{{Short description|New Zealand academic}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=October 2025}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Graham Nuthall | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MNZM|size=100%}} | image = {{#statements:P18}} | alt = | caption = Nuthall, {{circa|1970}} | birth_name = Graham Alfred Nuthall | birth_date = {{#statements:P569}} | birth_place = Christchurch, New Zealand | death_date = {{Death date and age|2004|07|28|1935|04|28|df=y}} | death_place = Christchurch, New Zealand | fields = Educational research | workplaces = {{#statements:P108}} | patrons = | alma_mater = University of Illinois | thesis_title = Experimental comparison of instructional strategies in the teaching of concepts | thesis_url = | thesis_year = 1966 | doctoral_advisor = {{#statements:P184}} | academic_advisors = {{#statements:P1066}} | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = {{ubl|Herbison Lecture|McKenzie Award}} | signature = <!--(filename only)--> | signature_alt = | website = <!-- {{URL|www.example.com}} --> | spouse = {{marriage|Jill Nuthall|1956}} | children = }} '''Graham Alfred Nuthall''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MNZM}} (28 April 1935 – 28 July 2004) was a New Zealand educationist. An academic at the University of Canterbury and a pioneering researcher into teaching and learning in the classroom, he is recognised as the creator of the longest-running and most elaborate studies of how children learn in a classroom setting. His posthumously published 2007 book ''The Hidden Lives of Learners'' is considered an influential text for teachers and education researchers.
== Biography == Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 28 April 1935, Nuthall was educated at Elmwood School, Cathedral Grammar School, and Christ's College.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Crean |first=Mike |date=7 August 2004 |title=Academic widely acclaimed |work=The Press |pages=D17}}</ref> He married his wife Jill in 1956.<ref name=":3" /> Nuthall enrolled simultaneously in Christchurch Teachers' College, where he trained as a primary school teacher and speech-language therapist, graduating in 1958,<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |date=19 July 2007 |title=Decades of research brought together in posthumously published book |url=https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE771936 |journal=UC Chronicle |volume=42 |issue=11 |pages=7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-14 |title=Innovators |url=https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/about-uc/our-story/150th/150th-alumni-showcase/innovators |access-date=2025-10-13 |website=University of Canterbury |language=en}}</ref> and at the University of Canterbury where he studied education, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1959.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19590508.2.178 |title=Huge numbers make marathon capping |date=8 May 1959 |work=The Press |volume=98 |issue=28889 |page=15 |access-date=9 November 2025 |via=PapersPast}}</ref> He went on to complete a Master of Arts (Honours) degree at Canterbury with a thesis entitled ''Analysis of teaching and pupil thinking in the classroom'' in 1962.<ref>{{Cite Q|Q112836333}}</ref>
In 2002, a year after his retirement, Nuthall was diagnosed with leukemia, and he died in Christchurch on 28 July 2004 at the age of 69.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nuthall |first=Graham |date=27 June 2025 |title=The cultural myths and realities of teaching and learning |url=https://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Pedagogy-and-assessment/Pedagogical-leadership/The-cultural-myths-and-realities-of-teaching-and-learning |access-date=13 October 2025 |website=Ministry of Education – Educational Leaders}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> He was survived by his wife, Jill Nuthall.<ref name=":3" />
== Academic career == In 1960, Nuthall was appointed assistant lecturer in education at the University of Canterbury, until in 1963 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Illinois. He took his wife and four children to the US, supporting them on his pay as a research assistant while he worked on his PhD in education and psychology. He finished in 2½ years, graduating in 1966 with a doctoral thesis titled ''Experimental comparison of instructional strategies in the teaching of concepts''.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2024-01-25 |title=Professor Graham Nuthall's Legacy |url=https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/study/academic-study/education/education-events/prestige-lecture-series/graham-nuthall-classroom-research-trust |access-date=2025-10-13 |website=University of Canterbury |language=en}}</ref> Despite offers from other countries, he returned to New Zealand and a lecturer's position at the University of Canterbury.<ref name=":3" /> Nuthall's association with the University of Canterbury lasted over 40 years: he attained the rank of full professor in 1971 at the age of 37;<ref name=":0" /> took on the role of head of the Education Department in 1976, from 1980 to 1986, and again in 1996;<ref name=":2" /> became professor emeritus in 2000; and retired in 2001.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-11-23 |title=Emeritus Professors, Honorary Doctorates, and Canterbury Distinguished Professors |url=https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/about-uc/our-structure/leadership-and-governance/university-council/council-committees/professores-emeriti-hon-docs-and-distinguished-professors |access-date=2025-10-13 |website=University of Canterbury |language=en}}</ref>
Throughout his career, Nuthall made two or three trips overseas each year, including research fellowhips at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, a visiting scholar position at Stanford, and a role with the American Educational Research Association.<ref name=":3" />
==Research== Nuthall's research focus was on the relationship between teachers and their students in a classroom setting, and he studied the particular and subtle interactions that influenced individual learning.<ref name=":0" /> At the beginning of his research career, Nuthall was impatient with much educational theory, which at the time was not backed up by data, and he resolved to gather empirical evidence of how learning worked from the point of view of the child.<ref name=":3" />
This involved ongoing work with children in actual classroom settings, rather than in a university laboratory, which won him the respect of teachers.<ref name=":3" /> Nurhall describes his first research project, in 1960: <blockquote>The journey began when I was a graduate student and persuaded a group of experienced teachers to let me bring a tape-recorder into their classrooms and hang up microphones...from their light-fittings. I borrowed [his wife Jill's] bike with the cane basket on the front to carry the heavy Phillips tape-recorder and all the wires and bits of string that I needed to record in the classrooms of long-suffering teachers.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=Nuthall |first=Graham |date=5 May 2004 |title=Discovering the hidden realities of teaching and learning in the classroom |url=https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/content/dam/uoc-main-site/documents/pdfs/d-other/2004-nuthall.pdf |website=University of Canterbury}}</ref></blockquote>
Nuthall pioneered the use and analysis of audio recordings of children in the classroom.<ref name=":3" /> This began when he was still a student in 1960, when he was given permission by teachers to record their lessons and their interactions with pupils. What seemed to be spontaneous conversation turned out be a social interaction operating according to a predictable set of rules, which later studies revealed were operating much the same way in New Zealand, Japan, and the United States.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Tishauser |first=Jan |date=26 February 2019 |title=Graham Nuthall: Educational research at its best |url=https://researched.org.uk/2019/02/26/graham-nuthall-educational-research-at-its-best/ |website=ResearchED}}</ref> Nuthall called these "ritualized routines", necessary for managing a classroom of 30 children, but obscuring the actual experience of each learner.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nuthall |first=Graham |date=2005 |title=The Cultural Myths and Realities of Classroom Teaching and Learning: A Personal Journey |url=https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2005.00498.x |journal=Teachers College Record |language=EN |volume=107 |issue=5 |pages=895–934 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9620.2005.00498.x |issn=0161-4681|url-access=subscription }}</ref> As he put it in a 2004 lecture:<blockquote>Staff at the university lecture to students because that is what lecturers do. Primary school teachers have lively discussions with their pupils because that is what primary school teachers do. Secondary school teachers write notes on the blackboard, set homework, and send their pupils on their way every 50 minutes or so, because that is what high school teaching is about.<ref name=":7" /></blockquote>Nuthall's focus on the experience of children gave results at odds with the findings of other researchers, who focussed on the actions of teachers.<ref name=":3" /> From 1968 to 1974, Nuthall and his graduate students attempted to determine the role of teacher experience and training in learning. Using scripted lessons about black-backed gulls, and intensively monitoring all classroom interactions, they compared three groups: teacher trainees, experienced teachers, and trainees who were analysing their teaching through recordings. By 1974, they had determined that the way a teacher questioned students and gave feedback was far more important than their training and experience.<ref name=":4" />
Adrienne Alton-Lee's PhD work in 1978 attempted an even more detailed study of the learning process in three students, recording every 15 seconds each action and communication, and photographing everything they made or wrote down. Nuthall credits this methodology as the breakthrough that would shape the next 20 years of his research.<ref>Nuthall, G. (2001). "The cultural myths and realities of teaching and learning." In I. Livingston (Ed.), ''New Zealand annual review of education''. '''11''':5–30</ref> He designed follow-up studies based on Alton-Lee's work with larger groups using more sophisticated recording technology. They discovered that teacher-led public discussion was only one component of the classroom experience, and student self-talk and interaction with peers was mostly invisible to the teacher, often missed even by the observers. Nuthall's conclusion was that the majority of student learning is based on self talk or thinking out loud, peer interaction (25% of learning)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brophy |first=Jere |date=2006-07-01 |title=Graham Nuthall and social constructivist teaching: Research-based cautions and qualifications |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X06000035 |journal=Teaching and Teacher Education |series=Graham Nuthall's legacy: understanding teaching and learning |volume=22 |issue=5 |pages=529–537 |doi=10.1016/j.tate.2006.01.008 |issn=0742-051X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> or self-initiated wrestling with the course material, rather than coming from the teacher and the textbook.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Kaur |first=Baljit |date=July 2006 |title=Editorial |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0742051X06000023 |journal=Teaching and Teacher Education |language=en |volume=22 |issue=5 |pages=525–528 |doi=10.1016/j.tate.2006.01.009|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Nuthall then attempted to map the learning process of a single student, gradually building up to larger groups and whole classes, to determine which factors were associated with learning. He and his colleagues discovered that encountering the underlying information behind an idea three times—the "three times" rule—was the best predictor of success, outweighing measures of ability or intelligence. Nuthall discovered that "more able" and "less able" students were using fundamentally the same processes in learning, despite their differing success, and concluded that what we call "ability" may just be a consequence rather than a cause of increasing success.<ref name=":6" /> The most successful students were those with the metacognitive skills to realise how to take get the most out of classroom lessons:<ref name=":4" /> "so-called differences in ability are not about how pupils learn, but are the result of the ways they manage their participation in classroom activities".<ref name=":7" />
Nuthall's research on the critical role of working memory in students Is considered significant in the field; Baljit Kaur wrote in 2006 in a special issue of the journal ''Teaching and Teacher Education'' on the work of Graham Nuthall:<blockquote>[Nuthall's] highly accurate prediction of what a student will or will not learn based on content, sequence and timing of what the student had encountered stands as an unparalleled finding in teaching and learning research.<ref name=":6" /></blockquote>
== ''The Hidden Lives of Learners'' == right|frameless|251x251px|Nuthall's 2007 book, with cover art from one of his own paintings Nuthall's most influential publication was his book ''The Hidden Lives of Learners'', published posthumously in 2007.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Nuthall's Hidden Lives of Learners in Action |url=https://www.hachettelearning.com/teaching-strategies/nuthall-s-hidden-lives-of-learners-in-action |access-date=13 October 2025 |website=Hachette Learning}}</ref> Nuthall wrote the book in haste at the end of his life, to summarise his 40-year career in educational research, and it was compiled and published after his death by his wife and colleagues. Nuthall's main conclusions were:<ref name=":4" />
# Standardised testing is no more reliable at assessing learning than an interview with a student # Course concepts need to be repeated in different ways—the "three timesʻ rule # Learners need time to master concepts, and mastery is not necessarily related to ability # Teachers also need time: to assess the social processes at work in the classroom, pre-test their students, and design rich lessons # Teaching should take into account how memory actually works.
<blockquote>"It is assumed that learning is the more or less automatic result of engaging in classroom activities. If students do what the teacher expects of them, follow the instructions carefully, complete all the aspects of the tasks, then the students will learn what the teacher expects....However our research shows that almost none of this is true." (''The Hidden Lives of Learners'', pp 103–104)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sherrington |first=Tom |date=2020-02-15 |title=Re-reading Nuthall's Hidden Lives of Learners. Insights from a classic. |url=https://teacherhead.com/2020/02/15/re-reading-nuthalls-hidden-lives-of-learners-insights-from-a-classic/ |access-date=2025-10-22 |website=teacherhead |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>
''The Hidden Lives of Learners'' is still an important text for trainee teachers on how the personal context and social interactions of students affect their learning.<ref name=":5" />
== Selected works == {{scholia|id=Q112541565}} * Nuthall, G. (1966). [https://i-share-uiu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99612386312205899&context=L&vid=01CARLI_UIU:CARLI_UIU&lang=en&search_scope=MyInstitution&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=LibraryCatalog&query=any,contains,NUTHALL,%20GRAHAM%20ALFRED ''Experimental comparison of instructional strategies in the teaching of concepts''] (PhD dissertation). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. * Wright, C. J. and Nuthall, G. (1970): "[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/00028312007004477 Relationships between teacher behaviours and pupil achievement in three experimental elementary science lessons]". ''American Educational Research Journal''. '''7'''(4): 477–491 * Nuthall, G. and Alton-Lee, A. (1993): "[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/00028312030004799 Predicting learning from student experience of teaching: a theory of student knowledge construction in classrooms]". ''American Educational Research Journal''. '''30'''(4): 799–840 * Nuthall, G. (1999). "[https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/461928 The way students learn: acquiring knowledge from an integrated science and social studies unit]". ''Elementary School Journal''. '''99'''(4): 303–341 * Nuthall, G. (1999): "[https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED431801.pdf How students learn: The validation of a model of knowledge using stimulated recall of the learning process."] ''Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, 19–23 April 1999''. * Nuthall, G. (2002): "[https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/nzaroe/article/view/1414/1273 The Cultural Myths and the Realities of Teaching and Learning]". ''New Zealand Annual Review of Education.'' '''11''': 5–30 * Nuthall, G. (2004): "[https://meridian.allenpress.com/her/article-abstract/74/3/273/31838/Relating-Classroom-Teaching-to-Student-Learning-A?redirectedFrom=fulltext Relating classroom teaching to student learning: a critical analysis of why research has failed to bridge the theory-practice gap]". ''Harvard Educational Review''. '''74'''(3): 273–306. * Nuthall, G. (2005): "[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2005.00498.x The Cultural Myths and Realities of Classroom Teaching and Learning: A Personal Journey]". ''Teachers College Record''. '''107'''(5): 895–934 * Nuthall, G. (2007): ''The Hidden Lives of Learners''. Wellington: NZCER Press. {{ISBN|978-1-877-39824-7}} * Nuthall, G. (2012): "Understanding What Students Learn" in {{Cite book |last=Kaur |first=Baljit |title=Understanding teaching and learning: classroom research revisited |date=2012 |publisher=SensePublishers |isbn=978-94-6091-864-3 |location=Rotterdam Boston}}
== Honours and awards == Nuthall received a New Zealand Science and Technology Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand.<ref name=":0" /> In 2000, he received a Mackenzie Award, a lifetime achievement award for his work in education research and teacher training from the New Zealand Association for Research in Education, and in December 2001 was invited to present the Herbison Lecture at their annual conference, where he received a standing ovation for his talk "The cultural myths and the realities of teaching and learning".<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=HERBISON LECTURE |url=https://www.nzare.org.nz/herbison-lecture/ |access-date=2025-10-13 |website=NZARE}}</ref>
In the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours, Nuthall was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to education.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 June 2003 |title=THE ORDER OF NEW ZEALAND - 2003-vr3533- |url=https://gazette.govt.nz/notice/id/2003-vr3533 |access-date=2025-10-13 |website=New Zealand Gazette}}</ref> In 2003, the University of Canterbury instituted a Graham Nuthall Award for education research, and in 2004 a series of Graham Nuthall annual lectures (Nuthall himself delivered the inaugural one).<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2025-08-19 |title=Graham Nuthall Research Symposium |url=https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/study/academic-study/education/education-events/prestige-lecture-series/graham-nuthall-classroom-research-trust/graham-nuthall-research-symposium-event-information-and-past-eve |access-date=2025-10-13 |website=University of Canterbury |language=en}}</ref> The university also launched the Graham Nuthall Classroom Research Trust in May 2004 to carry on Nuthall's legacy.<ref name=":3" /> In 2025, the lecture series was relaunched as the annual Hui Rangahau Graham Nuthall Research Symposium.<ref name=":1" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}}
* Nuthall's 2001 Herbison Lecture: "[https://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/content/download/482/3676/Graham_Nuthall_2001.pdf The Cultural Myths and Realities of Teaching and Learning]" * Nuthall's talk at the launch of the Graham Nuthall Classroom Research Trust, 5 May 2004: "[https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/content/dam/uoc-main-site/documents/pdfs/d-other/2004-nuthall.pdf Discovering the hidden realities of teaching and learning in the classroom]" * {{ResearchGate | id= Graham-Nuthall-72866034 }}
{{Authority control}}
<!-- This article is based on a template developed by User:StuartYeates and User:DrThneed. --> *
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuthall, Graham}} Category:New Zealand academics Category:University of Canterbury alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Canterbury Category:New Zealand educational theorists Category:1935 births Category:Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit Category:People educated at Christ's College, Christchurch Category:2004 deaths Category:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni