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Continue reading →: Problems with Evidence-based Education: Side Effects in Education
The following is the Introduction of my book What Works Can Hurt: Side Effects in Education published by Teachers College Press in June 2018. Introduction “Ibuprofen may cause a severe allergic reaction,” you are warned when you buy a bottle of Advil, and “this product may cause stomach bleeding.” Medical products are…
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Continue reading →: Stop Looking at My Bad Leg: Introduction to my new book: Reach for Greatness
My latest book Reach for Greatness: Personalizable Education for All has ben released by Corwin Press. You can order it from Corwin or Amazon. Below is the Introduction. ******************** Benjamin Franklin wrote about a philosopher friend of his who used his two legs to determine with whom to avoid acquaintances more…
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Continue reading →: Torture is not Good Education: A Response to WSJ’s Why American Students Need Chinese Schools
This piece was published in the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet under the title There’s a new call for Americans to embrace Chinese-style education. That’s a huge mistake. on September 20 2017. ————————- Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Why American Students Need Chinese Schools?[1]” by Lenora Chu,…
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Continue reading →: The Courage to be Creative: My Interview with the Deep-Play Research Group
Had a great interview with the Deep-Play Research group led by my long time friend Dr. Punya Mishra, Associate Dean of Scholarship & Innovation and Professor in Leadership & Innovation at Mary Lou Fulton Teacher’s College, Arizona State University. Thanks to Carmen Richardson for the interview and turning some random thoughts…
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Continue reading →: Fatal attraction: Why Copying Each Other Won’t Improve Education?
This article was published in the New Internationalist on August 31 2017. Why is the West racing to copy Asia’s education system as fast as the East scrambles to reform it? Yong Zhao takes an unhealthy and deluded romanticization of education to task. Across the world, Western governments are hard…
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Continue reading →: What Works Can Hurt: Side Effects in Education
Published in Journal of Educational Change, Volume 18, Issue 1, February 2017, Pages 1-19. Download Full Article in PDF (personal copy, please do not distribute). This medicine can reduce fever, but it can cause a bleeding stomach. When you buy a medical product, you are given information about both its…
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Continue reading →: [video]Perils or Promises: Education in the Age of Smart Machines: Presentation at the City Club of Cleveland
On December 14th, 2016, I made a presentation at the City Club of Cleveland. Watch the presentation The Club’s website or Youtube. Title: Perils or Promises: Education in the Age of Smart Machines. According to a 2016 World Economic Forum report, advances in technology could displace as many as five million…
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Continue reading →: Did the Shift from Paper to Computer Bring Down East Asia’s (China’s) PISA Performance?
I was surprised by China’s 2015 PISA performance, particularly in reading. I was confident that even the expansion beyond Shanghai would not cause a significant decline based on my understanding of the Chinese education system. And Beijing, Jiangsu, and Guangdong are traditionally strong performers in China, and among the most…
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Continue reading →: Don’t Read Too Much Into It: What Brexit and U.S. Election Surprises Can Teach Us about PISA
The results of the Brexit referendum and U.S. presidential election will go down in history as the biggest surprises of 2016. The final results defied all predictions. The polls were wrong, as were the pundits. Though they predicted that the majority of Brits would vote to remain in the EU,…
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Continue reading →: Never Send a Human to do a Machine’s Job: Top 5 Mistakes in Ed Tech
Do what you do best and let technology do the rest Technology has transformed our lives. Virtually every school and classroom is connected. Why then, has it not transformed education? Consider these five ways educators can begin to optimize classroom technology and rethink its use. See technology as a complement rather…












