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Visible Learning™
Visible Learning MetaX™
Version 1.4 – Updated February 2026

Prior achievement

Overview

  • Influence: Prior achievement
  • Domain: Student
  • Sub-Domain: Prior knowledge and background
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to considerably accelerate
  • Influence Definition: The effects of prior achievement in similar subject matter to later achievement on process-related skills when they work with a new task

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 10
  • Number of studies: 1,850
  • Number of students: 675,237
  • Number of effects: 5,877
  • Weighted mean effect size: 0.74
  • Robustness index: 5

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
Report Simonsmeier, Flaig, Deiglmayr, Schalk, & Schneider Domain-Specific Prior Knowledge and Learning: A Meta-Analysis 2018 Prior Domain knowledge 240 62,129 4,327 1.22
The Journal of Special Education Kavale & Nye Parameters of learning disabilities in achievement, linguistic, neuropsychological, and social/behavioral domains 1985 Ability component in predicting special ed students 1,077 NA 268 0.68
Journal of Research in Science Teaching Boulanger Ability and science learning: A quantitative synthesis 1981 Ability related to science learning 34 NA 62 1.09
Conference paper Piburn Evidence from Meta-Analysis for an Expertise Model of Achievement in Science. 1993 Prior ability on science achievement 44 NA 186 0.80
Book Murphy & Alexander Understanding how students learn: A guide for instructional leaders 2006 Knowledge, beliefs and interests on conceptual change 20 NA 50 0.80
Journal of Learning Disabilities Lapadat Pragmatic Language Skills of Students with Language and/or Learning Disabilities: A Quantitative Synthesis 1991 Language ability of special ed students on achievement 33 825 275 0.52
Journal of Educational Psychology Koponen, Georgiou, Salmi, & Aro A meta-analysis of the relation between RAN and mathematics 2017 Rapid Automatic naming as prior to math 38 7,135 151 0.80
Dissertation Rush Functional components of a local and a national profile of elementary school at-risk students ass determined through meta-analysis and factor analysis 1992 Differences in at-risk students 100 236,772 404 0.48
Metacognition Learning Ohtani & Hisasaka Beyond intelligence: A meta-analytic review of the relationship among metacognition intelligence and academic performance. 2018 Self-regulation and achievement 247 368,376 137 0.58
Applied Linguistics Li The associations between language aptitude and second language grammar acquisition: A meta-analytic review of five decades of research. 2014 Language aptitude and L2 acquisition 17 NA 17 0.65
TOTAL/AVERAGE 1,850 675,237 5,877 0.76
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