What American Schools Can Learn from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Since they first appeared on these shores in 1997, the Harry Potter books have been lightning rods for criticism and praise for a variety of reasons. But since they are set in a school, what do they say about education? A mother and daughter share their insights.

By Margaret Zoller Booth and Grace Marie Booth

THE UNITED States has been swept up in the Harry Potter phenomenon, with film adaptations, companion readers, and literary critique and analysis following in the wake of J. K. Rowling's series of books chronicling the adolescent wizard's adventures. In addition to sparking a resurgence in fiction pertaining to wizardry and the fantasy world, the series has introduced new words into the English language (e.g., "muggle" and "quidditch"). It has also touched off a reaction from conservative Christian institutions, which have called for banning the books in school libraries on the grounds that they glorify "wizardry" and are therefore anti-Christian. However, in spite of all the attention given to the literary worth of the novels, there has been very little analysis of the primary locus of the action, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as an educational institution.

As my daughter Grace devoured each volume, finally prompting me to read the books out of parental self-defense, we began to discuss Hogwarts and the education that was being imparted to Harry Potter and his friends, Hermione and Ron. This discussion occurred naturally for us because Grace, as the daughter of two itinerant academic researchers, has become familiar with British educational institutions both in England and in various African nations. Notably, she has attended schools in Swaziland, a small kingdom in southern Africa that had been a British colony from the early to mid-20th century. Thus her school there was based on virtually the same structure and principles as those of Hogwarts.

Consequently, as we read the Harry Potter books we found ourselves analyzing the quality of the education that Harry was receiving at Hogwarts, at first somewhat episodically but then at a deeper level. Our discussions formed the basis of this analysis, which is presented from two educational perspectives -- that of a 40-something and that of an 11-something. First, we compare and contrast the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with the British model of education and then with the culture and structure of schools in the United States. Second, we look at Hogwarts from the perspective of an educational psychologist by analyzing the characteristics and quality of the teaching there in relation to contemporary theory and practice. Grace gives her views on the education at Hogwarts while I comment on her observations from an educator's perspective.

A Somewhat British Setting

Grace: I like the idea that there are different ages all together in one school. That way, the older ones can help take care of the younger ones, and the younger ones will learn things from the older kids.

In other words, Grace seems to like the idea that Harry does not attend a junior high school where all the students are grouped by age. Unlike the U.S. system, which often requires students to make two major transitions -- from elementary to junior high and then to high school -- the Hogwarts (British) model mandates only one institutional change. The fact that J. K. Rowling begins her series with Harry's 11th birthday is entirely appropriate for a series that takes place within a British-type school system. That is the year when English pupils make the transition from primary to secondary education. For Harry, this move is especially symbolic, as he not only moves from one educational level to the next but also passes from the world of muggles to the world of wizards. Once Harry enters the second level, he stays there until he is finished with secondary school. Hogwarts is based on the British model, which includes six forms, with the final one (a two-year course) preparing students for higher education. Consequently, the seven volumes planned for the series will neatly see Harry through his secondary years.

Grace's endorsement of the multi-age school structure with fewer transitions is supported by the education literature that reports that multiple transitions during the early adolescent school years are generally not beneficial for students, particularly for girls. The negative effects include declines in academic achievement, less participation in extracurricular activities, and a drop in self-esteem.1 The negative effects of transitioning at this age result from both organizational discontinuities (changes in school structure) and social ones (changes in student population and relationships with teachers). Continuity seems especially important when students are experiencing other physical and cognitive changes.2 Consequently, while Harry might fare better in a school system with multiple transitions than Hermione Granger, both of them would probably benefit from remaining in a single school setting for a longer time.

Grace: Each house (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin) at Hogwarts is like a family. It is like a fun competition, but the competition is a good kind of contest, and there are members in your house to help you work together in that competition. And your house helps you along the way -- like your family does.

Grace's idea of a "family" is an extension of the multi-age structure of Hogwarts. The structure of a family succeeds because the wiser, more experienced family members guide the less experienced ones. Furthermore, Grace's enthusiasm for "fun competition" -- a system in which everyone works together toward a common goal -- concurs with the research on cooperative learning and goal structures. First, the Hogwarts method of awarding "house points" for individual academic and behavioral achievements is a good example of a group contingency program that motivates all to do well, as all the students of each house benefit from each individual's successes.3 Hogwarts students realize that individual achievement will also bring rewards and glory to their entire group or "house"; likewise, individual failings will hurt the common cause. The students' efforts culminate in the annual awards banquet, at which the house with the most points at the end of the year is honored. The award reinforces a cooperative goal structure that research has shown to contribute to success.4

Grace: Prefects are good because they lead their houses, especially the younger students. And if the young kids need help, they can help them. They also make sure that if something bad happens, like it does every year, the others don't worry about it. Even though every house works hard together to win competitions, it is important to have a leader.

Continuing on the theme of group cooperation, Grace is linking the learning process to peer interaction, including peer help and evaluation. These interactions are especially helpful when there are peers who are older or more knowledgeable to help guide the learning of the younger, less experienced students. This represents a line of thinking similar to that of Lev Vygotsky, who postulated that learning includes a strong social element and is best accomplished when peers are working together to solve a problem. A good example of Vygotsky's concept of "scaffolding" is the British school tradition of prefects, in which more experienced, older peers help younger students throughout the year.

When Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered Hogwarts, they needed regular guidance from the prefects and older students. They needed this guidance in every aspect of student life, including academic work, dining hall behavior, and understanding and mastering the school sport, quidditch. However, as time passed, the three needed less help from the prefects in negotiating the culture of Hogwarts. Nonetheless, the prefects occasionally did attempt to step in when they sensed that the three had gotten in over their heads and were unable to extricate themselves on their own.

A final point of comparison involves the importance of academic testing at Hogwarts. Not only do Hogwarts students spend a great deal of time studying for year-end exams at every grade level, they must also take the standardized Ordinary Wizardry Level exams (O.W.L.s) when they are 15 years of age. These exams, similar to the Ordinary level (O-level) exam in the British system, determine one's access to higher learning and direct students toward particular professions. The importance of these exams is made quite clear in book four when Harry's older friends, the Weasley twins, earn scores on their O.W.L.s below those expected by their mother and thus have to suffer the consequences both at home and at school. Grace's attitude toward these high-stakes tests is not surprising.

Grace: I don't like them because you might know everything about a subject, but you get so nervous about these O.W.L.s and then don't do well on them. When that happens, they do not really measure your real abilities. So I just don't think it is a very good idea. It is better to do tests and papers and presentations all the time because they test what you just learned in that chapter (like about Antarctica or something), but if you wait until later, you might forget about it all.

Pedagogical Practices: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Grace: Professor Sprout is a good teacher because she lets the students experiment on plants. They do not just watch her do it. She always warns them first about the dangers involved with working with the deadly plants, which is good. But she still lets them do it even though some of the kids might make some mistakes. Professor McGonagall is also a good teacher because even though she is strict, she keeps the class interested by letting them experiment with transfigurations (like turning a match into a needle). Even though she first demonstrates the transfigurations, the students then get a chance to practice. Madame Hooch, the physical education teacher, is also good because she lets the students practice the sports for themselves. Even though the students sometimes might not get it right away (like flying broomsticks), she lets them make their own mistakes, sometimes get a little hurt, and figure it out.

While the recent emphasis on national exams has forced a more standardized curriculum on schools in England, teachers there have historically enjoyed a greater degree of pedagogical freedom in the classroom than have their European counterparts. This is also the case at Hogwarts, where teachers generally have free rein within their own classrooms regarding teaching methodology and textbook choice. This sovereignty, as in the United States, can result in high-quality teaching, but it also carries the danger of leaving the quality of some instruction wanting. Thus Grace has definite opinions about the quality of instruction at Hogwarts and about which teachers provide real learning experiences for their students.5 Furthermore, she recognizes that the classroom setting is hardly the only place where effective learning happens at Hogwarts.

From her comments, it is clear that Grace appreciates an active, constructivist pedagogical approach to learning more than direct instruction. However, her analysis of the student-centered approach and its benefits for learning is actually quite complex. First, it is apparent from Grace's examples that hands-on experience and real-life activity are vital to learning. Each of the professors she mentions gives the students the opportunity to experiment and practice the topics that are to be learned. The students are not given plastic plants or make-believe broomsticks, but real-life materials to be used in real-world situated learning. These examples also show that Grace understands the dangers inherent in some constructivist, student-centered approaches. Nonetheless, she would prefer this approach to the safe, yet sometimes boring, teacher-centered strategies employed by some of the other professors.

Grace's examples also illustrate the strengths of both cognitive and social constructivist approaches to the learning process.6 Her examples, which recognize the benefits of some demonstration and modeling, also incorporate notions from social cognitive theory. And they illustrate the need for teachers to provide guidance and cognitive apprenticeship to strengthen the individual skills of their students.

Grace recognizes that it is sometimes helpful for a teacher to first demonstrate an activity, such as how to turn a feather into a pen. Then, as the students experiment with their own wands, animals, potions, and other wizardry devices in the cognitive construction of witchcraft, they can model their actions on what they have observed. Piaget would agree with this approach.7

Likewise, many of the better teachers whom Grace identified provide the social climate necessary for constructivism according to the Vygotskian notion of peer cooperation and teacher/student scaffolding. The examples above illustrate the desire students have to learn in cooperation with one another and to help their peers when they make mistakes (such as blowing things up in the lab).

The Vygotskian notion of teacher scaffolding is also present in Grace's analysis of Professor Flitwick.

Grace: Professor Flitwick helps them out if they are having trouble. Professor Flitwick understands that Neville always seems to have a lot of problems. So Professor Flitwick takes the time to read over the instructions for him and explains it to him in a way that Neville can understand. But then Professor Flitwick encourages him and other students when they do something right. He compliments them, which is good.

Unfortunately, as is the case with any school, not every teacher at Hogwarts manages to successfully engage his or her students in constructivist, meaningful learning experiences.

Grace: Professor Gilderoy Lockhart is not very good because he always just talks about himself on and on and on. He even gave his class a quiz about himself. He doesn't really teach them. He says he's so good, but then he doesn't really know how to do things. Professor Bins is boring, and that is why the students do not like to go into his history class. All he does is talk on and on. The only time it was exciting was when Hermione asked an interesting question, which shocked the professor because all the students finally listened.

Rowling has re-created the stereotypically boring history teacher in Professor Bins, who continues to live so deeply in the past that he "was their only ghost teacher [who] hadn't noticed he was dead." Bins epitomizes ineffective teaching, as his "routine has not varied in the slightest" since the day he died, and he reads from his notes "in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner."8 Bins exemplifies direct but counterproductive instruction. While there is a time and place for the lecture method, good teachers know when to use it, how to alternate it with other teaching methods, and how to craft an exciting lecture that both engages the students and leaves them wanting more.

Grace: Professor Snape is bad because he is only nice to the students in his house (Slytherin). And if anyone does something wrong, like blows something up, he punishes them, like gives them a detention. He does not even let them explain themselves. When Professor Snape teaches, he just talks at the students, on and on, and does not let them say much.

Here, Grace hits upon several characteristics of poor teaching, some of which have to do as much with attitude and style as with specific pedagogical practices. Ned Flanders has discovered in his analysis of classroom interaction that a teacher with an indirect style is one who "accepts children's feelings, uses praise and encouragement, and uses pupils' ideas." By contrast, a teacher with a direct style is one who "tends to lecture, to give directions, and to criticize pupils."9 Research has found that an indirect style leads to a higher level of school achievement and a more positive student attitude toward school and academic work. Unfortunately, Snape seems to exhibit all the negative traits of the direct approach to teaching, most notably with his seeming enthusiasm for criticizing his students in a manner intended to wound.

Real-Life Learning

Grace: What Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn in real life (about Voldemort and stuff) is also very important, and they have to do it by themselves. Even though they might learn more important things by solving the big problems in their real lives, they also do use the spells that they have learned in class in order to help solve the mystery. Like in the second book, they learn about the polyjuice potion. After that they are able to figure out how to transfigure themselves into other people and then secretively find out information. So even though Professor Snape is a bad teacher, they did learn something from him which was useful later. They also learned levitations, luminations, and the disarming spell, which are just examples of some things they learned in a classroom but then used in real life.

Grace recognizes the need for school learning, but especially that which is relevant and useful to real life. The three heroes of the series constantly find themselves in the process of discovery learning, in which they experience real problems for themselves and must discover how to solve each one without the aid of teachers or other authorities at school. However, all schools should provide their students with the proper support that will guide them through the "process of knowledge-getting."10 And in truth, Harry, Ron, and Hermione certainly become experts in the process of knowledge-getting as the stories progress.

The real-life problems that Harry, Hermione, and Ron must solve in each book are perfect examples of learning involving problems in real-life settings (real to the wizard world). When the three are faced with a mystery, they naturally take on the investigation as a cooperative activity. While they may have been slow to join forces during the first book, their increasing ease at slipping into their cooperative roles is facilitated by their success at problem solving.

The three exhibit many of the traits that research on cooperative learning has found to be effective. First, each member naturally takes on a specific role within the group. While Harry often assumes the role of the leader, he does not monopolize it, as all three are equally highly motivated to work and learn. Harry often reflects on their progress more than do Ron and Hermione, but this is largely because he often has more information than the others and thus is able to think things through productively. Hermione takes on the role of academic investigator, or what some researchers refer to as the "coach," as she continuously slips into the library to conduct background research. She also plays the vital role of the tough inquisitor of the other two, in which capacity she steers them (especially Harry) away from serious pitfalls. While Ron frequently employs specific skills, such as his mastery of wizard's chess in the first book, he also very often takes on the role of an "encourager" and is the one who guides the problem-solving process by asking the right questions.1 This seemingly instinctive group work of Harry, Hermione, and Ron illustrates the concept of "cooperative scripting."

Rowling has ingeniously included within this small group many of the elements that education literature espouses to be beneficial in cooperative work. Groups that are heterogenous in nature tend to be more successful in developing varied ideas and investigating problems from different perspectives. Harry, Ron, and Hermione's group is mixed in regard to gender, socioeconomic status (one of Ron's most important characteristics is that he is from a low-income family), ethnicity (as demonstrated by the classifications of "pure bloods" and "mudbloods"), and academic achievement (the overachiever Hermione and the average Harry and Ron). The students' varied backgrounds, abilities, and skills contribute significantly to their ability to perform independent work fueled by individual motivation toward the achievement of their group goal.

Additional critiques of the type of schooling Harry is receiving at Hogwarts are possible, as is further comparative analysis of this somewhat British institution (e.g., a comparison of the "Ministry of Magic" with the British Local Education Authorities). However, Grace's personal awareness of the nuances of British schooling is limited to her own short-term experiences in various institutions. While Harry continues to learn and grow both in and out of the classroom and in the muggle and wizard worlds, he must compare and contrast his various learning environments and, in the end, take the best from each as he matures. Like Harry, Grace will also learn within and outside the confines of a classroom and in various cultural contexts. She too will partake in meaningful constructivist learning but will also experience her share of Professor Bins. In the end, both Vygotsky and Piaget would agree that, as Grace and Harry both acquire more educational experiences, there will be more opportunities for cross-cultural comparisons.

2. Lorin W. Anderson et al., "School Transitions: Beginning of the End or a New Beginning," International Journal of Educational Research, vol. 33, no. 4, 2000, pp. 325-39.

3. Robert E. Slavin's work on group structure is summarized in his own textbook, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 7th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003).

4. Ibid.

5. This article was written prior to the publication of the fifth Harry Potter book. Avid readers of the series will have noted that the theme of teacher evaluation can be taken even further with the fifth book, as it explores the notion of what makes a good teacher more directly than the others.

6. Summaries of constructivist perspectives can be found in various introductory educational psychology textbooks.

7. James P. Byrnes, Cognitive Development and Learning in Instructional Contexts (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001).

8. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (New York: Scholastic Press, 1999), p. 148.

9. David Fontana, Psychology for Teachers (London: Macmillan, 1995), p. 388.

10. Jerome Bruner, Toward a Theory of Instruction (New York: Norton, 1966).

11. Descriptions of the dynamics of cooperative work can be found in almost any basic educational psychology text. See, for example, John W. Santrock, Educational Psychology (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2001), for a concise summary of the advantages of role-playing.

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