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Retreats are offered throughout the year and provide faculty an opportunity to set aside time for their writing, and write in the company of others in a comfortable, relaxed space. 

Academic year retreats are typically offered in August, December, and February, and focus on dedicated writing time and strategies for sustaining writing momentum.

The summer retreat and workshop is a multi-day immersive writing retreat and includes writing time, workshops, strategic planning, and feedback on works in progress. It is the signature event of the Faculty Write Program.

Learn more about faculty experiences in the summer retreat in the Duke News article  At summer retreat, faculty brush up on their writing  and academic year retreats in For weary scholars: A moment to regroup, reconnect, and write . 

Fall 2023 Semester Retreats

Writers kickoff , friday, september 1 | 9am-4pm  .

Set aside time to focus on your writing in a supportive community as we begin fall semester. Retreat includes structured writing time and opportunities to share progress and challenges with fellow writers. Open to faculty in any discipline.   Space is limited . Registration ends 8/25 or when retreat is full. Facilitator: Jennifer Ahern-Dodson. 

NC Engaged Scholar Writing Retreat 

Friday, october 27 | 9-3:30, nc mutual life building, durham, nc .

Gather with other community-engaged scholars across North Carolina to set aside time for writing, in community. This retreat will include directed writing time, optional individual breakout consultation sessions, and mini-workshops on writing strategies to help you create and sustain momentum. Registered participants will have an opportunity to sign up for a consultation session during the retreat. Sponsored by NC Campus Engagement. This event is also part of the Community-Engaged Scholarship@Duke series and is hosted by  Duke Civic Engagement , a unit of Durham and Community Affairs.  Co-sponsored by Duke Service-Learning. 

Learn more about North Carolina Campus Engagement Writing Retreats  here.

Questions: Contact  [email protected]   or  [email protected]

End-of-Semester / Winter Retreat December 14 &  15 | 9am-4pm Duke Integrative Medicine Center

Set aside time and space to focus on your writing in a supportive community as we close out fall semester. Retreat includes structured writing time, opportunities to share progress and challenges with fellow writers, and optional workshops. Open to faculty in any discipline. Priority registration for writing group participants through 11/27.  Sp a ce is limited . Sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Trinity College and the Thompson Writing Program. Facilitators: Jennifer Ahern-Dodson and Monique Dufour. Questions?  Contact Jennifer Ahern-Dodson,  [email protected]

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Regularly Offered Retreats

Retreats during breaks .

Provide a chance to reset and are designed to help you keep (or get) your writing moving during break.

Summer Scholarly Writing Retreat & Workshop - Signature Event* 

Each day of this multi-disciplinary retreat includes hands-on workshops and time to write independently in a comfortable, relaxed space. Learn practical skills about productive writing habits, make progress on a writing project, and participate in a writing community. If you want to spend some time with your writing in the summer, the retreat can help you to figure out the best way forward for you.  

*Celebrating 11th annual retreat in Summer 2023

Scholarly Writing Retreat: ALUMNI EDITION

Advanced writing retreat designed for writers who've participated in at least one summer retreat.

Pre-Tenure Women Writers  

This retreat provides a supportive environment for writers working toward tenure and promotion. Includes individual writer consultations and discussions on writing practices, strategic planning, and building and sustaining momentum. 

Writing, Mindfulness, and Movement

In this retreat, writers dedicate time to writing, quietly but also in community. Participants will have an opportunity to engage in activities designed to awaken awareness of physical habits and renew commitment to their writing as a fundamentally embodied practice.

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Participant Feedback

Barnes

“The retreat energized me for the final push of revisions on my book manuscript. I am extremely grateful for the experience, and think it is every bit as important as the FHI Faculty Book Manuscript Completion Fellowship in supporting Duke faculty to achieve their best in scholarly writing.” — Nicole Barnes, Assistant Professor of History, 2017 Scholarly Writing Retreat participant

“Having experienced faculty writing retreats and faculty advice before, I think what’s most valuable about this program is that it doesn’t have the attitude that faculty should be research machines and if you apply X productivity technique, you will be able to produce research like a machine. Instead, this retreat has the idea that you should learn to work efficiently, within a community of support, and with joy for your research.” — 2018 Scholarly Writing Retreat participant

“I cannot describe how important this retreat and others are for my writing. Moreover, through my continued participation in Faculty Write activities over the years, I have become not only a better writer, but, through that, a better teacher and mentor.” — 2019 participant

“I always love getting to know people from all over campus.  I feel that I am a part of an academic community beyond my own department/school.” — 2017 participant

“The time and effort the facilitators put into organizing the workshops and into listening to the needs, concerns, and challenges of each participant—as well as creating a space for participants to learn from and support each other—makes this a transformative experience.” — 2018 participant

“Thank you for providing a safe, thoughtful, respectful, and nurturing environment this week for the group to grow as writers.” — 2018 participant  

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Writing Retreat for Academics, PhD students and other professionals

Spring 2024 04/05 may – 19 may | 09 june – 23 june 1 | 2 weeks or 10 days, autumn 2024 21 sept – 05 oct | 20 oct -27 oct  1 | 2 weeks or 10 days.

Our writing retreats for academics, PhD students and other professionals offer you the possibility to concentrate on thinking, reading and writing in a sustained way, to recharge your battery, and to gain new inspiration. For individuals and groups. Let original new ideas be born, maybe even ground-breaking ideas for new projects, and your writing flow.

Read prof. dr. Halleh Ghorashi’s personal blog about revitalizing the academic inspiration and her experiences with our academic writing retreats.

Or read  Lu-Hai Liang’s blog about working on his first book at Artisa. He is a young British-Chinese journalist and writer and has been published widely in The Guardian, BBC, CNN, Aljazeera, Daily Telegraph, and The Independent, among others.

These weeks are ideal for spending (part of) your sabbatical, (re-)writing research proposals, working on a book, conference papers, articles, chapters, inaugural lectures, educational programs, working on joint projects, etc.

Sparring partnership and coaching on request. We organise structured writing together sessions, which participants experience as very inspiring and motivating. Participation is optional.

For PhD students it is a good opportunity to give a boost to your dissertation in a short period of time. Rediscover that writing a PhD thesis can progress smoothly and is fun.

Daily Schedule

The schedule is flexible and can be adjusted to your needs 07.30 – 08.15: Yoga and meditation 08.30 – 09.00: Breakfast 09.00 – 11.00 : Writing, reading, reflecting, composing 11.00 – 11.15 : Break 11.15 – 13.15: Writing, reading, reflecting, composing 13.15 – 14.00: Lunch 14.00 – 15.00 : Relaxing time, walking, swimming, siesta 15.00 – 17.00: Writing, reading, reflecting, composing 16.00 – 16.15: Break 17.00: Subgroup meetings if needed or time to exercise, relax, unwind, swim, walk 19.30: Evening dinner 21.00: Free time / presentations/ discussion / watching a movie

Dissertation writing week

We also organise our Dissertation writing week for PhD candidates, with tailor made coaching. In spring 2024 from 19th to 26th May (= fully booked) by dr. Frank Leoné and from 09th to 16th June by dr. Heleen van Luijn.

New for PhD students and academics

For PhD students and other academics, distance writing supervision can be given during the open retreat weeks. (at costprice) This coaching is provided by Dr. Catherine Brys , who is an experienced, qualified, academic writing coach. For more information click here.

Feel free to send us an e-mail if you would like to get more info about the program and/or distance coaching.

Some reviews For more reviews click here .

‘The set-up is fantastic, a good and well thought through balance between highly professional approach and personal touch, structure and flexibility, possibility for sociality and solitude. The setting contributed to enhanced sense of revitalization, centeredness and invigoration, combined with the enjoyment of interacting with inspiring individuals from different countries. Professionally, the stay was amazingly helpful for my writing, in ways that I did not expect and had not experienced before, although this is not my first writing retreat. There was a feeling of magical proliferation of ideas, new connections and analytical points from the first to the last day – I could not stop working – and the work was not exhausting but rather rejuvenating.’  Prof. dr. Venka Simovska, Denmark

‘I came to ARTISA to test whether an idea for a medical textbook that I’ve had for some time would actually be feasible. I was able to outline the project, do the required research and draft two chapters. This would never have happened had I not participated in a writing retreat. The setting was fantastic: lovely spacious rooms, excellent food, and warm and friendly hosts. I also enjoyed the stimulating companionship and walks on the beach and in the village. Writing can be a tough and lonely activity. The unique atmosphere at ARTISA made everything so much easier! After the retreat I feel energized and highly motivated to continue the book project. Thank you Celeste and everyone else for this fantastic experience!’ Associate professor, dr. Anna Keski-Rahkonen

‘Great week. This is the best combination of working in a beautiful and relaxed atmosphere and at the same time making significant progress with writing. The approach and set-up are perfect. The social context is great as well – you can be on your own or join others – no pressure either way. Everyone is extremely well taken care of.’ Prof. dr. B. Leyendecker, Professor Ruhr University, Bochem, Germany

‘Artisa is an outstanding place. Celeste does a marvellous job. You get so much work done in one week that you are thinking about your next stay while you are still there. I was simply thrilled. It was a great group, a marvellous place. It is the combination of routine and the feeling of being surrounded by creative people that is most stimulating.’ dr. Martin Kaiser, fellow researcher at University of Zurich.

‘At ARTISA I worked on a new philosophy book for a general audience. In Dutch. Great language for the kind of book I write. I experienced such a great possibility to focus on my work and stayed full of energy at the same time.’ Prof. Dr. J. Bransen

If you would like to stay informed about our activities

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Academic & Art retreat

ARTISA is an inspiring center for scientists, PhD students, artists, writers, leaders, entrepreneurs and other professionals from across the globe. Experience the innovative and productive power of ARTISA Academic and Art Retreat, in a wonderful setting in the hills of Le Marche in Italy.

Click here to read our privacy and cookie policy in English

Click here to read our privacy and cookie policy in Dutch

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Revitalizing the academic inspiration

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The refugee crises in Europe. Looking away is not an option.

ode aan de kookkunst

Homage to grandmother’s art of cooking

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Vici grant – Recognition for prof. dr. Halleh Ghorashi’s work

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  We were featured in Inside Higher Ed  & Sparking Academic Joy: Writing Retreats for Scholars Workbook           

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JOIN US MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, 2024

Dear Colleagues,

Michelle Rivera-Clonch, Ph.D. and Nic Flores, Ph.D. invite you to the 13 th annual Writing in Depth: An Academic Writing Retreat in partnership with Hope Springs Institute . This 3 night/4 day retreat will provide a context in which you will do some serious academic writing, reflect on your writing practices, and establish systems of accountability in regional working groups that will aid in your movement toward completing the writing project.

This primarily self-directed retreat is designed to focus on your writing and NOT on professional development. It is intended to give you space and support to reinvigorate your writing process and to reconnect you with a community of writers during a time when one can feel alienated and isolated.

Click here   to see a sample schedule

Click   here   for rates and registration

Click here   to see a list of participating institutions

We're looking forward to seeing you!

Day Fire.jpg

Imagine being able to devote 4 days to your writing project without any distractions... 

Which part of your writing project could benefit from your undivided attention?

Here are 10 unique things about Writing in Depth: An Academic Writing Retreat

that will support you in your writing...

 1.   No one will interrupt your writing flow ....no pets, neighbors, phone calls, family members, or friends.

 2.   You don't have to cook for yourself or others! Hope Springs' committed staff cooks three *delicious* (we're          not kidding!) home-made meals a day for you. Snacks, coffee, and teas are available 24/7 in the Dining Room.

 3.   Your   dietary needs will be accommodated.  Hope Springs specializes in providing "food that is full of love,              nutrition, beauty and satisfies body and soul."

 4.   You don't have to clean   up after yourself or others! Let Hope Springs take care of you!

 5.   T elevision   and internet surfing won't eat up your time.

 6.   Are you a Night Owl? or an Early Bird? No problem. You decide your own writing schedule.

 7.   Whether you are a solitary writer or a writer who likes to bounce ideas off of others, this retreat accommodates       all writing processes, styles, and needs.

 8.  Do you find inspiration from nature? Hope Springs sits on 130 acres of beautiful Northeastern Deciduous            Forest.

 9.   Need time to dwell with ideas? Hope Springs has a labyrinth , meditation circle, and outdoor fire pit in the                lower meadow; ridge trails, walking trails, and guided hikes into the ravine; ponds and streams; art supplies; yoga          supplies; and  more to support your writing process .

 10.  Want a little more adventure? Hope Springs is less than a half hour from Serpent  Mound - the largest and             finest serpent effigy in the United States . Nearly a  quarter of a mile long, Serpent Mound represents an                uncoiling serpent. Many who  come here build in a visit to this ancient mound.

***Check out Michelle's Invited Guest Blog Series "The Psychology Behind Writing" 

with the Textbook and Academic Authors Association!***

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Andy Tattersall

November 9th, 2020, how to run an academic writing retreat and bring the campus back together.

0 comments | 38 shares

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Since it started in 2011, Academic Writing Month has seen a growth of workshops and initiatives aimed at helping researchers to prioritise writing projects.  In 2020, as many researchers are in lockdown and working from home, there are new challenges for concentrating on and completing writing. In this post,  Andy Tattersall  outlines his experience running online writing retreats. He finds that they not enable researchers to be productive in lockdown but also bring back a sense of academic community, which the closure of campuses has compromised. 

As academics will testify, every month is a writing month. However, that core function has become harder for many since leaving the familiarity of their office spaces to work at home. This makes having a dedicated Academic Writing Month- November- even more valuable.

The initiative was originally started by PhD2Published founder Charlotte Frost in 2011 and has grown in popularity since then. Along with colleagues Lucy Lee, Kay Guccione (now at Glasgow Caledonian University) and myself have been involved in running our own iteration at Sheffield for the last few years with notable success. The month is full of writing retreats and workshops that are often full to capacity, mostly with PhD students but also researchers at all levels.

However, this year we have had to adapt, as campuses have been scattered far and wide and there is no scope for cramming 30 or so writers into a seminar room for a day’s worth of writing.

Writing in lockdown

It was obvious as my campus closed down that a lot of my colleagues and students were going to struggle more than ever to write. The disruption of suddenly finding yourself thrust into a new working space that is a makeshift office on a kitchen table with laptop and poor wifi connection. Add to that the issue of young children being at home and a fractured, anxiety-induced working day, the ability to write becomes even more impaired and requires a strategy to deal with it.

Writing difficulties have been exacerbated by the isolation and inability for many to feel that they are working in a cohesive, supportive environment. Realising the problem of disruption on writing activities back in March, I decided to start my own online writing retreat from my department. I had experience of this having launched a weekly writing retreat in 2015 as I needed to finish an edited book and realised that the only way I would do it would be to have other focused writers in the room with me. I started Write Club and styled it on a popular film of a similar name: “The first rule of Write Club is that you do not talk at Write Club. The second rule of Write Club is that you do not talk at Write Club’. It worked and I finished the book, and seeing how popular the sessions were, I decided to keep running them, whether I was writing or not.

How to run an online writing retreat?

I have run over 40 retreats over the last eight months with often 20 staff and students in attendance. The method for running these sessions is simple and does not require much organisation or planning. I have ensured that the sessions are open to all, regardless of position or department. I think the more people who attend, the better the session will be, the greater the community feel.

The sessions are based on the Pomodoro Technique which works on the model of short productivity chunks with regular breaks. Most sessions I run are two hours in duration which means they comprise of four x 25 minute Pomodoros, or I run a monthly longer (Boot Camp) session that has eight x 25 minute Pomodoros with a one hour lunch break in the middle.

In the breaks, attendees are encouraged to stretch their legs, get a drink, stay and talk over the microphone or use the chat function. Sessions are run in Blackboard Collaborate using the same virtual classroom which is open 24 hours a day, so attendees could run their own session if they wished to. Participation with a microphone is low, but chat conversations are often lively, so as the host I read out messages and share information and advice.

Sessions are run across different times with equal amounts timetabled for the morning, afternoon and in the evening as not everyone is able to focus on working in the daytime, especially if they have caring responsibilities. Staff and students sign up via a Google Form, which is attached to a spreadsheet with attendees names and emails. A colleague sends a Google Calendar invite, although there is no pressure to attend or be on time, it does help attendees remember upcoming sessions. So far I have had attendees from at least six different countries and different time zones.

I start the session by asking what everyone is working on and what they hope to achieve. The answer varies from working on their PhD, to data analysis and that perennial problem of the long, unfinished paper. I also share videos in the breaks of productivity meditations and desk yoga sessions, which are really well received. Occasionally at the longer Boot Camp sessions I’m joined by my colleague Anju keetharuth to deliver a calming meditation or invigorating yoga session to start things off. It is important to remind attendees that what they put into the session, they will get out more. I tell attendees to leave phones in another room, close down any social media and subconsciously think that we’re all in the same room. That subtle peer pressure hopefully adds an extra 10 percent effort. For those who might struggle to shut out distraction, it is worth noting tools like the brilliant Forest App which helps block out disruptive email, social media and news platforms. I use a Tibetan singing bowl to chime when the breaks happen which was gifted to me by an ex-colleague and a big fan of the Write Clubs.

There is no pressure to write in the sessions, some may do other activities, read, analyse data, create a poster. There is also no pressure to compete, if someone writes 1000 words – great, if they write 100 words and are really happy, then that’s great too.  I always ask for honesty and appreciate it when occasionally someone confesses to not having a good session – sometimes it’s not meant to be. Whatever happens, the vast majority of those who attend find they have produced more than if they hadn’t attended. I have managed to capture useful feedback formally and through the chat which has highlighted the importance of these sessions for academics and students. I believe that more students and researchers could benefit by attending them.

For those contemplating running their own retreats, whether for Academic Writing Month or afterwards, it is unlikely the majority of us will be back on campus before Spring; so just a few winter months of retreats could prove to be beneficial, not just for productivity, but also harmony. Once you get into the flow running them, they are not much work, but they do make a positive impact on a virtual campus. It has been interesting to hear conversations in the chat between PGRs and staff from different departments, there is a real collegial feel about some of the sessions. I plan to keep running them for the next few months and will be involved in my Sheffield’s Academic Writing Month and hope that even more staff and students will attend. They do bring a sense of academic community and are a productive and worthwhile activity for those who attend and can highlight that not all online meetings are a waste of time.

Note: This review gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Impact blog, or of the London School of Economics.

Image by  DarkmoonArt_de  from  Pixabay

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About the author

writing retreat academic

Andy Tattersall is an Information Specialist at The School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) and writes, teaches and gives talks about digital academia, technology, scholarly communications, open research, web and information science, apps, altmetrics, and social media. In particular, their applications for research, teaching, learning, knowledge management and collaboration. Andy received a Senate Award from The University of Sheffield for his pioneering work on MOOCs in 2013 and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is also Chair for the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals – Multi Media and Information Technology Committee. Andy was listed as one of Jisc’s Top Ten Social Media Superstars for 2017 in Higher Education. He has edited a book on altmetrics for Facet Publishing which is aimed at researchers and librarians. He tweets @Andy_Tattersall and his ORCID ID is 0000-0002-2842-9576.

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Visit our sister blog LSE Review of Books

How to Run an Academic Writing Retreat

How to Run an Academic Writing Retreat

Since it started in 2011, Academic Writing Month has seen a growth of workshops and initiatives aimed at helping researchers to prioritise writing projects.  In 2020, as many researchers are in lockdown and working from home, there are new challenges for concentrating on and completing writing. In this post,  Andy Tattersall  outlines his experience running online writing retreats. He finds that they not enable researchers to be productive in lockdown but also bring back a sense of academic community, which the closure of campuses has compromised. 

As academics will testify, every month is a writing month. However, that core function has become harder for many since leaving the familiarity of their office spaces to work at home. This makes having a dedicated Academic Writing Month- November- even more valuable.

The initiative was originally started by  PhD2Published  founder Charlotte Frost in 2011 and has grown in popularity since then. Along with colleagues Lucy Lee, Kay Guccione (now at Glasgow Caledonian University) and myself have been involved in running our own iteration at Sheffield for the last few years with notable success. The month is full of writing retreats and workshops that are often full to capacity, mostly with PhD students but also researchers at all levels.

However, this year we have had to adapt, as campuses have been scattered far and wide and there is no scope for cramming 30 or so writers into a seminar room for a day’s worth of writing.

Writing in lockdown

It was obvious as my campus closed down that a lot of my colleagues and students were going to struggle more than ever to write. The disruption of suddenly finding yourself thrust into a new working space that is a makeshift office on a kitchen table with laptop and poor wifi connection. Add to that the issue of young children being at home and a fractured, anxiety-induced working day, the ability to write becomes even more impaired and requires a strategy to deal with it.

Writing difficulties have been exacerbated by the isolation and inability for many to feel that they are working in a cohesive, supportive environment. Realizing the problem of disruption on writing activities back in March, I decided to start my own online writing retreat from my department. I had experience of this having launched a weekly writing retreat in 2015 as I needed to finish an edited book and realized that the only way I would do it would be to have other focused writers in the room with me. I started Write Club and styled it on a popular film of a similar name: “The first rule of Write Club is that you do not talk at Write Club. The second rule of Write Club is that you do not talk at Write Club’. It worked and I finished the book, and seeing how popular the sessions were, I decided to keep running them, whether I was writing or not.

How to run an online writing retreat?

I have run over 40 retreats over the last eight months with often 20 staff and students in attendance. The method for running these sessions is simple and does not require much organization or planning. I have ensured that the sessions are open to all, regardless of position or department. I think the more people who attend, the better the session will be, the greater the community feel.

The sessions are based on the  Pomodoro Technique  which works on the model of short productivity chunks with regular breaks. Most sessions I run are two hours in duration which means they comprise of four x 25 minute Pomodoros, or I run a monthly longer (Boot Camp) session that has eight x 25 minute Pomodoros with a one hour lunch break in the middle.

In the breaks, attendees are encouraged to stretch their legs, get a drink, stay and talk over the microphone or use the chat function. Sessions are run in Blackboard Collaborate using the same virtual classroom which is open 24 hours a day, so attendees could run their own session if they wished to. Participation with a microphone is low, but chat conversations are often lively, so as the host I read out messages and share information and advice.

Sessions are run across different times with equal amounts timetabled for the morning, afternoon and in the evening as not everyone is able to focus on working in the daytime, especially if they have caring responsibilities. Staff and students sign up via a Google Form, which is attached to a spreadsheet with attendees names and emails. A colleague sends a Google Calendar invite, although there is no pressure to attend or be on time, it does help attendees remember upcoming sessions. So far I have had attendees from at least six different countries and different time zones.

LSE-impact-blog-logo

I start the session by asking what everyone is working on and what they hope to achieve. The answer varies from working on their PhD, to data analysis and that perennial problem of the long, unfinished paper. I also share videos in the breaks of productivity meditations and desk yoga sessions, which are really well received. Occasionally at the longer Boot Camp sessions I’m joined by my colleague Anju Keetharuth to deliver a calming meditation or invigorating yoga session to start things off. It is important to remind attendees that what they put into the session, they will get out more. I tell attendees to leave phones in another room, close down any social media and subconsciously think that we’re all in the same room. That subtle peer pressure hopefully adds an extra 10 percent effort. For those who might struggle to shut out distraction, it is worth noting tools like the brilliant  Forest App  which helps block out disruptive email, social media and news platforms. I use a Tibetan singing bowl to chime when the breaks happen which was gifted to me by an ex-colleague and a big fan of the Write Clubs.

There is no pressure to write in the sessions, some may do other activities, read, analyze data, create a poster. There is also no pressure to compete, if someone writes 1000 words – great, if they write 100 words and are really happy, then that’s great too.  I always ask for honesty and appreciate it when occasionally someone confesses to not having a good session – sometimes it’s not meant to be. Whatever happens, the vast majority of those who attend find they have produced more than if they hadn’t attended. I have managed to capture useful feedback formally and through the chat which has highlighted the importance of these sessions for academics and students. I believe that more students and researchers could benefit by attending them.

For those contemplating running their own retreats, whether for Academic Writing Month or afterwards, it is unlikely the majority of us will be back on campus before Spring; so just a few winter months of retreats could prove to be beneficial, not just for productivity, but also harmony. Once you get into the flow running them, they are not much work, but they do make a positive impact on a virtual campus. It has been interesting to hear conversations in the chat between PGRs and staff from different departments, there is a real collegial feel about some of the sessions. I plan to keep running them for the next few months and will be involved in my  Sheffield’s Academic Writing Month  and hope that even more staff and students will attend. They do bring a sense of academic community and are a productive and worthwhile activity for those who attend and can highlight that not all online meetings are a waste of time.

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Andy Tattersall

Andy Tattersall is an information specialist at the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield. His role is to scan the horizon for web and technologies opportunities relating to research, teaching and collaboration and maintain networks that support this. He has a keen interest in new ways of working by employing altmetrics, Web 2.0 and social media but also paying close attention to the implications and pitfalls for using such advances. @andy_tattersall

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Tejendra Pherali on Education and Conflict

Connecting Legislators and Researchers, Leads to Policies Based on Scientific Evidence

Connecting Legislators and Researchers, Leads to Policies Based on Scientific Evidence

NSF Responsible Tech Initiative Looking at AI, Biotech and Climate

NSF Responsible Tech Initiative Looking at AI, Biotech and Climate

There’s Something In the Air…But Is It a Virus? Part 1

There’s Something In the Air…But Is It a Virus? Part 1

The historic Hippocrates has become an iconic figure in the creation myths of medicine. What can the body of thought attributed to him tell us about modern responses to COVID?

Gabe Miller Leaving CFHSS for Universities Canada

Gabe Miller Leaving CFHSS for Universities Canada

Gabriel Miller, currently the president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, has been named the president and chief executive officer of Universities Canada effective March 18.

New Report Finds Social Science Key Ingredient in Innovation Recipe

New Report Finds Social Science Key Ingredient in Innovation Recipe

A new report from Britain’s Academy of Social Sciences argues that the key to success for physical science and technology research is a healthy helping of relevant social science.

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Social, Behavioral Scientists Eligible to Apply for NSF S-STEM Grants

Social, Behavioral Scientists Eligible to Apply for NSF S-STEM Grants

Solicitations are now being sought for the National Science Foundation’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, and in an unheralded […]

With COVID and Climate Change Showing Social Science’s Value, Why Cut it Now?

With COVID and Climate Change Showing Social Science’s Value, Why Cut it Now?

What are the three biggest challenges Australia faces in the next five to ten years? What role will the social sciences play in resolving these challenges? The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia asked these questions in a discussion paper earlier this year. The backdrop to this review is cuts to social science disciplines around the country, with teaching taking priority over research.

Testing-the-Waters Policy With Hypothetical Investment: Evidence From Equity Crowdfunding

Testing-the-Waters Policy With Hypothetical Investment: Evidence From Equity Crowdfunding

While fundraising is time-consuming and entails costs, entrepreneurs might be tempted to “test the water” by simply soliciting investors’ interest before going through the lengthy process. Digitalization of finance has made it possible for small business to run equity crowdfunding campaigns, but also to initiate a TTW process online and quite easily.

SSRC Links with U.S. Treasury on Evaluation Projects

Thanks to a partnership between the SSRC and the US Department of the Treasury, two new research opportunities in program evaluation – the Homeowner Assistance Fund Project and the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Project – have opened.

NSF Responsible Tech Initiative Looking at AI, Biotech and Climate

The U.S. National Science Foundation’s new Responsible Design, Development, and Deployment of Technologies (ReDDDoT) program supports research, implementation, and educational projects for multidisciplinary, multi-sector teams

Gabe Miller Leaving CFHSS for Universities Canada

Big Think Podcast Series Launched by Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences

The Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences has launched the Big Thinking Podcast, a show series that features leading researchers in the humanities and social sciences in conversation about the most important and interesting issues of our time.

The We Society Explores Intersectionality and Single Motherhood

The We Society Explores Intersectionality and Single Motherhood

In a recently released episode of The We Society podcast, Ann Phoenix, a psychologist at University College London’s Institute of Education, spoke […]

The Social Science Podcast Guide

The Social Science Podcast Guide

This compilation of podcast series covers a host of topics and focus on specific subjects that pertain to the social and behavioral […]

New Report Finds Social Science Key Ingredient in Innovation Recipe

Too Many ‘Gray Areas’ In Workplace Culture Fosters Racism And Discrimination

The new president of the American Sociological Association spent more than 10 years interviewing over 200 Black workers in a variety of roles – from the gig economy to the C-suite. I found that many of the problems they face come down to organizational culture. Too often, companies elevate diversity as a concept but overlook the internal processes that disadvantage Black workers.

Harnessing the Power of Social Learning in Teaching Marketing

Harnessing the Power of Social Learning in Teaching Marketing

Dr. Tracy L. Tuten explores the power of social learning in teaching marketing, emphasizing the importance of collaboration, resource sharing, and the use of platforms like Perusall to foster a sense of community and enhance the educational experience, based on an online reading group of her book ‘Principles of Marketing for a Digital Age.’

A Social Scientist Looks at the Irish Border and Its Future

A Social Scientist Looks at the Irish Border and Its Future

‘What Do We Know and What Should We Do About the Irish Border?’ is a new book from Katy Hayward that applies social science to the existing issues and what they portend.

Brexit and the Decline of Academic Internationalism in the UK

Brexit and the Decline of Academic Internationalism in the UK

Brexit seems likely to extend the hostility of the UK immigration system to scholars from European Union countries — unless a significant change of migration politics and prevalent public attitudes towards immigration politics took place in the UK. There are no indications that the latter will happen anytime soon.

Brexit and the Crisis of Academic Cosmopolitanism

Brexit and the Crisis of Academic Cosmopolitanism

A new report from the Royal Society about the effects on Brexit on science in the United Kingdom has our peripatetic Daniel Nehring mulling the changes that will occur in higher education and academic productivity.

Good Governance, Strong Trust: Building Community Among an Australian City Rebuilding Project

Good Governance, Strong Trust: Building Community Among an Australian City Rebuilding Project

In this article, co-authors Johan Ninan, Stewart Clegg, Ashwin Mahalingam, and Shankar Sankaran reflect on their research interests and the inspiration behind their recent […]

A Black History Addendum to the American Music Industry

A Black History Addendum to the American Music Industry

The new editor of the case study series on the music industry discusses the history of Black Americans in the recording industry.

Organizational Learning in Remote Teams: Harnessing the Power of Games for Meaningful Online Exchanges

Organizational Learning in Remote Teams: Harnessing the Power of Games for Meaningful Online Exchanges

Could we make workplace online exchanges more meaningful, especially in the early weeks of global lockdowns when we still lacked the protocols for online interaction? This was the question the authors set out to investigate.

Marc Augé, 1935-2023: Anthropologist Founder Of ‘Non-Places’

Marc Augé, 1935-2023: Anthropologist Founder Of ‘Non-Places’

French anthropologist Marc Augé, who died on July 24, is renowned for his concept of “non-places”. His 1993 text of the same name describes a reality that is very much relevant to our everyday lives.

Jane M. Simoni Named New Head of OBSSR

Jane M. Simoni Named New Head of OBSSR

Clinical psychologist Jane M. Simoni has been named to head the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research

Amitai Etzioni, 1929-2023: Father of Communitarianism

Amitai Etzioni, 1929-2023: Father of Communitarianism

Amitai Etzioni, an Israeli-American sociologist, senior policy adviser, educator and father of the communitarianism philosophy, died May 31. He was 94.

National Academies Seeks Experts to Assess 2020 U.S. Census

National Academies Seeks Experts to Assess 2020 U.S. Census

The National Academies’ Committee on National Statistics seeks nominations for members of an ad hoc consensus study panel — sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau — to review and evaluate the quality of the 2020 Census.

Will the 2020 Census Be the Last of Its Kind?

Will the 2020 Census Be the Last of Its Kind?

Could the 2020 iteration of the United States Census, the constitutionally mandated count of everyone present in the nation, be the last of its kind?

Will We See A More Private, But Less Useful, Census?

Will We See A More Private, But Less Useful, Census?

Census data can be pretty sensitive – it’s not just how many people live in a neighborhood, a town, a state or […]

The Use of Bad Data Reveals a Need for Retraction in Governmental Data Bases

The Use of Bad Data Reveals a Need for Retraction in Governmental Data Bases

Retractions are generally framed as a negative: as science not working properly, as an embarrassment for the institutions involved, or as a flaw in the peer review process. They can be all those things. But they can also be part of a story of science working the right way: finding and correcting errors, and publicly acknowledging when information turns out to be incorrect.

Safiya Noble on Search Engines

Safiya Noble on Search Engines

In an age where things like facial recognition or financial software algorithms are shown to uncannily reproduce the prejudices of their creators, this was much less obvious earlier in the century, when researchers like Safiya Umoja Noble were dissecting search engine results and revealing the sometimes appalling material they were highlighting.

Did Turing Miss the Point? Should He Have Thought of the Limerick Test?

Did Turing Miss the Point? Should He Have Thought of the Limerick Test?

David Canter is horrified by the power of readily available large language technology.

Research Integrity Should Not Mean Its Weaponization

Research Integrity Should Not Mean Its Weaponization

Commenting on the trend for the politically motivated forensic scrutiny of the research records of academics, Till Bruckner argues that singling out individuals in this way has a chilling effect on academic freedom and distracts from efforts to address more important systemic issues in research integrity.

What Do We Know about Plagiarism These Days?

What Do We Know about Plagiarism These Days?

In the following Q&A, Roger J. Kreuz, a psychology professor who is working on a manuscript about the history and psychology of plagiarism, explains the nature and prevalence of plagiarism and the challenges associated with detecting it in the age of AI.

The Silver Lining in Bulk Retractions

The Silver Lining in Bulk Retractions

This is the opening from a longer post by Adya Misra, the research integrity and inclusion manager at Social Science Space’s parent, Sage. The full post, which addresses the hows and the whys of bulk retractions in Sage’s academic journals, appears at Retraction Watch.

Webinar: Responsible Design, Development, and Deployment of Technologies (ReDDDoT)

Webinar: Responsible Design, Development, and Deployment of Technologies (ReDDDoT)

Ensuring responsibility in the design and development in technologies is of growing concern, especially in a world filled to the brim with […]

Workshop: Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations

Workshop: Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private and nonprofit organizations that provide advice on some of the world’s greatest […]

SCECSAL 2024: Transforming Libraries, Empowering Communities

SCECSAL 2024: Transforming Libraries, Empowering Communities

Standing Conference of Eastern, Central and Southern African Library and Information Associations (SCECSAL) is a regional forum for information and library associations […]

Returning Absentee Ballots during the 2020 Election – A Surprise Ending?

Returning Absentee Ballots during the 2020 Election – A Surprise Ending?

One of the most heavily contested voting-policy issues in the 2020 election, in both the courts and the political arena, was the deadline […]

Overconsumption or a Move Towards Minimalism?

Overconsumption or a Move Towards Minimalism?

(Over)consumption, climate change and working from home. These are a few of the concerns at the forefront of consumers’ minds and three […]

To Better Serve Students and Future Workforces, We Must Diversify the Syllabi

To Better Serve Students and Future Workforces, We Must Diversify the Syllabi

Ellen Hutti and Jenine Harris have quantified the extent to which female authors are represented in assigned course readings. In this blog post, they emphasize that more equal exposure to experts with whom they can identify will better serve our students and foster the growth, diversity and potential of this future workforce. They also present one repository currently being built for readings by underrepresented authors that are Black, Indigenous or people of color.

Addressing the United Kingdom’s Lack of Black Scholars

Addressing the United Kingdom’s Lack of Black Scholars

In the UK, out of 164 university vice-chancellors, only two are Black. Professor David Mba was recently appointed as the first Black vice-chancellor […]

When University Decolonization in Canada Mends Relationships with Indigenous Nations and Lands

When University Decolonization in Canada Mends Relationships with Indigenous Nations and Lands

Community-based work and building and maintaining relationships with nations whose land we live upon is at the heart of what Indigenizing is. It is not simply hiring more faculty, or putting the titles “decolonizing” and “Indigenizing” on anything that might connect to Indigenous peoples.

Connecting Legislators and Researchers, Leads to Policies Based on Scientific Evidence

The author’s team is developing ways to connect policymakers with university-based researchers – and studying what happens when these academics become the trusted sources, rather than those with special interests who stand to gain financially from various initiatives.

Your Data Likely Isn’t Best Served in a Pie Chart

Your Data Likely Isn’t Best Served in a Pie Chart

Overall, it is best to use pie charts sparingly, especially when there is a more “digestible” alternative – the bar chart.

Philip Rubin: FABBS’ Accidental Essential Man Linking Research and Policy

Philip Rubin: FABBS’ Accidental Essential Man Linking Research and Policy

As he stands down from a two-year stint as the president of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences, or FABBS, Social Science Space took the opportunity to download a fraction of the experiences of cognitive psychologist Philip Rubin, especially his experiences connecting science and policy.

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Using Forensic Anthropology to Identify the Unknown Dead

Using Forensic Anthropology to Identify the Unknown Dead

Anthropology is the holistic study of human culture, environment and biology across time and space. Biological anthropology focuses on the physiological aspects of people and our nonhuman primate relatives. Forensic anthropology is a further subspecialty that analyzes skeletal remains of the recently deceased within a legal setting.

How Intelligent is Artificial Intelligence?

How Intelligent is Artificial Intelligence?

Cryptocurrencies are so last year. Today’s moral panic is about AI and machine learning. Governments around the world are hastening to adopt […]

National Academies’s Committee On Law And Justice Seeks Experts

National Academies’s Committee On Law And Justice Seeks Experts

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is seeking suggestions for experts interested in its Committee on Law and Justice (CLAJ) […]

Kohrra on Netflix – Policing and Everyday Life in Contemporary India

Kohrra on Netflix – Policing and Everyday Life in Contemporary India

Even Social Science Space bloggers occasionally have downtime when they log in to Netflix and crash out. One of my favourite themes […]

Jonathan Breckon On Knowledge Brokerage and Influencing Policy

Jonathan Breckon On Knowledge Brokerage and Influencing Policy

Overton spoke with Jonathan Breckon to learn about knowledge brokerage, influencing policy and the potential for technology and data to streamline the research-policy interface.

Research for Social Good Means Addressing Scientific Misconduct

Research for Social Good Means Addressing Scientific Misconduct

Social Science Space’s sister site, Methods Space, explored the broad topic of Social Good this past October, with guest Interviewee Dr. Benson Hong. Here Janet Salmons and him talk about the Academy of Management Perspectives journal article.

Six Principles for Scientists Seeking Hiring, Promotion, and Tenure

Six Principles for Scientists Seeking Hiring, Promotion, and Tenure

The negative consequences of relying too heavily on metrics to assess research quality are well known, potentially fostering practices harmful to scientific research such as p-hacking, salami science, or selective reporting. To address this systemic problem, Florian Naudet, and collegues present six principles for assessing scientists for hiring, promotion, and tenure.

Latest Golden Goose Award Winners Focused on DNA Applications, and Chickens  

Latest Golden Goose Award Winners Focused on DNA Applications, and Chickens  

Five scientists who received federal funding earlier in their research journeys honored for their unexpected discoveries.

Digital Transformation Needs Organizational Talent and Leadership Skills to Be Successful

Digital Transformation Needs Organizational Talent and Leadership Skills to Be Successful

Who drives digital change – the people of the technology? Katharina Gilli explains how her co-authors worked to address that question.

Book Review: The Oxford Handbook of Creative Industries

Book Review: The Oxford Handbook of Creative Industries

Candace Jones, Mark Lorenzen, Jonathan Sapsed , eds.: The Oxford Handbook of Creative Industries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. 576 pp. $170.00, […]

There’s Something In the Air…But Is It a Virus? Part 1

The Social Sciences Are Under Attack in Higher Education

The social sciences have been a consistent target for political operatives around the United States in recent years., and recent actions at the state level have opened a new front in the long-running conflict.

Canadian Librarians Suggest Secondary Publishing Rights to Improve Public Access to Research

Canadian Librarians Suggest Secondary Publishing Rights to Improve Public Access to Research

The Canadian Federation of Library Associations recently proposed providing secondary publishing rights to academic authors in Canada.

Webinar: How Can Public Access Advance Equity and Learning?

Webinar: How Can Public Access Advance Equity and Learning?

The U.S. National Science Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have teamed up present a 90-minute online session examining how to balance public access to federally funded research results with an equitable publishing environment.

Open Access in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Canada: A Conversation

Open Access in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Canada: A Conversation

Five organizations representing knowledge networks, research libraries, and publishing platforms joined the Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences to review the present and the future of open access — in policy and in practice – in Canada

Book Review: A Memoir Highlighting Scientific Complexity

Book Review: A Memoir Highlighting Scientific Complexity

In this brief, crisply written memoir, “In a Flight of Starlings: The Wonders of Complex Systems,” Parisi takes the reader on a journey through his scientific life in the realm of complex, disordered systems, from fundamental particles to migratory birds. He argues that science’s struggle to understand and master the universe’s complexity, and especially to communicate it to an ever-more skeptical public, holds the key to humanity’s future well-being.

The Added Value of Latinx and Black Teachers

The Added Value of Latinx and Black Teachers

As the U.S. Congress debates the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, a new paper in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences urges lawmakers to focus on provisions aimed at increasing the numbers of black and Latinx teachers.

A Collection: Behavioral Science Insights on Addressing COVID’s Collateral Effects

To help in decisions surrounding the effects and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the the journal ‘Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences’ offers this collection of articles as a free resource.

Susan Fiske Connects Policy and Research in Print

Psychologist Susan Fiske was the founding editor of the journal Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. In trying to reach a lay audience with research findings that matter, she counsels stepping a bit outside your academic comfort zone.

Mixed Methods As A Tool To Research Self-Reported Outcomes From Diverse Treatments Among People With Multiple Sclerosis

Mixed Methods As A Tool To Research Self-Reported Outcomes From Diverse Treatments Among People With Multiple Sclerosis

What does heritage mean to you?

What does heritage mean to you?

Personal Information Management Strategies in Higher Education

Personal Information Management Strategies in Higher Education

Working Alongside Artificial Intelligence Key Focus at Critical Thinking Bootcamp 2022

Working Alongside Artificial Intelligence Key Focus at Critical Thinking Bootcamp 2022

SAGE Publishing — the parent of Social Science Space – will hold its Third Annual Critical Thinking Bootcamp on August 9. Leaning more and register here

Watch the Forum: A Turning Point for International Climate Policy

Watch the Forum: A Turning Point for International Climate Policy

On May 13, the American Academy of Political and Social Science hosted an online seminar, co-sponsored by SAGE Publishing, that featured presentations […]

Event: Living, Working, Dying: Demographic Insights into COVID-19

Event: Living, Working, Dying: Demographic Insights into COVID-19

On Friday, April 23rd, join the Population Association of America and the Association of Population Centers for a virtual congressional briefing. The […]

Involving patients – or abandoning them?

Involving patients – or abandoning them?

The Covid-19 pandemic seems to be subsiding into a low-level endemic respiratory infection – although the associated pandemics of fear and action […]

Public Policy

Canada’s Federation For Humanities and Social Sciences Welcomes New Board Members

Canada’s Federation For Humanities and Social Sciences Welcomes New Board Members

Annie Pilote, dean of the faculty of graduate and postdoctoral studies at the Université Laval, was named chair of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences at its 2023 virtual annual meeting last month. Members also elected Debra Thompson as a new director on the board.

Federal Health and Human Services Department Names Research Integrity Head

Federal Health and Human Services Department Names Research Integrity Head

After a two-year vacancy, the United States Office of Research Integrity has named a permanent director. Sheila Garrity.

Berggruen Philosophy Prize Awarded to Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins

Berggruen Philosophy Prize Awarded to Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins

Patricia Hill Collins, a sociologist and social theorist whose work helped set the stage for theoretical examinations of intersectionality, especially for African-American women, was awarded the 2023 Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture

The Many Wins Represented by Claudia Goldin’s  Nobel Prize

The Many Wins Represented by Claudia Goldin’s Nobel Prize

Decades of research have seen economic historian Claudia Goldin methodically collate data and archival stories, detective style, to uncover explanations for the rise and fall (and rise again) of women’s paid employment over the centuries

Harvard’s Claudia Goldin Receives Nobel for Work on Gender Labor Gap

Harvard’s Claudia Goldin Receives Nobel for Work on Gender Labor Gap

Economic historian and labor economist Claudia Goldin on Monday received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023, commonly known as the Nobel in economics. The citation from the Nobel Committee cited Goldin “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labor market outcomes.”

National Academies Looks at How to Reduce Racial Inequality In Criminal Justice System

National Academies Looks at How to Reduce Racial Inequality In Criminal Justice System

To address racial and ethnic inequalities in the U.S. criminal justice system, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine just released “Reducing Racial Inequality in Crime and Justice: Science, Practice and Policy.”

Survey Examines Global Status Of Political Science Profession

Survey Examines Global Status Of Political Science Profession

The ECPR-IPSA World of Political Science Survey 2023 assesses political science scholar’s viewpoints on the global status of the discipline and the challenges it faces, specifically targeting the phenomena of cancel culture, self-censorship and threats to academic freedom of expression.

Report: Latest Academic Freedom Index Sees Global Declines

Report: Latest Academic Freedom Index Sees Global Declines

The latest update of the global Academic Freedom Index finds improvements in only five countries

The Risks Of Using Research-Based Evidence In Policymaking

The Risks Of Using Research-Based Evidence In Policymaking

With research-based evidence increasingly being seen in policy, we should acknowledge that there are risks that the research or ‘evidence’ used isn’t suitable or can be accidentally misused for a variety of reasons. 

Surveys Provide Insight Into Three Factors That Encourage Open Data and Science

Surveys Provide Insight Into Three Factors That Encourage Open Data and Science

Over a 10-year period Carol Tenopir of DataONE and her team conducted a global survey of scientists, managers and government workers involved in broad environmental science activities about their willingness to share data and their opinion of the resources available to do so (Tenopir et al., 2011, 2015, 2018, 2020). Comparing the responses over that time shows a general increase in the willingness to share data (and thus engage in Open Science).

Unskilled But Aware: Rethinking The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Unskilled But Aware: Rethinking The Dunning-Kruger Effect

As a math professor who teaches students to use data to make informed decisions, I am familiar with common mistakes people make when dealing with numbers. The Dunning-Kruger effect is the idea that the least skilled people overestimate their abilities more than anyone else. This sounds convincing on the surface and makes for excellent comedy. But in a recent paper, my colleagues and I suggest that the mathematical approach used to show this effect may be incorrect.

Maintaining Anonymity In Double-Blind Peer Review During The Age of Artificial Intelligence

Maintaining Anonymity In Double-Blind Peer Review During The Age of Artificial Intelligence

The double-blind review process, adopted by many publishers and funding agencies, plays a vital role in maintaining fairness and unbiasedness by concealing the identities of authors and reviewers. However, in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, a pressing question arises: can an author’s identity be deduced even from an anonymized paper (in cases where the authors do not advertise their submitted article on social media)?

Hype Terms In Research: Words Exaggerating Results Undermine Findings

Hype Terms In Research: Words Exaggerating Results Undermine Findings

The claim that academics hype their research is not news. The use of subjective or emotive words that glamorize, publicize, embellish or exaggerate results and promote the merits of studies has been noted for some time and has drawn criticism from researchers themselves. Some argue hyping practices have reached a level where objectivity has been replaced by sensationalism and manufactured excitement. By exaggerating the importance of findings, writers are seen to undermine the impartiality of science, fuel skepticism and alienate readers.

Five Steps to Protect – and to Hear – Research Participants

Five Steps to Protect – and to Hear – Research Participants

Jasper Knight identifies five key issues that underlie working with human subjects in research and which transcend institutional or disciplinary differences.

New Dataset Collects Instances of ‘Contentious Politics’ Around the World

New Dataset Collects Instances of ‘Contentious Politics’ Around the World

The European Research Center is funding the Global Contentious Politics Dataset, or GLOCON, a state-of-the-art automated database curating information on political events — including confrontations, political turbulence, strikes, rallies, and protests

Tejendra Pherali on Education and Conflict

Tejendra Pherali, a professor of education, conflict and peace at University College London, researches the intersection of education and conflict around the world.

Dimitris Xygalatas on Ritual

Dimitris Xygalatas on Ritual

In this Social Science Bites podcast, cognitive anthropologist Dimitris Xygalatas details how ritual often serves a positive purpose for individuals – synchronizing them with their communities or relieving their stress.

Gamification as an Effective Instructional Strategy

Gamification as an Effective Instructional Strategy

Gamification—the use of video game elements such as achievements, badges, ranking boards, avatars, adventures, and customized goals in non-game contexts—is certainly not a new thing.

Harnessing the Tide, Not Stemming It: AI, HE and Academic Publishing

Harnessing the Tide, Not Stemming It: AI, HE and Academic Publishing

Who will use AI-assisted writing tools — and what will they use them for? The short answer, says Katie Metzler, is everyone and for almost every task that involves typing.

Immigration Court’s Active Backlog Surpasses One Million

Immigration Court’s Active Backlog Surpasses One Million

In the first post from a series of bulletins on public data that social and behavioral scientists might be interested in, Gary Price links to an analysis from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Webinar Discusses Promoting Your Article

Webinar Discusses Promoting Your Article

The next in SAGE Publishing’s How to Get Published webinar series focuses on promoting your writing after publication. The free webinar is set for November 16 at 4 p.m. BT/11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT.

Webinar Examines Open Access and Author Rights

Webinar Examines Open Access and Author Rights

The next in SAGE Publishing’s How to Get Published webinar series honors International Open Access Week (October 24-30). The free webinar is […]

Ping, Read, Reply, Repeat: Research-Based Tips About Breaking Bad Email Habits

Ping, Read, Reply, Repeat: Research-Based Tips About Breaking Bad Email Habits

At a time when there are so many concerns being raised about always-on work cultures and our right to disconnect, email is the bane of many of our working lives.

Matchmaking Research to Policy: Introducing Britain’s Areas of Research Interest Database

Matchmaking Research to Policy: Introducing Britain’s Areas of Research Interest Database

Kathryn Oliver discusses the recent launch of the United Kingdom’s Areas of Research Interest Database. A new tool that promises to provide a mechanism to link researchers, funders and policymakers more effectively collaboratively and transparently.

How ChatGPT Could Transform Higher Education 

How ChatGPT Could Transform Higher Education 

ChatGPT is by no means a perfect accessory for the modern academic – but it might just get there.

Watch The Lecture: The ‘E’ In Science Stands For Equity

Watch The Lecture: The ‘E’ In Science Stands For Equity

According to the National Science Foundation, the percentage of American adults with a great deal of trust in the scientific community dropped […]

Watch a Social Scientist Reflect on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Watch a Social Scientist Reflect on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

“It’s very hard,” explains Sir Lawrence Freedman, “to motivate people when they’re going backwards.”

Dispatches from Social and Behavioral Scientists on COVID

Dispatches from Social and Behavioral Scientists on COVID

Has the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic impacted how social and behavioral scientists view and conduct research? If so, how exactly? And what are […]

New Thought Leadership Webinar Series Opens with Regional Looks at Research Impact

New Thought Leadership Webinar Series Opens with Regional Looks at Research Impact

Research impact will be the focus of a new webinar series from Epigeum, which provides online courses for universities and colleges. The […]

Watch! Methodspace Roundtables Examine Threats To Intellectual And Academic Freedom

Watch! Methodspace Roundtables Examine Threats To Intellectual And Academic Freedom

Janet Salmons, the research community director of our sister site, Sage Methodspace, coordinated a series of research roundtables to discuss the obstacles facing academic freedom and how to navigate them.

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Anaïs Nony, PhD is a digital theorist and the founder of The Write Technique. She spent the first part of her career studying the impact of digital technologies on mental and social life, and researching flow writing and deep-attention.

In 2019, she started running writing workshops at the University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape, coaching humanities students and early career academic scholars to get their writing done. Three years later, she founded The Write Technique, with a mission to support scholars achieve their professional goals by helping them discover their true writing potential.

Anaïs knows what it is like to be constantly distracted by our surrounding environment (technology, institution, family). But she knows from her research and experience that prolific scholars protect their time and create a safe place to get writing done . This is why she created online writing retreats for academics to help busy researchers like you reclaim focused time and get your writing done.

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                                                                                           © Dana Tentea

How it works?

It’s time to prioritize your research and finish your writing project.

The Write Technique’s weekly online writing retreat is based on a holistic approach (mental, emotional, spiritual, institutional) that helps you devote time to your writing, focus and make your research a priority. Discover what writing regularly looks like and the structure needed to complete the writing phase of your research effortlessly.

Concrete Support for your writing project

Rediscover your passion for your research & make progress with TWT’s online writing retreat. 

What you can expect from our program:

  • Distraction-free time to just write
  • Proven writing strategies & techniques
  • Focused and clear mind
  • Better writing habits
  • Authentic author's voice
  • Growing momentum for your project
  • Support, coaching & guidance

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We start by turning off distractions (emails, phone calls, IMs, social media) and protecting our writing time. We use both keyboards & longhand to facilitate the rewiring of our brains during warmups.

Evidence-Based Writing Methods

We implement tactical exercises in time management and use different writing prompts to help you overcome the inner critic and unhelpful storytelling. We'll get you into your writing groove and build momentum around that.

Coaching Support & Accountability

We create a supportive & safe environment that allows you to look your writing blocks honestly. We are fully present during the retreat. We show up and we get writing done, and motivate you to do the same.

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I focus and write

Creating a mindful scientific life

Do academic writing retreats work?

Updated: Feb 7

Picture yourself in an academic writing retreat. You're surrounded by nature, out of the office, and even out of the home. Two days in front of you to just do one thing: write . Isn’t it idyllic? But something you may wonder is, do these academic writing retreats work? The short answer is yes, they do. And if you want to sign up for one, have a look at the one I host !

You might imagine being surrounded by nature at an academic writing retreat.

When “I focus and write” started, I imagined myself organizing scientific writing retreats in Bali. Writing with a view of rice paddies and coconut trees, and the sound of a Buddhist temple in the background. Not to mention the delicious food we would eat. Highly inspiring. But unfortunately, it is not very feasible to start a business during a pandemic.

Now that things are going back to normal, people are craving social interaction again, but also, virtual academic retreats are also more common than ever! So here, I want to share with you the benefits of writing retreats, why they work, why virtual academic writing retreats are just as effective, and how you can create your own!

writing retreat academic

Two main benefits of academic writing retreats

Wellness and productivity are two benefits of academic writing retreats.

You may imagine that there are plenty of benefits of attending academic writing retreats -- benefits for you as a researcher, but also for your organization. And this is scientifically proven, which we love over here! In this review, Rachel Kornhaber et al. studied the benefits, and our favourites are:

Well-being:

Not only the study mentioned above but also others have reported an improvement in general well-being. This can be seen as a boost of motivation, confidence, and calm. And these are things you need to be the happy, creative, and productive scientist I want everyone who reads this to become! If you are in need of extra motivation , have a look at this post!

Productivity:

It’s a fact. When you go to these retreats, you’ll get more writing done. But what’s also amazing, is that the productivity is not only limited to being in the retreat! You’ll stay productive longer. And you can imagine, this is a great benefit for you but also for your organization. It’s not a surprise that more labs are organizing research retreats, either for writing or to interchange and brainstorm new ideas!

Why do academic writing retreats work?

You cannot go to a retreat every week. But you can put some of the components of retreats into your daily and weekly writing -- reap the benefits! For example:

Scheduling and protecting time to write

Scheduling time to write is part of why academic writing retreats work.

One of the top answers I get when I ask what’s stopping you from writing is “I don’t have time”. Well, when you go on a retreat, time is all you have. You’ve blocked that time . And what’s more important, you’ll protect that time from distractions. During the focus hours, you probably will have your phone off, nobody will ask you a question every 10 minutes, and hopefully, you don’t even check your email! And this can change the way you work forever!

Focusing on a single project

Instead of having to squeeze writing into a full day of meetings, experiments, and interruptions... You can focus on one single thing -- writing. And it's even better if you can immerse yourself in a single writing project: one paper, a grant proposal, the introduction of your dissertation... This may sound like a dream, especially if you are a Postdoc or you have your own group. And something that is difficult for STEM researchers is to accept is that as scientists, we are writers. Until we embrace that part of our identity, we won't start prioritizing our writing . And being in a retreat can reinforce that idea of being a writer!

Writing in a different environment

Being in a space different from your usual office can spark creativity. And this is on top of the lack of interruptions and distractions mentioned above! Ideally, the space should have accessible outdoor areas where you can take a walk or sit in the sun to revise what you wrote or brainstorm new ideas. It should also have quiet spaces where you can meditate -- or even have a nap!

Being surrounded by a supportive community

Academic writing retreats work in part because of supportive community.

There is plenty of evidence of how being surrounded by a supportive community can help you achieve your goals. Think of the group of PhDs in your lab, exercising with a friend, or the simple fact of co-authors contributing to the paper you need to write. When you join a retreat or a course, that community shares a common struggle. And seeing others come out of that struggle is inspiring and motivating. This is something that the students of my scientific writing and productivity course keep reporting. And that sense of belonging and the feeling that you are not alone is highly needed in our academic environments that tend to only display the final achievement.

Learning new academic writing and productivity skills

You’ll discover new writing or productivity strategies that you can experiment with to find what works best for you. Especially in PhD writing retreats, having some short workshops can be highly beneficial. You can carry on these skills with you after the retreat, and they will have long-lasting effects! For example, in the writing retreats I’ve organized, the act of setting clear and specific goals for each session, a day, or the full retreat was one of the students' favourite aspects!

Investing time, energy, and money

These are the three currencies we invest in everything we do. And when we or someone on our behalf makes a significant investment, we feel more motivated to get that task done. It’s human nature. In his book Deep Work (an amazing book -- we’ll talk about it on another occasion!), Cal Newport calls it “The Grand Gesture”. He tells the story of how J.K. Rowling was struggling to finish writing Harry Potter , and in the end, she did it by locking herself in a rather expensive hotel room. Your Grand Gesture doesn’t need to involve money, it can be as simple as going a full day to the library while someone takes care of everything else (kids, food, lab work, supervision…).

Virtual versus in-person academic writing retreats

Labs around the world have moved their academic retreats virtually -- And not only writing ones. Here, Prof. Rob Salguero tells his experience of running a virtual research retreat for his lab . The world moving to virtual has become the new normal. And as for conferences, virtual academic writing retreats will always have a place. Let’s look at their advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages of virtual academic writing retreats

They are more accessible

This is big. Any type of event becomes more accessible when it is virtual. Academics from all over the world can attend if the time zone suits them. The fact that there are no travel costs involved also means that researchers with less access to funds can attend. And a last and important point for many people reading this: you minimize your carbon footprint.

You can adapt to what works best for you

We are diverse. For those introverted academics, virtual meetings have offered a new way of interacting that consumes less of their energy. But also, in a virtual retreat, you have more freedom to decide how much you want to interact with others, or what kind of setup and timings works best for you!

The possibility of choosing your space

This can also be very important when you cannot eat certain types of food when you cannot be far from your family, or when you don’t sleep well out of your bed. But also, for highly sensitive scientists (here, one of them!), things like a lack of natural light, certain smells, or people moving around can be highly distracting!

Disadvantages of virtual academic writing retreats

I mainly see two groups of disadvantages:

The lack of personal contact

We may miss part of the benefits that being in a community brings. However, this is something that most virtual retreats try to include. This may come in the form of co-writing sessions in zoom where you see people writing, discussion sessions, or coffee chats in intimate groups using the breakout rooms.

Staying in your usual working space

When we stay at the office or at home it is almost impossible to escape from the daily responsibilities. And it’s also harder to stay focused and stop distractions (here I have some tips to focus and write from home ). A way to overcome this problem is to still go somewhere else -- Airbnb, a hotel, or a friend’s empty house. This is J.K. Rowling’s style of keeping that Grand Gesture working!

Planning your own academic writing retreat

While you think about the next retreat you’ll join, you can also recreate some of the retreat benefits at the office weekly. This can either happen on your own or by bringing your favourite colleagues on board, for example having co-working sessions! This could be as simple or as complicated as you want it. Think of renting a cabin in the woods. Or just going by yourself to the library for a week. But whatever you choose, try to include the components I mentioned above.

To help you have this at hand, you can download here a pdf version of this article where I also include links to meditations and simple yoga videos! In pure “I focus and write”. And remember to keep taking those mindful breaks that will spark your creativity! Sign up here below to my email list, and I’ll let you know when I organize the next writing retreat. Or you can always send me an email if you want me to facilitate one for your lab!

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  • Productivity

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If you'd like to build a meditation routine for a more productive, creative and happier scientific life, I have for you some tips (as seen in Nature!), and a "meditation box" to start. 

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WRITING RETREATS AT C H A P E L G A R T H 

C H A P E L G A R T H

 academic writing retreats .

Our Writing Retreats at Chapelgarth offer postgraduate students, postdocs and academics in general, a restorative, rural haven, where women and men may escape the pressures of work and home to devote time to writing in a social and supportive environment in the company of like-minded individuals.

WHERE:  We are conveniently based just over 2 hours (by train) from London and 2 hours from Edinburgh. The closest train station is Northallerton.

WHEN: Our 3-Day Writing Retreats run all year round on week days. Specific dates can be arranged for Group Bookings

WHO: WRCs are available to academics, Doctoral Training Programmes and individual PGRs from all disciplines.

Dr Marcella P. Sutcliffe (Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and  Life Member at

Clare Hall , University of Cambridge), is Programme Manager, as well as writing retreat Facilitator at Chapelgarth and at the Society for Research into Higher Education (London). Marcella regularly delivers Virtual Writing Retreats for PhD students from Doctoral Training Partnerships and staff.

Chapelgarth is venue provider for  more than 30 UK HE institutions as well as Irish institutions. Our participants have been affiliated to more than 40 different HE institutions in the UK and Ireland.

To find out more about our history and vision see my blog , from Clare Hall, University of Cambridge

1. Writing Retreats  ( bookable by individuals )

All (vegetarian) meals included ; all linen including towels provided. Facilitator included.

New dates and rates - Academic year 2023-24

Single Occupancy (ensuite bathroom)

 £ 440  (+vat) - Total: £ 528

Single Occupancy (bathroom not ensuite)

 £ 410  (+vat) - Total: £ 492

Single Occupancy (shared bathroom)

 £ 385 (+vat) - Total: £ 462

19-21 March - (women only) arrive (day 1) at 2.30 pm at the venue; depart from the venue (day 3)at 3.45 pm.(Fully booked - Waiting list open).

2-4 April - PROPOSED ADDITIONAL DATES (open to all - women and men) arrive (day 1) between 2.30 pm  and 3.00 pm at the venue; depart from the venue (day 3)at 3.45 pm. (expressions of interest)

8-10 April - arrive (day 1) at 2.30 pm at the venue; depart from the venue (day 3) at 3.45 pm.    This writing retreat is open to all academics, male and female. (Fully booked - Waiting list open).

21-23 May- (women only) arrive (day 1) between 2.30 pm  and 3.00 pm at the venue; depart from the venue (day 3)at 3.45 pm. (Fully booked - Waiting list open).

NEW DATES: 4-6 June -  (women only) arrive (day 1) between 2.30 pm  and 3.00 pm at the venue; depart from the venue (day 3)at 3.45 pm. (places available).

8-10 July -  (women only) arrive (day 1) between 2.30 pm  and 3.00 pm at the venue; depart from the venue (day 3)at 3.45 pm. (places available).

August dates TBC

 24-26 September - (open to all - women and men) arrive (day 1) between 2.30 pm  and 3.00 pm at the venue; depart from the venue (day 3)at 3.45 pm. (places available).

 1st-3rd October  - (women only) arrive (day 1) between 2.30 pm  and 3.00 pm pm at the venue; depart from the venue (day 3)at 3.45 pm.  

11-13 November  - (women only) arrive (day 1) between 2.30 pm  and 3.00 pm pm at the venue; depart from the venue (day 3)at 3.45 pm.

To receive  any information email:  [email protected]

The programme balances facilitator-led dedicated writing slots with appropriately timed breaks, dedicated to socialising, walking or exercising in nature and mindful activities. Wellbeing and Mental Health is at the forefront of our programmes, which are designed to support academic productivity by offering a safe, restorative environment. We particularly welcome international students, women in academia, part-time postgraduates and anyone who may benefit from being part of a Writing Community of Practice.

Our residential programmes are based on the Structured Writing Retreats  model and are run by qualified, trained facilitators .

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2. Writing Retreats for GROUP BOOKINGS

We are approved suppliers for numerous UK universities.

DEPARTMENTAL AND DTP GROUP BOOKINGS are welcome.

THE FORM BELOW IS EXCLUSIVELY FOR ACADEMICS WANTING TO BOOK  AN INDIVIDUAL WRITING RETREAT - WE DO NOT RESPOND TO ANY OTHER ENQUIRIES ON THIS PLATFORM.

Academic Retreat Registration Form

How to get there

Terms and conditions - updated August 2022

WRITING RETREATS

at CHAPELGARTH

Writing Retreats at Chapelgarth

Great Broughton, 

North Yorkshire 

England TS9 7ET

© Chapelgarth

UT Austin Creates Writers’ Retreat at Former John Steinbeck Home

Steinbeck House

AUSTIN, Texas — One of the top creative writing programs in the world, The University of Texas at Austin’s Michener Center for Writers, is establishing a retreat for internationally known writers at the Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck’s former residence in Sag Harbor, New York.

A collaboration with the Sag Harbor Partnership, the Township of Southampton and the New York State Assembly and heirs of the Steinbeck estate, the Steinbeck Writers’ Retreat will preserve the legacy of the author’s work and home, provide a residence where writers can work, create opportunities for students, and foster engagement with the Sag Harbor and UT communities.

“The Steinbeck Writers’ Retreat will allow writers the breathing room to unlock their creativity in one of the most inspiring settings on the East Coast as they walk in the steps of one of time’s greatest authors, John Steinbeck,” said UT President Jay Hartzell. “This immersive in-residence program will benefit students, past and present, and broader society. We are grateful to the late Elaine Steinbeck and her heirs who have donated the John Steinbeck Collection to her alma mater and recommended UT’s Michener Center to operate this retreat that will allow writers to pursue ambitious work for generations to come.”

While in residence, writers will live and write in Steinbeck’s former home, where he wrote his final two books and learned that he had won the Nobel Prize. During their stays, writers will also deliver public readings, workshops or other events in the Sag Harbor community and participate in programming with Michener Center students on the UT campus.

Residencies will be offered to writers of fiction, poetry, plays and scripts at different stages of their careers — including both established and promising, emerging writers. Additionally, residencies will be offered to alumni of the Michener Center for Writers .

“During his lifetime, John Steinbeck was committed to supporting young writers and enabling them to succeed,” said Bret Johnston, director of the Michener Center and Steinbeck Writers’ Retreat. “The Steinbeck Writers’ Retreat will continue Steinbeck’s legacy and offer Michener Center alumni an unparalleled resource among creative writing programs.”

The partnership builds upon the University’s existing academic ties to the Steinbeck estate. The Harry Ransom Center is home to the John Steinbeck Collection , which provides the author’s archives of articles, novels, short stories and correspondence for scholars and the public.

John Steinbeck’s wife Elaine Anderson Steinbeck was born in Austin and studied drama at UT Austin. Later, she was instrumental in establishing the John Steinbeck Collection at the Ransom Center.

The first visiting author to stay at the Steinbeck Writers’ Retreat will be Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar , whose work has been published and performed in more than two dozen languages. He is the winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for drama for “Disgraced” and recipient of the 2021 American Book Award for “Homeland Elegies.” Akhtar was named the New York State Author, succeeding Sag Harbor native son Colson Whitehead, by the New York State Writers Institute in 2021.

The University has received donations for startup funding for the Steinbeck Writers’ Retreat and is now fundraising to establish an endowment to support the retreat, including funds for fellowships, operating costs and property expenses.

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College of Education and Human Development

Department of Educational Psychology

Recent educational psychology dissertations

Educational Psychology student researchers develop models that support practitioners' and caregivers' implementation and evaluate evidence-based practices.

All Educational Psychology dissertations since 1981

Collaborative Emotion Interpretation: Investigating Participation and Power in Naturalistic Parent-Child Emotion Interactions in Families Participating in a Non-profit Outdoor Education Network in the United States Ashley Hufnagle, 2023 Advisors: Geoffrey Maruyama, David Deliema

The role of numerical cognitive processes for bar graph comprehension Jimin Park, 2023 Advisors: Keisha Varma, Sashank Varma

Data-Based Decision Making in Early Childhood: Teachers’ Competencies, Beliefs, and Practices Kelsey Will, 2022 Advisor: Panayiota Kendeou

"Let's (fire)Work Together!": Exploring the Potential for Intergroup Contact between Nonbinary and Cisgender Individuals through a Cooperative Commercial Board Game Yu-Chi Wang, 2021 Advisor: Geoffrey Maruyama

Social-emotional learning in higher education: Examining the relationship between social-emotional skills and students’ academic success Isabel Lopez Hurtado, 2020 Advisor: Geoffrey Maruyama

Revising Misconceptions Using Multiple Documents Reese Butterfuss, 2020 Advisor: Pani Kendeou

Pulling back the curtain on stereotype threat: Testing a mediation framework of identity change and belongingness Anthony Joseph Schulzetenberg, 2020 Advisor: Geoffrey Maruyama

The Roles of Convergent, Divergent Thinking, and Contextual Focus during Scientific Reasoning: Birth of the “Z” Model Jean-Baptiste Quillien, 2019 Advisors: Keisha Varma and Wilma Koutstaal

Social Capital, Self-Control, and Academic Performance in School-Age Children and Adolescents: Patterns Associated with Race/Ethnicity Wei Song, 2018 Advisors: Geoffrey Maruyama and Zha Xiong

The Development of Arithmetic Sense and Its Predictive Relationship to Mathematical Achievement Soo-hyun Im, 2018 Advisor: Sashank Varma

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What Is Educational Psychology? 6 Examples and Theories

What is Educational Psychology

Plato believed that learning is based on the mind’s innate capacity to receive information and judge its intellectual and moral value.

Plato’s foremost pupil, Aristotle, emphasized how learning involves building associations such as succession in time, contiguity in space, and similarities and/or contrasts.

Later thinkers would devote considerable attention to learning and memory processes, various teaching methods, and how learning can be optimized.

Together, these thinkers have formed the growing and diverse body of theory and practice of educational psychology, and this intriguing topic is what we will discuss below.

Before you continue, you might like to download three Positive Psychology Exercises for free . These science-based exercises explore fundamental aspects of positive psychology, including strengths, values, and self-compassion, and will give you the tools to enhance the wellbeing of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains:

What is educational psychology and why is it important, a brief history of the field, job description and roles of an educational psychologist, 3 real-life examples, 3 popular theories, educational psychology research topics, educational psychology vs school psychology, a look into vygotsky’s ideas, positivepsychology.com’s relevant resources, a take-home message.

Educational psychology is dedicated to the study and improvement of human learning, across the lifespan, in whatever setting it occurs.

Such settings include not only schools, but also workplaces, organized sports, government agencies, and retirement communities – anywhere humans are engaged in instruction and learning of some type.

Educational psychology is important because of its focus on understanding and improving the crucial human capacity to learn.

In this mission of enhancing learning, educational psychologists seek to assist students and teachers alike.

Educational Psychology

However, it was not until later in history that educational psychology emerged as a field in its own right, distinct from philosophy.

John Locke (1632–1704), the influential British philosopher and “father of psychology,” famously described the human mind as a tabula rasa  (blank slate) that had no innate or inborn knowledge, but could only learn through the accumulation of experiences.

Johann Herbart (1776–1841) is considered the founder of educational psychology as a distinct field. He emphasized interest in a subject as a crucial component of learning.

He also proposed five formal steps of learning:

  • Reviewing what is already known
  • Previewing new material to be learned
  • Presenting new material
  • Relating new material to what is already known
  • Showing how new knowledge can be usefully applied

Maria Montessori (1870–1952) was an Italian physician and educator who started by teaching disabled and underprivileged children. She then founded a network of schools that taught children of all backgrounds using a hands-on, multi-sensory, and often student-directed approach to learning.

Nathaniel Gage (1917–2008) was an influential educational psychologist who pioneered research on teaching. He served in the U.S. Army during WWII, where he developed aptitude tests for selecting airplane navigators and radar operators.

Gage went on to develop a research program that did much to advance the scientific study of teaching.

He believed that progress in learning highly depends on effective teaching and that a robust theory of effective teaching has to cover:

  • The process of teaching
  • Content to be taught
  • Student abilities and motivation level
  • Classroom management

The above is only a sample of the influential thinkers who have contributed over time to the field of educational psychology.

For an excellent and concise history of educational psychology from Plato and Aristotle through behaviorism and other modern movements, please see Grinder (1989).

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Educational psychologists have typically earned either a master’s degree or doctorate in the field.

They work in a variety of teaching, research, and applied settings (e.g., K–12, universities, the military, and educational industries like textbook and test developers).

Those with a doctorate often teach and do research at colleges or universities.

They teach basic courses such as Introduction to Educational Psychology  and more advanced seminars such as Professional Ethics in Educational Psychology , or Research Methods in Educational Psychology .

They conduct research on topics such as the best measure of literacy skills for students in secondary education, the most effective method for teaching early career professionals in engineering, and the relationship between education level and emotional health in retirees.

Educational psychologists also work in various applied roles, such as consulting on curriculum design; evaluating educational programs at schools or training sites; and offering teachers the best instructional methods for a subject area, grade level, or population, be it mainstream students, those with disabilities, or gifted students.

Mamie Phipps Clark

This theory states that besides the traditionally measured verbal and visual–spatial forms of intelligence, there are also forms that include kinesthetic or athletic intelligence, interpersonal or social–emotional intelligence, musical or artistic intelligence, and perhaps other forms we have not yet learned to measure.

Dr. Gardner teaches, conducts research, and publishes. His many books include Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983) and The Disciplined Mind: Beyond Facts and Standardized Tests, the Education That Every Child Deserves  (2000).

Mamie Phipps Clark (1917–1983), shown above, was the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University. She and her husband Kenneth Clark (1914–2005) were interested in development and self-esteem in African-American children.

Her doctoral work illustrated the dehumanizing effect of segregated schools on both African-American and white children, in the well-known “doll study” (Clark & Clark, 1939). She found that both African-American children and white children imputed more positive characteristics to white dolls than to Black dolls.

This work was used as evidence in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided that schools separated by race were not equal and must be desegregated.

She and her husband founded several institutions dedicated to providing counseling and educational services for underprivileged African-American children, including the Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited project.

Irene Marie Montero Gil earned her master’s degree from the Department of Evolutionary and Educational Psychology at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain.

Ms. Montero Gil had been balancing subsequent doctoral studies with her role as the youngest member of Spain’s Congress of Deputies, representing Madrid. She later postponed her studies to become Spain’s Minister of Equality, an office that advocates for equal opportunity regardless of age, gender, or disability.

The above examples show just some contributions that educational psychologists can make in research, teaching, legal, and advocacy contexts.

Day in the life of an educational psychologist w/ Dr. Sarah Chestnut

Various theories have been developed to account for how humans learn. Some of the most enduring and representative modern-day theories are discussed below.

1. Behaviorism

Behaviorism equates learning with observable changes in activity (Skinner, 1938). For example, an assembly line worker might have “learned” to assemble a toy from parts, and after 10 practice sessions, the worker can do so without errors within 60 seconds.

In behaviorism, there is a focus on stimuli or prompts to action (your supervisor hands you a box of toy parts), followed by a behavior (you assemble the toy), followed by reinforcement or lack thereof (you receive a raise for the fastest toy assembly).

Behaviorism holds that the behavioral responses that are positively reinforced are more likely to recur in the future.

We should note that behaviorists believe in a pre-set, external reality that is progressively discovered by learning.

Some scholars have also held that from a behaviorist perspective, learners are more reactive to environmental stimuli than active or proactive in the learning process (Ertmer & Newby, 2013).

However, one of the most robust developments in the later behaviorist tradition is that of positive behavioral intervention and supports (PBIS), in which proactive techniques play a prominent role in enhancing learning within schools.

Such proactive behavioral supports include maximizing structure in classrooms, teaching clear behavioral expectations in advance, regularly using prompts with students, and actively supervising students (Simonsen & Myers, 2015).

Over 2,500 schools across the United States now apply the PBIS supportive behavioral framework, with documented improvements in both student behavior (Bradshaw, Waasdorp, & Leaf, 2012) and achievement (Madigan, Cross, Smolkowski, & Stryker, 2016).

2. Cognitivism

Cognitivism was partly inspired by the development of computers and an information-processing model believed to be applicable to human learning (Neisser, 1967).

It also developed partly as a reaction to the perceived limits of the behaviorist model of learning, which was thought not to account for mental processes.

In cognitivism, learning occurs when information is received, arranged, held in memory, and retrieved for use.

Cognitivists are keenly interested in a neuronal or a brain-to-behavior perspective on learning and memory. Their lines of research often include studies involving functional brain imaging (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging) to see which brain circuits are activated during specific learning tasks.

Cognitivists are also keenly interested in “neuroplasticity,” or how learning causes new connections to be made between individual brain cells (neurons) and their broader neuronal networks.

From the cognitivist perspective, individuals are viewed as very active in the learning process, including how they organize information to make it personally meaningful and memorable.

Cognitivists, like behaviorists, believe that learning reflects an external reality, rather than shaping or constructing reality.

3. Constructivism

Constructivism holds that from childhood on, humans learn in successive stages (Piaget, 1955).

In these stages, we match our basic concepts, or “schemas,” of reality with experiences in the world and adjust our schemas accordingly.

For example, based on certain experiences as a child, you might form the schematic concept that all objects drop when you let them go. But let’s say you get a helium balloon that rises when you let go of it. You must then adjust your schema to capture this new reality that “most things drop when I let go of them, but at least one thing rises when I let go of it.”

For constructivists, there is always a subjective component to how reality is organized. From this perspective, learning cannot be said to reflect a pre-set external reality. Rather, reality is always an interplay between one’s active construction of the world and the world itself.

Educational College

For example, Zysberg and Schwabsky (2020) examined the relationships between positive school culture or climate, students’ sense of self-efficacy, and academic achievement in Israeli middle and high school settings.

They found that school climate was positively associated with students’ sense of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy, in turn, was positively associated with academic achievement in math and English.

This study reflects a constructivist approach, emphasizing how students create meaning out of their educational experiences.

Other recent research has focused on behavioral interventions to support online learning, which is increasingly prevalent as an educational option.

For example, Yeomans and Reich (2017) found that sending learners regular prompts to complete online work resulted in a 29% increase in courses completed. They concluded that sending regular reminder prompts is an inexpensive and effective way to enhance online course completion.

This study reflects a proactive behaviorist approach to improving educational outcomes.

Another current research domain in educational psychology involves the use of brain imaging techniques during learning activity.

For example, Takeuchi, Mori, Suzukamo, and Izumi (2019) studied brain activity in teachers and students while teachers provided hints for solving a visual–spatial problem (assembling puzzles).

They found that the prefrontal cortex of the brain, involved in planning and monitoring of complex cognitive activities, was significantly activated in teachers, not when they planned hints to be given, but only when they actually gave the hints.

For the student participants, the prefrontal cortex was significantly activated when they had solved the puzzle with hints provided.

This study emphasizes a cognitivist approach, focused on brain activity during learning.

For cognitivists, understanding how the brain converts instructional inputs into learning can lead to improved teaching strategies and better learning outcomes.

Educational and school psychologists overlap in their training and functions, to some extent, but also differ in important ways.

Educational psychologists are more involved in teaching and research at the college or university level. They also focus on larger and more diverse groups in their research and consulting activities.

As consultants, educational psychologists work with organizations such as school districts, militaries, or corporations in developing the best methods for instructional needs.

Some school psychologists are involved in teaching, research, and/or consulting with large groups such as a school district. However, most are more focused on working within a particular school and with individual students and their families.

About 80% of school psychologists work in public school settings and do direct interventions with individuals or small groups.

They help with testing and supporting students with special needs, helping teachers develop classroom management strategies, and engaging in individual or group counseling, which can include crisis counseling and emotional–behavioral support.

Lev Vygotsky

One idea central to Vygotsky’s learning theory is that of the zone of proximal development (ZPD).

The ZPD is the area between what a learner (student, adult trainee, rehabilitation patient, etc.) can already do on their own and what the learner can readily accomplish with the help of teachers or more advanced peers.

For example, a five-year-old might already know how to perform a given three-step manual task, but can they be taught to complete a four- or five-step task?

The ZPD is a zone of emerging skills, which calls for its own kind of exploration and measurement, in order to better understand a learner’s potential (Moll, 2014).

Vygotsky was also interested in the relationship between thought and language. He theorized that much of thought comprised internalized language or “inner speech.” Like Piaget, whose work he read with interest, Vygotsky came to see language as having social origins, which would then become internalized as inner speech.

In that sense, Vygotsky is often considered a (social) constructivist, where learning depends on social communication and norms. Learning thus reflects our connection to and agreement with others, more than a connection with a purely external or objective reality.

As mentioned in the discussion of Nathaniel Gage’s theory of effective teaching, student motivation is an important component to assess and encourage.

The Who Am I Self-Reflection can help students and their teachers think about what they are good at, what significant challenges they have been confronted with, and what inspires them. This knowledge can help both teachers and students find ways to enhance motivation in specific cases.

As noted above, the cognitivist approach to educational psychology includes understanding how the brain learns by forming new connections between neurons. The Adopt A Growth Mindset activity is a simple guide to replacing fixed mindset thinking with growth statements. It can inspire adults to learn by referencing their inherent neuroplasticity.

The idea is that with enough effort and repetition, we can form new and durable connections within our brains of a positive and adaptive nature.

For parents and teachers, we recommend Dr. Gabriella Lancia’s article on Healthy Discipline Strategies for Teaching & Inspiring Children . This article offers basic and effective strategies and worksheets for creating a positive behavioral climate at home and school that is pro-social and pro-learning.

17 Positive Psychology Exercises – If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others enhance their wellbeing, this signature collection contains 17 validated positive psychology tools for practitioners . Use them to help others flourish and thrive.

The field of educational psychology has ancient roots and remains vibrant today.

Today, there are many programs across the world providing quality training in educational psychology at the master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral levels.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, career opportunities in psychology will grow at a healthy rate of about 14% over this decade, and educational psychology is expected to keep pace.

In addition, job satisfaction in educational psychology and related fields such as school psychology has traditionally been high, including as it concerns social impact, independence, and compensation (Worrell, Skaggs, & Brown, 2006).

Those with a doctorate in educational psychology have potential for a broad impact on learners of any and every type. They often teach at the college or university level, conduct research and publish on various topics in the field, or consult with various organizations about the best teaching and learning methods.

Researchers in educational psychology have made important contributions to contemporary education and culture, from learning paradigms (behaviorism, cognitivism, constructionism) and the theory of multiple intelligences, to proactive school-wide positive behavioral supports.

We hope you have learned more about the rich field of educational psychology from this brief article and will find the resources it contains useful. Don’t forget to download our free Positive Psychology Exercises .

  • Brown v. Board of Education , 347 U.S. (1954).
  • Bradshaw, C. P., Waasdorp, T. E., & Leaf, P. J. (2012). Effects of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports on child behavior problems. Pediatrics , 130 (5), e1136–e1145.
  • Clark, K., & Clark, M. (1939). The development of consciousness of self and the emergence of racial identification in Negro preschool children. Journal of Social Psychology ,  10 (4), 591–599.
  • Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly , 26 (2), 43–71.
  • Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences . Basic Books.
  • Gardner, H. (2000). The disciplined mind: Beyond facts and standardized tests, the education that every child deserves . Penguin Books.
  • Grinder, R. E. (1989). Educational psychology: The master science. In M. C. Wittrock & F. Farley (Eds.), The future of educational psychology (pp. 3–18). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Madigan, K., Cross, R. W., Smolkowski, K., & Stryker, L. A. (2016). Association between schoolwide positive behavioural interventions and supports and academic achievement: A 9-year evaluation. Educational Research and Evaluation , 22 (7–8), 402–421.
  • Moll, L. C. (2014). L. S. Vygotsky and education . Routledge.
  • Neisser, U. (1967). Cognitive psychology . Appleton-Century-Crofts.
  • Piaget, J. (1955). The child’s construction of reality . Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  • Simonsen, B., & Myers, D. (2015). Classwide positive behavior interventions and supports: A guide to proactive classroom management . Guilford Publications.
  • Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis . B. F. Skinner Foundation.
  • Takeuchi, N., Mori, T., Suzukamo, Y., & Izumi, S. I. (2019). Activity of prefrontal cortex in teachers and students during teaching of an insight problem. Mind, Brain, and Education , 13 , 167–175.
  • Worrell, T. G., Skaggs, G. E., & Brown, M. B. (2006). School psychologists’ job satisfaction: A 22-year perspective in the USA. School Psychology International , 27 (2), 131–145.
  • Yeomans, M., & Reich, J. (2017). Planning prompts increase and forecast course completion in massive open online courses. Conference: The Seventh International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference , pp. 464–473.
  • Zysberg, L., & Schwabsky, N. (2020). School climate, academic self-efficacy and student achievement . Educational Psychology. Taylor & Francis Online.

recent research in educational psychology

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What’s education psychology? With references of 2018 to 2022

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EDITORIAL article

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The Psychology of STEM Education

Editorial: The Psychology of STEM Education

  • 1 The University of Newcastle, Australia
  • 2 Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

funcIoning. The authors conclude with highlighIng the importance of providing an autonomy supporIve environment during higher educaIon lectures. The fibh arIcle by Kolil et al., emphasizes the importance of robust measurement tools to understand that a significant barrier to excelling in laboratory pracIces relates to a lack of self-efficacy. By conducIng confirmatory factor analyIc validaIon studies on an experimental self-efficacy scale (ESE) applicable across scienIfic disciplines, the authors contribute to the development of reliable instruments that aid educators in understanding and addressing students' psychological disposiIons in STEM educaIon. They conclude that ESE had a significant impact on the laboratory performance of students of both genders and it was related to factors such as laboratory hazards, conceptual understanding, the sufficiency of laboratory resources and procedural complexiIes.As we navigate the relaIvely uncharted territories of STEM and psychology, it is essenIal to recognise that the future professions our students will enter, are yet unknown. STEM educaIon, inextricably linked with psychology, neuropsychology, brain science and neurodiversity, not only prepares students for the challenges of tomorrow but also shapes their wellbeing and quality of life experiences. The psychological dimensions explored in this special issue are pivotal for fostering a posiIve mindset toward lifelong learning. As educators, academics, and researchers, our commitment should extend beyond narrowly defined academic outcomes and support ongoing discourse on STEM educaIon and its psychological underpinnings.

Keywords: Psychology of STEM Education, Attitudes & beliefs, Motivation, impact of psychology, anxiety in learning

Received: 12 Dec 2023; Accepted: 04 Jan 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Ersozlu and BARKATSAS. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Mx. Zara Ersozlu, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia

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  • Published: 04 January 2024

Grammar enhancement in EFL instruction: a reflection on the effects of self-evaluation, teacher support, and L2 grit

  • Kelu Wang 1  

BMC Psychology volume  12 , Article number:  15 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Advancement in learning grammar and using it practically is one of the challenges of English as foreign learners (EFL) learners. Its progression may be expedited or slowed down by a variety of causes. Among the crucial factors, the possible effects of self-evaluation, teacher support, and L2 grit were still untouched which is the target of the current research. In so doing, 86 EFL students at the intermediate level were divided into two groups (i.e., experimental group and control group). The students in the control group (CG) are exposed to normal education, whereas learners in experimental group (EG) get extra instruction to practice self-evaluation and L2 Grit. Moreover, the emphasis on the teacher’s position as a facilitator and supporter was more prominent in the EG. Based on data screening which was completed via one-way ANCOVA, learners in EG were more successful in grammar assessment due to the treatment. Further research avenues and educational implications were elaborated upon.

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Introduction

Engaging in self-evaluation activities have the capacity to adversely impact several aspects of learners’ lives, including their mental well-being, among other possible consequences. Moreover, [ 1 ] found a positive correlation between a high self-evaluation and improved emotional regulation and academic achievement in EFL students. The use of self-evaluation approaches enables students to develop critical thinking skills and decision-making abilities, hence enhancing their capability to effectively address classroom challenges [ 2 ]. Likewise, [ 3 ] underscored the potential of self-evaluation as a means to guide students towards cultivating preferred emotional states. Academic support includes the provision of beneficial literature, materials, and resources by the instructor to learners. On the other hand, personal and emotional support involves the teacher providing affective assistance, including empathy, trust, and care. In the context of an L2 classroom, instances of L2 teacher support may include both academic support, which pertains to learning-related help, and personal support, largely focused on emotional well-being [ 4 ]. When a language student has the encouragement and support of teachers, they are significantly more likely to stay excited and optimistic about their studies. They are also less inclined to quit up since the support of others around them may generate a sense of responsibility [ 5 ].

The concept of grit may be delineated as a combination of diligent exertion, steadfastness, and an aspiration for enduring objectives shown by pupils. The findings of [ 6 ] indicate that individuals with a notable level of grit have a favorable outlook towards their occupational endeavors. When seen from an alternative standpoint, the characteristic of grit as a personal quality bestows individuals with the ability to focus their endeavors and engage in several endeavors in order to achieve their goals [ 7 ]. The concept of learner L2 grit was first introduced by [ 8 ], highlighting the significance of an individual’s unwavering dedication and enthusiasm in pursuing and achieving their desired objectives.

Effective instruction and evaluation require school administrators, curriculum developers, and individual teachers to address both the emotional and intellectual well-being of the students. Students need access to self-evaluate resources and methods of making informed choices in order to effectively overcome the challenges associated with acquiring a second or foreign language. EFL learners may significantly improve their English grammar skills by adopting a self-evaluation method, receiving guidance from teachers, and using L2 grit frameworks. Grammar is a linguistic framework that structures a language into coherent and comprehensive sentences. It has the ability to comprehend the way words and phrases combine together to form logical and meaningful expressions. Grammar enables individuals to accurately convey their thoughts and engage in effective communication with others by adhering to linguistic rules that ensure coherence and comprehensibility. It enables learners to articulate their thoughts with clarity and refine the intended meaning of their messages [ 8 ]. To get progress in English grammar, learners particularly EFL learners need their teachers’ support and other learner attributed constructs to foster their success [ 9 ]. Enhanced grammatical proficiency is not solely critical for facilitating effective discourse, but also for cultivating a favorable reputation in academic and professional environments [ 10 ].

With regard to the extant research, the reciprocal interaction between these notions occurred in complete darkness. The findings of this research have the potential to be valuable in both the theoretical and practical domains. It is likely that it will further improve the understanding and consciousness related to online language instruction and evaluation, hence ensuring effective language acquisition. Considering these perspectives, the following study question and null hypothesis were formulated:

Do self-evaluation, teacher support, and L2 grit enhance English grammar learning?

Self-evaluation, teacher support, and L2 grit do not enhance English grammar learning.

Literature review

  • Self-evaluation

Assessment serves as a systematic basis for drawing inferences regarding the progress of students’ growth and their acquisition of knowledge. Over time, several methodologies have been developed to streamline the assessment process and improve its credibility and consistency. self-evaluation is a method of evaluation in which learners actively participate in assessing their own behaviors, attitudes, or performance. It is essential to foster an environment that promotes and provides training for each learner to take part in the self-assessment process [ 11 ]. Similarly, [ 12 ] posits that the fundamental concepts of self-evaluation include critical thinking, metacognition, monitoring, and self-regulated learning. Moreover, the study conducted by [ 13 ] has classified as a higher-order quality that encompasses several psychological constructs such as self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, neuroticism, and locus of control. According to [ 14 ], students who engage in processes acquire the ability to engage in comprehensive thinking and make informed decisions. Additionally, these students may develop improved strategies for coping with academic challenges.

The use of strategies in self-assessment in online education facilitates learners’ awareness and monitoring of their own learning progress. The effects of engaging in self-evaluation extend beyond cognitive development, as learners’ emotional well-being is also affected by the approaches used. Additionally, it was emphasized that EFL students who possess elevated levels of self-awareness may exhibit enhanced emotional regulation skills and demonstrate greater proficiency in acquiring language skills [ 15 ]. This implies that the implementation and use of self-evaluation practices have an impact on the cognitive, metacognitive, and emotional aspects of students’ academic experiences [ 16 ]. Additionally, it has been shown that several elements have the potential to establish the tone of student-teacher interaction among learners. Furthermore, [ 17 ] conducted studies that examined the impact of emotion management, buoyancy, and reflection on learners’ accomplishment in self-evaluation and their ability to manage test taking in online assessments.

  • Teacher support

The concept of “teacher support” encompasses a wide range of assistance, guidance, and camaraderie provided by the educator [ 18 ] argue that academic aid and personal/emotional support are integral aspects of it. The provision of personal and emotional support by teachers includes the provision of affective support, including but not limited to empathy, trust, and care, as outlined by [ 19 ]. As defined by [ 20 ], academic support pertains to the instructional endeavors aimed at facilitating the acquisition of knowledge and skills by students. On the other hand, emotional support encompasses the learners’ experience of affection, admiration, and care from the teacher throughout the learning journey.

The literature indicates a correlation between the provision of support by second language (L2) teachers and various outcomes for second language learners. Specifically, [ 21 ] found a relationship between L2 teacher support and learner engagement, while [ 22 ] demonstrated a connection between L2 teacher support and learner achievement. Additionally, [ 4 ] established a link between L2 teacher support and positive academic affect in second language learning. Moreover, previous research has shown that the provision of support from second language (L2) teachers has a significant role in enhancing the enjoyment experienced by learners in foreign language classrooms. This is achieved by fostering a sense of appreciation among L2 learners towards their instructors [ 21 ]. This sense of appreciation contributes to an enhanced level of satisfaction in foreign language courses. In a recent study conducted by [ 23 ], it was shown that students with lower abilities demonstrated enhanced English language learning when they received substantial support from their teachers. This discovery underscores the positive impact of teacher assistance on student achievement.

[ 24 ] propose that the provision of support by instructors is an additional crucial element in enhancing students’ behavioral engagement within educational settings [ 25 ] discovered a favorable correlation between teacher support and behavioral engagement. Moreover, it was shown that the relationship between teacher support and social, emotional, and cognitive engagement was mediated by behavioral engagement [ 1 ] conducted research indicating that the influence of instructors on students’ academic achievement is contingent upon the degrees of motivation shown by the students. According to a longitudinal study done by [ 26 ], it was seen that the provision of teacher assistance had a significant and positive influence on the self-efficacy and motivation of adolescent students. According to [ 21 ], teacher support emerges as a robust and reliable predictor of motivation, exerting a significant influence on the motivated learning behavior of L2 learners. The concept of grit has a robust correlation with the construct of motivation. The goal-oriented nature of L2 grit aligns with the concept of directed motivational current, as outlined in the study conducted by [ 27 ].

The notion of grit pertains to the act of exerting significant effort in the face of adversities, persisting in one’s endeavors and sustaining interest for an extended period of time, even in the presence of setbacks, adversity, and periods of stagnant growth [ 11 , 28 ] posited that, in addition to ability, tenacity plays a significant role in the academic success of learners. The concept of L2 grit in learning was introduced by [ 11 , 29 ], who emphasized the importance of people’ enthusiasm and relentless efforts in pursuing their own goals. Enthusiasm pertains to the heightened level of enthusiasm and motivation shown by people in their pursuit of a certain objective. According to [ 30 ], perseverance is a crucial component of grit that motivates people to fully dedicate themselves to the many stages involved in pursuing a certain objective. In the work of [ 31 ], the authors claim that grit is a quality that is distinctive to certain domains. In light of this characteristic of grit, [ 32 ] developed and verified a measurement tool called “the Language-domain-specific grit” in order to evaluate the level of grit shown in language courses.

As stated by [ 33 ], students who possess a higher level of grit have increased levels of enthusiasm and dedicate more time to their educational pursuits. Specifically, those who possess elevated levels of grit have a propensity to persist in pursuing their long-term objectives despite encountering challenges and obstacles [ 30 , 31 , 32 ]. In the words of [ 11 ], the presence of grit in learners enables them to effectively manage stress and anxiety, resulting in favorable dispositions towards work-related matters and active engagement. In light of its significance and endorsement in enhancing personal welfare, several educational organizations have endeavored to design, implement, and execute instructional materials and syllabi that include the concept of grit into their educational curricula [ 27 ].

The examination of the scholarly literature on learner grit reflects the prevailing focus on the reciprocal relationship between students’ grit and its expressions within the academic domain. An example of this may be seen in the study conducted by [ 34 ], where they established a positive correlation between L2 grit and achievement in the English language. Furthermore, [ 35 ] has provided further evidence to support the notion that EFL students’ academic desire and growth mindsets have a mediating role in their level of grit. Similarly, the study conducted by [ 36 ] shown that proficient management of emotions positively influences the L2 perseverance, emotional regulation (ER), and resilience of EFL learners. Therefore, it can be inferred that the combination of L2 grit and a harmonious psychological condition among students significantly impact the whole language development process.

Settings and participants

A sample of 86 students from a private language institute in China participated in this study. The students in this group were chosen after taking the Oxford Quick Placement Test. This study was designed for students whose English proficiency is at the intermediate level. During the course of this work, no more English instruction was allowed. Students ranged in age from 14 to 16; there were 41 females and 45 males. The research does not take into account the subjects’ sociocultural background. They have 16 sessions to complete their program and pass. Students gave their informed consent to participate in this study, and their participation was completely voluntary.

The Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) was given in order to assess the English language skills of the students. The OQPT utilizes a score range of 0.1 to 0.9. Within this range, scores falling between 0.4 and 0.6 are designated as indicative of an intermediate level of skill in the English language. The research found that the reliability coefficient of the OQPT was 0.91.

Based on the contents of the proposed resources, a researcher-created exam with 50 items was developed (Understanding and Using English Grammar). In doing so, three psychometricians and three EFL teachers were asked to assess the item quality. Some elements were altered in response to their feedback. Following this, the test was administered to a group of 42 EFL students similar of the target demographic to assess test-retest reliability. The identical examination was re-administered to the same subject after 1 month to assess the stability of the findings across time. According to the Pearson correlation coefficients, the test has a significant test-retest reliability (r = .85).

The self-evaluation of the participants was measured with the (CSEQ), which was devised and validated by [ 37 ]. This 5-point Likert scale consists of 12 questions with the following response options: strongly disagree (1) and strongly agree (5). On this scale, scores varied between 12 and 60. On this scale, high scores indicated positive self-evaluation, whereas low scores indicated negative self-evaluation. In the current investigation, CSEQ’s reliability was 0.873, indicating an acceptable Reliability.

The Teacher Support Measure (TSM) developed by [ 19 ] was used to evaluate TS. The measure consisted of eight questions divided into two scales: teacher academic support and teacher personal support. On a 5-point Likert scale, respondents may choose between always (1) and never (5). English was added to the scale’s question wording so that it could be used to assess teachers’ ability to provide help in a particular subject area.

The Language‑domain‑specific Grit Scale (LDSGS) developed and validated by [ 32 ] was used to evaluate the fortitude of EFL university students. This scale consists of 12 items, six of which assess perseverance of effort and six of which assess consistency of interest on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 “not at all like me” to 5 “very much like me.” In this examination, the reliability of the (L2-Grit) as determined by Cronbach’s alpha (ranging from 0.818 to 0.879) was noteworthy.

The present research utilized a quasi-experimental design in the first phase, and individuals were randomized to groups based on non-random factors. Initially, the Oxford Quick Placement Test was utilized to measure the level of English language competency of the students. 86 participants were selected for the current research based on the results of the Oxford Quick Placement Test (score range 0.1–0.9) and the cut score (0.4–0.6). Students with higher scores (between 0.7 and 0.9) indicating high language competence were excluded, whereas students with intermediate English language competency were invited to participate in this research.

Following the pre-test, training was provided the researcher, who taught all of the courses in both the EG (n = 42) and CG (n = 44). This research was conducted over the course of one semester (16 sessions) in 2023. The material applied in this study was Understanding and Using English Grammar by [ 38 ]. This book was used for both groups to learn English grammar. The participants engaged in virtual instruction via the use of Tencent Meeting. Additionally, a private group was established on the messaging platform WhatsApp, whereby the researcher of this study shared textual content aimed at offering solutions for the enhancement of self-evaluation and L2 grit. These techniques are derived from the pertinent literature and relevant scholarly sources. In the event of encountering difficulties, individuals may choose to communicate by telephone. Students may pose their inquiries and the instructor will provide the necessary feedback. Additionally, learners’ homework was checked by the teacher.

English learners were also urged to maintain a notebook and evaluate their own grammar learning experiences and report their reflections as well as their progress to their teachers. Within the context of this What’s App group, EFL students in EG engaged in collaborative exercises either in pairs or small groups, with a strong emphasis placed on fostering social connections and providing mutual support. It is worth noting that the instructors of both groups are the same. In session 16, before to the final assessment of the participants, a post-test was administered to both the CG and EG. This post-test aimed to evaluate the development of English grammar and determine the effectiveness of the project. The post-test included measures of English grammar, self-evaluation, teacher support, and L2 grit. Both the pre- and post-tests were administered in English since the subjects were competent enough to complete the scales in that language. The validation of the reliability of the findings was conducted by three EFL instructors via the administration of pre- and post-tests.

Data analysis

A one-way ANCOVA was conducted to examine the effectiveness of self-evaluation, teacher support, and L2 grit in grammar enhancement in EFL instruction. Prior to doing one-way ANCOVA, many underlying assumptions were assessed, including normality, sample size, outliers, linearity, and homogeneity of regression. ANCOVA examines the impact of a covariate variable on the variance of the dependent variable and distinguishes it from the variance changes caused by variations in the levels of a qualitative variable. As a result, it reduces the uncertain fluctuations in the dependent variable’s variance (error) and produces more accurate outcomes [ 39 ].

Firstly, the normality of the distribution was checked via Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) and the results of which are indicated in Table  1 :

The Sig. value under the KS part of the table represented a value higher than 0.05, which indicates that the distribution of scores was normal. Thus, it is logical to run independent samples t test and one-way ANCOVA.

It could be seen in Table  2 that the difference between the EG ( M  = 27.2857) and CG ( M  = 28.8864) mean scores on the pretest of English grammar was quite small. In order to find out whether this difference between the pretest scores of both groups was statistically significant or not, the following t test needs to be considered:

Based on Table  3 ., there was not a statistically significant difference in the pretest scores for EG and CG, as p  = .366 (two-tailed). Hence, it could be inferred that the learners in the two groups were at the same level of grammar before the treatment.

As the vital research question of the study was intended to figure out whether self-evaluation, teacher support, and L2 grit enhance English grammar learning, the posttest scores of the EG and CG learners were compared. To attain this objective, one-way ANCOVA was run:

In Table  4 , the post-test mean score of the EG ( M  = 38.9524) was higher than the posttest mean score of the CG ( M  = 32.6364). To find out whether this difference was a statistically significant one or not, the Sig. column in Table  5 must be checked:

In Table  5 , the p value is lower than the alpha level of significance (i.e., p < .05) which shows that the difference between the two groups of EG and CG on the grammar posttest was statistically significant. This means that using the self-evaluation, teacher support, and L2 grit could significantly improve the grammar learning of the EG learners. Another important data in Table  5 is the Partial Eta Squared which equaled 0.39, which means that the treatment accounted for 39% of the difference between the EG and CG learners. The existence of a significant difference between the grammar post-test scores of the EG and CG learners is graphically represented in Fig.  1 below:

figure 1

Posttest Mean Scores of the EG and CG Learners

Figure  1 shows that the EG learners considerably outperformed the CG learners on the grammar posttest, indicating that the treatment had significant effects on Chinese EFL learners’ grammar learning.

The goal of this study was to investigate the ways in which self-evaluation, support from teachers, and grit in learning a second language all influence the acquisition of English grammar via the medium of virtual language training. To achieve this goal, quasi-experimental study was conducted in China’s EFL training. The findings of ANCOVA demonstrated that EFL learners have the potential to enhance their grammar learning provided they acquire adequate levels of self-evaluation, teacher support, and L2 grit. As a result, the null hypothesis is not supported. This conclusion should not come as a surprise since it is well known that the elements that EFL students confront in online teaching and evaluation have an influence on the levels of anxiety that they experience if they are exposed to them. It is common for students to either not have any anxiety at all or to experience a large reduction in the intensity of their anxiety when they feel comfortable and encouraged by their professors to do their coursework.

It was discovered that self-evaluation acts as a mediator between the learners and their linguistic worries. This study found that the more self-reflective an EFL student is, the less disengaged they were about learning English grammar. It is determined that students, via the lens of self-evaluation, do extensive self-monitoring and evaluation for learning grammar. Higher-order thinking skills, a sense of self-worth, and learner confidence may be required to successfully complete this evaluation. According to [ 40 , 41 , 42 ], trainees will experience anxiety if they set goals that exceed their abilities. Therefore, EFL students need to be well-equipped with self-assessment strategies for dealing with negative emotions like nervousness in the classroom. To put it another way, the more EFL students practice self-evaluation, the more they learn about their own traits and values. The findings of [ 16 , 18 ] are supported by the findings presented here. They were able to show that self-evaluation beliefs, cognitive abilities, self-regulatory mechanisms, and resilience are all closely connected to one another.

The manner in which students engage in self-evaluation has a role in shaping and reshaping a positive self-concept and self-identity, ultimately fostering the pursuit of worthwhile objectives. EFL students get advantages from such experiences as they aid in fostering an inherent sense of control and a perception of effectiveness in their ability to do tasks proficiently. The study’s findings underscore the importance of involving students in self-evaluation, as it motivates them to articulate the reasons and objectives behind their successful outcomes in terms of enhancing their proficiency and effort in mastering grammar structure. The profound effects of self-evaluation on language learning have been extensively examined via many theoretical frameworks and empirical studies on self-evaluation (e.g.,). Based on the Self-Determination theory [ 43 ], enhancing self-awareness results in an increase in educational aspirations, academic contentment, determination, and engagement in the classroom.

Greater advancements in EG in the acquisition of grammatical skills, along with a heightened perception of teacher support, indicate that students who get sufficient and timely assistance from their English educators are more inclined to be motivated in their language studies and have a more favorable overall learning experience. The results also provide theoretical support to the control-value theory [ 44 ] on the linkage between feelings of achievement and their preceding factors in the context of second language learning. Prior studies in the field of language learning have largely overlooked the influence of teacher support on students’ negative perceptions of achievement [ 42 , 45 ]. Further investigation on the relationship between teacher support and the reduction of other negative emotions is recommended.

To put it another way, students’ feelings of accomplishment may be directly and indirectly influenced by the perceptions they have of their teachers’ levels of support for them in their academic pursuits. A study conducted by [ 46 ] came to similar conclusions. The researcher discovered that students’ views of teacher support might either directly impact their academic engagement or indirectly influence it by altering the pleasure they took from studying arithmetic. To be more precise, students’ academic motivation, a key result of accomplishment emotions, may be affected by their perceptions of their teachers’ support in the classroom. Based on these results, control-value theory may be more broadly applied to the field of second language acquisition [ 47 ]. Teachers are encouraged to take steps including demonstrating keen interest in their students’ progress, providing analytical input, and employing a wide variety of instructional techniques to aid their pupils in their studies because teacher support is linked to students’ feelings of accomplishment and their level of academic engagement [ 48 ].

More specifically, the findings demonstrated that L2 grit has the ability to assist students in managing their anxiety around communication, fear of receiving a poor evaluation, anxiety regarding taking tests online, and anxiety related to taking classes in foreign languages. The results of a prior study, although a limited one, that indicated the significant role that grit plays in the control of emotions [ 49 ] confirm this conclusion, which is in agreement with the findings of the previous study. In the context of EFL, the results of [ 3 ] provided more evidence for the very important function that L2 grit plays in lowering the level of anxiousness experienced by learners and enhancing their general well-being during language evaluation. Additionally, [ 50 ] demonstrated that in the context of the argumentative task, both the persistence of effort and working memory play a significant role in determining how well a person does while writing in a second language (L2).

In addition, it is possible to draw the conclusion that language students who have a greater degree of persistence and resilience are more likely to display persistent efforts in the pursuit of their particular goals. The degree to which people are able to retain consistency in their undertakings and aims has a direct influence on their capacity to evaluate their own growth and success. Validation of the connections between L2 grit and self-efficacy was accomplished within the same line of study [ 51 ]. When it came to self-evaluation, one of the most important ideas was self-efficacy. The results that [ 52 ] uncovered provided more evidence in support of this previous conclusion. The researcher arrived at the conclusion that the coping strategies used by learners were a reliable indicator of their capabilities in the area of self-evaluation. In the case of EFL, the result of [ 40 ] was also another piece of data that supported the critical role that L2 grit plays in increasing learners’ motivation to communicate in the target language.

The results of the research have certain educational repercussions that might be drawn from them. The integration of psychological and mental aspects into the curriculum has the potential to enhance students’ accessibility to course materials. This is because the rapid proliferation of technological advancements and the increasing demand for online and virtual educational platforms have made it possible for students to access knowledge whenever it is convenient for them and from any geographical location, even outside of the confines of the traditional classroom setting. In light of this, teachers need to acquire the skills necessary to demonstrate digital literacy in order to make successful use of technological platforms for language education and assessment. To reiterate what was said before, it is of the utmost importance to foster a healthy psychological outlook in students throughout their whole educational experience. Within this framework, it is essential for both educators and students to have a comprehension of the notions of self-help and the possible influence that these concepts may have on the psychological and physiological well-being of the individuals involved.

Grammar may be likened to a game. Those students who possess a deep understanding of the language acquire grammatical skills by intuitive means, while others have difficulties with aspects such as tenses, phrases, and sentences. The learners’ growth in grammar is fostered by instructors who are supportive, particularly in situations when the learners want assistance and feedback. Enhancing English grammar skills also includes engaging in writing exercises during class and pursuing personal writing endeavors outside of class for pleasure. An effective method to enhance writing skills is to engage in English discussions and responses in Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter updates in English. It is possible for instructors to assist their students in developing a strong foundation in English grammar by providing them with understandable explanations, relevant exercise, and consistent reinforcement. Thereby, it is important for teachers to modify their teaching methods in accordance with the requirements, interests, and various learning styles of their students.

The findings of the present study should be assessed considering the inherent constraints of empirical investigation. This study used a quasi-experimental technique, which featured intact groups that were included in the sample processes. Future research should use a variety of approaches to enhance the results of the current study. Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge that the sample sizes of the EG and CG were rather small, which might possibly affect the capacity to apply the results to a larger population. Subsequent investigations should use a more extensive sample size in order to provide more comprehensive analyses. The present research was also limited in its focus on the linguistic proficiency of students enrolled at an intermediate level of education. Subsequent investigations might potentially delve into supplementary areas of inquiry. Furthermore, this research examines the participants’ advancement in grammar. Subsequent research endeavors might explore other language competencies and assess the learners’ advancement in self-assessment, instructor assistance, and second language perseverance. Lastly, this research did not examine the potential effects of the demographic characteristics of the participants and their socio-cultural diversity, which can be the focus of future research.

Data Availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

The dataset of the present study is available upon request from the corresponding author.

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Wang, K. Grammar enhancement in EFL instruction: a reflection on the effects of self-evaluation, teacher support, and L2 grit. BMC Psychol 12 , 15 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01504-9

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The Role of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in Collaborative Research: A systematic Review

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Optimizing collaborative behavior is crucial in educational activities, directly improving academic performance, social skills, and social-emotional learning for both teachers and students. In an effort to decipher the mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of collaborative learning, educators and neuroscientists have initiated the collection and analysis of learners’ physiological parameters during such collaborative exercises. Considering both accuracy and portability, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has emerged as a viable tool. The current study aims to understand its potential for studying neural mechanisms of collaboration. Sixty articles were reviewed from three databases to address three research questions: (1) What are the characteristics (i.e., number of publications per year and for different age groups of participants, sample size, and the usage of fNIRS devices) of fNIRS-based collaboration research? (2) What experimental designs are commonly employed in fNIRS-based collaboration research? (3) What is the relationship between neural activity and interactive behavioral performance? The results provide a comprehensive descriptive statistical analysis of the literature characteristics and offer a detailed summary of the research methods employed, including the experimental protocol, task, and duration. Importantly, these findings demonstrate compelling evidence of inter-brain synchrony (IBS), indicating synchronized cortical activities between interacting individuals, and it was observed in the prefrontal cortex or temporoparietal cortex during collaboration and interaction tasks, highlighting the crucial role of these brain regions in facilitating collaborative behavior. The finding of this review advanced our understanding of how fNIRS is ultilized in collaborative research and offer practical implications for designing educational interventions or programs aimd at enhancing collaborative behaviors and their associated benefits.

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Collaboration is a social philosophy that emphasizes mutual respect and shared responsibility toward learning goals (Laal & Ghodsi, 2012 ). During collaborative interactions, individuals may work cooperatively toward shared learning goals, competitively toward individual goals, or independently on unrelated goals (Laal and Ghodsi, 2012 ). In educational contexts, collaborative learning aligns with Dewey’s philosophy that learning is primarily a social activity (Dewey, 1963 ). Throughout the collaborative process, individuals engage in a range of social interaction behaviors such as communication, cooperation, and mutual support. By identifying specific interaction behaviors, researchers can pinpoint factors that contribute to effective collaboration and develop interventions to address potential barriers. Therefore, understanding the nature of interactive behaviors in collaborative learning is crucial for developing effective strategies to promote collaboration and enhance students’ learning outcomes.

Traditionally, surveys, questionnaires, and video observations have been used to quantify the processes and outcomes of collaboration in educational settings, investigating factors such as influencers, social networks, group roles and behaviors, and cognitive and emotional engagement. However, in recent years, neuroimaging techniques such as EEG, fMRI, and fNIRS have been used to examine the neural correlates of collaboration and identify relationships between social interactive behavior (Cui et al., 2012 ; Decety et al., 2004 ; Perry et al., 2011 ). These methods provide deeper insights into the neurobiological and cognitive correlates of social collaboration, shedding light on the complex social dynamics that occur in educational settings. While the social nature of humans has been studied for thousands of years, the use of neuroscientific methods to understand brain activity during social collaboration has only become prominent in the last two decades (Babiloni & Astolfi, 2014 ). By integrating these methods with traditional research approaches, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of how social interaction behaviors contribute to successful collaboration and inform the development of effective intervention.

In the early years of social neuroscience, neuroimaging studies focused on recording brain activity during highly controlled experimental conditions, typically when participants were presented with a social stimulus (Dumas et al., 2010 ; Iacoboni et al., 2004 ). While these experiments help to provide a foundational understanding of the brain’s social function, these studies lack ecological validity of dynamic interactions between two or more people and the social context in which the interaction is occurring. More recently, hyperscanning, the measurement of brain activity from more than one individual at the same time, has been suggested as a game-changer in the study of human social interaction (Gvirts & Perlmutter, 2020 ). In particular, the use of fNIRS has rapidly grown over the past decade to become an invaluable and powerful tool for researchers to monitor changes in cerebral hemodynamics response in relation to an active cognitive or motor task (Boas et al., 2014 ). fNIRS technology, which stands for functional near-infrared spectroscopy, is a non-invasive brain imaging technique that relies mainly on the neurovascular coupling principle. It utilizes the differential absorption characteristics of HbO 2 and HbR in brain tissue at different wavelengths of near-infrared light (600–900 nm) to calculate changes in their concentrations based on the modified Lambert–Beer law. This allows for real-time and direct detection of neural activity in the brain. In an fNIRS hyperscanning paradigm, more than one fNIRS device is used to simultaneously record cerebral activation from two or more participants performing a collaborative task (Cui et al., 2012 ). One of the central concepts of hyperscanning is the premise of IBS, which is a reliable marker of the flow of information between elements of a system (Burgess, 2013 ). It could not only be observed when individuals are are in the same condition of reciprocal information exchange, but also induced when individuals simultaneously experience the same stimuli such as watching a movie together (Hasson et al., 2008 ), or just occured coincidently (Burgess, 2013 ). Compared to classic single-brain experimental paradigms, simultaneously measuring the cortical activity of two or more interacting participants allows us to investigate intra- and inter-brain neural relations and their general factors during different social activities.

Several literature reviews have been published on the social interaction field, with a focus on the primary neuroimaging technologies used in hyperscanning research, such as EEG, fMRI, and fNIRS (Babiloni & Astolfi, 2014 ; Wang et al., 2018 ; Czeszumski et al., 2020 ), as well as the integrated EEG-fNIRS system (Uchitel et al., 2021 ). While these reviews provide insights into the working principles and data analysis indicators of different technologies, they may not be suitable for collaborative research in educational scenarios due to factors such as cost, ease of operation, and physical sensation. Additionally, reviews that focus on technical development or data analysis methods may be too complex for educational researchers, particularly beginners, to comprehend. Moreover, some existing meta-analyses and reviews specifically focused on fNIRS research tend to narrow their scope to specific types of social interaction, such as speech communication and teach-and-learn. However, these reviews only searched for relevant studies within specific fields of social sciences, such as linguistics or education, without conducting a comprehensive search across various fields that utilize fNIRS to explore interactive behaviors. Furthermore, they did not systematically present and summarize the characteristics, experimental designs, and key findings of these studies (CHENG et al., 2021 ; Czeszumski et al.). Furthermore, most social interaction studies in neuroscience use a strict block experimental design that focuses on the neural mechanisms behind controlled interactive behaviors such as eye contact, behavioral coordination, and imitation. However, formalized learning and teaching activities often occur in naturalistic situations such as classrooms or families that may be difficult to control. Therefore, there is a need to review as many studies as possible that have the potential to contribute to investigating collaboration itself or social interaction behaviors that could happen during collaboration.

By synthesizing the existing literature on this topic, this systematic review aims to provide educational researchers with a comprehensive understanding of how fNIRS can be used to investigate social interaction behaviors in real-world settings and identify the factors that contribute to effective collaboration. The finding of these studies can inform the development of effective interventions to promote collaborative learning and enhance outcomes. Besides peer interaction, teacher-student interaction in the educational process is also a crucial factor influencing student learning. The acquisition of knowledge by students in the classroom is not solely dependent on the teacher’s level of expertise, but rather on the way teachers interact with their students. Within the teacher-student interaction process, there are important factors to consider, such as basic styles of interaction, the significance of positive interaction, and barriers to effective interaction (Englehart, 2009 ). Therefore, this review also highlights articles that utilize fNIRS technology to explore neural markers during teacher-student interaction, aiming to inspire interdisciplinary research in the fields of pedagogical theory and teacher education. Specifically, we aim to (a) consolidate the protocol and evidence for the use of fNIRS in collaboration studies, focusing on the different types of tasks, regions of interest in the brain, and results that have been found; (b) provide recommendations for successful use of the technology in naturalistic situations; and (c) discuss the possible future directions in educational research. Our systematic review was guided by the following three research questions:

What are the characteristics (i.e., number of publications, participant demographics, sample size, and the types of fNIRS devices) of fNIRS-based collaboration research?

What experimental designs are commonly used for fNIRS-based collaboration research?

What is the relationship between neural activity and interactive behavioral performance?

This systematic review examines the characteristics, experimental designs, and neural markers of fNIRS-based collaboration research. Understanding the characteristics of fNIRS-based collaboration research, such as participant demographics, sample sizes, and technical considerations, provides valuable insights into the existing knowledge base and helps researchers assess the generalizability of findings. Additionally, knowledge of experimental designs is crucial for evaluating the rigor of studies and identifying potential biases or limitations. Finally, by examining the relationship between neural activity and interactive behavioral performance, this review can provide valuable insights into the neural mechanisms underlying social interaction and advance our understanding of brain function more broadly.

Overall, this systematic review is significant because it can identify knowledge gaps, evaluate research quality, develop standardized methods, and inform future research in the educational neuroscientific field. By synthesizing existing findings, this review can guide future research design and data interpretation and facilitate collaboration among researchers in this field.

Search Strategy

A literature search was performed on January 2023 using three databases including (1) Web of Science (WOS), (2) Scopus, and (3) EBSCO. The ERIC database was not included because using the same search strategy yielded only two relevant articles, which were already included in other databases. The search term is shown in Table 1 . For example, the search code input in WOS was “fNIRS” OR “NIRS” OR “Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy” OR “hyperscanning” OR “nirs*” AND “IBS” OR “neuro*” OR “synchron*” OR “inter-brain*” OR “brain-to-brain*” OR “brain synchron*” OR “Inter-neural*” OR “cortical activ*” OR “neural activ*” OR “brain activ*” OR “functional connectivity” OR “brain coupl*” OR “neural coupl*” AND “Interact*” OR “Collaborat*” OR “Cooperat*” OR “Communicat*” OR “Discuss*” OR “Gam*” OR “Learn*” OR “Teach*” AND “dyad” OR “triple” OR “group*” OR “team*” OR “child*” OR “mother” OR “father.”

Prescreening and Qualifying Criteria

To gather relevant published studies, the search was conducted independently by two researchers according to preferred reporting items for systematic reviews (PRISMA) guidelines (Moher et al., 2009 ) (Fig.  1 ). The authors obtained a total of 2429 documents through three databases, and 11 studies through other means such as snowballing search for other relevant articles, which may have been missed. After removing 1178 duplicates, the titles and abstracts of the articles were screened with 1262 documents. Then, 1100 documents were excluded based on title and abstract due to lack of relevance to the research question and insufficient methodological rigor before the two coders conducted full text. After the full-text discussion and excluding 92 studies, two coders further coded and data extraction on the remaining 60 documents. Any disagreement in the selection for inclusion was resolved by discussion and further reading of the articles. The final list was approved by all authors who appraised the studies based on the inclusion criteria:

Articles published as full texts.

Articles published in English, peer-reviewed journal articles.

Included behavioral data on the quality of interaction or collaboration.

Experimental tasks included social interaction and collaboration tasks that could be conducted via natural speech communication and had to involve participants working together to achieve a specific goal.

In face-to-face collaborative research, the experimental design was naturalistic. In particular, the interaction and collaboration tasks could be conducted via natural speech communication, sufficient duration, unconstrained frequency of conversation, and the movement of the subjects’ arms, bodies, and heads is not restricted within the range allowed by the equipment.

figure 1

2020 PRISMA flow diagram of the search strategy used to derive the included studies

It is also worth noting that we aim to encompass a wide range of research related to online learning and collaborative learning, including studies on computer-based interaction and collaboration. It is important to recognize that complex mental processes often originate from social activities, with children gradually internalizing these processes as they develop. Social interaction serves as a crucial foundation for collaborative learning and educational activities (Costley, 2012 ). Hence, this review incorporates studies examining various forms of social interaction, such as free dialog and behavioral imitation, to encourage researchers in fields like child development and special education to explore the cognitive functions of learners.

Quality Assessment and Publication Bias

Table [1[2 and Table [1[3 (see Appendix) present the results of the quality assessment for the 65 studies included in this systematic literature review. The Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies-of Exposure (ROBINS-E) tool (see Table [1[1) was utilized to assess the risk of bias in these observational epidemiological studies in a structured manner. The findings indicate that the overall risk of bias for each included study was determined to be low.

Data Extraction

Following the selection of studies for inclusion, the following data for all included papers were extracted for qualitative analyses: characteristics of participants, fNIRS devices, experimental tasks, brain regions of interest, and collaborative tasks and behavioral outcomes of those tasks. To ensure accuracy and consistency in the coding process, two authors were involved in coding all 60 articles separately. A pilot coding was conducted with two researchers independently coding 15 randomly selected studies using the template. The inter-rater reliability was 0.90. Any discrepancies between the coders were resolved through discussion and consensus. This approach helped to minimize the potential for coder bias and ensured that the coding process was as rigorous and reliable as possible.

Sample Characteristics

We extracted the characteristics of participants including the sample size, average age or age range of participants, and the group type such as peer dyad, parent–child dyad, and peer triple. The age range reported in the related study was mainly in the early childhood, adolescent, and adult stages. Additionally, participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), autism spectrum condition (ASC), sleep deprivation (SD), Internet gaming disorder (IGD), and acute stress (AS) were found. These studies investigated the impact of neurodevelopmental and mood disorders on social interaction and IBS.

fNIRS Devices and Regions of Interest

To provide an overview of how fNIRS-based experiments were conducted, information regarding the type of device (i.e., make, model, and the number of optode channels/montage), brain regions of interest (ROI) (see Fig.  2 ), and experimental protocols used were extracted. We further summarize the patterns of brain activation such as, but not limited to, intra- and interbrain activity within and between participants.

figure 2

Brain regions commonly used in fNIRS hyperscanning studies

Experimental Design

To provide methodological and practical experience in designing collaborative tasks, we extracted information about the type and duration of tasks, the size of the interactive group, and the social relationship between collaborative subjects such as child-mother dyad, student-instructor dyad, and peer or student dyad.

Brain and Behavioral Outcomes

All studies in this review included collaborative tasks that consisted of fNIRS-based brain scanning of participants’ PFC and/or left, right, or bilateral TPJ (see Fig.  2 ) and behavioral performance assessment. Additionally, the relationship between brain activities and behavioral performance of collaborative tasks was recorded and summarized. Based on the description of the collaborative action (Laal & Ghodsi, 2012 ) and the nature of experimental paradigms, experimental tasks were classified into three categories:

Face-to-face collaboration and interaction: working together collaboratively to accomplish shared task goals or interact with each other following a certain pattern without a common goal (e.g., alternate speech, storytelling, and psychological counseling).

Computer-based collaboration and interaction: playing computer games or communicating online.

Teaching-and-learning interaction: teachers teach students specific knowledge within a certain period, or students collaboratively learn specific knowledge content.

Task-related: RPP realistic presented problem task, AUT alternative uses task, OCT object characteristics task, PDG prisoner’s dilemma game, HD high educational diversity group (the members respectively majored in science or social science), LD low educational diversity group (the members both majored in either science or social science), IGT Iowa Gambling Task, TCDM team collaborative decision-making, IDM individual decision-making, GDM group decision-making.

Brain region of interest (ROI): r right, l left, m middle, a anterior, p posterior, bi bilateral, dl dorsolateral.

Frontal cortex: PFC prefrontal cortex, SFG superior frontal gyrus, IFC inferior frontal cortex, MIFG middle and inferior frontal gyri, MFG middle frontal gyrus, FTPJ frontal-temporo-parietal junction, STG superior temporal gyrus, SCA subcentral area

Temporal cortex: STC superior temporal cortex (including superior temporal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus), PG postcentral gyrus (Wernicke’s area), MSTG middle and superior temporal gyri (Wernicke’s area), PST posterior superior temporal sulcus

Parietal cortex: FP frontoparietal, TPJ temporoparietal junction, SG supramarginal gyrus, IPL inferior parietal lobe, AG angular gyrus, SMG supramarginal gyrus, SC sensorimotor cortex, PPC inferior parietal cortex

This section addresses the results of three research questions. Firstly, the characteristics of fNIRS-based interaction (research question 1) are described. Secondly, the experimental design of fNIRS-based interaction (RQ2) is presented. Lastly, the relationship between brain activity and interactive behavioral performance during collaborative and interactive tasks is reported (RQ3).

The Characteristics of fNIRS-Based Collaboration and Interaction Research

Number of publications per year.

Sixty studies were identified and included in this review. Overall, the number of articles increased each year with 1 study in 2012, 1 study in 2014, 2 studies in 2015, 1 study in 2016, 4 studies in 2017, 7 studies in 2018, 8 studies in 2019, 10 studies in 2020, 18 studies in 2021, and 13 studies in 2022 (see Fig.  3 ).

figure 3

The characteristics of fNIRS-based interaction research

Number of Publications for Different Age Groups of Participants

A total of 12 studies included children aged 3–12 years, with 9 including preschool children aged 3.5–5.32 years (lines 4, 5, 14, 16–20, 33; Table 2 ), 3 studies were on adolescent children aged 7.4–11.29 years (lines 3, 15, 32; Table 2 ), with the remaining 53 studies in adults above 18 years (lines 1, 2, 6–13, 21–31, 34–60; Table 2 ). Among the 48 adult studies, there are three studies researched on people who have sleep deprivation (SD) (line 21; Table 2 ), acute stress (line 1; Table 2 ), and Internet gaming disorder (IGD) (line 2; Table 2 ). Two studies further explored collaborative behaviors in children with clinical diagnoses such as ASD (line 32; Table 2 ) and ASC (line 3; Table 2 ). Apawrt from these two studies involving children, the remaining studies on children recruited a corresponding number of adult participants, with the majority being parents of child participants who formed dyads with their children to complete interactive tasks.

Sample Size of Each Study

The sample sizes of included studies ranged from 12 to 546 participants. Except for Bazán ( 2022 ) which did not report a sample size, the average sample size of the rest of the studies was 81. The study by Barreto et al. ( 2021 ) had the least number of subjects (4 adults and 8 children), while Yang et al. ( 2020 ) had the greatest number of participants with 546 individuals organized into 91 triads for three-versus-three-person intergroup competitions.

Usage Frequency of each fNIRS Device

The type of fNIRS devices is shown in Table 2 . According to portability, fNIRS devices can be divided into tethered and wireless types. Thirty-eight of the studies used tethered devices such as ETG-7100 (lines 6, 8, 9, 13, 23, 24, 31, 39–41, 45–48, 50, 54, 55; Table 2 ), ETG-4000 (lines 3, 32, 35, 42, 52, 53, 62, 65; Table 2 ), LABNIRS (lines 1, 10, 22, 26, 27, 34, 37, 38, 56–59, 63–64; Table 2 ), BrainSight (line 21; Table 2 ), and CW6 (line 51; Table 2 ), FOIRE-3000/16 (line 28; Table 2 ). These tethered devices can support a greater number of optode channels, which enables researchers to explore cortical activity with greater spatial resolution. Twenty studies used portable devices such as OEG-16 (line 36; Table 2 ), NIRSport (lines 4, 5, 11, 15, 29, 44; Table 2 ), NIRScout (lines 7, 12, 14, 16–20, 33; Table 2 ), LIGHTNIRS (line 25; Table 2 ), and WOT (lines 49, 60; Table 2 ) that are portable, which allow researchers to perform more dynamic collaborative tasks. However, compared to tethered devices, the number of channels is reduced and the optodes are linked to a data acquisition box that requires participants to carry in a bag-pack. Five studies used wireless devices such as NIRSIT Lite (line 2; Table 2 ), Spectratech OEG-16 (line 2; Table 2 ), HOT-1000 (line 43; Table 2 ), Brite23 (line 30; Table 2 ), and wireless continuous wave fNIRS device (line 61; Table 2 ) that only consist of optodes connected to a small data transmission device that does not require a bag-pack. These devices are the most portable (no need for a bag-pack) but consist of fewer channels (2–24) with lower spatial resolution.

The Experimental Design of fNIRS-Based Collaborative and Interactive Research

Experimental protocol of fnirs-based collaborative and interactive research.

When designing the experimental paradigm for fNIRS studies, it is important to consider specific characteristics of the fNIRS signal. For instance, the presence of physiological confounds in fNIRS signals necessitates the repetition of each stimulation condition multiple times to accurately capture the functional response (Yücel et al., 2021 ). The majority of fNIRS paradigms in this study can be categorized into block design and event-related design: (1) Block design involves dividing the experimental time into several blocks, with the same stimulus or task presented repeatedly within each block. This design is commonly used to investigate the effects of specific stimuli or tasks on brain activity and to explore the activation patterns of different brain regions during different tasks or stimuli. In data analysis, the data within each block are averaged, and the differences between different blocks are compared. (2) Event-related design, on the other hand, involves presenting different stimuli or tasks randomly with an interval between each stimulus or task. This design is commonly used to investigate the effects of different stimuli or tasks on brain activity and to explore the activation patterns of different brain regions during different stimuli or tasks. In data analysis, each event is analyzed separately, and the differences between different events are compared.

Firstly, this systematic review includes 57 articles that use event-related design which is commonly used to study social interactions, such as teaching and learning (Zheng et al., 2018 ) and creative cooperation (Lu et al., 2020 ; Mayseless et al., 2019 ) (see Table 3 ). This approach can provide valuable insights into the neural mechanisms underlying social interactions and other complex behaviors. For instance, Nguyen et al. ( 2021a , b ) examined a free verbal conversation between mothers and their preschool children to identify conversation patterns associated with IBS. Babiloni and Astolfi’s ( 2014 ) team explored whether IBS can reliably mark social interactive learning, and specifically during what kind of interactive behavior. Based on an event-related design, they could recognize the change in functional brain connectivity when cooperation fails.

Secondly, 8 papers employed a typical block design that involves dividing the experimental time into several blocks, with the same stimulus or task presented repeatedly within each block. This design is commonly used to investigate the effects of specific stimuli or tasks on brain activity and to explore the activation patterns of different brain regions during different tasks or stimuli. In data analysis, the data within each block are averaged, and the differences between different blocks are compared. This was done to mimic real-life situations as much as possible and to have more ecologically valid cognitive tasks (Pinti et al., 2021 ).

Both event-related and block-design have their advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of design depends on the research question and the cognitive processes being studied. Rest periods typically lasted between 30 s and 3 min and were often represented by participants closing their eyes as a baseline for brain activity.

Experimental Task and Duration of fNIRS-Based Collaborative and Interactive Research

Face-to-face collaborative and interactive tasks.

Overall, 48 studies used a face-to-face protocol to investigate the behavioral and neural characteristics associated with collaboration. According to Table 4 , we can see the type of task not only depends on the research question but also depends on the demographics of the research object. Firstly, in terms of task content, twelve studies on special or healthy children mostly use the Lincoln log game (line 1; Table 4 ), free play (lines 2–4; Table 4 ), build-up task (line 5; Table 4 ), clean up the block (line 6; Table 4 ), tangram puzzles (lines 7–11; Table 4 ), and verbal conversation (line 19; Table 4 ). The pairing is mainly between adults and children, such as mother–child interactions and child-parent interactions. Some studies have experimental and control groups that are child-parent pairs and child-stranger pairs, respectively, to investigate the impact of social interaction between a mother and her child on the child’s committed compliance. For children with ASC and ASD, researchers use block design to design the simple Lincoln Log game and clean up the block task flow. Child participants only need to follow the process instructions to cooperate or imitate the simple behaviors of adults. These two studies’ tasks consist of 4 and 3 blocks, respectively, with a total time of no more than 20 min. Su et al. ( 2020 ) task did not set a time limit and was designed to measure the completion time of the task as a behavioral performance indicator. In comparison, the parent–child interaction tasks for studying healthy children are more diverse and flexible, such as free play and tangram puzzles. However, the overall duration of these tasks does not exceed 20 min, possibly considering the duration of children’s energy and attention span, as well as their tolerance for wearing fNIRS devices. For adult cooperative interaction studies, the main tasks used include tangram puzzles, decision-making card games, verbal communication, and problem-solving.

In adult studies, there are six studies used decision-making card games (lines 12–17; Table 4 ), eight studies applied verbal communication tasks (lines 18–25; Table 4 ), and 18 studies used the problem-solving task which included brainstorming (lines 42–44; Table 4 ), creative task (AUT/OCT) (lines 31–35, 38–39, 42; Table 4 ), product improvement (line 31; Table 4 ), creative design (lines 36, 41; Table 4 ), jigsaw puzzle (line 28; Table 4 ), collaborative Drawing (line 29; Table 4 ), pattern game (line 30; Table 4 ), and tangram puzzles (lines 40, 46; Table 4 ). Only one study applied cooperative word-chain game (line 61; Table 4 ), and two studies applied cooperative singing (lines 47, 48; Table 4 ). The duration and paradigm of tasks mainly depend on the research question and task type. For example, gambling card games mostly use block designs due to that card games are mainly used to study the neural mechanisms behind group decision-making, so participants need to engage in multiple repetitions of cooperation and competition, trust and betrayal, and other social decision-making behaviors to discover the cumulative effects of neural activity (lines 15–17; Table 4 ). Similarly, the Object Naming and Description task and adult in-turn dialog task in verbal communication use block design to compare interactive and non-interactive conditions in IBS and study stereotyping and prejudice (lines 22, 25; Table 4 ). Most other verbal communication tasks use more naturalistic paradigms, such as topic discussions and psychological counseling (lines 20, 23; Table 4 ) and topic discussion (lines 26, 27; Table 4 ). The duration of these tasks is mostly longer, ranging from 20 to 40 min. Finally, problem-solving tasks are the most widely applied. All tasks of this type are designed as event-related, with a general process of rest, instruction, or practice, and the three stages of the collaborative task itself. The duration of brainstorming and OCT, AUT tasks is 5 min. Li et al. ( 2021a ), Mayseless et al. ( 2019 ), Liang et al. ( 2022 ), and Monteiro et al. ( 2022 ) tasks involve design and drawing, so they take longer, with durations ranging from 10 to 20 min. Zhou’s ( 2022 ) Jigsaw puzzle problem is divided into two conditions: task success and task failure. The time for task success depends on the participant’s completion speed, so there is no time limit. However, if it takes more than 300 s to complete the task, it is considered a task failure. Finally, the Osaks’ two cooperative singing studies applied same duration including two solo blocls and one cooperative block. Both humming study and singing study last 15 min.

It is worth noting that both block and event designs typically include an interval or rest of several seconds before and after each task, condition, block, or trial. While some studies do not provide flowcharts or report the duration of these intervals in their experimental methods, intervals are almost always designed for each experiment. These intervals serve a variety of purposes, such as warming up the NIRS machine (Li et al., 2021a , b ) or serving as a baseline measurement for subsequent data analysis (Cui et al., 2012 ; Pan et al., 2020 ).

Computer-Based Collaborative and Interactive Task

Five studies applied the computer-based collaboration paradigm such as League of Legends (Cho et al., 2022 ), synchronization game (Gamliel et al., 2021 ), three-to-three computer game (Yang et al., 2020 ), online communication (J. Liu et al., 2019a , 2019b ), and turn-taking disk game (Liu et al., 2017 ) (see Table 5 ).

All participants in this type of research are adults, and the group sizes have also increased. For example, there are studies with 5-person groups and 3-person groups for intergroup contests. The duration of these two studies is also longer. The League of Legends (LOL) task lasts for 10 to 50 min and aims to investigate the differences in prefrontal cortex activation between individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and regular individuals during actual real-time Internet gaming. The duration of the intergroup contest task is approximately 24 min and aims to reveal the association between within-group synchronization in the prefrontal cortex and intergroup conflict. The turn-taking disk game by Liu et al. ( 2017 ) has a duration of 20 min and aims to examine the differences in IBS patterns underlying competition and cooperation. On the other hand, tasks based on online picture descriptions and 2D movement synchronization games (Gamliel et al., 2021 ) have shorter durations of 3 to 5 min. These two studies primarily focus on investigating the impact of brief interactive behaviors such as intergroup conflict and eye contact on IBS.

Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Teaching–Learning Task

This paper includes ten teaching studies, of which 9 are instructor-student dyads teaching different learning content, and one is a three-person collaborative learning of ancient poetry (see Table 6 ). The experimental designs of these studies are all event-related designs, and researchers have designed different task durations based on their research questions and teaching content. This field of research is the most realistic in terms of time, as the basic teaching duration is guaranteed as much as possible based on the amount of knowledge. In these studies, Barreto et al. ( 2021 ) study involved teaching children addition by adults, so there was no set duration. Instead, the time was recorded based on the teaching progress. Secondly, Pan et al. ( 2018 ) singing and Zhu et al. ( 2021 ) psychology concepts teaching content are more fragmented, so the duration is relatively short, ranging from 7 to 12 min. The durations of other tasks, such as numerical reasoning strategies, three-person collaborative poem learning, numerical reasoning, vocabulary scenario, psychological theory, and numerical reasoning, are all between 20 and 50 min.

The Relationship Between Brain Activity and Interactive Behavioral Performance During Collaborative and Interactive Tasks

This section comprises a comprehensive review of studies that primarily investigate the association between IBS and the modulatory effects of diverse cognitive tasks on relevant brain regions. Additionally, it scrutinizes the behavioral and neural correlates of collaboration across heterogeneous demographic cohorts, encompassing gender, age, disease status, socioeconomic status, and disciplinary background, during collaborative tasks.

First of all, by comparing the neural activity during the collaborative task and independent task or rest, four studies showed higher IBS of PFC and l-TPJ between dyads during collaboration than during rest and independent learning (lines 25, 9, 19; Table 7 ). For example, compared to individual problem-solving and rest, father-child dyads showed increased IBS in bi-DLPFC and l-TPJ during cooperative problem-solving (line 9; Table 7 ). Additionally, Lu et al., 2019a , b ) found increased IBS in r-DLPFC and r-TPJ between dyads during tasks that involved cooperation compared to the competition. During oral communication, higher IBS was observed between the listener’s and speaker’s l-TPJ, compared with between the listener and the unattended speaker across various multi-speaker situations (line 24; Table 7 ). Pan et al. ( 2021a , b observed significant within-group IBS in the left ST, SG, and PG during three-person collaborative learning of a poem compared to independent learning. Furthermore, during creative collaboration (i.e., product improvement task, alternative uses task, product design, discussion on the difficult topic, and psychological counseling) (lines 2, 3, 29, 41, 21, 23; Table 7 ), six studies showed that the occurrence of higher levels of IBS in PFC and r-TPJ (line 31; Table 7 ), a-PFC and p-STG, a-PFC and TPJ or IFG and p-STG (line 39; Table 7 ), r-STG and l-SFG, r-SMG and l-SFG, r-SMG and l-MFG (line 29; Table 7 ), and r-DLPFC and r-TPJ (line 41; Table 7 ) and within-brain synchrony between PFC and l-TPJ was observed compared to tasks that did not involve creativity (line 34; Table 7 ). Moreover, Jiang et al. ( 2012 ) research compared four conditions of a dialog task and only found a increased IBS in the l-IFC during a face-to-face dialog, but was not in the back-to-back dialog, back-to-back monologue, or face-to-face monologue. Similarly, Osaka et al. ( 2015 ) found a significantly increased IBS in l-IFC for cooperative singing or humming regardless of face-to-face or face-to-wall compared with singing or humming alone. However, in Osaka’s another research, he found a significant increase in the IBS between two brains in the r-IFC during a non-face-to-face humming (Osaka et al., 2014 ).

Secondly, four studies have explored the impact of different interaction modes or strategies on collaboration (lines 44, 36, 19, 10; Table 7 ). Higher IBS was observed at the r-AG during turn-taking creative collaboration, which positively predicted perspective-taking behaviors and group performance during group creativity tasks (line 36; Table 7 ). Nguyen et al., 2021a , b ) showed that turn-taking resulted in higher IBS during tangram collaboration and verbal conversation rather than other conversation patterns. During the creative collaboration, stronger IBS in FPC and bi-DLPFC were found between dyads for positive and negative feedback given during the task (line 44; Table 7 ). Moreover, IBS was significantly associated with participants’ conflict of views (line 29; Table 7 ), level of agreeableness (line 15; Table 7 ), stress (line 14; Table 7 ), presence of parent and emotional valence of the video stimuli (line 2; Table 7 ), internalizing behaviors (line 8; Table 7 ), father’s attitude toward his role as a parent (line 9), group performance (line 33; Table 7 ), social status (line 12; Table 7 ), and group diversity (line 33; Table 7 ). Additionally, the included studies showed that IBS could predict behavioral reciprocity and problem-solving success (line 11; Table 7 ), perspective-taking behaviors in low-diversity groups during creative collaboration (line 35; Table 7 ), and collaborative engagement (line 43; Table 7 ). In contrast, decreased IBS was associated with increased sociodemographic risk (e.g., low family income) (line 2; Table 7 ). Finally, one study by Zhao et al., 2021a , b ) reported that IBS played a mediating role in the relationship between the child’s responsiveness and compliance during mother–child interaction.

When further exploring the characteristics and composition of team members, 14 studies found that the sex (lines 5, 16, 17, 39; Table 7 ), creativity (line 45; Table 7 ), social status (line 12; Table 7 ), acute-stress (line 30; Table 7 ), ASD (line 6; Table 7 ), ASC (line 1; Table 7 ), and social relationship such as parent–child versus stranger-child (line 4; Table 7 ), couples versus friends (lines 20, 35; Table 7 ), and leader versus followers (line 26; Table 7 ) would strongly affect IBS during collaboration. For example, studies by Long et al. ( 2022 ) and Duan et al. ( 2020 ) showed that couples but not strangers or friends exhibited higher levels of IBS between the sensorimotor cortex, FPC, and r-TPJ that were concomitant with a greater level of cooperation in the couple’s dyad compared to the stranger and friend dyads (line 37; Table 7 ). During an economic exchange game, the low–high social status group showed increased investor-trustee IBS in the r-TPJ as the number of rounds increased (line 12; Table 7 ). During a building task, the IBS in male-male dyads was significantly greater than that in male–female and female-female dyads (line 36; Table 7 ), whereas another study by Lu et al. ( 2020 ) found higher IBS in r-PFC during creative collaboration for female-female pairings, which was positively correlated with creative performance. Besides, based on the realistic presented problem task, higher IBS was observed in the r-DLPFC for low-low creativity dyads compared to other pairings (i.e., low–high and high-high dyads), and the r-TPJ for low-low creativity dyads compared to high-low pairing (line 45; Table 7 ). During a face-to-face gambling card game (competition task), Zhang et al., 2017a , b ) found that male–female dyads showed increased IBS in m-PFC and DLPFC, whereas female-female dyads showed increased IBS in the l-TPJ. By applying the Iowa gambling task, Zhao et al., 2021a , b found during the late decision-making phase higher IBS at FPC and left TPJ which were observed between dyads under acute stress. This was further supported by evidence from Zhao et al. ( 2022 ) research, which showed that stressed dyads exhibited better cooperative performance during a pattern game task than dyads in a control condition.

Finally, by using parent–child interaction and The Lincoln log game and clean-up block task, Su et al. ( 2022 ) did two studies on children with ASD or ASC and found that children with an ASC had greater motor, planning, and spatial errors and took longer to complete the building tasks, and they had lower STS activation during the turn‑taking and competitive condition and greater IPL activation during the leading and turn-taking condition compared to typical-developed children. Besides, during the clean-up block, children with ASD showed lower behavioral performance but intact motor accuracy during the together/interpersonal synchrony condition. They also had hypoactivation in m-IFG as well as m-STG while showing hyperactivation in IPL compared to the typical-developed children.

Computer-Based Collaborative and Interactive Tasks

Among the five studies, Cho et al. ( 2022 ) and Yang et al. ( 2020 ) measured cortical activation and functional connectivity respectively at the single-brain level, whereas three studies mainly focus on IBS between dyads (Gamliel et al., 2021 ; Liu et al., 2017 ; W. Liu et al., 2019a , 2019b ).

In all, these five studies explored the effect of the Internet gaming disorder (IGD) (Cho et al., 2022 ), the nationality structure of dyads (Gamliel et al., 2021 ), in-group bonding (Yang et al., 2020 ), syntactic structures (Liu et al., 2019a , b ), and cooperation and competition (Liu et al., 2017 ) on functional connectivity and IBS. Cho et al. ( 2022 ) compared the brain activity of college students with and without Internet gaming disorder while they play the League of Legends game. They showed that the Internet gaming disorder group scored higher for craving than the control group, and they displayed significantly stronger cortical activation in the DLPFC when they collaboratively “attacked” their opponents. Based on a computer-based synchronization game, Gamliel et al. ( 2021 ) observed the same nationality dyads had greater behavioral synchrony and enjoyment compared to the dyads from different nationalities. Critically, IBS in the l-IFG significantly increased throughout the task and it was higher among the same nationality group compared to the different nationality dyads. Besides, in-group bonding also played an important role in group collaboration. For example, during a three-to-three computer game, in-group bonding decreased r-DLPFC activity and increased functional connectivity between the r-DLPFC and the r-TPJ at the single-brain level of each participant, and also increased within-group IBS in both r-DLPFC and r-TPJ (Yang et al., 2020 ). Finally, two studies have investigated the influence of syntactic structures and social factors on the IBS in the PST during online communication (Liu et al., 2019a , b ) and a turn-taking disk game (Liu et al., 2017 ). The results showed a significant increase in IBS when communicators produced the same syntactic structures during the online communication and in both cooperation and competition during the turn-taking disk game (Liu et al., 2017 ). In the competition condition, IBS increased in the r-IPL, and dyads’ IBS in the bi-IFG may play a role in mediating the relationship between empathy and disk-manipulation latency (Table 8 ).

Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Teacher-Learner Collaboration

Overall, eleven studies investigated the brain mechanism behind teacher-learner collaboration. These studies showed increased IBS between teacher-learner dyads in PFC (Liu et al., 2019a , 2019b ; Nozawa et al., 2019 ; Pan et al., 2018 , 2020 ), r-TPJ (Barreto et al., 2021 ; Zheng et al., 2018 ), l-TPJ (Pan et al., 2020 ), l-TPJ (Zhu et al., 2021 ), l-IF (Pan et al., 2021a , 2021b ), r-SC (Zheng et al., 2020 ), and STC (Pan et al., 2020 ; Zheng et al., 2018 ) during the teacher-learner activity. Among these studies, the results of six of them showed that IBS in the brain regions mentioned above could predict teaching effectiveness (Liu et al., 2019a , 2019b ; Zheng et al., 2018 ), including the transfer of knowledge to novel contexts (Zhu et al., 2021 ), students’ performance improvement (Pan et al., 2021a , 2021b ), learning outcomes (Pan et al., 2020 ), learner’s behavioral performance (Pan et al., 2018 ).

Apart from hyperscanning studies, two studies investigated cortical activation on a single-brain level (Takeuchi et al., 2017 , 2019 ). Based on a video game teaching task, Takeuchi et al. ( 2017 ) (Takeuchi et al., 2017 ) observed changes in the teachers’ l-PFC activity between the teaching–learning session and task session positively correlated with those observed in students. Moreover, the activity in the l-PFC changed synchronously in both teachers and students after the advancement of the teacher–learner state. Following his initial study, Takeuchi et al. ( 2019 ) further explored the activity of PFC in teachers and students during the teaching of the Tangram puzzle. He found that the PFC activity of teachers increased after giving hints but not while planning hints. Besides, the PFC activity of students increased upon task solving after receiving hints.

Five studies showed that several teaching strategies such as elaborated feedback (e.g., providing examples) (Zhu et al., 2021 ), prior knowledge, communication mode (face-to-face VS. online) (Liu et al., 2019a , b ), social bond (Zheng et al., 2020 ), and scaffolding instructional technique (Pan et al., 2020 ) could enhance IBS in frontal and parietal regions (Zhu et al., 2021 ) and l-PFC (Liu et al., 2019a , b ; Nozawa et al., 2019 ), and even improve teaching effectiveness. Further, a study by Nozawa and colleagues showed that prior synchronized movements before a teaching and learning task could not only foster IBS in the lateral PFC but also improve the teacher-learner relationship (Nozawa et al., 2019 ). Finally, Zheng et al. ( 2020 ) revealed that IBS during teaching mediates association with IBS increment in resting state after teaching and strength of the social bond between teacher and student. Furthermore, Pan et al., 2021a , b highlighted the importance of sleep by comparing the learning performance and IBS of the regular-sleep learner and sleep-deprived learner. He found that sleep-deprived learners initially performed below their baseline level, worse than regular-sleep learners, but learning improvements were comparable between RS and SD conditions after learning with the instructor (Table 9 ).

The use of hyperscanning in education and social neuroscience research is gaining popularity as a technique to understand the neural mechanisms associated with social cognition, collaboration, and interaction. However, as the field is still currently in its infancy, there is a need to consolidate information regarding how hyperscanning research is performed and what are the key findings from the existing literature. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review was to summarize the characteristics of studies including sample size and characters, ROI, fNIRS devices, types of experimental tasks, and task duration typically used in hyperscanning studies. Further, we highlight key associations observed between hyperscanning findings at the level of the brain and its associated behaviors during dyad interactions. The goal is to provide a theoretical basis and evidential support for researchers and practitioners in the use of hyperscanning in the field of education and social neuroscience.

The Characteristics of fNIRS-Based Collaboration Research

A total of 60 studies were included for this purpose. According to Fig.  3 , it seems that there has been a growing interest in the use of fNIRS to study the dynamic interplay between the brains of two interacting individuals, particularly in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging. However, there is a lack of studies conducted by scholars in educational cognitive neuroscience, which presents an opportunity for scholars in this field to utilize fNIRS to answer more scientific questions.

Besides, there is an apparent imbalance in the focus of fNIRS studies, with a disproportionate emphasis on adult participants and a relative scarcity of research conducted on children and adolescents. This bias may be attributed to the convenience of recruiting college students from universities. However, it is crucial to acknowledge the significance of age as a variable, considering the substantial cognitive development that occurs from early childhood to adulthood. These cognitive changes can significantly influence individuals’ behaviors and outcomes during social interactions. Therefore, it is imperative to identify age-specific factors that contribute to effective collaboration and develop interventions tailored to different age stages. In this review, we systematically categorize and statistically analyze the age groups of participants, aiming to provide empirical references for scholars in various research fields, such as preschool education, basic education, and higher education, who focus on different age groups.

Furthermore, the majority of studies only involve child–adult dyads rather than peer dyads, indicating that it is challenging to involve children independently in fNIRS-based interactive experiments. In real-life cooperative learning or social interaction scenarios, multiple individuals are typically involved, but there are only seven studies that have investigated group cooperation with three or more individuals. This highlights the need for higher requirements and challenges in equipment parameters and post-processing techniques.

Finally, it is worth noting that the choice of fNIRS device can also impact participant selection. While Fig.  3 d shows that ETG7100 and LABNIRS are currently the most commonly used devices due to their ability to create a larger number of channels for greater spatial resolution, tethered devices are still the most popular ones as they could create a larger number of channels for greater spatial resolution. However, the development of wireless fNIRS devices (e.g., Brite23/24 from Artinis, see Fig.  4 ) that are lower in cost (compared to MRI and tethered fNIRS systems), resistant to motion artifacts, and can be used in natural settings can facilitate research on children, special children, and even elderly individuals.

figure 4

The example of portable and tethered fNIRS devices. Note: a portable fNIRS devices: Brite24 (Artinis Medical Systems, Elst, Netherlands); b tethered fNIRS devices: Oxymon (Artinis Medical Systems, Elst, Netherlands)

The Experimental Design of fNIRS-Based Collaboration and Interaction Research

The selection of the task type.

Research design plays a crucial role in determining the conditions under which IBS occurs. To date, all studies included examined the process of collaboration using either face-to-face, computer-based, or teacher-student collaborative tasks. Firstly, our search found 54 studies that used face-to-face and computer-based collaborative tasks to investigate IBS behind interactive processes. Most studies used realistic or creative problem-solving, gambling card games, or computer games on healthy adults as participants to study the impact of social factors or collaborative strategies on IBS and behavior, while others used established games such as the Lincoln log game (Su et al., 2022 ) and tangram puzzles (Hoyniak et al., 2021 ), and free play (Bizzego et al., 2022a , b ) to study cognitive function and IBS in healthy adolescents, or children with ASC or ASD (Su et al., 2020 , 2022 ). Typically, the duration of face-to-face collaborative tasks was controlled within 2 to 20 min. The duration of the task not only depends on the research questions but also considers the comfort of the subjects wearing the devices and the battery life of the devices.

Secondly, 11 studies used either face-to-face or computer-mediated teacher-learner collaboration tasks to investigate the impact of teaching processes and strategies on learning outcomes and IBS. The duration of the teaching tasks ranged from 30 s to 20 min. Takeuchi et al. ( 2017 ) video-game teaching task was the shortest task, consisting of three sessions. Each session began with a resting condition of approximately 30 s, followed by a task condition of 30 s, which was further followed by another rest condition of approximately 30 s. Zheng et al. ( 2020 ) numerical reasoning teaching task was the longest task (13–26 min) used to investigate the association between IBS and affiliative bonding or social interaction. In summary, these studies provide a reference for experimental task types and duration, which is dependent on the collaborative or teaching elements to be studied. In contrast to traditional neuroimaging paradigms whereby shorter and more repetitive tasks are used to isolate and elicit associated brain responses, the study of social factors such as affiliative bonding or teaching strategies requires the use of longer task paradigms that is more suited to identify patterns of brain synchrony rather than activation.

The Selection of Enperimental Protocol

This systematic review includes 57 articles that utilized an event-related design, while only 8 papers employed a typical block design. Collaboration involves dynamic and rapidly changing processes. In comparison to block design, event-related design enables researchers to capture the temporal dynamics of specific events or phases, such as turn-taking, joint attention, or cooperative problem-solving of the interactive process by marking these conditions of interest. This level of temporal resolution is crucial for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying collaboration and social interaction. Additionally, event-related design offers greater flexibility, allowing researchers to adapt the timing or sequence of events based on the specific research question or context. This characteristic is particularly advantageous for educational researchers, as learning and teaching activities often require a significant amount of time, involve diverse instructional strategies, and encompass complex influencing factors. On the other hand, block design is less commonly employed in related research. Although it may not appear suitable for collaboration research due to its longer periods of continuous stimulation or task performance, researchers can incorporate specific cognitive or instructional strategies into blocks, such as repeating practice, joint attention, inquiry-based learning, and cooperative learning. This type of research can shed light on the impact of educational interventions on individuals’ cognitive processes and learning engagement.

Overall, the predominance of event-related design in collaboration and educational research highlights its ability to capture the temporal dynamics and flexibility required to investigate complex social interactions and learning processes. However, the inclusion of block design can offer valuable insights into the effects of specific instructional strategies on neural activity and learning outcomes.

The Selection of ROI

As with all neuroimaging studies, the selection of brain ROI to measure needs to be hypothesis-driven. The results of the studies we reviewed showed IBS in different parts of the brain; however, a large proportion of studies chose to image the PFC (and its sub-regions) and TPJ as sources of synchronization. All studies observed significant IBS in the PFC. This consistency is remarkable, considering that the included studies used various cooperation tasks, such as realistic problem-solving, joint drawing, and the Tangram puzzle. It thus appears that PFC has general relevance for cooperative behavior that cannot be reduced to task-specific elements. The present findings not only confirmed earlier findings from single-brain recordings (to social stimuli) (Qiao et al., 2022 ) but further show that the prefrontal regions are mutually activated in a synchronized fashion in sync with the brains of interaction partners, becoming coupled in their functioning (Quiñones-Camacho et al., 2022 ). Moreover, it is well known that the TPJ is involved in many different tasks that require the theory of mind (Schurz et al., 2014 ), which is essential for successful interpersonal interactions (Rilling et al., 2004 ). Therefore, the results of selected studies extend past research by showing IBS in the TPJ (Zhao et al., 2021a , b ). Furthermore, these studies show IBS in both PFC and TPJ, suggesting the existence of a PFC-TPJ IBS that facilitates cooperative behaviors (Nguyen et al., 2020 , 2021a , b ; Zhou et al., 2022 ). However, more evidence is required to test that interpretation.

Factors to Consider in Experimental Design

Experimental design also needs to consider many factors. Firstly, choosing appropriate experimental tasks is crucial for answering research questions. From Table 4 , it can be easily seen that task selection is highly related to the age group of the subjects. For example, among the 12 studies involving children, 8 studies on parent–child interaction chose Tangram puzzles and free-play tasks, indicating that these two tasks are classic tasks that are suitable for children and can solve research problems. For children with ASC and ASD, researchers need to provide simple and regular tasks for them to complete, such as The Lincoln Log game (Su et al., 2022 ) and cleaning up the block (Su et al., 2020 ). Researchers ask subjects to repeat the task to achieve behavioral proficiency and repeatedly activate brain neurons to observe the effect of IBS.

For studies involving adults, task selection is mainly based on the needs of the research question. Secondly, in terms of experimental design, 8 articles used the block design paradigm, while 52 used the event-related design, which is in line to study natural interaction in this review. However, the advantage of block design is that it can identify corresponding cognitive functions and neural activity through repeated stimulation or tasks, which is necessary for revealing collaborative mechanisms.

The Design of Task Duration

Finally, in terms of duration, studies involving children or special needs children generally controlled the experimental duration to within half an hour. This is firstly due to considerations of children’s sensory tolerance, and secondly due to issues such as charging and single-use duration for portable devices such as Brite. The content of the task can greatly influence experimental design. For example, teaching tasks require sufficient time for students to memorize or acquire the corresponding knowledge or skills. Creative design tasks require sufficient time for ideation or drawing production, while oral communication tasks require task duration to be designed based on the content and form of the conversation. In this review, psychological counseling (Zhang et al., 2018 ) had the longest task duration, while overall, verbal communication tasks such as Nguyen et al., 2021a , b child–adult Verbal conversation (4 min) and Hirsch (2018) and Ono’s (2022) Object Naming and Description task (6 min) had relatively shorter durations.

The Relationship Between Inter-subject Neurological Activity and Interactive Behavioral Performance During Collaborative Tasks

Face-to-face and computer-based collaborative and interactive tasks.

Our findings from the included studies have shown that the IBS in specific brain regions, in particular the PFC and TPJ, is strongly associated with certain interactive behaviors. The increase in IBS has been observed to correspond with improved behavioral performance, including a child’s presence with their parent and the emotional valence of video stimuli (Bizzego et al., 2022a , 2022b ), a child’s committed compliance (Zhao et al., 2021a , 2021b ), turn-taking behavior (Nguyen et al., 2021a , 2021b ), behavioral reciprocity, problem-solving success (Nguyen et al., 2020 ), and group creative performance (Lu et al., 2022). However, changes in IBS and behavioral performance may not always be positively correlated. For example, an increase in IBS in the PFC has been associated with a more rapid decrease in internalizing behaviors (Quiñones-Camacho et al., 2021 ). Further analysis has indicated that the positive or negative correlation may not solely be due to social aspects of collaboration, such as romantic relationships (Duan et al., 2020 ), cooperative or competitive relationships (Cho et al., 2022 ), socioeconomic backgrounds (Descorbeth et al., 2020 ; Hoyniak et al., 2021 ), social status, and trust (Cheng et al., 2022 ), or feedback given during the task (Lu et al., 2019a , b ), and that emotional factors, such as empathy (Liu et al., 2017 ) and in-group bonding (Yang et al., 2020 ), may also play a mediating role.

Furthermore, the dynamics of IBS during the collaborative process have also been found to be significantly related to the collaborative behavior (Liang et al., 2022 ). These findings support the interactive brain hypothesis and suggest a dynamically coupled cross-brain neural mechanism that is dedicated to pathways that share interpersonal information (Hirsch et al., 2018 ). Additionally, some research has revealed a neural coupling profile consisting of sophisticated interplays between different ROIs that may underpin certain collaborative behaviors such as higher parent–child IBS in PFC was associated with a more rapid decrease in internalizing behaviors (Quiñones-Camacho et al., 2021 ). These studies indicate that collaborative performance is characterized by both behavioral and neural activity, and the neural coupling profile between different individuals and their brain regions may underpin the collaborative dynamics. Therefore, conducting a video coding by labeling the moment of collaboration will be necessary to parse different types of interactive behaviors. The event-related analysis and time series analysis can help us discover more potential dynamic mechanisms and influencing factors behind the collaborative progress.

With the increase in computer-based online learning and collaborative environments, the role of social interaction, and collaboration are becoming increasingly important. Similar to face-to-face collaboration, computer-based collaborative research has mainly focused on exploring IBS in the PFC and TPJ in the computer games (Yang et al., 2020 ) and online communication (W. Liu et al., 2019a , b ). However, these studies have not only verified the activation and IBS of different brain areas in online interactive tasks from the perspective of social cognitive neuroscience, but have also provided experimental paradigms such as online dialog, game teaching, and group games competition from a methodological perspective (Cho et al., 2022 ). Despite the complexity of interaction in an online game, where actions can influence each other’s thinking and behavior, investigating the IBS within or between groups can reveal the relationship model between interactive roles, interactive relationships, and influencing factors such as group diversity and sex construction.

Both face-to-face and computer-based collaborative research have revealed the existence of IBS in ROIs that are related to behavioral performance, social factors, and collaborative strategies. Face-to-face tasks are particularly useful for observing the impact of factors such as eye contact and physical distance on the interaction process. For instance, research has shown that close spatial distance and direct gaze serve as positive social cues, bringing interacting brains into alignment and optimizing inter-brain information transfer, thus improving communication outcomes (Wang et al., 2022 ). On the other hand, computer-based design is beneficial for accurately controlling task time and the virtual experience presented. It can also be combined with a camera or eye-tracking technology to capture facial expressions and gaze trajectories and explore the cognitive functions or brain synchronization mechanisms behind emotion, attention, and behavioral coordination. However, motion artifacts generated by face-to-face interactions can be challenging to remove and must be addressed appropriately (Yücel et al., 2021 ).

Face-to-Face and Computer-Based Leaching-Learning Task

This review confirmed a positive relationship between IBS and learning outcomes that were supported by 11 studies in this review (Barreto et al., 2021 ; J. Liu et al., 2019a , b ; Nozawa et al., 2019 ; Pan et al., 2020 ; Pan et al., 2021a , b ; Pan et al., 2018 ; Takeuchi et al., 2017 ; Takeuchi et al., 2019 ; Zheng et al., 2018 ; Zheng et al., 2020 ; Zhu et al., 2021 ), which involved the brain activities of different brain networks ranging from the PFC (underpin attention switching and language processing) to the TPJ (involved in interactive tasks that require the theory of mind) (Schurz et al., 2014 ). In the field of education research, it is key to understand why brain activity especially IBS could be a valid neural marker for predicting a better learning outcome. Several interaction research has pointed out that increased IBS in certain brain regions such as the r-TPJ (Zheng et al., 2018 ) and IFC (Pan et al., 2018 ) were observed while individuals having high interactive engagement (Lu & Hao, 2019 ), sharing intentionality (Fishburn et al., 2018 ), and receiving feedback (Lu et al., 2019a , b ) during either face-to-face or computer-based collaboration. By finding the positive relationship between increased IBS with better learning outcomes and social bonding within instructor-student dyads, these results not only suggest IBS as a pedagogically relevant measure that tracks the naturalistic teaching–learning process but also provided neurophysiological support for Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, prediction-transmission hypothesis, and learning transfer effects.

Furthermore, teaching interactions and collaborations in educational environments involve complex interactive behaviors and strategies. When aiming to enhance teaching effectiveness, studies observed increased IBS when applying teaching strategies such as providing elaborate feedback (Zhu et al., 2021 ), scaffolding instructional technique (Pan et al., 2020 ), prior physical synchrony movement (Nozawa et al., 2019 ), and giving hints (Takeuchi et al., 2019 ). Moreover, learners’ prior knowledge (J. Liu et al., 2019a , b ), sleep deprivation (Pan et al., 2021a , b ), and affiliative bonding between the learner and instructor (Zheng et al., 2020 ) were also proven to affect teaching effectiveness. Hence, we reason those successful interactions between students with their teachers, friends, and even parents require understanding each other’s viewpoints, emotional investment, predicting behavior, and choosing strategies to achieve efficient knowledge transfer, information sharing, and knowledge creation reflected by the increase of neural markers such as IBS, cortical activity, and functional connectivity. For example, the research found the activity of PFC could be a neural marker in the dynamic evaluation of the teacher–student interaction. This might play a critical role in predicting teaching effectiveness and certain educational behaviors. Moreover, brain activity could also help to distinguish the cognitive status of different types of learners such as advanced, intermediate, and elementary learners (Negishi et al., 2020 ).

Together, these results indicate that the learner’s experience, characteristics, and involvement in the learning experience, alongside the instructor’s modeling, are key factors driving the alignment of neural processes across the learner and instructor (Pan et al., 2018 ). Such alignment impacts the real-time knowledge transfer and eventually upon the learning and behavioral performance. Hence, these conclusions not only contribute to the theoretical foundation for future educational neuroscience research but also reflect the multiple possibilities of fNIRS-based experiments in the field of collaborative learning and even the entire field of educational research, as well as the great potential of fNIRS technology applied to the real situation in the classroom.

Limitations and Implication

The design of channel number and optode montage for fnirs data collection.

In the device-related part, we briefly reported on the selection of fNIRS devices, and the number of channels used but did not provide detailed information on how different studies design a specific number of channels and optode montage. It is challenging to provide a standard layout for each brain region because different studies use different regions of interest (ROI). Moreover, the size of the ROI depends on the number of channels that the device has. Even for the same device, using the same number of channels may not result in the same montage. In future research, it would be helpful to compile detailed information on the methods used to collect fNIRS data across different studies, including the number of channels available on different devices, the montages that can be used, and the brain regions that can be covered. Visualizing this information in an intuitive form with icons would be particularly helpful for beginners in the field.

Inclusion Criteria and Presentation of Publications by Research Teams from Different Countries

This systematic review has strict inclusion criteria, and many fNIRS studies could contribute to the exploration of the neural mechanisms underlying collaborative learning behaviors. Firstly, studies that did not involve natural communication, such as button tasks or joint attention tasks, were not included in this review because these studies did not allow participants to engage in free verbal communication during the task, and most tasks involved block designs of repeated stimuli or repeated single button tasks. However, research on the small behavioral units or basic cognitive functions that make up the collaborative process, such as coordination, imitation, and joint attention, can also promote our understanding of the underlying logic of collaboration mechanisms. Therefore, future research could include this type of study to further explore the cognitive and behavioral conditions necessary for successful collaboration. Secondly, in recent years, more and more Chinese researchers have made fruitful achievements in the field of fNIRS collaborative research. However, this study did not specifically summarize the publication status of papers from different countries and major teams in this field, nor did it sort and display the series of studies conducted by various teams. Therefore, future research could also conduct a review in this aspect to provide readers with a better understanding of the achievements made by research teams from different countries.

Diversity in Study Participants and Group Types

Few studies in our review focused on special populations, and none investigated the collaboration of children with ADHD, hearing impairments, or other cognitive impairments. Additionally, no studies examined the interaction of elderly individuals. However, utilizing interactive and cooperative strategies to enhance cognitive function and learning performance in older adults or individuals with physiological or cognitive impairments would be meaningful. fNIRS appears to be a valid and powerful child-friendly tool for examining cortical activation during joint play in both children and aging individuals .

To further explore the effects of fNIRS in diverse populations, future research should expand the search scope to include keywords related to clinical symptoms and cognitive impairments in children, and adults (including elderly individuals), and investigate the methods and results of fNIRS studies in these populations. This approach could provide new insights for research on interactive interventions in special education and continuing education.

fNIRS-Based Collaboration Research in Multi-person and Classroom Context

Although the studies in this review created natural interactive tasks and pathways, they were mostly conducted in the laboratory. Naturalistic settings are ideal for studying collaborative learning, as interaction occurs without the intervention of the researcher, increasing the ecological validity of the findings. To address this concern and reflect the ecological validity of fNIRS, future research could consider conducting experiments in real-world educational environments or including real-life teaching scenarios. This would provide a more accurate representation of how brain synchronization occurs during natural teaching and learning situations.

Furthermore, collaborative learning often involves multiple participants in real classroom settings. With the development of brain-computer interface technology and portable fNIRS technology, researchers have begun to extend hyperscanning research to multi-subject studies to increase the “naturalness” of social interaction. Since the process and outcome of collaborative learning are influenced by multiple factors, the effects are often present only in group interactions. Therefore, advanced analysis techniques of ecological-oriented fNIRS data can help us investigate effects that exist only within a classroom environment. Future research on collaborative learning will not only focus on differences in IBS between different experimental groups but will also use more advanced analysis models such as social network analysis and cognitive network analysis to explore the underlying mechanisms of the collaborative process.

Research in Online and Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

This review only found five articles on computer-based or online collaboration. As computer technologies and learning resources continue to develop, online learning and technology-supported classroom interaction have become important forms of collaborative learning. Most of the computer-based interactive studies reviewed in this paper occurred in laboratory settings and used single games or dialog tasks, which inevitably avoided many factors that may affect real learning activities and collaborative processes. Future fNIRS research can be designed to reveal the neural markers of collaborative learning influenced by online technological elements and strategies involved in interactions in real online collaborative learning and CSCL activities.

Limitations of the Present Review

There are several limitations to this systematic review. Firstly, it only includes English peer-reviewed journal articles, which limits the scope of the review. In reality, a significant proportion of the first authors of the articles included in this review are from China, indicating that there are also many relevant papers published in academic journals in China. Japan, as a pioneer in fNIRS device development, is also likely to have conducted many related studies. Therefore, future reviews should expand the language range of the search to gain a better understanding of the development of research teams in this field in different countries. Secondly, this review did not include conference papers and theses, which may contain many interesting studies that are worth exploring. Thus, the review’s scope may not be comprehensive enough to capture all relevant studies. Finally, this review did not include interaction studies based on button tasks because these studies did not involve natural, direct language or body communication. However, many early social interaction studies were based on button tasks, and Cui et al. ( 2012 ) study was the first to propose the use of WTC methods to analyze brain synchronization, which collected data based on button tasks. These studies laid the foundation for subsequent collaboration and interaction research by providing classical paradigms for task design and valuable experience in analysis techniques.

Over the last decade, fNIRS has rapidly become a powerful neuroimaging technique that can be used to investigate cognitive progress involved with multi-person interaction in naturalistic interactions (Czeszumski et al., 2020 ). However, due to the disparate nature of experimental paradigms used in hyperscanning research, understanding how to apply fNIRS-based hyperscanning protocols may be difficult for education researchers seeking to understand the neural correlates of collaboration and social interaction. In this review, we summarized the evidence of current fNIRS-based hyperscanning research by (1) presenting the study characteristics such as participants’ age, number, and relationship between team members, sample size, and type of fNIRS devices; (2) highlighting the type of experimental design and brain ROIs used for hyperscanning; and (3) discussing the relationship between behavioral outcomes during collaborative tasks and its corresponding neural activity. With the advent of smaller, more portable fNIRS devices and newer analysis techniques, greater downstream adoption of fNIRS in education research can bridge the gap between neuroscience and education to between understand learning in formal education.

The data underlying this article will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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This manuscript was supported by the General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Research on Brain Synchronization Mechanisms and Strategies of Multi-person Interaction in STEM Educational Context, Beijing Normal University [grant number 62177011], the International Joint Research Project of Huiyan International College, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University [grant number ICER201902], and the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation, Zhejiang University [grant number Y24F020039]. Ms Yu Wang is supported by the Beijing Normal University Ph.D. Scholarship. Ms Jessie Siew-Pin Leuk is supported by the Nanyang Technological University Research Scholarship.

School of Educational Technology, Beijing Normal University, No.19 Xinjiekouwai St., Haidian District, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

Yu Wang & Yan Dong

Physical Education and Sports Science Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

Jessie Siew-Pin Leuk & Wei-Peng Teo

College of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

Xuesong Zhai

School of International Education, Shandong University, Jinan, China

School of Teacher Education, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, China

Science of Learning in Education Centre (SoLEC), National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

Wei-Peng Teo

Yu Wang, Yan Dong, and Wei Peng Teo contributed to the study conception. Article searching, screening, and information extraction were performed by Yu Wang, Chang Xu, and Yu Fu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yu Wang. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Correspondence to Yan Dong .

Conflict of interest.

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Wang, Y., Dong, Y., Leuk, J.SP. et al. The Role of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in Collaborative Research: A systematic Review. Educ Psychol Rev 36 , 1 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09836-z

Accepted : 29 November 2023

Published : 22 December 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09836-z

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