- Hattie finds that achievement outcomes are attributable to six topics: the child, the home, the school, the curricula, the teacher, and the approaches to teaching.
- The child contributes prior knowledge of learning, expectations, degree of openness and experiences, emerging beliefs about the value and worth to them from investing in learning, engagement, ability to build a sense of self from engagement in learning and a reputation as a learner.
- The home contributes parental expectations and aspirations for the child, and parental knowledge of the language of schooling.
- The school contributes the climate of the classroom and peer influences [race, ethnicity, and gender].
- The teacher contributes the quality of teaching as perceived by the student, teacher expectations, teachers’ conceptions of students and teaching and learning, teachers’ openness, classroom climate, teacher clarity in articulating success criteria and achievement, the fostering of effort, and the engagement of all students.
- The curriculum contributes developing a curriculum that balances surface and deep understanding, a focus on developing learning strategies, and strategies that teach specific skills. Teaching approaches contribute paying deliberate attention to learning intentions and success criteria, setting challenging tasks, providing opportunities for deliberative practice, knowing when one is successful, understanding that teaching appropriate learning strategies is critical, planning and talking about teaching, ensuring the teacher constantly seeks feedback as to the success of their teaching. Overall, Hattie notes that what teachers do matters.