Press releases

Educational Sciences

Worse results and more drop-outs when teaching is in English

14 September, 2023 - Chalmers tekniska högskola

Using English as the language of instruction in higher education has a marked negative impact on learning outcomes when it is not the students’ first language, according to a new study from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. When 2,000 Swedish students were divided up into English-language and Swedish-language […]

Students positive towards AI, but uncertain about what counts as cheating

11 May, 2023 - Chalmers tekniska högskola

Students in Sweden are positive towards AI tools such as ChatGPT in education, but 62 percent believe that using chatbots during exams is cheating. However, where the boundary for cheating lies is highly unclear. This is shown in a survey from Chalmers University of Technology, which is the first large-scale study in Europe to investigate students’ attitudes towards artificial intelligence in higher education.

Pairing students supports integration at universities

23 February, 2023 - Chalmers tekniska högskola

The university world is international, but grapples with difficulties in integrating students from different countries. New research from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, points to a method that both reduces academic and social gaps and increases well-being. The recipe for success is to work in pairs – as chosen by the teacher.

Mobile phone ban in school does not work

13 December, 2022 - Göteborgs universitet

Since the first of August 2022, using mobile phones for other purposes than educational is forbidden in the classroom. A doctoral thesis from the University of Gothenburg shows that the law is problematic. The pupils need the mobile phones in their schoolwork and they manage to find ways to bring the phones into the classroom […]

Foreign aid to Ukraine: Lessons from the literature on strategic foreign aid

27 September, 2022 - Handelshögskolan i Stockholm

Ukraine is currently receiving substantial inflows of foreign aid from western donors to help the country withstand the Russian aggression. The foreign aid flows partly reflect altruistic motives from the donor side, but also donor’s domestic strategic foreign policy objectives as the war is seen as part of a battle over the future world order. In this brief, Anders Olofsgård, discuss the academic literature that has analysed the existence and consequences of strategic motivations behind aid flows more generally, and draw some preliminary insights for the case of Ukraine.

Results in TIMSS linked with earlier studies in maths and science

27 September, 2022 - Göteborgs universitet

For the first time has all data of grade eight students or equivalent of earlier international large-scale assessments in mathematics and science been linked and scaled to the series of TIMSS. This means that we now have comparable data for grade-eight mathematics and science since the 1960s. International large-scale assessments have been increasingly important for […]

Only in Sweden primary school remained open

28 September, 2021 - Göteborgs universitet

The social value of schools, shortcomings with distance learning and the need to be prepared for future pandemics. That is a few lessons learned in the wake of the school closures, shows an analysis of the political discussion in eight European countries among which only Sweden closed primary school. A group of researchers at the […]

Flickering screens may help children with reading and writing difficulties

10 June, 2021 - Göteborgs universitet

Children with reading and writing difficulties who are presented with text on screens with flickering white noise both read better and remember what they have read better, according to a Swedish-Norwegian study. Previous studies have shown that children with attention difficulties and/or ADHD solve cognitive tasks better when they are exposed to auditory white noise. […]