Impactful EdTech
Rethinking the role of evidence in education businesses
@simonbreakspear
www.simonbreakspear.com

Simon Breakspear
Founder and CEO of LearnLabs!
!
Simon Breakspear is recognised internationally as a
leading thinker on the future of learning and educational
innovation. Simon is the founder and CEO of LearnLabs,
a global learning strategy and design agency, that helps
school, system, policy and business leaders design and
deliver high-impact strategies to enable 21st Century
learning at scale. He has worked with and spoken to
leaders across Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the
UK, Europe, Canada, Israel, Hong Kong and India. !
!
As a passionate educator and learning strategist, Simon
works on systemic challenges in education reform and
redesign. He also advises EdTech start-ups around the
globe that are seeking to develop disruptive education
models to improve the quality and equity of student
learning. Simon holds a first class honours degree in
Psychology, a Bachelor of Teaching, a MSc. in
Comparative and International Education from the
University of Oxford, and is a PhD Candidate at the
University of Cambridge. He was a Gates Scholar at the
University of Cambridge, and Commonwealth Scholar at
the University of Oxford
www.simonbreakspear.com!
www.learnlabs.com!
www.zaya.org!

Rethink the role of
Evidence

Why focus on
impact evidence?
Why is user
feedback
important but
insufficient?

Scared Straight Programme
The Importance of Evidence of Impact
80 to 14,000
From good intentions to real impact.

“What is clear is that no technology
has an impact on learning in its own
right; rather its impact depends upon
the way in which it is used.”
!
NESTA, 2012 “Decoding learning:The proof promise and
potential of digital education.” p9
Michael Fullan!
Wrong Drivers for School reform

No one can do
your thinking for
you

Clarity Follows Activity

Why are you
here?

Profitable Business
or/and
Improve Learning
or/and
Transform Learning

Extrac'ng*efficiencies*and*
diminishing*returns*
Educa'onal*pioneers*design,*
develop*and*prove*new*
models.**
S"curve(1(
Educa-on(1.0(
S"curve(2(
Educa-on(2.0(
New*models*are*taken*to*
scale**
Focus*of**
LEARNSHIFT*
Learning*Outputs*
Applied*Effort**
How far do you want to push learning?

Whose Problem are you solving

The one question to ask teachers:
What time did you have lunch today?

What are the
challenges !
teachers face?

Stop ‘pitching’ and start listening

What are the top 2
concerns of a typical
school principal

#1.
There is an
Opportunity
Do well by doing good.

‘Big’ For-Profit Education

“Who owns American public education? Until a
decade ago, we might have answered: the
public. Or the states. Or the local school boards.
Now, the likely answer is: the U.S. Department of
Education. Or the Gates Foundation, which
seems to own the U.S. Department of Education.
But there may be another answer (this is not a
multiple-choice test, and there is more than one
right answer): Pearson, the megalith
corporation that produces curriculum,
textbooks, tests, owns the company that
accredits teachers (EdTPA), owns an online
charter corporation (Connections Academy),
and owns the GED.”
Diane Ravitch
The critique heats up

Efficacy as an USP

Does learner
impact really
matter if the
client buys it?
!

Do Well
By Doing
Good
Sell

!
#2.
‘Double’ Lean
EdTech start-ups are running two lean
experiments at the same time. Iterating on a
a business model and a learning model.

Business
Model
Learning
Model
Profitability
!
Business Model
!
User/Rev. Metrics
!
Impact
!
Learning Model
!
Learning Metrics
!
AND
The ‘Double’ Lean Start-up Approach

EdTech Business
models can be
particularly difficult
to crack

Apply Existing Education
Evidence Base
+

‘Learning Models’
are as Complex as
Business Models

What does this data
tell us...? So What?
Using Data to Make decisions

#3.
Know the target
outcomes & metrics
Be very clear on what outcomes you are
trying to improve through solving your
identified problem.

Cognitive!
Interpersonal!
Intrapersonal
21st Century Skills: 3 Domains
National Research Council (2012). Education for
Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge
and Skills in the 21st Century

Choose the 1 metric
that matters
Learning

1. Describe the exact skill behaviour or
mindset your product or service aims to
improve.!
!
2. Who is your target group?!
!
3. Do you have a way of measuring the
intended outcome?

Are you collecting
this data?

#4.
Apply what we already
know about powerful
learning
Focus first on ALIGNMENT with the current
evidence base on effective learning.

Design for Deep Learning

!
Under what conditions
does learning flourish?
!
!
Designed for Deep learning

Learning
by Design
Innovating Learning is a Design Science
Developing new ecosystems of learning

We know more
about learning
than ever before
Design Principles

6 ELEMENTS
1.Student-owned
2.Growth-focused
3.Connected
4.Integrated
5.Applied
6.Collaborative
!

OECD, Innovative Learning
Environments Project
7 Principles
1. Learner have to be at the center of what happens in the
classroom
2. Learning is a social practice & can’t happen alone
3. Emotions are an integral part of learning
4. Learners are different
5. Students need to be stretched, but not too much
6. Assessment should be for learning, not of learning
7. Learning needs to be connected across disciplines
How can the learning sciences inform the design of 21st century
learning environments?

What is your
learning model?
What system is it
functioning in?
Draw it.

What evidence have
you built into this
design?

What other factors is
the impact of your
product/service
dependent on?
You need to build capacity

#5.
Get on the path to
generating evidence of
educational impact

Do effective learning
programs work like
Aspirin?

What Works
to
What is working, for
whom, when and
where
Generalise through fit

Proof
Or
Path
Evidence Journey