The company, which also owns Penguin books and Pearson Education, reported adjusted pre-tax profit of £422m and a rise in turnover of 9% to 41.1bn
Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino attributed the positive results to the group's progressive strategy.
She said: "That strategy had to do with getting the right markets - growth markets - taking leading positions in those markets, making sure our businesses were efficient enough so that we could outperform our competitors and gain share [and] making sure that we were innovating all the time so that we stayed ahead of our competitors."
Scardino added that in the coming year the group would be looking at more organic growth of the business.
She said: "You'll see that we have focused over the last few years, if we bought something, on a bolt-on acquisition – which just means there are lots of synergies and it can be integrated immediately into our business and it enriches our existing business in some way. And we'll continue to look for that sort of smallish acquisition."
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