If you follow the educational literature on motivation, you might easily come away with the impression that motivation primarily arises when students experience autonomy. Give them choices. Let them set their own goals. Provide space for their own interests. That idea has had a great deal of influence over the past decades, even though Ryan… Read More Does Motivation Depend More on Structure Than Autonomy?
We all make mistakes. No, really. When we calculate something, write an email, or have a conversation with someone. You might think you know the right answer, only to find out you were wrong after all. But what actually happens after we make a mistake? And does that change as we get older and perhaps… Read More Learning from mistakes changes with age
No new research in this post, but rather another retraction involving AI. We already had that large meta-analysis that did not meet quality standards, but this time the story is different. The article in question appeared in Teaching and Teacher Education, one of the most prestigious journals in educational science. The title alone reveals that… Read More Another AI article retracted from a top journal. But this time, the story is different.
With all the attention currently focused on AI, we should not forget the previous debate. The relationship between social media and mental health remains one of those topics where the temperature of the debate is often higher than the available evidence. On one side are those who see social media as a major cause of… Read More Are Social Media Really the Problem? A New Study Adds More Nuance
A recurring assumption in public debate is that young people should be progressive. When surveys suggest otherwise, concern often follows. Headlines warn that young people are becoming more conservative, less supportive of social change, and increasingly willing to question ideas that many adults take for granted. Whether those observations are accurate is a separate discussion.… Read More Do Young People Have the Right to Think the “Wrong” Things?
A good one by xkcd! Check here for more Funny on Sunday.
No, this isn’t (again) about the Stanford Prison Experiment or Milgram (although there have been successful replications there)… Today I want to briefly focus on cognitive dissonance. This is one of those psychological concepts that almost everyone has heard of at some point. Even those who have never taken a psychology course usually know the basic idea. It boils… Read More What if one of the most famous psychology experiments is wrong?
I have argued before that tackling teacher shortages starts with retaining the people who enter the profession. Yet why do so many newly qualified teachers leave? A new study from Flanders, published in Teaching and Teacher Education, offers some answers about teacher retention. Its central message is surprisingly simple: stability matters, and perhaps more than… Read More Teacher Shortages Start with Retention. This Study Shows Why Teachers Leave.
Sometimes I receive comments that I am too critical of AI. But let me make one thing clear: I try to look at both the advantages and the disadvantages. And that is not limited to AI. That is also true for this new study in Nature by Qianyue Hao and colleagues. They investigate, on a… Read More AI makes scientists more successful, but does it also narrow science?
Imagine submitting a paper as a student. A few days later, you receive feedback. Detailed. Polite. Well-structured. Perhaps even empathetic and warm-hearted. Except: no one has actually read your text. That scenario is closer than many people think. A new British research project involving Cambridge, Nottingham, and Manchester Metropolitan University, among others, investigated how well AI systems… Read More When AI Grades Your Essay: Impressive, but Problematic