SlideShare designed and developed for Pearson as part of an advocacy campaign to support the company's commitment to Efficacy in Education

1. Asking More
Efficacy in
EducationReality Checks
Geoff Mulgan, CEO of Nesta
efficacy.pearson.com

2. Geoff Mulgan is Chief
Executive of Nesta, an
organisation that combines
investment, grant
programmes and research.
Efficacy in
Education

3. It’s a statement of the obvious that education should
be about learning: drawing on the world’s stores of
accumulated knowledge and acquiring critical faculties

4. Yet a remarkable amount of education practice
doesn’t apply basic principles of good education to
itself, ignoring the lessons of experience and evidence

5. The result is that ideas in education
often spread more because they’re
appealing or convenient than
because they work

6. There is now a great deal of evidence and experience
on what actually works best in the use of computers,
whiteboards, laptops and interactive media

7. But most of this evidence is routinely
ignored. Teachers and Heads have
very little useful information to draw
on when making spending decisions

8. As a result, millions are wasted, and children miss out on the real
potential from technology which usually requires a change in
how learning is organised, and not just in the hardware

9. A revolution in how we think about education and evidence is long
overdue. It can be greatly helped by digital technologies which make
feedback, and the aggregation of data, easier than ever before

10. But it needs to start with some simple principles:
Any new method should be tested and
improved in the light of experience
What’s already known should be easily available
to the people who have to make decisions
What doesn’t work should be ditched and
what does should be spread

11. Efficacy in
Education
efficacy.pearson.com
Geoff Mulgan, CEO of Nesta
“The drive to apply the principles of
evidence and learning to education itself
has a long way to go, many new ideas
are implemented without any evidence
that they work.
That’s why the steps Pearson is taking
are so important.
They involve some risk, and some
challenge.
But the net result will be better
education for millions of children who
surely deserve nothing less.”