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Psychology

Essays and videos offering insights into the self, relationships, cognition and neuroscience
A smiling young girl and a cat, nose to nose, by a window sill, with pinecones beside them
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essay

Stories and literature

The best stories smell

When scents are used to intensify a narrative, they heighten young readers’ emotions and enrich their memory banks

Natalia Kucirkova

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essay

Cognition and intelligence

Are you an artistic genius?

Maybe not, but if that’s the threshold you use for creativity in your life, you are coming at the problem all wrong

James C Kaufman

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video

Film and visual culture

The old-time cinema experience endures in a quiet corner of Japan

5 minutes

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essay

Teaching and learning

Learning styles don’t exist

A teaching approach that is based on students’ preferences sounds laudable. But this misunderstands how learning happens

Carl Hendrick

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essay

Philosophy of mind

Philosophy’s blindspot

Education has long been ignored by contemporary philosophers. That is a myopic view that must change

David Bakhurst

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video

Teaching and learning

Ronald grew up in a New York City library. It was as strange and wondrous as it sounds

3 minutes

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video

Teaching and learning

The vulva dialogues – inside a sex-ed class that rebels against genitalia shame

11 minutes

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video

Sex and sexuality

What does the Dutch model of comprehensive, ‘shame-free’ sex-ed look like?

9 minutes

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video

Teaching and learning

The charity that teaches underprivileged kids to humanely hunt their next meal

10 minutes

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essay

Knowledge

Philosophy with children

Kids don’t just say ‘the darndest things’. Playful and probing, they can be closer to the grain of life’s deepest questions

Jana Mohr Lone

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essay

Thinkers and theories

With charisma to spare

Franz Brentano, philosopher and psychologist, was an iconic teacher eclipsed by his students, Freud and Husserl among them

John A Goldsmith

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video

Teaching and learning

A retired teacher embarks on a mission to find out what became of a beloved student

16 minutes

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essay

Education

Education, unchained

Rousseau’s child-centred ideals are now commonplace but his truly radical vision of educational freedom still eludes us

James Brooke-Smith

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video

Neuroscience

Parents have long suspected Pokémon rewires kids’ brains. Now there’s evidence

7 minutes

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essay

Family life

Kid culture

In most cultures, kids tag along with grownups or mooch with friends but American life is heavy with ‘kid-friendly’ artifice

Sarah Menkedick

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idea

Teaching and learning

I was homeschooled for eight years: here’s what I recommend

Mordechai Levy-Eichel

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idea

Cognition and intelligence

Talent, you’re born with. Creativity, you can grow yourself

Jyoti Mishra

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video

Teaching and learning

It’s great to learn music as a child – except when it’s no fun at all

10 minutes

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video

Teaching and learning

The school where children make the rules and learn what they want to learn

28 minutes

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video

Animals and humans

A gentle stroll through an owl sanctuary might just restore your faith in humanity

28 minutes

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idea

Mood and emotion

Trigger warnings don’t help people cope with distressing material

Christian Jarrett

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idea

Philosophy of science

Science is deeply imaginative: why is this treated as a secret?

Tom McLeish

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essay

Teaching and learning

The value of shame

Immanuel Kant held that moral education is hydraulic: shame squashes down our vices, making space for virtue to rise up

Louise Chapman

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idea

Education

Why streaming kids according to ability is a terrible idea

Oscar Hedstrom