#educationresearch — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #educationresearch, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: How the use of artificial intelligence harms college students’ ability to learn
College students who copy answers from artificial intelligence tools without verifying the information experience declines in their ability to learn independently. These unreflective habits are associated with a weaker belief in students’ own capabilities and a reduced motivation to learn. The findings were published in Scientific Reports.
Generative artificial intelligence programs can quickly write essays, generate computer code, and solve advanced mathematical equations. These tools have become common academic aids on college campuses across the globe. When students use these systems to seek explanations or brainstorm new ideas, the technology can expand their academic perspectives and improve their studying efficiency.
But reliance on automated answers carries potential academic risks. Hui Zhao and Huijuan Gu, researchers at Zhoukou Normal University, designed a study to examine what happens when students use artificial intelligence thoughtlessly. The researchers define thoughtless use as a pattern in which users blindly adopt machine-generated text without critically evaluating, verifying, or deeply understanding the outputs.
The researchers wanted to know how this specific habit affects self-directed learning. Self-directed learning is a core educational skill in higher education. It refers to a student’s capacity to independently set goals, apply study strategies, and monitor their own academic progress. Students with high self-directed learning abilities can manage their time and actively evaluate what they do and do not understand.
To understand the relationship between technology habits and study skills, the researchers looked at two psychological factors. The first is self-efficacy, which is a person’s internal belief in their capacity to successfully complete tasks and overcome challenges. The second factor is learning motivation, which encompasses the psychological drives that push a student to initiate and persist in their coursework. The researchers based their investigation on the idea that a student’s environment, personal beliefs, and daily behaviors all shape one another in a continuous, reciprocal cycle.
Zhao and Gu recruited 487 undergraduate students from four universities in Henan Province, China, to complete an online survey. The participants answered a series of questions assessing their study habits on a five-point scale. The respondents ranged from college freshmen to seniors and represented a variety of academic disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
The survey measured four distinct categories using established psychological scales. First, it assessed how often students engaged in thoughtless artificial intelligence use. Participants rated their agreement with statements such as “I copy learning tasks or problem statements into generative AI to seek answers or ideas” and “I feel that generative AI is more capable than I am in learning and problem-solving.”
Second, the survey measured the students’ academic self-efficacy. This section asked participants to reflect on their confidence when facing difficult materials, using prompts like “I believe that I can independently master complex learning content.”
Third, the researchers measured the students’ overall motivation to learn. This included questions about their curiosity, their desire to master new skills, and the satisfaction they gained from overcoming academic hurdles. Finally, the survey evaluated the students’ capacity for self-directed learning by asking how often they actively checked their own understanding of the material or created knowledge frameworks like mind maps.
The researchers used a statistical technique called structural equation modeling to analyze the survey responses. This analytical method allows scientists to observe complex networks of relationships between multiple different variables at the same time, rather than just looking at two variables in isolation.
The analysis revealed that the thoughtless use of artificial intelligence is strongly associated with lower levels of self-directed learning. Students who habitually relied on automated answers reported worse self-management skills and lower cognitive engagement in their coursework.
The researchers identified a specific psychological pathway explaining this decline. The authors suggest that an unreflective reliance on technology deprives students of the opportunity to struggle through complex problems. Without the experience of overcoming academic challenges through their own hard work, students reported lower levels of self-efficacy.
This lower confidence in their own abilities was in turn linked to a reduced motivation to learn. When individuals do not believe they can succeed on their own, their willingness to invest effort naturally declines. With less motivation and lower self-confidence, the students became less capable of managing their own educational progress, acting instead as dependent users of external tools.
The researchers also conducted a multi-group analysis to see if these patterns differed between men and women. This statistical test allowed the authors to compare the strength of the psychological relationships across the two demographic groups.
The analysis uncovered distinct gender differences in how thoughtless technology use relates to psychological well-being. For male students, unreflective use showed a stronger negative association with learning motivation. The researchers suggest that male students often view technology primarily as a tool for efficiency, meaning that immediate automated answers quickly replace their internal drive to engage deeply with the material.
For female students, thoughtless use was associated with steeper declines in self-efficacy and self-directed learning. The researchers note that female students tend to adopt more reflective and evaluative study strategies in their traditional coursework. When they bypass these reflective processes by copying automated answers, they miss out on the mastery experiences that traditionally build their academic confidence.
The study relies on cross-sectional data, meaning all the information was collected at a single point in time. Because the researchers did not track the students over a long period, the statistical results highlight relationships between behaviors and beliefs but cannot definitively prove cause and effect. It is possible that students who already have low self-efficacy are simply more likely to use artificial intelligence thoughtlessly.
The demographic makeup of the sample also presents some limitations. The participants were drawn exclusively from universities in a single Chinese province, and nearly eighty percent of the respondents were female. Expanding future surveys to include a more balanced demographic distribution across different regions would help verify if these patterns hold true for other student populations.
Additionally, the survey measured motivation as a single, unified concept. Future research could split this category into intrinsic motivation, such as natural curiosity, and extrinsic motivation, such as a desire for good grades. Separating these concepts would provide a more detailed picture of how automated tools influence a student’s inner drive to succeed. Future studies might also track students over an entire semester to see how their habits and self-confidence evolve as they face different types of academic challenges.
The study, “Thoughtless Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence and College Students’ Self-Directed Learning: A Multi-Group SEM Analysis of Gender Differences,” was authored by Hui Zhao and Huijuan Gu.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AIAwareness #StudentLearning #SelfDirectedLearning #AcademicIntegrity #GenerativeAI #SelfEfficacy #LearningMotivation #EducationResearch #ThinkBeforeYouCopy #GenderDifferencesAI
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📘 Our Annual Report 2025 is now available!
📊 Explore the highlights of our work over the past year, including research, research infrastructures and internationalisation. The report also features key facts and figures, information on doctoral and habilitation theses, and an overview of our projects and publications.
👉 Read the report here: https://t1p.de/ees6w
#AnnualReport #AdultEducation #LifelongLearning #EducationResearch #OpenScience
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Mathematics is the canary in the coal mine of any education system: It's a delicate pyramid that crumbles if the base is not strong.
Using IMO results, here are the countries that improved most from 2006 to 2026 and those that declined the most. Using rank percentile within each year’s field:
Most improved
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: 2.2% → 69.8% (+67.6pp)
🇲🇾 Malaysia: 22.5% → 83.6% (+61.1pp)
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan: 14.6% → 70.7% (+56.1pp)
🇧🇩 Bangladesh: 11.2% → 67.2% (+56.0pp)
🇮🇳 India: 61.8% → 94.8% (+33.0pp)Biggest declines
🇲🇩 Moldova: 91.0% → 55.2% (−35.8pp)
🇮🇹 Italy: 87.6% → 68.1% (−19.5pp)
🇫🇮 Finland: 57.3% → 39.7% (−17.6pp)
🇩🇪 Germany: 96.6% → 83.6% (−13.0pp)
🇹🇼 Taiwan: 89.9% → 80.2% (−9.7pp)#Mathematics #MathEducation #Education #STEM #IMO #InternationalMathematicalOlympiad #MathOlympiad #EducationPolicy #Learning #AcademicExcellence #DataVisualization #EducationResearch #GlobalEducation #SchoolEducation #STEMEducation #ProblemSolving #Innovation #FutureSkills #StudentSuccess #EducationalDevelopment #MathematicsMatters #Statistics #GlobalRankings #India #SaudiArabia #Malaysia #Bangladesh #Kyrgyzstan #Finland #Germany
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How do we prepare future teachers to work with families?
A new review found only 27 relevant studies. The strongest evidence points towards authentic collaboration with real families rather than isolated lectures about parent engagement.
#TeacherEducation #EducationResearch
https://theeconomyofmeaning.com/2026/06/19/how-should-parents-be-included-in-teacher-education/ -
You are an author and your publication isn't referenced in the German Education Index @FachportalPaedagogik yet? It's just a few steps to increase your visibility.
ℹ️ Information & form: https://www.fachportal-paedagogik.de/en/literatur/melden.html
Accepted subject areas (see our list):
#education
#educationresearch
#highereducation
#didactics -
Did you know overeducation in the US rose in the early 2000s? 🎓📈 A study by Lina Tobler and Julia Leesch shows that between 2003 and 2011, more workers held jobs below their education level, while undereducation declined. The key driver? Shifts in supply and demand, not matching patterns. As education expanded, the labour market did not fully keep pace. 🌍💼
Details: https://uni.koeln/RFAV3
#LabourMarket #EducationResearch #Overeducation #SocialScience #Demography #WorkTrends #HigherEducation
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New working paper: Beyond AI Literacy: Teaching Intelligence Management
AI literacy teaches how to use AI tools. But use ≠ authority. Fluency ≠ accountability.
My paper argues we need a new framework — intelligence management — focused on directing, interrogating, calibrating, and remaining responsible for AI outputs in consequential settings.
Preprint on EdArXiv: https://doi.org/10.35542/osf.io/d3rz5_v1
#AIEducation #AILiteracy #EducationResearch #FutureOfEducation
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Grassroots Efforts to Bring Open Science to the Field of Education Research by Crystal Lewis
"In this post, I highlight some of the past and ongoing efforts to raise awareness and strengthen open science practices in this field. . . . I also recognize that these efforts are largely U.S.-centric, and I would welcome hearing about additional initiatives not mentioned in this post!"
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Attractive students no longer receive better results as classes moved online
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016517652200283X
#HackerNews #AttractiveStudents #OnlineLearning #EducationResearch #AcademicPerformance
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The "objective measurements" advocates sought for standardized tests are only possible when the environment's variation is removed. This is not feasible with human learning. #EducationResearch
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Over five years, this initiative at Rooted School started as an attendance booster, evolving into a comprehensive study involving multiple schools across cities.
Would cash incentives change educational outcomes? #EducationResearch #CashIncentives
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New research video: Discover the importance of students’ social resource factors for academic achievement and well-being in elementary school by Jakob Schwerter on YouTube! #Education #Learning #EducationResearch #ElementarySchool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLEEBdZkc8c
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New research identifies key predictors of science success in young students https://www.psypost.org/new-research-identifies-key-predictors-of-science-success-in-young-students/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #ScienceEducation #StudentSuccess #STEM #EducationResearch #ConfidenceInLearning
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📚 We are thrilled to share the publication of "Libre Cours"! This volume offers a snapshot of #didactic and #pedagogical challenges in #French teaching at the secondary level in #Luxembourg .This work builds on the "Libre cours" seminar held in 2017, fostering comparative discussions among educators. Dive into the insights here: https://doi.org/10.26298/1981-5579 #LuxembourgStudies #EducationResearch
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The inspiration you'll get from this Monday evening #AGU24 Town Hall will energize your whole week.
Hear from our #education team about how they collaborate with scientists, keep #classroom teaching in front of mind, and develop #science curriculum that really works.
Add this Town Hall to tomorrow's schedule.
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CfP @Earli "1st Specialist Seminar on Embodied Education, 26-28 September 2024, Italy
#Bildungsforschung #educationresearch
Find more information here: https://www.unibz.it/en/events/1st-specialist-seminar-on-embodied-education -
New article out today! 🎉
Speech analysis of teaching assistant interventions in small group collaborative problem solving with undergraduate engineering students
It's open access! It's going to be part of a special issue on multi-modal learning analytics. Co-authored with one of my students who is about to graduate.
https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13449
#learninganalytics #mmla #educationresearch #collaboration #cscl -
4th IFS-Virtual Keynote Series deals on 29 January with the topic "Challenges and Potentials of #ArtificialIntelligence in #EducationResearch". With contributions from scientists from Université de Toulouse and University of North Carolina
Register now: https://ifs.ep.tu-dortmund.de/ifs-virtual-keynote-series-anmeldung/
#Bildungsforschung #KI #FediCampus -
🔎 Curious about the data behind student services at @univienna? Join us for a #DataScience talk with Stefan Prechtl & Nicole Bier on 23 Oct at 14:00 CEST on-site at Kolingasse or online via Zoom 📊 The Coordination of Student Services manages data of 90,000+ students, 750,000+ course registrations, and 850,000+ marks entered each semester 📚 Learn about the tools empowering their data exploration and explore exciting research prospects #DataInsights #EducationResearch
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🤝 Join us in exploring the potential of machine learning in education research! Your thoughts and feedback on our pre-print would be immensely valuable.
#MachineLearning #EducationResearch #SystematicReviews #ResearchCommunity #AcademicPublishing #EducationPsychology #NaturalLanguageProcessing #DataScience #ResearchAdvancements #DecisionMaking #ScienceCommunity
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Hello #EducationResearch community! 👋 I'm looking into 'MDPI Education Sciences' and I could use your expertise.
Could anyone point me to some of the latest overviews or summaries on #MDPIEducation? Even a quick rundown of key insights or trends would be invaluable. 🎓📚
I appreciate any thoughts and insights you may have! Thanks in advance.