The State of Education in Syria
This post was originally published on the USAID Education in Crisis and Conflict Network blog. Re-posted with permission.
This post was originally published on the USAID Education in Crisis and Conflict Network blog. Re-posted with permission.
Put simply, education development can be described as work dedicated to the incremental betterment of learners’ experience with and success in educational systems in lower-income settings. It is about making educational systems, and all the many moving parts that comprise them, work better to reliably produce quality outcomes for all children. These truisms would seem to make education development work fertile soil for the use of improvement science methods, which aim to use disciplined inquiry and scientific methods to make social systems work better for the people they serve.
The world of online learning—and the prevailing wisdom within it—changes rapidly. This is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that within two years, global commentary moved from “the year of the massive online open course” (2012) to “the death of the MOOC” (2014).
Imagine yourself as an international education officer in sub-Saharan Africa. You are walking into a meeting with the Minister of Education of your host country, prepared to share the results of your research study, and make your “asks” directly to the Minister.