https://phys.org/science-news/education/ en-us Phys.org provides latest news on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education Why do some students dread math class while others look forward to it? New research offers a closer look at the thinking skills that may help explain differences in math ability. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-people-good-math-struggle.html Mathematics Wed, 07 Oct 2026 09:40:06 EDT news710579642 When it comes to mental health, it may not be how much time you have that matters, but rather how you feel about the time you have. That's one key takeaway of a new University of Colorado Boulder study examining the relationship between time and mental health. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-short-good.html Social Sciences Wed, 30 Sep 2026 17:30:01 EDT news710004901 When it came to religious education in ancient Babylonia, in what is now Iraq, students had a lot to learn, ranging from the names of gods to their divine characteristics. A new study published in the journal Iraq has taken a deep dive into ancient texts and surviving clay tablets to find out just how these traditions were taught in the classroom. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-clay-tablets-reveal-babylonian-students.html Archaeology Wed, 30 Sep 2026 16:40:14 EDT news709986974 A new study by an international research team provides the first systematic, cross-cultural comparison of how children help their peers. While previous research has mainly focused on how children help adults, often within the family, peer interactions play an equally important but far less studied role in children's social lives across many cultures. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-cultures-children-peers.html Social Sciences Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:00:09 EDT news709912430 Since its launch in 1998, Google, the world's leading search engine, has transformed how people find information online. For years, search results appeared as ranked lists of sources: Google decided what to show, but users decided what to read and whom to trust. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-extensive-reveals-gaps-google-ai.html Economics & Business Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:20:07 EDT news709903022 A research team at the University of Vienna, led by pharmaceutical chemist Johannes Kirchmair, has developed a statistical method to identify hidden anomalies in scientific datasets. The method can be applied automatically to large datasets, making it easier for researchers to pinpoint those that need closer scrutiny. The approach improves the quality of data-driven research and supports the development of reliable AI applications. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-statistical-method-flag-hidden-anomalies.html Mathematics Tue, 29 Sep 2026 11:00:08 EDT news709895821 A popular narrative across Instagram Reels, business podcasts and magazine covers is that people who are smart and serious about growth read nonfiction. Nonfiction directly provides factual information and real-world knowledge, whereas fiction, like novels and poetry, is treated as a less practical cousin. Now, a recent study has asked whether fiction really is just entertainment. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-nightstand-empathy-cognitive-health.html Social Sciences Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:20:14 EDT news709890034 Bionic Reading is a method of bolding certain letters in words that is purported to facilitate reading speed and comprehension. The idea is that guiding the eyes to focus on highlighted initial letters lets the brain complete the word. But does steering someone's gaze actually help them read? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-bionic-faster-scientists.html Social Sciences Sun, 27 Sep 2026 13:40:01 EDT news709526919 When Fan Yang's children came home complaining about a crafting class, they had a particularly strong advocate. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-small-slightly-significant-affects.html Social Sciences Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:20:10 EDT news709380421 As students return to school and cold and flu season begins, researchers are studying ways to improve indoor air quality and reduce the risk of airborne disease transmission. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-diy-filter-air-quality-classrooms.html Education Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:04 EDT news709375927 Young people who grow up experiencing persistent poverty are more than three times as likely to be not in education, employment or training (NEET) at 17 or 23 (3.3 and 3.4 times, respectively), according to new analysis of the UK Millennium Cohort Study by the University of Liverpool and the University of Manchester, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-poverty-triples-young-people-likelihood.html Economics & Business Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:00:13 EDT news708762902 A new study finds that while most Americans are interested in science and believe it benefits society, the public's relationship with science is more complicated than those positive views suggest. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-americans-complicated-relationship-science.html Social Sciences Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:20:07 EDT news708689761 Does the academic discipline of a scientist's doctorate accurately capture their disciplinary affiliation decades later? Consider a scientist who earned a doctorate in physics 25 years ago who now studies climate change, publishes primarily in interdisciplinary journals and considers herself a climate scientist. Does "physics" still accurately describe where she fits in science? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-captures-scientists-identities-shift-academic.html Social Sciences Fri, 11 Sep 2026 16:20:04 EDT news708347642 A study by Politecnico di Milano and the University of Insubria (Varese and Como) has been published in PLOS Digital Health. The study involved more than 700 children from primary and lower secondary school. The participants used the THInkPen (Tele-Health Ink Pen) while completing two BVSCO-3 tasks from the Battery for the Clinical Assessment of Writing and Orthographic Skills. This is the most widely used test in Italy for assessing writing difficulties, dysgraphia and dysorthography. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-smart-pen-pressure-movement-children.html Education Fri, 11 Sep 2026 14:40:02 EDT news708343381 The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns forced people to find ways to get things done remotely. Companies developed systems that made working from home run smoothly. Educators also had to shift to mobile phones and group video calls to get their lessons across and make sure students didn't lose out on their progress. This exposed the need for education systems to be more resilient and adaptive to local and global disruptions. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-lessons-children-emergency-school-closures.html Education Fri, 11 Sep 2026 09:20:08 EDT news708335529 Parents often learn the hard way that to make it anywhere on time, they should calculate how much time they think they need to get ready—and double it. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-kids-brains-built-distraction-good.html Education Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:40:12 EDT news708267002 The Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley School of Law has released a human rights assessment of the use of large language models (LLMs) in the fields of law, journalism and education. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-llm-threaten-freedom-thought-equality.html Social Sciences Wed, 09 Sep 2026 19:00:05 EDT news708186302 More than 3,000 scientific article titles across disciplines have made use of Beatles song titles and lyrics, according to a study published in PLOS One by Gabriel Budel of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and colleagues. This analysis is an unprecedentedly large-scale, cross-disciplinary account of how the Beatles have left their mark on scientific writing. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-beatles-permeated-papers-academic-disciplines.html Social Sciences Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:00:22 EDT news708077101 Families' interest in their kids' education is falling in many high-income countries as school systems struggle with plunging test scores, according to newly released results from a standardized test taken by 15-year-olds around the world. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-families-kids-falling-globe-scores.html Education Wed, 09 Sep 2026 04:40:08 EDT news708147022 One-third of young scientists who had been planning careers in academic research changed their minds in the spring of 2025, according to a new survey. Fewer expected to remain in higher education or work in the U.S., or felt that pursuing a Ph.D. was the right decision. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-survey-young-future-science.html Economics & Business Mon, 07 Sep 2026 17:00:03 EDT news708011103 Parents and teachers might think telling kids "they're smart" is a helpful way to build self-confidence and support positive development. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-youre-smart-backfire-young-children.html Education Mon, 07 Sep 2026 15:20:04 EDT news708000065 Despite efforts to encourage broader participation, women earn about 25% of undergraduate engineering degrees and 18% of undergraduate computer science degrees—and men remain a small minority among people earning nursing and education degrees. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-students-grades-degrees-academic-major.html Social Sciences Fri, 04 Sep 2026 15:20:01 EDT news707740774 How important is it that kids learn to tell right from wrong? Businessman and former university chancellor David Gonski recently called for ethics classes to be rolled out in all Australian schools to boost social cohesion. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-largest-formal-ethics-students-moral.html Social Sciences Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:20:11 EDT news707474617 Young people leaning on AI chatbots for emotional support or personal advice are significantly more likely to struggle with serious emotional problems, feel isolated and doubt that they truly matter to others, a new uOttawa study warns. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-chatbot-emotional-loneliness-students.html Education Mon, 31 Aug 2026 18:50:01 EDT news707416262 Intelligent people tend to perform better at school and at work, as numerous studies have shown. But what happens in domains where incentives such as good grades or financial rewards don't apply and where socioeconomic status is not a significant factor? Wine knowledge is a case in point. Intelligence researcher Maximilian Krolo of Saarland University has investigated whether intelligence can predict the acquisition of deep knowledge in a specialized domain. The findings have now been published in the journal Intelligence & Cognitive Abilities in an article co-authored with Professor of Psychology Timothy C. Bates of the University of Edinburgh. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-bright-people-wine-higher-intelligence.html Social Sciences Tue, 25 Aug 2026 19:40:03 EDT news706889575 Large language models (LLMs) are making writing styles more similar without changing the overall meaning, according to an analysis of more than 880,000 texts across different writing types published in Nature Human Behaviour. The findings indicate that using LLMs could make it more difficult to identify important clues about aspects of a person's identity, personality and mental health from their language. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-chatbots-similar-identity-personality.html Social Sciences Tue, 25 Aug 2026 10:40:04 EDT news706868528 Up until two years ago, using large language models was still considered a special skill that everyone was encouraged to learn. Now, it is ubiquitous, especially in writing research papers that eventually become part of the scientific knowledge we build around a subject. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-marker-words-sharp-ai-biomedical.html Education Mon, 24 Aug 2026 16:00:07 EDT news706796832 Some teenagers are happy to wait for a bigger reward tomorrow rather than cash in today. Others would rather take the sure thing now—or gamble on a risky, high-payoff bet. According to a new study, these everyday differences in patience and risk appetite are more than personality quirks. They help determine which program a high school graduate chooses—and, with it, the shape of their working life for decades to come. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-patience-longer-paths-faster-growth.html Economics & Business Fri, 21 Aug 2026 13:20:01 EDT news706532281 From the daily weather forecast to a baseball player's batting average to an individual's risk of developing lung cancer, understanding statistics can help people in the United States navigate their lives, according to Mark Ramos, assistant research professor of health policy and administration at Penn State. However, more than half of adults in the U.S. reported knowing little or nothing about basic statistical concepts, according to a recent study led by Ramos. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-adults-lack-basic-statistical.html Mathematics Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:20:03 EDT news706525741 When we read a news story about a new cancer treatment, an Alzheimer's breakthrough or an innovative technology, we rarely think about everything that happens behind the scenes before that information reaches newspapers, radio or television. Scientists publish their findings in specialist journals, and journalists decide which of those papers are worth reporting to the public. This selection shapes the scientific information available to society, influences public opinion on specific topics and creates trends of interest that may even affect which areas of research receive more or less funding in the future. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-lab-headlines-news-dont.html Social Sciences Thu, 20 Aug 2026 15:50:01 EDT news706456741