All in Learning Scientists Posts
Thinking is hard. In general, we don’t like to put forth mental effort when we can avoid it. Further, when we do exert mental effort, we tend to not like it. And yet… there are times when we actually enjoy doing the hard work of thinking through something. There are times when we may even feel we’ve entered into a flow state, where difficult tasks feel relatively effortless (1). How we feel about completing a task appears to be about more than just effort.
Taking exams is often associated with discomfort and anxiety in students. Students will feel nervous as these are high-stake performance situations. Exams require students to commit information to memory and to obtain an in-depth understanding of taught concepts...
Today is (American) Thanksgiving so we wanted to take the opportunity to thank our community! We are so grateful for the continued support, encouragement, and contributions of our community…
How many boxes can you hold? It is clearly a trick question. The answer, like so many things in our complex world of education is, of course, it depends. It depends on several factors that match up quite nicely with the same questions of what we can hold in working memory.
If you read our blog, even sporadically, you are almost certainly aware that investigations into evidence-based learning strategies have been ongoing for quite some time. In fact, as we near the end of 2025, I’m realizing that Ebbinghaus’ work on spaced practice …
… I think of those conversations with my dad often. About the enthusiasm and curiosity they inspired in me. And the stark contrast in how I felt about technology and the future then to how I feel about technology and the future now. All of which was highlighted for me recently when I tapped my phone - my little doom machine - awake to send a message, only to receive a Google News recommendation about an article in Forbes magazine entitled, “When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?”
