Monthly Archives: January 2022

Colleges accused of conspiring to make low-income students pay more

Colleges accused of conspiring to make low-income students pay more

Sixteen universities – including six in the Ivy League – are accused in a lawsuit of having engaged in price fixing and unfairly limiting financial aid by using a shared methodology to calculate the financial need of applicants. The schools in question have declined to comment or said only that they’ve done nothing wrong. Is this the latest […] … learn more→

Lockdown schooling: research from across the world shows reasons to be hopeful

Lockdown schooling: research from across the world shows reasons to be hopeful

When COVID shuttered schools across the world in 2020, the way teachers delivered their lessons and students did their classwork changed over night. As one Boston-based secondary school student wrote in a recent case study, “bedrooms turned into school classrooms, living rooms turned into science laboratories and backyards turned into workout gyms.” Two years on, this shift to remote and, […] … learn more→

Beyond social mobility, college students value giving back to society

Beyond social mobility, college students value giving back to society

Students who are the first in their family to attend college tend to see it as a means to improve their personal lives and as an opportunity for social mobility. That contrasts with the main message students get from policymakers and universities that largely emphasize career growth. This is the main finding from interviews we conducted with […] … learn more→

How far can we invoke academic freedom

How far can we invoke academic freedom

In recent months, academic freedom has been the subject of particular attention, in an entirely new way in France. This sudden interest in a hitherto unrecognized freedom is mainly explained by the emergence of various threats that come from the political, economic and militant spheres. This climate of tension goes against the necessary independence of academics in their fields […] … learn more→

Who benefits from a break on federal student loan payments? An economist answers 3 questions

Who benefits from a break on federal student loan payments? An economist answers 3 questions

Economist William Chittenden illuminates who benefits and who pays when borrowers get a break on paying back their federal student loans. 1. How helpful is this pause to individual borrowers? It depends. 18.1 million borrowers – out of 43.4 million borrowers – were making federal student loan payments prior to the current loan pause. Now, these borrowers will continue […] … learn more→

What young people want to help them recover from school closures

What young people want to help them recover from school closures

Children need help to recover from the disruption COVID has brought to their schooling. Much of the focus – and government funding – has been on academic catch-up. Some schools are beginning to trial adding an hour to the school day. But young people weren’t just missing out on study time during school closures. They also lost out on physical activity, […] … learn more→

Three false myths about neuroeducation

Three false myths about neuroeducation

The workings of the brain arouses so much interest in the scientific community that there have been undisputed advances in neuroscience in the last two decades. Numerous researchers around the world have delved into the analysis of how the brain makes its connections and what is the functioning of its neurons. However, the misinterpretations and distortions […] … learn more→

‘Lose some weight’, ‘stupid old hag’: universities should no longer ask students for anonymous feedback on their teachers

‘Lose some weight’, ‘stupid old hag’: universities should no longer ask students for anonymous feedback on their teachers

Student evaluations, in the form of anonymous online surveys, are ubiquitous in Australian universities. Most students in most courses are offered the opportunity to rate the “quality” of their teachers and the course they take. The original intention of student surveys was to help improve the learning experience. But it’s now become much more. Student surveys are often […] … learn more→

What’s your school closures playlist? Why music should be part of parents’ pandemic survival strategy

What’s your school closures playlist? Why music should be part of parents’ pandemic survival strategy

With pandemic school closures in place in Ontario, Québec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island until Jan. 17, and other provinces on watch, music could be important for maintaining the well-being of children and families. Many are concerned about the effects of closures on student and family well-being. While scientists and government officials are busy developing strategies to defeat the Omicron variant, young children — whom UNICEF […] … learn more→

Teaching autonomy: lessons from Rousseau in the face of our networked world

Teaching autonomy: lessons from Rousseau in the face of our networked world

In 1762, Jean-Jacques Rousseau publishes the Emile or On Education , the Treaty on the “art of training men” who will meet popular not yet undeniable success. However, his educational proposals, adjusted to the conception he has of man through his different ages, are far from easy to adopt. Instead of addressing the child as the man he will become, […] … learn more→