Asking MoreEfficacy in EducationReality Checks

Geoff Mulgan, CEO of Nesta

efficacy.pearson.com

Geoff Mulgan is Chief Executive of Nesta, an organisation that combines investment, grant programmes and research.

Efficacy in Education

It’s a statement of the obvious that education should be about learning: drawing on the world’s stores of accumulated knowledge and acquiring critical faculties

Yet a remarkable amount of education practice doesn’t apply basic principles of good education to itself, ignoring the lessons of experience and evidence

The result is that ideas in education often spread more because they’re

appealing or convenient than because they work

There is now a great deal of evidence and experience on what actually works best in the use of computers, whiteboards, laptops and interactive media

But most of this evidence is routinely ignored. Teachers and Heads have

very little useful information to draw on when making spending decisions

As a result, millions are wasted, and children miss out on the real potential from technology which usually requires a change in how learning is organised, and not just in the hardware

A revolution in how we think about education and evidence is long overdue. It can be greatly helped by digital technologies which make feedback, and the aggregation of data, easier than ever before

But it needs to start with some simple principles:

Any new method should be tested and improved in the light of experience

What’s already known should be easily available to the people who have to make decisions

What doesn’t work should be ditched and what does should be spread

Efficacy in Education

efficacy.pearson.com

Geoff Mulgan, CEO of Nesta

“The drive to apply the principles of evidence and learning to education itself has a long way to go, many new ideas are implemented without any evidence that they work.

That’s why the steps Pearson is taking are so important.

They involve some risk, and some challenge.

But the net result will be better education for millions of children who surely deserve nothing less.”