Visible learning is an educational concept that aims to make learning as visible as possible, turning the focus to how well learners are learning. Educators make their thinking visible through thinking routines and explicitly model the skills, knowledge, and competencies to learn. The heart of this is providing learners ample opportunities to engage in the learning process through guided and independent practice, structured group work using thinking routines and protocols, and various frameworks that allow them to collaborate and share their thinking. 

To truly make learning visible, educators continually assess where their learners currently are in the learning process and think about their next learning phase. We refer to Lev Vygotsky’s theory of learning and development, called The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This is the space between what a learner can do without assistance and what the learner can do with an expert. In this construct is the idea that learning is a social process that needs to consider the subcomponent steps that a learner requires to know and be able to do before achieving their ultimate goal of learning a new skill.

Essentially, we want to make the implicit explicit! We as adults or experts have what is referred to as the curse of knowledge. Because we are skilled at this “thing” we forget all the steps we took to learn this knowledge or skill. As educators, we need to unpack the skills, standards, dispositions, and knowledge our learners must attain at each grade level, making learning more accessible to all. This is true for every skill we ever acquire! And we can all learn anything- we are born to do so!

For further information, a curated list of resources was culled for our community. We hope you have the opportunity to learn alongside us!