I have been following the expanding Jason Arday case for a while now. For those enjoying some time off, here’s the story in brief. Jason Arday, a professor at the University of Cambridge, has come under scrutiny after allegations that parts of his academic work contained citation errors, unsupported claims and possible plagiarism. The first… Read More Autism deserves better than being used to defend sloppy academic work.
When discussing educational inequality, one message comes up time and again: if you really want to make a difference, you need to invest in the earliest years of life. That idea has been popularised in part by the work of economist James Heckman, who showed that investments in young children often generate particularly high social… Read More Are the early years all that matter? New study challenges a popular idea
I’m usually not someone who gravitates towards pessimism or endless talk about the decline of civilisation. And I’m not about to do that here either. This isn’t going to be another post about AI suddenly becoming sentient and wiping out humanity. But… Over the past few months, I’ve started noticing that AI is already damaging… Read More The Quiet Damage AI Is Already Doing
There you have it, the last blog post of this school year, this academic year, this season. For years, I have made it a habit to look back at the end of such a chapter. Perhaps revisit the most-read posts or reflect on what stood out. But I must confess that I didn’t feel like… Read More Before My Annual Blogging Break: A Note About Music
In recent years, you have probably heard more and more about the so-called “boy problem” in education. The argument is that boys are already at a disadvantage when they start school. They are said to find it harder to sit still and to lag behind in language and executive functioning, while primary schools have become… Read More Is school really failing boys?
Great as always by The Exploding Heads. Check here for more Funny on Sunday.
One of the things teachers often hope for when it comes to AI in education is that it might finally reduce the time they spend providing feedback on writing assignments. Good feedback is one of the most powerful ways to promote learning, yet it also remains one of the most time-consuming parts of a teacher’s… Read More What AI does better than teachers. And especially what it doesn’t.
It is a well-known phenomenon in educational research and policy. An educational intervention works brilliantly in ten schools. Teachers are enthusiastic, the results are promising, and researchers report a positive effect. The next step seems obvious: roll it out to a hundred or even a thousand schools. Perhaps even make it the norm. And that… Read More From Successful Pilots to Hundreds of Schools: How Do You Scale an Educational Intervention?
Whenever I come across the words chess and practice hours in a paper, I immediately think of the late Anders Ericsson. Chances are, many readers will think of Malcolm Gladwell instead. That is hardly surprising as Gladwell made the idea famous in his book ‘Outliers’. The problem is that he simplified Ericsson’s work beyond recognition… Read More Was Anders Ericsson (partially) right after all? A new chess study reopens the deliberate practice debate
Shadow education is the collective term for paid private tutoring, exam preparation, or private lessons outside regular school. Worldwide, it has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry. Parents invest enormous sums, often believing that extra lessons will automatically lead to better results. A new international study by Cao and Huo casts serious doubt on that assumption… Read More Does Private Tutoring Actually Work? A Global Study Says: Barely