Blended Beyond Borders: A scan of blended learning obstacles and opportunities in Brazil, Malaysia and South Africa
Online and blended learning programs represent one of the most profound opportunities to shift industrial-era instructional models to student-centered approaches. Our latest research analyzes whether and how a sample of brick-and-mortar schools in Brazil, Malaysia, and South Africa uses online learning to deliver content in new, more flexible ways. We distributed an online survey to […]
How to Deliver Improved Outcomes for School Systems
The author elaborates on his previous work, How to Run a Government (2016), to offers guidance for policymakers and education ministries seeking to implement education reform for improved student outcomes. It focuses on adopting a mindset of delivering results, which will be of value to governments and educators, and frames a practical approach to reform grounded […]
Transition and Dropout in Lower Income Countries: Case studies of secondary education in Bangladesh and Uganda
The purpose of this study was to explore secondary education transition failure and dropout in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals on access to quality education. Two case studies were conducted for Uganda and Bangladesh using representative sample surveys and qualitative exploration. Country specific socioeconomic context and education system initiatives were considered in […]
The Challenges and Implications of a Global Decline in the Educational Attainment and Retention of Boys
Over the past two decades, policymakers, international organizations, and scholars focusing on gender and education have largely concentrated their efforts on issues relating to girls. However, results from recent international assessments, coupled with data on higher education enrolment rates, have led to a new concern about the performance and retention of males ‒particularly those from […]
To Capture the Benefits of AI, Schools Need to Rethink Their Models
Technological advances over the last two decades now bring machines knocking on employers’ doors. Artificial intelligence (AI) software can already prepare taxes, drive cars, write news articles, and compose poetry; and recent reports suggest that roughly half to two-thirds of jobs today are at risk of computer automation. As AI handles a growing number […]
The Role of Private Education in Sub-Saharan Africa
Highlighting the work of Bridge International Academies in Liberia, Nicholas Kristof recently wrote in the New York Times: “Let’s worry less about ideology and more about how to help kids learn.” I couldn’t agree more with Kristof. Private education provision has an essential role to play in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and other developing regions. With rapid growth in […]
Who Moved My Intelligence?
The title of this article is inspired by a self-help book from the 1990’s called ‘Who moved my Cheese: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life’. Despite significant criticism, this book became a best seller and a popular tool in any change manager’s back pocket. The implications […]
What Will AI Do for Students and Teachers?
The hype is never far away from Artificial Intelligence. Back in 1953, Marvin Minsky, a founding father of AI, declared: “We’re going to make machines intelligent. We are going to make them conscious,” to which his contemporary Douglas Engelbart replied: “you’re going to do all that for the machines? What are you going to […]
La inteligencia artificial puede ahorrar dinero y conseguir resultado de élite mundial
La educación matemática en muchas partes de EEUU no está a la altura de una potencia mundial. Un reciente estudio para la Organización de Desarrollo y Cooperación Económica (OCDE) situó al país como el 41 del mundo en matemáticas de primaria. Desde 2003 la situación no sólo no ha mejorado si no que ha ido […]
Flipping the Flipped Classroom
The flipped classroom model of teaching has been popular among educators around the world for about a decade, thanks both to faculty experimentation and the tremendous success of organizations such as Khan Academy, which make instructional videos available for teachers and students. This flipped model is built around recording lectures for consumption outside of class, with […]