Expert Thinking and AI (Part 1)
Cover Image by cottonbro studio from PexelsBy Althea Need KaminskeNote: To the best of my knowledge I did not use generative AI to write this post. Any mistakes or insights are my own. AI is big right now. It’s been big for a while, but it seems to be more and more aggressive in the…
Digest #177: Podcast Episodes for Parents and Educators
I have been following Brown University Professor and Economist Emily Oster for a number of years, basically ever since I started my journey of becoming a parent. Now, I listen to her podcast and read her newsletters (and the newsletters from the endocrinologist on her team, called “Hot Flash”) to hear from Emily and experts…
Digest #176: For When You’re Feeling the Pressure!
2) Yerkes-Dodson: Lore, not Law by Cindy Nebel and Stress and Memory by Althea Need KaminskeThis pair of posts is one of my favorites. We were taught that Yerkes-Dodson Law was, well, a law. When stress is too low or too high, performance suffers. Then Cindy discovered, not necessarily so. Friends, we were all blown…
How Do You Use Our Book “Ace That Test: A Student’s Guide to Learning...
We offer many concrete examples throughout the book, e.g., when describing a strategy or highlighting the scientific background. After reading a chapter, students can start applying the strategies right away – either using one of the ‘how to’ suggestions, or by coming up with an implementation themselves based on what they learned about the strategy.…
About our “Office Hours” Videos AND a Paper about How Students Cope with Anxiety...
Now, onto the written coverage of this paper, by Jennifer Brigati and colleagues (1)! Note: my written coverage overlaps with the video, but is not a perfect replication. There’s a little something extra in each, based on how I’ve been tossing these ideas around in my head over the last few weeks.The studyIn their 2020…
Stress and Memory
By Althea Need KaminskeCover image by Mizuno K from PexelsRecently, Cindy talked about how the Yerkes-Dodson Law (or performance-arousal) is less of a law and more of a nice story about how stress influences performance. The performance-arousal curve is a handy explanation for a lot of different patterns and, on the surface, it seems to…
GUEST POST: A Student’s Lived Experience Account of Neurodiversity in Higher Education
References:(1) Syharat, C. M, Hain, A., Zaghi, A. E., Gabriel, R., & Berdanier, C.G.P. (2023). Experiences of neurodivergent students in graduate STEM programs. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1149068 (2) Pesonen, H. V., Nieminen, J. H., Vincent, J., Waltz, M., Lahdelma, M., Syurina, E. V., & Fabri, M. (2020). A socio-political approach on autistic students’ sense…
The Potential Harm of Learning Styles
By Carolina Kuepper-TetzelWe have discussed the learning styles myth in different blog posts and you can find all of our posts in this topic here. Briefly, the idea of learning styles is that if you assess the learning styles in students and then match instruction accordingly to their self-reported learning style, their performance will be…
Digest #171: Resources for Calendars and Scheduling
By Althea Need Kaminske(cover image by MabelAmber on Pixabay)Time management can be a challenge for learners at all levels. Generally, the farther along you are in your educational journey, the less your time is managed for you. You are given more independence and autonomy to set your own priorities and manage your own time -…
Pitting Learning Styles Against Dual Coding
By Megan SumerackiWhen creating content and materials for the Learning Scientists website, we try to include many different types of forms (NOT because of Learning Styles, but because of preferences, and diversity in the type of media an individual can consume!). To that end, I’ve created blog versions of some bite-size research podcast episodes in…
