Peter Henderson

  • The Piecemeal Engineer

    Chris Blattman’s new book ‘Why We Fight’ has a nice overview of research on why violence between groups is rare and the reasons why it sometimes does happen. It ends with a nice section about his approach to tackling ‘wicked’ policy problems. He quotes Karl Popper: ‘The piecemeal engineer knows, like Socrates, how little he…

  • Nearly everything I’ve ever wanted to know about statistical significance part one: understanding uncertainty

    I’ve been working with research for a long time now but have always found it hard to understand p-values, confidence intervals and statistical significance. I thought that writing a clear explanation in my own words could help. I’m posting my attempt here for my own benefit – hopefully it leads to useful comments that improve…

  • Resources for learning about Policing

    One of the best things about working in violence prevention is that it’s so interdisciplinary. It involves professionals from policing, education, social care, youth work. I’ve learned a lot about how these different sectors work and am still learning. I found that the House of Commons library is a particularly useful resource for getting a…

  • How big is that number? Using ‘landmark numbers’ to understand the education news

    How many laptops?! Here are some numbers from recent education news stories:  Schools Week reports that the Government delivered 876,000 laptops to schools since the scheme started in April last year.  Fiona Millar, in the Guardian, writes that the most expensive free school, Harris Westminster sixth form, cost almost £50m to set up.  The EEF…

  • Education experts should read more about genetics. Here’s where to start.

    In this blog I explained why I think education experts – teachers, researchers and policy makers – should pay more attention to genetics. Hopefully you read that blog and came here to learn more. Below is a brief reading list I have used to try to get an overview. It covers the basics of behavioural…

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