https://phys.org/science-news/education/ en-us Phys.org provides latest news on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education A new study of 4,200 adolescents revealed that cyberbullying rarely occurs in isolation; it almost always functions as an extension of physical and verbal aggression already present in the school environment. The study, conducted at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) in Brazil, mapped students' involvement in bullying and found that the lines between victims and perpetrators often blur in a cycle of violence spanning both the physical and digital worlds. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-cyberbullying-rarely-isolation-functions-extension.html Social Sciences Fri, 09 Oct 2026 15:00:08 EDT news710773501 U.S. colleges and universities have long struggled to increase the racial diversity of their faculty. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-faculty-diversity-universities-lags-demographics.html Education Fri, 09 Oct 2026 12:20:11 EDT news710766137 A teenage boy goes to the gym several times a week. He takes protein powder and watches what he eats carefully. He talks about being "ripped" or "jacked." https://phys.org/news/2026-10-son-gym-lot-healthy-wrong.html Social Sciences Fri, 09 Oct 2026 09:20:08 EDT news710754241 Can literature foster greater acceptance of LGBT people among elementary school students? This is the core question behind a study conducted by researchers Guillermo Soler, María Ribes and José Rovira-Collado from the Language and Literature Didactics area of the Department of Teaching Innovation and Training at the University of Alicante (UA). https://phys.org/news/2026-10-lgbt-stories-linked-inclusive-attitudes.html Education Thu, 08 Oct 2026 21:20:06 EDT news710672028 An international research effort has examined how children develop the ability to express what story characters think, feel and perceive. Research groups from around the world collected 5,507 picture-based stories from 2,763 typically developing monolingual and bilingual children ages 3 to 13. The children came from 32 countries and spoke 44 languages. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-children-characters-thoughts-stories.html Education Thu, 08 Oct 2026 16:20:18 EDT news710688337 The OECD reports schools worldwide are under growing strain from teacher shortages. "It is getting harder to recruit, retain and deploy qualified teachers where they are most needed," it has found. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-teachers-happy-linked-students.html Social Sciences Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:40:09 EDT news710685868 In online "prepper" communities—where people discuss ways to prepare for potential emergencies and disruptions—members often jokingly refer to their "zombie apocalypse" skills. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-apocalypse-skill-futureproof-hobby-fulfillment.html Social Sciences Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:00:05 EDT news710680261 Overworked teachers in southern India have a new tool for educating their students: Shiksha Copilot, an AI system that generates culturally relevant lesson plans for schools with few resources. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ai-tool-culturally-lessons-teachers.html Education Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:40:02 EDT news710679302 A few months ago, a friend posted something that caught my eye on social media. She struggled to listen to what she termed "(literally) breathless AI voices for audiobooks." https://phys.org/news/2026-10-language-machines.html Social Sciences Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:00:01 EDT news710676602 AI company Anthropic recently announced that its popular system Claude had identified an unusual family of biological molecules. These molecules were enzymes, a type of protein that speeds up chemical reactions in living organisms. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-biologist-queries-ai-major-discovery.html Education Thu, 08 Oct 2026 12:40:10 EDT news710676361 Children as young as five can engage meaningfully with complex ideas about human rights, new research from The University of Manchester suggests. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-children-young-human-rights.html Education Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:40:04 EDT news710674562 A new study examined how positive psychology interventions could help reduce teacher burnout and turnover, retain valuable knowledge and experience in our schools and create better learning environments for students. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-aims-teacher-burnout-turnover.html Education Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:00:17 EDT news710665922 Students with stronger reading skills are better able to spot misinformation online—and those skills may be especially important for teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds, according to a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-strong-skills-teens-resist-misinformation.html Social Sciences Thu, 08 Oct 2026 08:20:01 EDT news710664002 The traditional CPA firm partnership model is undergoing its most rapid transformation in decades. Driven by private equity (PE) investments and acquisitions, public accounting firms are restructuring operations, compensation and career pathways. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-private-equity-investments-rapidly-reshaping.html Economics & Business Thu, 08 Oct 2026 07:40:10 EDT news710655661 In Phillip Zane's classroom, students weigh an invitation to jump out of an airplane. The skydiving lesson and jump are free, and the exercise assumes there is zero risk of death. But an injury could mean $10,000 in medical expenses and $1,000 in lost wages. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-simulation-game-students-grasp-complex.html Economics & Business Thu, 08 Oct 2026 07:00:20 EDT news710653501 Articles published in The Conversation go well beyond academics writing for a general audience—they can also serve as valuable content for educators to use in the classroom. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-jargon-impact-undergraduates-art-communication.html Education Wed, 07 Oct 2026 20:00:02 EDT news710596683 Elementary school teachers often put such care into creating their classroom libraries: shelving multiple copies of each book, stringing lights around them to set the mood, situating beanbag chairs and magic carpet squares strategically to encourage students to settle in. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-survey-censor-controversy.html Education Wed, 07 Oct 2026 18:20:01 EDT news710595362 Although the use of AI may improve students' performance on average, what matters more is how students use it. If students use AI instrumentally, their grades may even be lower than those of students who do not use AI at all. By contrast, using AI to seek feedback and identify missing perspectives may lead to significantly better performance than other approaches to AI use. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ai-feedback-ready-students-higher.html Education Wed, 07 Oct 2026 16:20:01 EDT news710594927 Picking up a book for half an hour may feel like simple downtime, but reading for pleasure appears to do more than just entertain us. Research suggests it can support aspects of cognition and well-being, while also helping us understand and connect with other people. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-brain.html Social Sciences Wed, 07 Oct 2026 13:40:04 EDT news710588521 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 Many medical specialties now require graduating doctors to be skilled in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) for diagnosing patients and performing procedures. POCUS uses a portable ultrasound device to help clinicians make fast, accurate medical decisions. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education lists this skill as an official milestone for graduation. Even though training is improving for its potential use in treating head, eye and nerve conditions, POCUS is only moderately used by neurologists dealing with some neurological conditions. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-experts-deem-empowering-neurologists-neurology.html Education Mon, 05 Oct 2026 17:20:11 EDT news710423521 A new app is designed to help teachers stay healthy in their day-to-day work. The digital tool is the result of a three-year collaborative project between the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and health insurance provider AOK Bayern. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-health-app-teachers.html Education Mon, 05 Oct 2026 16:20:21 EDT news710422981 Ofsted reports are an influential factor parents consider when choosing an elementary school, with families abandoning schools after poor reports, according to new research. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ofsted-wields-great-power-school.html Social Sciences Mon, 05 Oct 2026 11:40:06 EDT news710407442 Students in a new study were neither clearly positive nor negative about more climate-friendly school meals. Whether the food tasted good, was filling and felt familiar played an important role. Students were somewhat more positive about reducing the amount of meat in recipes than about having more all-vegetarian days. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-climate-friendly-school-meals.html Social Sciences Sun, 04 Oct 2026 14:40:01 EDT news710146398 Why do some students become ever better at mathematics, while others plateau? Many people may think that mathematics is primarily about cognitive skills. A new study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) provides a more nuanced view. The paper is published in the journal Contemporary Educational Psychology. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-memory-student-math-skills.html Education Fri, 02 Oct 2026 15:40:08 EDT news710163661 When we speak with Luyao Huang, her Ph.D. project at Leiden University is in full swing. Two papers—a systematic literature review and a case study on an interdisciplinary course—are already behind her. Next year, she will carry out a study in which teachers react to various scenarios. Today, Huang tells us about her most recent study: a deep dive into student collaboration. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-interdisciplinary-collaboration-takeaways-teachers.html Education Fri, 02 Oct 2026 15:00:01 EDT news710159941 Knowledge workers such as scientists, teachers, lawyers and business leaders are increasingly using generative artificial intelligence applications for tasks that demand imagination, creativity and problem-solving. Ironically, perhaps, recent research shows that people who interact with generative AI for work tasks can end up not thinking critically. They can surrender to AI's quick and confident answers, which can lead to speedy but low-quality solutions. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ai.html Economics & Business Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:40:01 EDT news710158988 The U.K.'s National Year of Reading is asking people across the country to "go all in" on reading. But this invitation raises questions for many families: reading what, in which language and in what form? https://phys.org/news/2026-10-multilingual-readers-higher-enjoyment-daily.html Social Sciences Fri, 02 Oct 2026 11:40:06 EDT news710158567 It was the first day of school, and the kids at the Logan Intergenerational Family Education Center were not going to wait a second longer. Normally, the hordes of elementary schoolers would take turns chattering down the hallway to meet and visit their best friends—the senior-citizen residents of the Logan Manor nursing home—during breakfast. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-bridging-generations-early-spaces-benefit.html Social Sciences Thu, 01 Oct 2026 18:20:06 EDT news710093101 Elementary school students who use an AI-supported learning tool learn arithmetic more quickly than children who do not use such a tool. This is the finding of a multiyear study by Radboud University involving nearly 8,000 children. However, the researchers warn that it's no miracle cure, as the teacher's role remains essential even with AI. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-math-slightly-ai-human-teacher.html Education Thu, 01 Oct 2026 16:20:02 EDT news710085481