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
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Soft Skills Are, in Fact, Hard Skills
By Pablo Bachelet* I have two sons. One majored in history. The other graduated with a degree in Spanish and French literature. Despite my urgings – or maybe because of them – neither opted to study something scientific or mathematical, the so-called STEM fields that underpin modern economies. Should I worry? Every parent wants their child to be happy doing what they like. … [Read more...] about Soft Skills Are, in Fact, Hard Skills
Wielding the Scientific Method For a More Skilled Population
From the 554-foot high Washington Monument down Constitution Avenue towards the United States Congress in Washington, D.C., they marched by the thousands: physicists, biologists, chemists, zoologists, economists, and scientists from virtually every other discipline. The first ever March for Science April 22, along with its teach-ins, and its companion events in hundreds of … [Read more...] about Wielding the Scientific Method For a More Skilled Population
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
Falling Inequality: A Brazilian Whodunnit
By Julián Messina, Francisco H.G. Ferreira and Sergio Firpo Long one of the world’s most unequal countries, Brazil surprised pundits by recording a massive reduction in household income inequality in the last couple of decades. Between 1995 and 2012, the country’s Gini coefficient for household incomes fell by seven points, from 0.59 to 0.52. (For comparison, all of the … [Read more...] about Falling Inequality: A Brazilian Whodunnit