https://phys.org/science-news/education/ en-us Phys.org provides latest news on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education Admissions applications, discussion posts, grades, and activity logs are among the most common signals educators use to gauge whether students will thrive in an online program. But two new Georgia Tech studies suggest those measures tell only part of the story. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-assumptions-online-success.html Education Mon, 03 Aug 2026 15:20:05 EDT news704981521 Students who open a personal social media account earlier in adolescence appear to perform worse on later standardized tests, according to a study in Nature Human Behaviour based on 5,227 Italian students. The authors speculate that these differences may be attributable to excessive social media engagement and disruptions to students' attention. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-kids-social-media-earlier-worse.html Social Sciences Mon, 03 Aug 2026 14:40:06 EDT news704980981 Speak into a phone and an app can render your words in another language in seconds. AI-powered speech translation can be fast, convenient and fluent. But fluency does not guarantee that people will understand one another. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ai-fluent-communication-words.html Social Sciences Mon, 03 Aug 2026 10:00:01 EDT news704965742 With no background in coding, Faith Maeba, a psychology major, was reluctant when her mother first suggested she enroll in classes on artificial intelligence. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-colleges-ai-boom-dabble-science.html Education Mon, 03 Aug 2026 07:10:02 EDT news704945533 How do students actually use AI learning assistants? A new research paper by IU International University of Applied Sciences provides the first robust answers to this question. For the study "Using AI-based Learning Assistants in Higher Education: A Large-Scale Descriptive Analysis," the research team led by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kristina Schaaff, Dr. Valerie Hekkel and Quintus Stierstorfer analyzed anonymized usage data from approximately 77,000 IU online students who were using the Learning Companion Syntea at the time of the study. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-mirrors-student-online-learners.html Education Sun, 02 Aug 2026 10:20:01 EDT news704721316 Temporary anxiety can often surface before the first day of school. Sometimes, that can help kids get in the right mindset for a big day. But when anxiety becomes a constant feature of children's and teenagers' days, that stress doesn't switch off when they leave the classroom or finish an exam. It can become the body's norm, staying with learners long after graduation. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-students-anxious.html Education Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:00:01 EDT news704707862 A scientific paper reads as a clean progression from question to result. And yet, research almost never happens that way. Experiments fail, conversations redirect projects, and none of it survives into print. When the founders of a field retire, their tacit knowledge goes with them, and nothing records that it existed. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-inverting-seminar-recover-scientific-papers.html Education Fri, 31 Jul 2026 05:00:01 EDT news704619901 As artificial intelligence becomes part of how people work, learn and solve problems, a new University of Phoenix survey conducted by The Harris Poll finds that recent working learners see meaningful opportunities for AI to support accessibility. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-survey-highlights-ai-potential-advance.html Economics & Business Thu, 30 Jul 2026 20:40:03 EDT news704621471 When the COVID-19 pandemic forced in-person classroom instruction to go virtual, students suddenly needed their own laptops or tablets to interact with teachers and complete assignments. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-schools-rethinking-student-laptop.html Education Thu, 30 Jul 2026 14:40:03 EDT news704633401 A New York school district made global headlines this week for plans to trial a humanoid robot named "Sally" in high school classrooms. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-humanoid-classroom-robots-potential-teacher.html Education Wed, 29 Jul 2026 19:40:02 EDT news704539866 More than 4 in 5 physicians and dentists believe applicants who disclose a history of substance use on medical or dental school applications risk hurting their chances of admission, according to a new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-disclosing-substance-medical-dental-school.html Social Sciences Wed, 29 Jul 2026 07:20:02 EDT news704519042 A school district in a rural corner of upstate New York is hitting pause on plans to deploy an AI-powered, humanoid robot in the classroom after state education officials, teachers and local residents raised concerns, including the maker's ties to a company that produces hyper realistic sex bots. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-york-school-deploy-humanlike-ai.html Education Wed, 29 Jul 2026 04:30:01 EDT news704517396 Currently popular biographies of famous scientists may demotivate—rather than inspire—children's desire to study or pursue careers in science, according to researchers who studied the messages in 422 bestselling children's books. Study leader Jessica Gladstone, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said that while parents and educators often use these books to try to spark children's interest in science through exposure to role models, their narratives tend not to support this goal. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-biographies-demotivate-children-science.html Social Sciences Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:20:07 EDT news704474581 Children who attend preschool before starting school are significantly more likely to arrive ready to learn, according to a major Curtin University study of more than 123,000 Western Australian children. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-children-preschool-school.html Education Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:20:03 EDT news704464016 Prioritizing play offers a variety of benefits for children, from helping them grow their vocabulary to managing their big feelings with fewer behavioral problems. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-play-essential-young-children.html Social Sciences Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:40:08 EDT news704459101 As another academic year ends, some schools will be closing their doors permanently because of declining numbers of children. In England, declining birth rates over the past decade have led to more than 100 schools, predominantly in urban areas, closing permanently. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-falling-birth-schools-affecting-communities.html Social Sciences Tue, 28 Jul 2026 12:20:07 EDT news704454061 High schools in Massachusetts are struggling to accomplish the dual goal of helping immigrant newcomers progress toward English language proficiency and master the academic content required to graduate, according to a new report by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-academic-success-immigrant-high-schoolers.html Education Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:40:01 EDT news704452502 A puzzle that can tell players how fast they think on their feet has been developed by a University of Leeds researcher. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-psychologist-puzzle-fast.html Social Sciences Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:40:02 EDT news704442961 A substance-use prevention program delivered to students and their families in the sixth and seventh grades led to wide-ranging benefits well into adulthood and—for those who became parents—even positively affected their children, according to a new study by researchers in the Penn State College of Health and Human Development. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-benefits-middle-school-trickle-generation.html Education Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:06 EDT news704434081 Adolescents in both the United States and the United Kingdom have become increasingly ambitious about their future careers over the past two decades, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State. The team also found that family socioeconomic background plays a different role depending on the types of occupations students expect to pursue, with relatively small socioeconomic differences among American students aspiring to the highest-status careers. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-qa-teens-career.html Education Mon, 27 Jul 2026 23:00:03 EDT news704367472 Burying underwear in soil isn't a typical science lesson. But for students on Hornby Island, it's one way they can learn how seaweed supports local ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-qa-generation-coastal-scientists.html Education Mon, 27 Jul 2026 21:40:01 EDT news704389322 School cellphone bans might seem like a good way to improve learning for elementary school children, but new research published in Behavioral Sciences shows that simply owning a cellphone correlates with worse reading comprehension. Whether a child brings the phone to school made no difference in reading comprehension, the team of UCLA psychologists and researchers found. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-kids-cellphones-poorer-comprehension-scores.html Social Sciences Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:50:01 EDT news704390462 A study of more than 350,000 students in England has found that teachers predict higher A-Level grades for girls than boys who go on to achieve the same exam results. The findings raise fresh questions about the role of predicted grades in university admissions. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gender-gap-grades-university-admissions.html Education Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:40:03 EDT news704372822 Young people are navigating their romantic and sexual lives in an increasingly complex world. Social media content, including content from misogynistic influencers, has contributed to rapidly changing norms around gender, sex and relationships. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-teens-advice-consent-teachers-sex.html Social Sciences Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:20:03 EDT news704364362 Teaching science and religious education (RE) in a more connected way improves students' engagement with science and boosts interest in STEM careers, according to a UCL study. The findings suggest that helping young people see that science and religion can be compatible may encourage greater interest in future STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) study and careers among students regardless of religious beliefs. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-science-religion-stem-engagement.html Education Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:20:06 EDT news704364062 A learner stands in a room with a bottle, a cup and a book. The task is to figure out, step by step, where each object belongs in the room. Under the table? Or perhaps on the chair? A humanoid robot gives the instructions—but in Swahili, a language the learner does not know. To solve the puzzle, the learner must gradually decipher what the robot is saying. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-robot.html Social Sciences Fri, 24 Jul 2026 16:00:02 EDT news704120005 Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in classroom practice in Hong Kong, following the Education Bureau's release of the Blueprint for Digital Education Development in Primary and Secondary Schools and its commitment to supporting innovative technology in schools. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-explore-classroom-applications-ai-platforms.html Education Thu, 23 Jul 2026 22:20:02 EDT news704018597 A startling new study of a little-known, unpublished short story by Alan Turing challenges our understanding of the man who played a key role in cracking the Nazis' Enigma code, developed the theoretical underpinnings of the first computers and laid the groundwork for the development of artificial intelligence. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-alan-turing-gay-short-story.html Social Sciences Thu, 23 Jul 2026 19:10:01 EDT news704018582 Anyone who has spent time on a college campus lately has probably heard laments from faculty about their students' reading habits, or rather, nonreading habits. Such complaints are more than unfounded nostalgia for a bygone age. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-college-professors-emerging-students-longer.html Education Thu, 23 Jul 2026 18:00:01 EDT news704028662 A mother's everyday speech habits have little bearing on her child's academic success, according to new research led by the University of York. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-mothers-impact-children-school-grades.html Social Sciences Thu, 23 Jul 2026 12:40:02 EDT news704017863