In recent years, I have often written about the replication crisis in psychology. This development, which I see as a welcome correction, is difficult to separate from another longstanding feature of academic life: publish or perish. Universities still largely evaluate scientists based on their publication record. The unintended consequences of that system have is subject… Read More What Happens When Researchers Open the File Drawer?
School attendance is once again high on the agenda. Rates of absenteeism are on the rise in several countries, and the COVID-19 pandemic is often seen as an accelerator of this trend, partly because it disrupted routines and changed perceptions of school attendance. We have long known that frequent absence is linked to lower academic… Read More Education policy is family policy: what can work against school absenteeism?
A recurring assumption in public debate is that young people should be progressive. When surveys suggest otherwise, concern often follows. Headlines warn that young people are becoming more conservative, less supportive of social change, and increasingly willing to question ideas that many adults take for granted. Whether those observations are accurate is a separate discussion.… Read More Do Young People Have the Right to Think the “Wrong” Things?
Universal free school meals are usually discussed from the perspective of health, poverty, and/or opportunity policy. However, a new American study by Andres Cuadros-Meñaca looks at something else: whether free meals for everyone also affect school suspensions. The researchers analysed data from schools that introduced such free meals at various times. Their conclusion: schools that implemented such… Read More Do Universal Free School Meals Reduce School Suspensions?
Last week, UNICEF published a new report on inequality and child well-being in high-income countries. There was quite a lot of media attention for the rankings, but the report itself is more interesting than simply asking which country is now “winning”. In reality, it is about something more fundamental: what economic inequality does to children.… Read More Rich Countries, Unequal Childhoods
There is something oddly comforting in this short video from Harvard Business Review. Not because it tells people to simply “believe in themselves,” but because it reframes something many high achievers quietly struggle with: imposter syndrome. Arthur Brooks argues that feeling like a fraud is often not a sign that you are incompetent. In many… Read More Why The Imposter Syndrome Might Not Be Entirely Bad
One of the underlying things I keep returning to on this blog is how difficult humans are with uncertainty. We like certainty. Clear answers. Strong predictions. Education debates are full of them, too. Yet reality rarely cooperates that neatly. This short BBC Ideas video featuring statistician David Spiegelhalter offers a remarkably accessible introduction to Bayesian… Read More Why Bayesian Thinking Matters More Than Ever
During a talk in Belgium last week, I was asked a question by a school leader that I seem to hear more and more often: Why are we seeing so many more diagnoses, such as ADHD, than before? Is there really an explosive increase? Have children changed? Or are we looking differently? Not coincidentally, shortly… Read More Why Are ADHD Diagnoses Rising Worldwide? A Different Perspective on a Complex Debate
Whenever an international report, such as the recent IELS study, is published, reactions quickly follow that basically amount to: “See? My solution was right all along.” I’m probably guilty of that myself from time to time. So today I wanted to try something different by putting two very different sources next to each other to… Read More Why do differences between children appear so early in life?
We hear it all the time: we have to work longer. This leads to tensions, strikes, and demonstrations. Just this week, among the pilots in the country where I live. But… are there also personal benefits to working longer? It is perhaps a question that some might find offensive, but it is one that Noah Arman… Read More Does working longer keep your brain sharp? The answer is nuanced