The Education and Cognition (EdCog) Journal Club creates a hyflex learning environment for researchers, academics and community members to come together to discuss concepts related to learning, education and teaching. The biweekly meetings run in the Fall and Winter terms, and draw upon current and historic research articles that have informed the science of learning. In a typical meeting, we have representatives joining us online from several campuses to complement the in-person cohort to engage in lively discussions about assigned journal article readings connecting research on education and cognition to applications in education, training and policy. We will discuss the utility of the research papers and how we can employ the techniques in our classrooms (or industry).
All are welcome to both terms of the Journal Club. The aim of both semesters is the same – how can we inform our own teaching practices using evidence-based strategies.
The fall term will engage a collection of interdisciplinary research papers that investigate the scholarship of teaching and learning. Teaching Assistants from McMaster University’s Introductory Psychology course will guide members through the teachings and facilitate discussions to enhance learning and application of concepts. Members will be given opportunities to engage with interdisciplinary researchers, academics (from all levels and stations of learning) and community members from across Canada.
The winter term will include more advanced readings looking at new, cutting-edge research in the field of Education Cognition. The McCall MacBain Postdoctoral Fellows will facilitate members as they dissect the theories, methods, results and conclusions from these fascinating papers.
Through two semesters of participation, Members will gain a solid foundation in essential and applied readings in Education and Cognition to pursue discipline-based education research (DBER) projects and influence policy under the supervision of a faculty member.
Schwerter, J., & Brahm, T. (2024). Voluntary e-learning exercises support students in mastering statistics. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 29, 1437–1474.
Weekly online exercises incorporating retrieval practice, spacing, and corrective feedback were associated with better examination performance among undergraduate statistics students. Relatively few students spaced their practice voluntarily, even though those who did appeared to benefit. The study invites discussion about whether evidence-based learning activities should remain optional or be built into course requirements.
Krause-Wichmann, T., Klopp, E., Stark, L., & Stark, R. (2025). Promoting future teachers’ pedagogical knowledge: The role of self-generated vs. provided illustrative examples after instruction. Instructional Science, 53, 1691–1714.
The researchers randomly assigned 105 student teachers to generate their own examples, study provided examples, or receive instruction without additional examples. The study examines when illustrative examples help students transform abstract educational principles into applicable knowledge. It offers a basis for discussing generative learning, prior knowledge, learner effort, and when instructors should provide examples rather than ask students to produce them.
Guo, K., Pan, M., Li, Y., & Lai, C. (2024). Effects of an AI-supported approach to peer feedback on university EFL students’ feedback quality and writing ability. The Internet and Higher Education, 63, 100962.
An AI chatbot was incorporated into nine peer-review activities completed by 124 undergraduates. Compared with conventional peer review, the AI-supported approach improved the quality of students’ feedback and the writing performance of the students providing it. Rather than simply comparing AI with a teacher, the study treats AI as scaffolding for a cognitively productive student activity, making it a useful extension of the journal club’s previous AI readings.
Wagner, S., Sibley, L., Weiler, D., Burde, J.-P., Scheiter, K., & Lachner, A. (2024). The more, the better? Learning with feedback and instruction. Learning and Instruction, 89, 101844.
Across three experiments with university students learning about electric circuits, the authors tested different combinations of strategy instruction and formative feedback. Basic corrective feedback sometimes undermined transfer, whereas elaborated feedback complemented prior instruction. The findings challenge the assumption that combining individually effective teaching techniques will necessarily produce better learning.
Onan, E., Biwer, F., Abel, R., Wiradhany, W., & de Bruin, A. (2024). Optimizing self-organized study orders: Combining refutations and metacognitive prompts improves the use of interleaved practice. npj Science of Learning, 9, Article 33.
In this preregistered experiment, undergraduates organized materials for a category-learning task. Students initially favoured blocked practice, but an intervention combining refutation of common misconceptions with metacognitive prompts substantially increased their use of interleaving. The change persisted in a delayed-transfer task, and greater use of interleaving was associated with better classification performance. The study invites discussion about why students resist effective strategies that feel difficult and whether correcting misconceptions is enough to produce lasting changes in study behaviour.
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