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Welcome to the October issue of Whizz Insights, the monthly email communication where we share insights on educational developments from around the globe.
This issue includes Whizz’s latest white paper on global learning metrics, some takeaways from the UN General Assembly meetings, and a response to UNESCO’s consensus on AI and Education.
Please get in touch with your feedback and questions. Do you have colleagues who might benefit from these insights? They can register here to be added to our mailing list.
New: White Paper on global learning metrics
We are pleased to share our latest white paper, Data for all: Delivering quality education with global learning metrics. The paper serves as an introduction to the different types of learning data collected by the Maths-Whizz virtual tutoring platform. The paper highlights how all stakeholders in education - from students and teachers to program managers and policymakers - can benefit from the same source of learning insight, provided it is presented in the appropriate ways and accessible in real-time. We draw particular attention to the use of Maths Age and other related indicators as global learning metrics that can inform action on a local level.
Download the white paper here.
Insights and commentaries
Some takeaways from UN General Assembly meetings
Whizz CEO Richard Marett has just returned from New York, where he attended several meetings focused on SDG 4. The Centre for Universal Education (CUE) held a panel on “The critical role of data in paying for outcomes in education”, a pertinent topic given the $2.4 trillion of additional funding needed per year to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The briefing paper, prepared by the Brookings Institute, outlines four types of data necessary for outcome-based financing. It is available here and well worth a read.
The Brookings Institute also hosted a session on its report, Learning to leapfrog: Innovative pedagogies to transform education. Among the speakers were 2019 Global Teacher Prize Winner Peter Tabichi, Education International President Susan Hopgood, and Lemman Foundation CEO Denis Mizne. The report draws heavily from Rebecca Winthrop’s recent book, which is one of our recommended reads below.
Richard also attended the Education Commission’s global launch of the Education Workforce Report, which introduces new approaches to rethink how we design, train and develop the education workforce in order to deliver quality education. This is a call for further global commitment and alignment of educational stakeholders to the needs of today’s children and preparedness for the future.
A research piece on bilingualism in mathematics to mark International Literacy Day
Earlier this month, UNESCO celebrated its annual International Literacy Day, with a focus on multilingualism, “to remind the public of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights, and to advance the literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society.” To mark the occasion, we are resharing Whizz co-founder Ray Douse’s attempt to use Maths-Whizz data to research on the impact of learning in a non-native language. Ray explains why the language of instruction matters so much for mathematics, and evaluates the impact of bilingual content on student attainment in marginalised communities.
What the Beijing Consensus on Artificial Intelligence and Education gets right…and where it misses the mark
We have been rifling through the pages of the Beijing Consensus on Artificial Intelligence and Education, which emerged from a UNESCO conference back in May. While each item of the declaration itself is hard to fault, with overtures to the importance of humanising AI-enabled EdTech, we were less impressed with the narrow representation at the conference. Of particular note is that not a single school teacher participated in the panel discussions. The consensus does not, in our view, address the practicalities of more widespread adoption of AI in education, which makes us sceptical that the revolutionary potential of these technologies has been properly grasped. Read our full response here.
Upcoming events
mEducation Alliance Symposium, Washington DC, 9-11 October, with the theme ‘Digital Literacy and Skills for Education and Development ’
Catch our very own Zach Mbasu’s talk on Reimagining math instruction with blended learning in rural Kenya, where he will share his experiences in supporting innovative pedagogies as part of Project iMlango.
What to read and watch
Book - Teaching for Mastery
For a comprehensive account of mastery learning, we suggest you read Mark McCourt’s Teaching for Master Teaching for Mastery. Mark unfurls the forgotten history of mastery learning and lays out the principles behind a sound mastery approach. The ideas resonate with Whizz’s own pedagogies, although Mark does not acknowledge the obvious potential of virtual tutoring technologies to advance the goals of mastery-based approaches.
Book - Educated
Next, a memoir that will fester long in your memory. Tara Westover’s Educated recounts the author’s childhood in a strict Mormon cult preparing for the End of Days, and the power of education to help her reject the dogmatic teachings that she had been raised with. As readable as any fiction novel, with a plot that is at times scarcely imaginable, and that adds force to its redemptive climax.
Book - Leapfrogging Inequality - Remaking Education to Help Young People Thrive
Finally, Rebecca Winthrop’s Leapfrogging Inequality - Remaking Education to Help Young People Thrive contains an analysis of 3000 innovations in education that yields insights into those types of innovation that can make a transformational difference towards SDGs in education. The tables on page 52, 60, 68 and 75 represent opportunities to make a quantum leap in teaching and learning towards being increasingly student-centred, increasingly individualised, increasingly diverse in terms of where and with whom learning takes place and increasingly results orientated driven by the effective use of technology and data.
Video - TEDx talk - You weren’t bad at maths you just weren’t looking at it right
We are biased, but we think this TEDx talk by Dr Junaid Mubeen is well worth nine minutes of your time. Dr Mubeen calls for a rebrand of school mathematics in the technological age, with less emphasis on outdated procedures and more attention to the creative elements of the subject that can inspire and engage us all.
That’s all from us. Look out for the November issue of Whizz Insights, which will be landing in your inbox at the beginning of next month. In the meantime, learn more about Whizz Education’s work around the world by clicking here.
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