Open Ideas at Pearson
Open Ideas at Pearson shares independent insights on the big unanswered questions in education.
How do we learn, and what keeps us motivated to do so? What is the body of knowledge and skills that learners need as we move into the second half of the 21st century? How can smart digital technologies be best deployed to realise the goal of a more personalised education? How can we build education systems that provide high quality learning opportunities to all?
We work with some of the best minds in education – from teachers and technologists, to researchers and big thinkers – to bring their ideas and insights on these questions to a wider audience.
The Future Learners: An Innovative Approach To Understanding The Higher Education Market And Building A Student-Centered University
Jeffrey J. Selingo
September 2018
This report outlines one way of meeting the needs of the college students of the coming decades. In this paper, US higher education expert Jeff Selingo lays out the findings of a survey of more than 2,500 people ages 14-40, examining such themes as the value of higher education, the motivation of students and how they want to learn.
In his analysis of the findings, Selingo has identified five segments of learners defined by their approach to education. By looking anew at these learners and what motivates them to go to college—both for the first time or returning after many years—colleges and universities can identify areas to improve their offerings to better suit the needs of these future learners.
Demand-Driven Education: Merging Work and Learning to Develop the Human Skills that Matter
Joe Deegan & Nathan Martin
June 2018
This publication builds on the Future of Skills research. To understand what reforms might be needed, Pearson partnered with Jobs for the Future, a US-based non-profit focused on workforce transformation, conducting an in-depth review of the field and interviewing more than 20 education and workforce experts in the US and the UK.
The report found that we are now in the cusp of a third wave – Demand-Driven Education – where programs focus more strongly than ever on ensuring graduates are job-ready, hirable, and have access to rewarding careers over the course of their lifetime. Demand-Driven Education adapts to the needs of the learner and the employer and it responds to signals from society to ensure alignment between courses, qualifications and training.
Shifting from a static highway to a more dynamic network of pathways to employment will require individuals, industry, and education systems to take a more active, collaborative role. The recommendations offered at the conclusion of this paper are a start.
The Networked University: Building Alliances for Innovation in Higher Education
Jeffrey J. Selingo
September 2017
In this paper, US higher education expert Jeff Selingo challenges higher education leaders to pursue collaboration rather than competition to drive down costs, better serve learners, and achieve institutional excellence in the 21st century.
He makes a cogent and convincing argument that building Networked Universities will allow individual institutions to maintain, and perhaps even strengthen, their independent missions, all while building platforms for solving some of higher education’s toughest problems. The piece highlights the pioneers of this new type of alliance and lays out a path for institutions to begin building their own networks.
Behavioural Insights for Education: A practical guide for parents, teachers and school leaders
Fionnuala O’Reilly, Dr Raj Chande, Bibi Groot, Michael Sanders and Zhi Soon
June 2017
In this practical guide aimed at parents, teachers and school leaders, the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) demonstrate their commitment to rigorous research, careful experimentation and the use of evidence to inform recommendations for use in classrooms and schools, as well as at home. This publication contains insights and examples of research from the behavioral and learning sciences as well as simple, accessible activities that can be undertaken by parents, teachers and school leaders to help improve learning.
Building Efficacy in Learning Technologies, Volume 1: Understand, Implement, and Evaluate
Barbara Means, Robert Murphy, Linda Shear
January 2017
Open Ideas has undertaken a new program of work in partnership with Barbara Means and her team at SRI International: the Pearson | SRI Series on Building Efficacy in Learning Technologies.
This first volume provides a comprehensive overview about what the research says about efficacy in learning technologies. It also explores the importance of implementation of a given technology, and its impact on learner outcomes.
The authors argue that any learning technology must be understood as just one part of an instructional system, not as a learning intervention unto itself.
Charting Equity in Higher Education: Drawing the Global Access Map
Graeme Atherton, Constantino Dumangane, Geoff Whitty
September 2016
We know the economic benefit to individuals and to communities of increased levels of Higher Education (HE) participation. We also know that participation in HE has been expanding steadily; we anticipate there will be half a billion students participating in postsecondary education by 2030. But what do existing data tell us about who is accessing HE, and who is currently missing out? Specifically, what do we know about equity in access to high quality HE? Knowing that we are best able to manage what we measure, this report charts how institutions, nations, and international organisations are capturing HE access data by critical social indicators (such as SES, gender, disability, or geographic remoteness to name but a few)?
The Problem Solvers
Charles Leadbeater
June 2016
The schools and others profiled in The Problem Solvers: The teachers, the students and the radically disruptive nuns who are leading a global learning movement are harbingers, early and sometimes faint signals of what education systems worldwide will need to become. This publication is about why education needs to be a dynamic experience, why education systems need to become dynamic to deliver that experience and what policy-makers, teachers, students and entrepreneurs can do to overcome the obstacles we face.
Decoding Adaptive
EdSurge
May 2016
Smarter digital tools that adapt to a learner as they progress through content hold great promise for ensuring that every learner reaches their full potential. Unfortunately, however, the exact definition of “adaptive" has proven hard to pin down, and many teachers, schools and districts face challenges in navigating the differences between the digital adaptive learning tools available on the market. This paper defines adaptive learning in plain terms and discusses the potential benefits and challenges of using adaptive tools in the classroom.
Intelligence Unleashed: an argument for AI in Education
Rose Luckin, Wayne Holmes, Mark Griffiths and Laurie B. Forcier
February 2016
This publication is useful primer on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd) and what it means for teachers, learners, parents and policy-makers. By exploring the possibilities of concepts such as an AI tutor for every learner and AI teaching assistants, Intelligence Unleashed covers a lot of ground about what AI can (and definitely can't) do, and provides recommendations for leveraging the power of AIEd to improve teaching and learning.
What doesn’t Work in Education: The Politics of Distraction
John Hattie
June 2015
How can we ensure that every student achieves at least one year’s progress for one year of schooling? Governments and schools have spent billions of dollars trying to fix education. But evidence shows that many popular solutions have little impact on student learning. In two papers, renowned education researcher John Hattie explores common policy “fixes” that distract from other, potentially better, solutions.
What Works Best in Education: The Politics of Collaborative Expertise
John Hattie
June 2015
How can we ensure that every student achieves at least one year’s progress for one year of schooling? Governments and schools have spent billions of dollars trying to fix education. But evidence shows that many popular solutions have little impact on student learning. In two papers, renowned education researcher John Hattie explores common policy “fixes” that distract from other, potentially better, solutions.
Preparing for a Renaissance in Assessment
Michael Barber and Peter Hill
December 2014
Curriculum. Teaching and learning. Assessment. These processes form the core of schooling as we know it. Assessment has long been the most controversial and problematic piece of the triad, dictating and constraining curriculum, as well as teaching and learning, rather than serving as an ongoing support and barometer. An education revolution, driven by globalisation, new digital technologies, and the undeniable evidence that our current paradigm just isn’t working holds promise for radical improvements to assessment.
Exploring Effective Pedagogy in Primary Schools: Evidence from Researche
Iram Siraj and Brenda Taggart
September 2014
Based on the results of a quantitative study of more than 3,000 students, combined with intensive classroom observations, Exploring Effective Pedagogy in Primary Schools provides a compendium of what works best in helping children learn in primary classrooms. As Dylan Wiliam says in his introduction to this report, everyone “who wants to understand, and improve, primary school classrooms needs to read, and act on, this report.”
From Good Intentions to Real Impact
Geoff Mulgan, Ruth Puttick and Simon Breakspear
February 2014
Many businesses already possess excellent evidence of the impact of their products and services but this is not consistent across the field. This paper from Nesta and Pearson argues that we need to rethink the role of evidence in education businesses, moving away from conceptualising impact in terms of financial return, to a situation where impact can be robustly measured and understood in terms of social outcomes too.
Impacts of the Digital Ocean on Education
John T. Behrens and Kristen E. DiCerbo
February 2014
The ability to capture data from everyday learning activities allows us to fundamentally change how we think about education. We now have the tools to move to a world where assessment is the side-effect of interesting and meaningful learning activities, for example carried out through games or simulations. This publication highlights the many possibilities and challenges that technology presents in capturing relevant data and turning it into meaningful information that teachers can use to assist their students.
A Rich Seam: how new pedagogies find deep learning
Michael Fullan and Maria Langworthy
January 2014
In this ambitious report Michael Fullan and Maria Langworthy set-out a rich seam of insights into how new pedagogies that tap into our natural disposition to learn, create and ‘do’ can realise the ‘deep learning’ that young people need to thrive now, and in their futures.
Alive in the Swamp: Assessing Digital Innovations in Education
Michael Fullan and Katelyn Donnelly
July 2013
We don’t want for a lack of digital tools that claim to support learning, but how should we decide what to use? In this influential report, Michael Fullan and Katelyn Donnelly set out a practical tool, an Index, to allow educators and education technologists to navigate the ‘swamp’ of digital innovations.
An Avalanche is Coming: Higher Education and the Revolution Ahead
Michael Barber, Katelyn Donnelly and Saad Rizvi
March 2013
Deep, radical and urgent transformation is required in higher education as much as it is in school systems. This bold essay describes the threats that traditional 20th century universities face if they don’t change radically, as well as the huge opportunities open to them if they do. Creating a new golden age for higher education is possible, but only if all the players in the system, from students to governments, seize the initiative and act ambitiously. If not, an avalanche of change will sweep the system away.
Oceans of Innovation: The Atlantic, The Pacific, Global Leadership and the Future of Education
Michael Barber, Katelyn Donnelly and Saad Rizvi
August 2012
This report argues that the leaders of this next century, no matter who they are, will need exceptional skills to tackle the pressing challenges of the 21st century: climate change, regulation of the global economy, and international conflict resolution. Innovation drives economic influence; economic influence underpins global leadership; and global leadership requires innovation to solve the many problems facing humanity in the next half century. To be successful in the 21st century, systems need to combine what is already known about delivering whole system reform with the capacity to innovate, to learn from that innovation and then to continuously improve.