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What skills will be needed in the economy of the future?
Posted on March 10, 2020
Suppose a friend came to you and told you they wanted to visit Siberia for the whole of next February. They want to prepare for their visit, and to do so they need a precise weather forecast. They wan…
How to remember anything, forever
Posted on March 1, 2020
Recently, I started flicking through a book I’d read about ten years ago, Juliet Gardiner’s The Thirties: An Intimate History. I stumbled across the section on education, and was quickly engrossed. Bu…
Teachers vs Tech: pre-order now and get free stuff!
Posted on February 26, 2020
My new book, Teachers vs Tech, will be published on March 5th by Oxford University Press. Technology has been promising to transform education for over a century – but it’s never quite succeeded. In T…
My new book: Teachers vs Tech
Posted on February 26, 2020
As long ago as 1913, people were predicting that technology was going to transform education. “Books will soon be obsolete in the public schools. Scholars will be instructed through the eye. It is pos…
When is student choice a good idea?
Posted on February 16, 2020
When is student choice a good idea? Here’s an extract from a document from the Scottish Curriculum, on best practice in maths teaching. Children were asked about ways the school could improve learning…
Scott Young’s Ultralearning: Projects or Drill?
Posted on January 19, 2020
In 2011, Scott Young set himself the challenge of learning MIT’s entire 4-year computer science degree, despite not being a student at the university. He succeeded. His new book Ultralearning is all a…
PISA 2018: does reading on screen make a difference?
Posted on December 19, 2019
In my last blog, I showed how the PISA tests have been updated to take account of the fact we do more reading online. Not only are the tests computer-based, but they also feature tasks that mimic the…
What can the PISA 2018 scores tell us about digital natives?
Posted on December 7, 2019
Every three years, the OECD’s PISA tests report on student performance in maths, reading and science in dozens of countries. They also choose one subject in particular to focus on in more detail. This…
Even reliable assessments can be biased
Posted on September 20, 2019
Imagine a class of 20 students, ten boys, ten girls. They all sit a maths exam which is graded from 0 – 9. On average, the boys and girls do equally well. The average grade of all the pupils is 4.5, a…