subconscious power dynamics and group shit, but if you need Nuthall to tell you that are you even a teacher?
He was the first to say it I suppose, and I don't mean to be a judgy judy but maybe this book isn't THAT great.
He was the first to say it I suppose, and I don't mean to be a judgy judy but maybe this book isn't THAT great.
May 27, 2020
As part of the author's studies, he attaches microphones to pupils in lessons. Rather unsurprisingly, lots of the recordings are pupils going off task during group tasks.
Although I broadly agree with his some of his conclusions (learning is hard, building on prior learning is important, children learn in similar ways more than they learn in different ways) I wonder how his other conclusions would change if the study was conducted in a different learning/school environment.
Although I broadly agree with his some of his conclusions (learning is hard, building on prior learning is important, children learn in similar ways more than they learn in different ways) I wonder how his other conclusions would change if the study was conducted in a different learning/school environment.
August 25, 2018
Excellent. Nuthall sets up shop in different classrooms, records everything, takes notes, and tries to find out exactly who learned what and how. I wish this book had a better subhed and a less generic title and cover art so more people could find out about it. A hidden gem.
November 26, 2016
Summary of the life's work of Graham Nuthall and his research into the "hidden" life of the classroom
August 9, 2020
A beautiful look into the classroom and the lives, struggles and learning of students.
May 28, 2024
Since starting a new job in a new school environment, I have been challenged in so many ways. It drew me to finding books that might be able to help remind me about why and how kids learn the way they learn. This book did exactly the trick. Based on solid evidence based data gathering in New Zealand classrooms, looking closely at students work, recording what students say in the moment as they learn (voice recorders) and then interviewing students and teachers, they discovered alot about the great complexities of student learning. It was a good book that I could read one chapter of and then put down for a few weeks and then pick up again when needed.
Want to read
September 2, 2017"Learning requires motivation, but motivation does not necessarily lead to learning"
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews