How can teachers teach when their students have wildly different skills? It is a difficult problem. And it is a problem that especially plagues education systems in developing countries where massive expansions in coverage have thrown children from different parental backgrounds, training and skill together into the same classrooms. Teachers may focus their attention on their … [Read more...] about What Interactive Learning Can Teach Latin America
When It Comes to Education, Computers Can Be a Dangerous Temptation
For enthusiasts of computers in the classrooms, a 2015 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) may have come as a rude surprise. Several OECD countries have invested heavily in information technology, the report found. But students in those countries didn't significantly improve their abilities in reading, mathematics and science as a result. … [Read more...] about When It Comes to Education, Computers Can Be a Dangerous Temptation
Can Latin American Workers Dodge the Deaths of Despair?
For much of the last century, mortality rates in the United States fell steadily. But from 1998-2013, that trend reversed for a special demographic: non-Hispanic whites, aged 45-54. The problem, according to a new study by Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton, and fellow economist, Anne Case, lay in people lacking a college degree. Tens of thousands of those middle-aged whites were … [Read more...] about Can Latin American Workers Dodge the Deaths of Despair?
Global Warming: Why a Couple Degrees Makes All the Difference
What's the big fuss over 2 degrees Celsius? That's the temperature increase to which 195 countries agreed to limit global warming at the 2015 Paris climate talks. And it would seem to be trivial. A 2-degrees-Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) increase from 4.4 to 6.4 Celsius (40-43.6 Fahrenheit), after all, doesn't have us shedding our Shetland sweaters for shorts and a tank top. … [Read more...] about Global Warming: Why a Couple Degrees Makes All the Difference
Stepping in to Save Women’s and Babies’ Lives
The decision to give birth in one's village rather than a health facility is often a fatal one for women in Latin America. Too many women die in the time immediately before and after delivery from hemorrhages, hypertension and sepsis, conditions easily treated in a modern health facility. Their babies often die with them or in the week following. Yet, culture and poverty can … [Read more...] about Stepping in to Save Women’s and Babies’ Lives