I’ve written about school size before, in talks and in books. About how some studies suggest there might be something like an optimal range. Not too large, because anonymity becomes a risk. Not too small, because it becomes harder to professionalise as a team, share expertise, and sustain a strong curriculum. And then there is… Read More Smaller schools: solution or too simple? What new research shows
It has been going on for some time. As a parent today, you can track almost everything about your child. Grades, feedback, assignments, deadlines, and sometimes even how often your child has revisited something. Through Smartschool, apps, emails and all kinds of dashboards. The stream of data and information never really stops, although some good… Read More When parental involvement becomes performance management
For this blog, I read more research than I actually write about. I look at its relevance, its quality, and sometimes simply whether I understand it well enough. And sometimes I leave it aside because I am not yet sure what to do with it. That is how I came across the work of Jukka… Read More Sociology, Evidence, and Ideology: A Tension We Should Not Simplify
When I ranted last year about the two-hour school day that costs $65,000, I assumed, or better, I hoped, I was reacting to the usual hype cycle. Big promises. Glossy videos. Confident founders. And that familiar “schools are broken, we fixed them” vibe. What I did not have back then was a detailed look at… Read More The $65,000 AI School, Revisited: Inside the AI Classroom That Promised Too Much
You have probably noticed it too. When it comes to young people’s mental well-being and, more specifically, the decline of it, there is almost always a clear explanation somewhere. Social media, smartphones, parents, school pressure, the spirit of the times… Pick one, and you have a story that sounds convincing and is easy to remember.… Read More Can Soft Drinks Affect Teen Anxiety? A New Study Adds a Small Piece to a Big Puzzle
We hear it often. Education should become more student-centred. Less direct instruction, more discovery. Less teacher, more learner. It sounds intuitive. And to be fair, there is something in it. At the same time, in other circles, you may hear the exact opposite. But as so often in education, what sounds right is not automatically what… Read More Student-centred learning: evidence versus myth
Found this cartoon here. Check here for more Funny on Sunday.
Sometimes, in your classroom, you do not see any difference. Two students complete the same exercise, give the same correct answer, and seem to finish at the same time. Everything suggests they are equally capable. Until you look more closely into the cognitive processes, e.g. in maths learning. A recent study in the Journal of… Read More The problem is not always in the maths
What helps with ADHD? You might immediately think of specific medications or therapies. But as you read this umbrella review by Gosling and colleagues in the BMJ, it quickly becomes clear that this is not a study that ends with one clear answer. Quite the opposite. Its main contribution is to bring structure to a… Read More What works for ADHD? A new review highlights the gap between effect and evidence
We all use it in our classrooms at some point. Group work. Sometimes, because it is expected, sometimes because it is practical, and sometimes because collaboration itself can be an important learning goal in education. And it can help with critical thinking, too. Yet it remains an approach where you never seem completely sure of… Read More Group work does not work by itself. Who you put together matters