I, too, have received emails about articles or papers that I supposedly wrote, but which simply do not exist. It is a phenomenon that researchers increasingly encounter, as AI systems produce convincing-sounding but fabricated references. Through Inside Higher Ed, I discovered that these are now called Frankencitations. These citations appear to be compiled from existing authors,… Read More Word of the day: Frankencitations
The PISA results will be released again later this year. For the first time, in the second week of September instead of December. This is not the most fortunate timing, if you ask me. As always, most discussions will revolve around learning performance. Mathematics. Reading. Science. Rankings. Decline. Hopefully not the latter. We might well… Read More One of the reasons why I am looking forward to the PISA results in September: what was a COVID effect and what wasn’t?
Paul, Casper, and I are currently putting the finishing touches on the update of the first book on Urban Myths. But completing it is tough because, of course, new studies keep appearing. This includes this new study concerning gender bias among teachers. The researchers used data from the French ELFE cohort study and followed more than… Read More Teachers, Gender Bias, and Behaviour: A More Nuanced Story
There is something oddly comforting in this short video from Harvard Business Review. Not because it tells people to simply “believe in themselves,” but because it reframes something many high achievers quietly struggle with: imposter syndrome. Arthur Brooks argues that feeling like a fraud is often not a sign that you are incompetent. In many… Read More Why The Imposter Syndrome Might Not Be Entirely Bad
I found this infographic via LinkedIn. Rather than attacking constructivism itself, it seems more interesting to me to examine what this image actually tells us about it. The first problem lies in the word constructivism itself. In the image, it is presented as a single learning theory. But constructivism is originally a theory about… Read More An infographic about constructivism that occasionally misses the mark.
“ Your brain starts rotting away after just ten minutes of AI use,” Vice headlined this week. Similar interpretations of a new preprint on AI use and cognitive performance appeared elsewhere as well. When I discussed the research on Belgian National radio, I tried to present the study more accurately. The study itself, however, is more interesting than the headlines suggest. Researchers from Carnegie… Read More What remains when AI is gone?
This is a tip from one of my sons! Check here for more Funny on Sunday.
The article in The Athletic about Carl Hendrick and motivation is interesting precisely because it pushes against a very familiar idea: that motivation comes first and achievement follows naturally afterwards. Hendrick argues almost the opposite. Small experiences of success, he says, are often what create motivation in the first place. There is something valuable in… Read More What Carl Hendrick and The New York Times May Get Wrong About Motivation
This week, I gave a talk on well-being, motivation, and resilience. But as I drove home afterwards, I realised that there can be something uncomfortable about how we speak about student well-being today, with the focus on “resilience,” “grit,” or “coping,” As if the most important question becomes how students learn to deal better with… Read More Why student well-being isn’t just about resilience
The title of the study by Trinh and colleagues sounds almost like a gift for every speaker, teacher, or trainer who has ever given a mediocre session: Conversations About Boring Topics Are More Interesting Than We Think. Done. Case closed. Apparently, boring lessons are allowed again. Except the research doesn’t say that at all. The researchers… Read More Can boring subjects become fascinating after all?