Does Individualism Make Children More Anxious? What a Global Study Really Shows

There is something irresistible about large international studies. Seventy countries. Three decades. Thousands of data points. The kind of research that immediately gives the impression that we are getting closer to answering a big question. In this case, what does cultural change do to the mental health of children and young people? Does a more… Read More Does Individualism Make Children More Anxious? What a Global Study Really Shows

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When lenient grading helps and when it harms

“Soft healers make festering wounds.” It is an old saying, but in education we sometimes seem to forget it. It sits uneasily with the idea of high expectations. And no one really says it out loud, certainly not today, but what if we lowered the bar, not out of laziness but out of understanding for… Read More When lenient grading helps and when it harms

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Early Life Stress and Later Gut Problems?

We have known for some time that early-life stress can play a role in how children learn and develop. Think of effects on attention, memory, and emotion regulation. By now, that is fairly well established. New research again suggests that this same early stress is also associated with something that at first sight seems more… Read More Early Life Stress and Later Gut Problems?

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Everyone Uses Everyone in the Manosphere

I have been a fan of Louis Theroux for a long time, and of his brother as well. Since his early documentaries, he has had a rare way of working: friendly, almost naïve in appearance, yet remarkably persistent. He asks questions that sound simple, but are often difficult to avoid answering. So when his new… Read More Everyone Uses Everyone in the Manosphere

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Not Every Mistake Helps You Learn

I have lost count of how many times I have heard people say that we learn from mistakes. Sometimes it even turns into a slogan: “If you never make mistakes, you never learn.” It sounds appealing, and there is some truth to it. After all, I do not know anyone who has never made a… Read More Not Every Mistake Helps You Learn

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AI that agrees with you doesn’t necessarily make you smarter (but it may make you more confident)

Last year, I wrote here about what I called the silence of the countervoice in AI. The issue is fairly simple: many chatbots are designed to be helpful, friendly, and affirming. That makes interactions pleasant, but it can also mean that genuine disagreement appears less often. Or, as I summarised it at the time: if… Read More AI that agrees with you doesn’t necessarily make you smarter (but it may make you more confident)

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Funny on Sunday: A Linguist Sings The Blues

Of course, this is a reference to the great song Kris Kristofferson wrote, and Janis Joplin made famous. Found the image here. Check here for more Funny on Sunday.

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Does Well-Being Support Learning? Yes. But Learning Also Supports Well-Being

After my previous blog post on emotions and cognitive load, a reader raised an interesting point. He noted that negative emotions such as anxiety, shame, or stress can consume cognitive resources and make learning harder. That observation is well supported by research. When part of your working memory is occupied by worries or fear, fewer… Read More Does Well-Being Support Learning? Yes. But Learning Also Supports Well-Being

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How Do Schools Respond to Bullying?

Many people intuitively assume that schools intervene when students are bullied. That seems both logical and desirable. Bullying at school has clear consequences for well-being, school experience and sometimes even educational trajectories (see, for example, here). Moreover, we expect schools to create a safe environment. But what is a typical school response when bullying occurs?… Read More How Do Schools Respond to Bullying?

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Does well-being improve learning by reducing cognitive load? It’s more complicated than that

Some years ago, I wrote a post about a review by Hawthorne and colleagues that led to an interesting hypothesis: well-being might help learning by reducing cognitive load. The idea is intuitively appealing. When students feel bad, are stressed, or have something on their mind, stress will take a part of their mental capacity. This… Read More Does well-being improve learning by reducing cognitive load? It’s more complicated than that

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