Duke University recently announced that first-year students will now be randomly assigned to their dormmates. The goal is to give students a chance to meet and learn from peers from a completely different background. Is this silly social engineering or smart policy. More...
27 mars 2018
What to expect when a college assigns students to random roommates
If you want to know how to stop school shootings, ask the Secret Service
While President Donald Trump has not shied away from offering suggestions on how to prevent school shootings – including one controversial idea to arm teachers – what often gets overlooked in the conversation is research on the subject that has already been done. More...
Zero tolerance discipline policies won’t fix school shootings
The Trump administration and its supporters are latching onto school discipline reform as the solution. But by reform, they do not mean improving school climate, ensuring fairness or getting students the mental and social services they need. They mean doing away with the school discipline reform the Obama administration helped spur. More...
What the National School Walkout says about schools and free speech
Organized by a Women’s March unit called Youth Empower and promoted on Twitter with the hashtags #Enough and #NationalSchoolWalkout, students throughout the country took to the streets and gathered at various places to call attention to the problem of gun violence in schools and in their communities. More...
Six ways to bridge the gap between rich and poor at university
We found evidence from talking to young people that the poorest are often highly conscious of the cost of living at university. This can limit their university choices: some will rule out a university because of the high cost of accommodation. More...
Horrible Histories: bringing children an irreverent take on the past for 25 years
My children watch Horrible Histories on television every day. And they are not alone. So thanks to the extraordinarily talented people who make the programme – and the creators of the books that spawned it – every single day children actively engage with the past. More...
Home Office rules mean non-British academics can be denied right to strike
A few weeks ago – back when we used to teach and research rather than stand at picket-lines challenging the marketisation of the university – we discovered that we share something in common. As international staff our right to strike and participate in peaceful, collective action is limited by the Home Office. More...
Are too many graduates getting good degrees?
More than a quarter of UK graduates received a first-class degree, and nearly half received an upper second-class award in 2016-2017. This means 75% of graduates gained “good degrees” – up from 60% ten years ago. More...
A brief history of dyslexia and the role women played in getting it recognised
Dyslexia affects up to 10% of the population and is widely accepted as a learning difficulty that can cause problems with (among other things) reading, writing and spelling. But it hasn’t always been this way. More...
The fight for education doesn’t stop when working-class boys get into university
Whether it is high rates of suicide and mental health problems, a lack of appropriate role models, absent fathers, access to secure employment, drug and alcoholic dependency, men – when compared to their female counterparts – are often reported to be in trouble. More...
