One of the most striking conclusions from PISA 2025 may be wrong. A new analysis suggests that the apparent sharp decline among more advantaged students may largely be the result of a change in measurement. It was one of the most important new insights from PISA earlier this month: it is now mainly children from… Read More One of the most striking conclusions from PISA 2025 may be wrong!
This research has been sitting in an open tab in my browser for a while. I read it back when the post about the umbrella review of fifteen meta-analyses on project-based learning was published, but I didn’t want to write a similar post two days in a row. At the time, the conclusion was quite… Read More Gamification shows once again that the question ‘what works?’ is too simple.
The most difficult thing in education is not transfer, although it comes close. Nor is it trying to get rid of learning styles, although I’m still doing my very best. No, the most difficult thing in education is scaling up. Many doomed stories in education usually start with someone who looks at conventional schools and… Read More Schools are not apps. Why do we keep forgetting this?
When you read a scientific article, research can sometimes seem like a remarkably emotionless process. First, the researchers formulate a hypothesis. Next, they conduct an experiment. Then they analyse the data and draw a conclusion. Anyone who does research themselves knows, of course, that it rarely feels that way. On the contrary, it is a… Read More In the scientist’s mind
I don’t like to rant. I always want to keep things as nuanced as possible. I’m the good cop (my dear friend Paul is often the bad cop). But now I need to write a third rant about Alpha School (check here and here for the first two). But this time it’s not about the… Read More Third time’s the charm. Here it is… a third rant about Alpha School
Yesterday, I wrote about the new PISA 2025 results, and my post ended with a question to explore: what happens if, instead of looking at the United Kingdom (UK) as a whole, as reported in the OECD’s first Volume, we look at England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland separately? So, this post delivers on that… Read More A promise is a promise: PISA in the United Kingdom (what can we learn?)
As I post this, the embargo has been lifted, and articles about PISA 2025 are appearing on news websites around the world. And yes, there is plenty of bad news to report. In many education systems, the results are still moving in the wrong direction. A few years ago, it looked as if these results… Read More And here it is… PISA (a slightly idiosyncratic dip into the grab bag)
These are difficult times for people who do science, blog about science, and defend science. I do all three. Daniel Muijs wrote this blog post over the weekend defending educational research. He starts by acknowledging that there are indeed problems (certainly), but that there is also a lot of good research being done (also certainly).… Read More Defending science means talking about its problems
Via Dan Willingham, I discovered this new report by the American Psychological Association on children, adolescents, and educational technology. Dan was one of the authors. Much of what is in the report will not surprise regular readers of this blog. Take e.g. the finding that engagement is not the same as learning. This reminded me… Read More A new APA report on technology in education: learning and wellbeing
Yesterday, Paul Kirschner responded to my blog post discussing research I was critical of, ending with the words: “Again, lots of time and money invested to learn virtually nothing.” Paul has a point. And this new umbrella review will not make him, or you as a reader, feel any more hopeful. Imagine fifteen meta-analyses, together… Read More 15 meta-analyses on project-based learning tell us… virtually nothing”