Category: Review

Who do smartphone bans actually work for? A view from a different research perspective

Smartphones are disappearing from schools worldwide. Sometimes completely, sometimes partially. According to UNESCO, many education systems have, in recent years, decided to limit or ban their use. This is also becoming a reality closer to home, in Flanders and the Netherlands. Various reasons are cited. In France, the original aim was to protect teachers’ privacy.… Read More Who do smartphone bans actually work for? A view from a different research perspective

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Educational research is a house with many rooms. But some doors are better left open.

There are a few debates in education that escalate as quickly as those about research. Before we even get to the substance, we are already arguing about paradigms. Positivist. Post-positivist. Interpretative. Critical. As if choosing one lens automatically makes all others irrelevant. After my recent post on a study in Nature (actually 3 studies), I… Read More Educational research is a house with many rooms. But some doors are better left open.

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What this Nature study really says about education research

This new study by Olivia Miske and many colleagues, published in Nature, is generating a lot of online discussion. Which makes it a good moment to take a closer look and separate fact from fiction. Let’s start with something that already goes wrong repeatedly in the online debate. People use reproducibility and replicability interchangeably, even… Read More What this Nature study really says about education research

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Is the mental health crisis amongst young people an elite problem? A longer read on a complex theme!

I already raised this on my blog before: when we talk about the increase in mental health problems among young people, these seem to be rising mainly among children from more advantaged backgrounds. At the same time, it remains true, as it has for decades, that young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are on average… Read More Is the mental health crisis amongst young people an elite problem? A longer read on a complex theme!

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Does “reading comprehension” even exist?

As an education mythbuster, I often get questions about statements people make. In recent weeks, one in particular has come up several times: “Reading comprehension does not exist.” For some, that may sound odd. For others, there may be something to it. Perhaps because it touches on something that has been bothering education for quite… Read More Does “reading comprehension” even exist?

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When Language Becomes Diagnosis: Multilingual Learners in Special Education

Imagine two students with similar difficulties. One receives a diagnosis placing him on the autism spectrum. The other gets a label of an intellectual disability. The consequences of both diagnoses can be significant: different expectations, a different trajectory, different opportunities. But what if that difference does not lie only in the student, but also in… Read More When Language Becomes Diagnosis: Multilingual Learners in Special Education

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Does studying in the West lead to more democracy? What education (cannot) do

There is a persistent notion in international education and policy circles: send young people from non-Western countries to Western universities, and they return as bearers of democracy. It sounds almost self-evident. Education shapes. Exposure changes people. And so, society changes along with them. But those same Western educational institutions also shaped various dictators… A topic… Read More Does studying in the West lead to more democracy? What education (cannot) do

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When youth services fail, schools become the safety net

Students with hearing or visual impairments were once seen as a challenge for inclusive education. In many ways, they still sometimes can be. But over time, schools have built up expertise, support structures and experience. In many systems, this is no longer where the greatest tensions lie. The group that increasingly defines the challenge looks… Read More When youth services fail, schools become the safety net

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AI broke our exams. Are oral exams the fix? Hold your horses…

There is something irresistible about solutions that feel both old and new at the same time. Oral exams, for example. Centuries old, once the norm, then largely abandoned, and now suddenly back in the spotlight. Not out of nostalgia, but out of necessity. Since the rise of generative AI, a familiar reflex keeps popping up:… Read More AI broke our exams. Are oral exams the fix? Hold your horses…

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Does Individualism Make Children More Anxious? What a Global Study Really Shows

There is something irresistible about large international studies. Seventy countries. Three decades. Thousands of data points. The kind of research that immediately gives the impression that we are getting closer to answering a big question. In this case, what does cultural change do to the mental health of children and young people? Does a more… Read More Does Individualism Make Children More Anxious? What a Global Study Really Shows

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