The ability to understand emotions contributes almost as much to students’ grades as their IQ. Past studies show two personal qualities are important for student academic success – intelligence and conscientiousness. IQ scores explain about 15% of the differences between students’ grades. Conscientiousness, such as having the diligence to do enough study, explains about 5%. Our recent research has found […] … learn more→
Understanding emotions is nearly as important as IQ for students’ academic success
Writing advice – caveat emptor
Advice. Loads of it. Coming out of our ears. And on every possible topic, including research and writing. Advice needs readers. But we readers also need to be, as Ernest Hemingway put it, “crap detectors”. Howard Rheingold has worked up this idea, using Hemingway’s terminology. Rheingold has developed a little protocol that can be used to […] … learn more→
Librarians could be jailed and fined under a proposed censorship law
A bill pending in Missouri’s legislature takes aim at libraries and librarians who are making “age-inappropriate sexual material” available to children. The measure, championed by Ben Baker, a Republican lawmaker, calls for establishing review boards who would determine whether materials in libraries contain or promote “nudity, sexuality, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse.” In addition, […] … learn more→
What is ‘gamification’ and why its effectiveness in the classroom is not clear
The concept of gamification ( gamification as proposed Fundéu) was introduced widely by game developer Nick Pelling in 2010 to the conduct a research on teamwork for a development company hardware . In the author’s words, gamification consists in the application of characteristic elements of games in non-playful contexts. Since then, various fields such as labor, business and, of course, education, have taken advantage of their potential to influence […] … learn more→
Five surprising benefits of a plant-based diet
Many of the important benefits of a plant-based diet – particularly for climate health and animals – are well known. Yet despite the science being very clear, there remains confusion about the impact on human health. We have long known for example, that a diet centred around whole plant-foods – fruits, vegetables, whole-grains, beans, nuts and seeds […] … learn more→
Video of 6-year-old girl’s arrest shows the perils of putting police in primary schools
When states like Florida pass laws to put more police officers in schools, the idea is to keep kids safe. The recent release of body camera footage from the arrest of a 6-year-old in a Florida school, however, shows that sometimes one threat to the students is the officers themselves. The video shows two police officers placing a 6-year-old […] … learn more→
Canada’s high schools are underfunded and turning to international tuition to help
Despite months of work to rule and weeks of concentrated job actions, the Progressive Conservative government in Ontario has failed to negotiate a deal with teachers to date. Amid news about negotiation sticking points, such as class size and mandatory e-learning, a key issue at stake is that education has been chronically underfunded at the tax base. […] … learn more→
How to make universities more inclusive? Hire more working-class academics
For several years, higher education institutions have been putting in place widening participation initiatives. These are designed to help address low levels of under-represented students applying to university. Such initiatives have led to increasing numbers of working-class students going on to higher education. Often, these students are the first in their family to go to university. Not knowing […] … learn more→
Female academics need to embrace competition
It is well known that women are under-represented in senior academic positions in most if not all countries. In UK business and management fields, for instance, only 20 per cent of senior academics are women, and this proportion is far from an outlier. A number of academic institutions have responded by trying to reduce bias in […] … learn more→
Your chances of getting an internship are better if you’ve already had one
When summer approaches, many college students (and their parents) wonder how they can land the perfect internship. But what kind of résumé really impresses firms looking for interns? And how are the internships connected to the broader job market? We are researchers who specialize in issues of labor economics and employment, particularly for interns and recent college graduates. In […] … learn more→