The Learning Scientists Podcast

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In this podcast episode, Dr Cindy Nebel chats about her thoughts on AI and student learning.

Resources shared in the episode:
Is Intuition the Enemy of Instruction? (Part 1)

Is Intuition the Enemy of Instruction? (Part 2)

Student Learning and Assessments in the Age of AI

Chess study described here: Effective Learning Strategies depend on Prior Knowledge

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.

In this podcast episode, Dr Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel interviews Dr Elida Cena (Queen’s University Belfast) and Dr Ashley Robertson (University of Glasgow) about their recent study on “Studying with GenAI: Student views on the opportunities and risks of GenAI in higher education”. Their study centered students’ voices in discussions about generative AI (GenAI) in higher education, aiming to explore how they use these tools, their perceived benefits, and concerns about the impact on learning and assessment. Conducted at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Glasgow, the research sought to uncover common experiences across different institutional contexts while recognizing the influence of local cultures. Unlike prior studies that relied on surveys, this project used focus groups facilitated by student researchers to capture not just individual opinions but also how students collectively discuss, negotiate, and make sense of GenAI. The motivation was to shift the conversation from institutional responses to concrete student insights. 

The study revealed that students have a complex and nuanced relationship with GenAI. While initially apprehensive due to concerns about academic misconduct and uncertainty around its role, students ultimately viewed GenAI as a learning support. However, students also expressed concerns about cognitive offloading, fearing that over-reliance on GenAI could undermine critical thinking, independent judgment, and the learning process itself. They highlighted issues of fairness in assessments, particularly in group projects where uneven GenAI use could disadvantage some. Students recognized GenAI’s value but emphasized the need for balance, ensuring GenAI enhances learning rather than replaces it. Students also called for clearer guidance and a shift in academic attitudes, moving beyond resistance to new technologies and instead focusing on preparing for a future where GenAI is integral to work and learning. 

For students, the key advice is to critically engage with GenAI, using it as a tool to spark ideas and enhance understanding rather than replace independent thinking. Asking whether GenAI is fostering deeper learning or merely speeding up tasks is crucial. For staff, the recommendation is to embrace conversations about GenAI with students, even without full confidence, and to create collaborative spaces where educators can share experiences, build confidence, and develop the judgment needed to integrate GenAI responsibly into their teaching.

Dr Elida Cena is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast. Her work explores international students’ sense of belonging, intercultural and academic experiences and the role of educational approaches in supporting culturally and linguistically diverse students in achieving equitable learning outcomes. More recently, her research has examined student experiences of using Generative (AI) for learning and assessment and is currently working on the implications of AI-supported learning within diverse learning settings.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/elida-cena-883910285 

Dr Ashley Robertson is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Glasgow, where she leads the Pedagogy and Education Research Unit. Ashley's research focuses on mental health in neurodivergent people, and on how to make teaching, supervision, and assessment more inclusive – reducing hidden barriers in Higher Education by making expectations and processes clearer. As part of this program of research, she is interested in student and staff experiences of Generative AI.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-robertson-8336b94b/ 

Cena, E., McParland, A., Toivo, W., Dalton, B., Mundy, M., O’Connor, P. A., Robertson, A. E., Swingler, M., Wilson, P., & Duncan, C. (2026). Studying with GenAI: Student views on the opportunities and risks of GenAI in higher education. Education and Information Technologies, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-026-13923-3 

Kuepper-Tetzel, C. E. (2026). Student learning and assessments in the age of AI. The Learning Scientists Blog. https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2026/7/23-1 

Chung, J., Henderson, M., Slade, C., Liang, Y., Pepperell, N., Corbin, T., Walton, J., Yu, A. S., Bearman, M., Buckingham Shum, S., Fawns, T., McCluskey, T., McLean, J., Oberg, G., Seligmann, A., Shibani, A., Bakharia, A., Lim, L.-A., & Matthews, K. E. (2026). The use and usefulness of GenAI in higher education: Student experience and perspectives. Computers and Education Open, 10, Article 100347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2026.100347

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.

In Episode 99, Megan talks about flashcards. Flashcards are a tool like anything else; they can be used to promote effective learning strategies, and also used in ways that are not so effective. This brief episode is designed to help students understand the best ways to use flashcards, and ways to avoid using flashcards.

• Be Your Own Teacher: How to Study with Flashcards: https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/2/20-1

• Learning with Flashcards: https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2023/2/3-1

• How to use Retrieval Practice: https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/6/23-1

• The 5-Sided Flashcard: https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2019/4/4-1

• A Student's Perspective on the Use and Helpfulness of Retrieval Practice: https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/7/19-1

• Leveraging AI in a Research-Driven Way: Augmenting Feedback During Spaced Retrieval Practice Using ChatGPT: https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2023/10/19-1

Hi I'm Dr. Megan Sumeracki, and I want to talk a little bit about flashcards. I know flashcards can be a really popular way for students to study and they really can be a great tool as long as they're used to promote effective learning strategies.

It's not that flashcards are inherently good or bad, it's that they can be used in lots of different ways and some of those ways promote effective learning strategies while some of those ways don't.

It's a tool like anything else and the tool can be used well and not so well.

So, with flashcards one thing to keep in mind is that making the flashcards might not be the most effective way to study. Sometimes students will tell me that making the flashcards is the part that's really important for them. That they like taking their index cards and copying content onto the flashcards. Copying our notes or copying content isn't necessarily a great way to, to learn the information in the long run. If a student is having to think about what to include and what not to include and how the different concepts are related to one another; as they're thinking about what to put on those cards, that might be an effective an effective exercise. But just copying the content isn't really beneficial in and of itself.

And so if you have access to somebody else’s cards you don’t need to worry about it. Making the flashcards themselves isn’t particularly helpful unless it forces you to think about what’s important and what’s not important and forces you to kind of organize the information.

So however you end up with your flashcards, once you actually have them, you want to use them to practice retrieval. Retrieval practice is all about bringing information to mind from your memory. And so if you take an index card, and let’s say you have a term on one side and a definition on the other side, if what you’re doing is looking at the term and thinking, hmmm, that seems familiar and then flipping it over and reading the other side of the card, that’s not retrieval practice. That’s just repeated reading, but with a flashcard.

What you really want to do is force yourself to bring the information to mind from memory. So if you’ve got index cards, flashcards with terms and definitions, you wanna look at the term and see if you can put the definition into your own words. Say it out loud. To a friend, or a pet, or just the wall. Or even take a blank sheet of paper  and write out what you can remember about the term based on, on the term that you have on the index card. You’re basically using the index card as a cue. That’s practicing retrieval. And then, you can flip the card and take a look and see what you got right and what you might need to work on more. But in this way you’re forcing yourself to try to bring the information to mind from memory before giving yourself feedback.

And it’s okay if you don’t remember everything, or even if you don’t remember anything right away. Trying to practice retrieval before taking a look will make that that extra study opportunity, that looking, the feedback, more beneficial. And you can work your way up to being able to explain the information from your own memory.

Now, in addition, it’s not a great idea to use flashcards just to memorize terms and definitions. If that’s all you need to know, if you really do just need to be able to recite the definition of a term then this way of using flashcards with terms and definitions can be great. But a lot of times what we’re trying to do is learn what a term or what a concept is and then also understand. Understand how it can be used in a lot of different situations. Understand how it’s similar to other concepts. Understand how it’s different from other concepts. And you can use flashcards for this higher order more meaningful learning as well. You just have to be really intentional about it. And so one thing you might do is forget about the definitions on the other side. Just grab two flashcards at random with two different concepts on those cards. And from your memory, do the best you can to explain what each one is, in your own words. So not reciting the definition but just explaining what it is on your own. And then, think of all the ways those concepts are similar, and think of all the ways those concepts are different.

Sometimes you might randomly grab two concepts that are really, really similar to one another but they have one key difference. And knowing what that key difference is helps you discriminate between those two concepts. Sometimes you might grab two concepts that seem completely unrelated to one another, and the differences are huge. But there might be one way that they’re similar. Or at least you can identify what way they both fit into some organizational structure.

So, for example, I teach research methods. And if I’m teaching the students about independent and dependent variables. They’re not the same thing, but they are similar. They’re both variables within an experiment. One of them is manipulated within an experiment; the other one is measured. And knowing what the key difference is, is really important.

There might be two concepts that are really different from one another. Like … knowing what the institutional review board is and, gosh, and then it’s going to be hard in research methods to even come up with something that’s totally different… But knowing what the institutional review board is and maybe also knowing what a dependent variable is. And those things are pretty different. They’re both research methods, but the institutional review board is all about examining ethics of an experiment or studies and looking over what a researcher is planning to do to make sure that we are protecting the participants in the study. Whereas a dependent variable is, within an experiment, the variable that is being measured. But of course there is a relationship between them. So, I might describe what those two things are, and say they’re really different. One is a variable and one is an ethical body. But the similarity, what makes them, what makes them linked up is that an institutional review board is going to look at a researchers' proposed dependent variables to make sure that the types of questions that the participants are being asked or the types of things that the researcher is asking them to do feels, feels safe. And so in that way they’re somewhat similar.

And so it’s okay if you grab two concepts that seem completely unrelated because you’re learning them together for a reason. And if you can figure out what the key the key similarity is, the reason they’re both in the same organizational structure, that’s going to help you.

And so, in this way, you can use retrieval practice not just for memorizing but also for this sort of higher order more meaningful learning. And learning and being able to apply the information in the long run, which often is the goal in education or the classes that we’re taking. We want to pass our classes but we also want to know the information  and be able to use it in future classes and in life or our careers in the future.

So, I'm going to go ahead and link to a couple of blog posts that describe effective ways of using flashcards so that if you want to read about this more or learn more about retrieval practice you can.

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In Episode 98, Cindy interviews Sarah Oberle and Mitch Weathers, experts in executive functioning. They are authors of a new book: Executive Functions for Every K-3 Classroom: Promoting Self-Regulation for a Strong Start.

In this episode, Sarah and Mitch define executive functioning and how it differs from related topics like motivation and working memory. The conversation touches on executive functioning across different grade levels and populations and how to distinguish between more and less evidence-based executive functioning work. During the conversation, Cindy refers to a model of working memory which is described here.

To learn more about executive functioning, you can visit any of the links below:

1) https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2018/1/9-1
2) https://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2018/6/20/episode-21-executive-function-development-with-emma-blakey
3) https://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/2025/7/3/episode-91-executive-functioning-in-special-education-with-sean-mccormick

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.

In Episode 97, Althea reads her blog post Thinking is Hard.

In Episode 95, Cindy talks with Myriam Da Silva about believing in yourself to support learning.

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.

In Episode 95, Cindy talks with Emily Kircher-Morris, M.A., M.Ed., LPC, a licensed professional counselor specializing in supporting neurodivergent kids and adults (and their families). Emily hosts the popular Neurodiversity Podcast and had authored multiple books, including Neurodiversity-Affirming Schools: Transforming Practices So All Students Feel Accepted and Supported.

Cindy and Emily discuss the definition of neurodiversity, the complex legal process of getting accommodations for students, and tips and tricks for educators to recognize and meet the needs of neurodivergent students. In the episode, Emily references several research articles and resources, listed below.

Rinn, A. (2021). Social, emotional, and psychosocial development of gifted and talented individuals. Routledge.

Butera, C., Ring, P., Sideris, J., Jayashankar, A., Kilroy, E., Harrison, L., ... & Aziz‐Zadeh, L. (2020). Impact of sensory processing on school performance outcomes in high functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Mind, Brain, and Education, 14(3), 243-254.

SPACE Training Podcast Episode

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In Episode 94, Althea reads her blog post Retrieval Practice in the Health Professions.

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.

In Episode 93, Carolina chats with Dr Chiara Horlin, a Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow, about wellbeing in educators and specifically about a phenomenon called ‘compassion fatigue’. Compassion fatigue is the psychological, emotional, and physical strain of consistently emphasizing with people in distress when supporting them. A usual scenario could be educators providing pastoral care to their students and engaging in constant empathic engagement. In this episode, we discuss how compassion fatigue manifests in different educational sectors, explore the risk factors, the personal and professional impact, and highlight ways to manage compassion fatigue. Chiara has conducted studies on this topic and you can read them here.

This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page.

In Episode 92, Althea talks with Leonardo Feletto. Leo has a PhD in Molecular Biology and is now a science teacher. But most important for this particular episode, Leo is a science communicator.

Below is a link to the peer-reviewed paper about engaging students in science communication (and, the full PDF is freely accessible!):

• Kiessling, T., Christina, C., Katrin, K., Enzingmüller, C., Kremer, K., Katrin, K., Dittmann, S., Schulenburg, H., & Parchmann, I (2025). How can we enable school students to learn and participate in science engagement initiatives? Roles and tasks of enablers. Journal of Science Communication, 24(4), N02. https://doi.org/10.22323/148020250716165543