- The chart above comes from the Learning Metrics Task Force which aims to specify “What every child should know“- think of it as a simplified version of Common Core (which is for America). Amandla! More power to them!
- “Has expanded access to education in Africa had a negative effect on learning?” Blog post by my friend and co-author Stephen Taylor.
- Tuesday (26 Feb) marked the first meeting of the RESEP education reading group (RESEPERG) where we discussed: Pritchett:& Beatty 2012 “The negative consequences of overambitious curricula in developing countries” – really important conceptual paper showing that the large learning deficits we see in developing countries can partially be explained by a mismatch between the curriculum and where students are actually at – the former usually being much more advanced than the latter. “The usual question is “why are students so far behind the curriculum?” but the more telling question is “why is the curriculum so far ahead of the students?” – worth a read!
- What most schools don’t teach – why everyone should learn to code (features Gates, Zuckerberg and a couple others).
- Unnerving 6 minute infographic video showing the extent of income inequality in the U.S (astounding!) – we need something like this for SA [which, for the record, is even more unequal than the US].
- Great overview of all the cross-national assessments of educational achievement around the world (2012 PDF)
- I love humans and animals. French artist gives Caddisfly larvae gold and jewels to build their protective cases. See article here.
Nic Spaull 