McGraw Hill Global Education Insights Report

Learning Outcomes and the Digital Classroom

2024

Educators face many challenges, from heightened concerns over student mental health, longstanding issues surrounding teacher pay, and a growing debate on the use of AI in education. To learn more about global education, as well as how educators are thinking about these issues and their impact on student success, Morning Consult, on behalf of McGraw Hill, surveyed over 1,000 PreK-12 and Higher Education educators in 19 countries across the globe. The findings offer a glimpse into potential solutions to help overcome barriers to student success – and how classroom technology can be deployed most effectively to help students achieve the best possible outcomes around the world.

The barriers educators feel are holding students back from succeeding are connected to issues embedded in society – and incredibly difficult for educators to overcome alone.

57% report challenges outside of school  (issues at home, not enough family support, etc.)

45% cite struggling with behavioral and mental health issues

36% report not having the prerequisite skills and knowledge

We must do all we can to ensure educators feel supported at every level, so they can help students overcome these obstacles and succeed. While technology can play a role as we look for new ways to save educators time and help them engage students in new ways, it is not a savior. The challenges that educators and students are confronted with need to be tackled head on, so that education can be a vehicle for helping future generations overcome deeply entrenched barriers around the world.

When it comes to the challenges that educators face, keeping students engaged in the classroom tops their list – with behavior and mental health issues a close second.

Top Two Challenges Reported by Each Group of Educators Surveyed

Asia PreK–12

Lack of access to technology (45%)
Managing students' behavioral and mental health challenges (45%)

Asia Higher Education

Managing students' behavioral and mental health challenges (52%)
Struggling to keep students engaged (50%)

Map with some countries in Southeast Asia highlighted

Canada Higher Education

Struggling to keep students engaged (49%)
Managing students' behavioral and mental health challenges (49%)

Latin America PreK-12

Managing students' behavioral and mental health challenges (48%)
Struggling to keep students engaged (46%)

Latin America Higher Education

Managing students' behavioral and mental health challenges (48%)
Struggling to keep students engaged (47%)

Middle East PreK-12

Struggling to keep students engaged (63%)
Lack of access to technology (55%)

Middle East Higher Education

Lack of access to technology (46%)
Lack of funding (43%)

Northern Europe Higher Education

Managing students' behavioral and mental health challenges (54%)
Struggling to keep students engaged (50%)

United States PreK-12

Managing students' behavioral and mental health challenges (76%)
Struggling to keep students engaged (64%)

United States Higher Education

Struggling to keep students engaged (68%)
Dealing with the politicization of education (57%)

41%
of educators believe AI has had a mostly positive impact on educational outcomes, compared to only

19%
who believe its impact has been mostly negative.

Educators see a range of potential benefits and drawbacks to the use of AI in education – and want more guidance on how to use it

The Benefits

The top two benefits of AI that educators believe will have a positive impact on education are reducing time spent on administrative tasks (65%) and the ability to personalize learning experiences for each student (63%).

The Drawbacks

Many educators are concerned about the impact of AI on academic integrity, critical thinking, memory retention, students’ social skills and relationships and creativity.

The Need for Guidance

70% of educators express at least some concern over the unknown impacts of AI, with 72% believing that their school needs to provide more guidance on the use of emerging technology.

Trust

Educators are split on the degree to which they would trust information that students get from GenAI chatbots. 48% say they would mostly or completely trust this information and 48% say they only slightly trust it or not trust it at all.

The three biggest barriers to implementing education technology more broadly, according to educators, are:

High costs of purchasing the technology (47%)

Lack of time to implement and train educators on how to use the technology effectively (38%)

Data privacy concerns (34%)

What should policymakers and school leaders prioritize to help improve student success?

As education leaders in governments, at institutions and in our industry look to build solutions that will help students around the world succeed, it’s important that we listen to those individuals who are working with students every day and do all we can to help support and empower them.

Morning Consult conducted global research across six regions via online panel interviewing, collecting responses from 456 PreK-12 educators and 689 Higher Education instructors from 2/9/24-3/11/24, on behalf of McGraw Hill. Countries surveyed include the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Vietnam, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands. Only the countries fielded in this research are represented in the global data, and data is not weighted to account for population size or prevalence of PreK-12/Higher Ed teachers in each country, with some countries having a greater contribution than others due to differences in sample sizes.

McGraw Hill is a leading global education company that partners with millions of educators, learners and professionals around the world. McGraw Hill has over 40 offices across North America, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and South America, and makes its learning solutions for PreK-12, higher education, professionals and others available in more than 80 languages.