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

Explicit teaching strategies

Overview

  • Influence: Explicit teaching strategies
  • Domain: Teaching Strategies
  • Sub-Domain: Instructional strategies
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to considerably accelerate
  • Influence Definition: Characterized by a series of supports or scaffolds, whereby students are guided through the learning process with clear statements about the purpose and rationale for learning the new skill, clear explanations and demonstrations of the instructional target, and supported practice with feedback until independent mastery has been achieved. Explicit teaching strategies typically involve instruction, guided practice, and teaching to mastery.

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 13
  • Number of studies: 5,024
  • Number of students: 2,423,001
  • Number of effects: 6,727
  • Weighted mean effect size: 0.63
  • 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
Dissertation Rosenbaum A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of educational treatment programs for emotionally disturbed students 1983 Treatment programs for emotionally disturbed students 235 NA 99 1.02
Conference paper O'Neal Cerebral palsy: the meta-analysis of selected interventions 1985 With cerebral palsy students 31 NA 96 0.81
Teaching and Teacher Education Kyriakides, Christoforou & Charalambous What matters for student learning outcomes: A meta-analysis of studies exploring factors of effective teaching 2013 Learning strategies on achievement 167 1,182,117 291 0.36
Sex Roles Baenninger & Newcombe The role of experience in spatial test performance: A meta-analysis 1989 Spatial strategies on spatial outcomes 26 NA 26 0.51
Book Scheerens & Bosker The foundations of educational effectiveness 1997 Various strategies on achievement 228 NA 545 0.20
Book Marzano A theory-based meta-analysis of research on instruction 1998 Classroom instructional techniques 4,000 1,237,000 4,000 0.65
Review of Educational Research Seidel & Shavelson Teaching Effectiveness Research in the Last Decade: Role of Theory and Research Design in Disentangling Meta-Analysis Results 2007 Teaching and learning processes 112 NA 1,352 0.07
Language Learning Spada & Tomita Interactions between type of instruction and type of language feature: A meta-analysis. 2010 Explicit instruction on EFL 28 NA 44 0.81
American Educational Research Association Kyriakides & Christoforou A synthesis of studies searching for teacher factors: Implications for educational effectiveness theory. 2011 Teaching and learning processes 88 NA 165 0.29
Research in Science Education Aguilera & Perales-Palacios What Effects Do Didactic Interventions Have on Students' Attitudes Towards Science? A Meta-Analysis 2018 Multiple teaching methods 24 3,884 24 0.54
International Journal of Instruction Sugano & Nabua Meta-Analysis on the Effects of Teaching Methods on Academic Performance in Chemistry. 2020 Teaching methods in chemistry 51 NA 51 1.21
Studies in English Education Granena & Yilmaz Aptitude-treatment interaction in L2 learning: A research synthesis. 2018 Explicit methods on explicit outcomes 9 NA 9 1.06
International Journal of Cognitive and Language Sciences Yousefi & Nassaji he Effect of Computer-Mediated vs. Face-to-Face Instruction on L2 Pragmatics: A Meta-Analysis.  2018 Explicit methods 25 NA 25 1.21
TOTAL/AVERAGE 5,024 2,423,001 6,727 0.67
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