Education
Great minds lead to great solutions. Our education section features solutions and innovations directed at strengthening educational systems around the world.
Putting learning before grades to prevent cheating among students
Cheating is endemic among students, and is sometimes rampant even among teachers. Two decades of research show that this behavior is very dependent on goals. Short-term extrinsic goals such as getting good grades to avoid punishment or to obtain a reward provide a breeding ground for cheating. Read More...
Indian game developer wants to help kids fall in love with math
Education games are taking off in India, providing teachers and students with cheap, effective tools to support, and in some cases accelerate, the learning curve. One example is startup Logic Roots. It just raised $400,000 from investors for its math app Mathaly, which is currently designed for Read More...
UK government considers introducing mindfulness practice in schools
Teaching meditation in schools could have far-reaching impact on society. Imagine children entering the world more balanced and with a deeper sense of purpose. Brazil is implementing a big transcendental meditation program in public schools. And now the UK government is talking about introducing a Read More...
Sierra Leone classes are taught through the radio
Sierra Leone’s schools have been closed since Ebola first hit the country last summer, but that doesn’t mean the lessons have stopped. Last October the country partnered with UNICEF to provide school lessons through the radio, and the program has done impressively well. About 500,000 of the Read More...
Learning the alphabet or computer code?
Today mastering computer programming is like learning the alphabet centuries ago. That’s why an initiative called Hour of Code attempts to get children interested in learning computer languages at early age. And they’re good at it as turns out. The program hatched from a partnership between big Read More...
Using the Olympics to teach English to one million Brazilians
Speaking English means access to the world. That’s today’s reality of travel and the Internet. But there are still a lot of places where English is hardly spoken. Brazil is such a place. That’s why English First, and international English teaching school, has partnered with the Brazilian Read More...
Teachers re-think the benefits of video games
Videogames pose extreme competition to schools. Games are fun; class is dull. That’s why video games have all but been banned from classrooms, but that tide may be changing as teachers discover that fun may stimulate learning… Minecraft is a videogame where you can build anything you want in a Read More...
A classroom without teachers that comes to remote places
In Nigeria an estimated 10 million children don’t go to school. A new approach to education called the Hello Hub uses the latest technology to bring a classroom to remote villages. The Hello Hub is a solar powered kiosk that has a computer filled with educational games and Internet connectivity. Read More...
Google wants to hire people who can make mistakes
A graduation from the best universities is your ticket to the best jobs. Right? Google recently discovered that this notion is false and that overachievers often have a genius complex: An inability to take ownership or learn from their mistakes. And in the fast moving world of the web that’s a Read More...
Letting kids play helps them learn
We all remember those long days in elementary school where you just wanted to go outside and play, but were stuck inside learning all day. A new program called “Brain Breaks” has students engage in physical activity between school lessons. The program has been proven to increase academic Read More...