Performance or learning?
When students use AI, do they learn more, or do they only produce more?
Seventeen recent studies that tried to measure what students could do once the AI was taken away.
Season 01 · AI in teaching and learning
Not chalk and talk.
Chalk and spark.
A space where university educators talk through teaching, learning and technology. Every issue starts with a question, gathers the recent research that bears on it, and asks colleagues what they make of it.
Season 01 · Twelve questions, one every two weeks
The season ahead
- Theme 01Current
Performance or learning?
Does AI help students learn, or only help them produce?
October 19, 2026Read and respond - Theme 02Upcoming
Thinking, offloaded
What thinking students hand to AI: dependence, critical thinking, metacognition.
November 2, 2026 - Theme 03Upcoming
Integrity, detection and the rules
Cheating, AI detectors, and the policies that define acceptable use.
November 16, 2026 - Theme 04Upcoming
Assessment, redesigned
Oral exams, in-class tasks and process-based assessment, and whether they work.
November 30, 2026 - Theme 05Upcoming
AI as assessor: feedback and grading
Can AI give feedback, grade work or write exam questions well, and do students accept it?
December 14, 2026 - Theme 06Upcoming
What students actually do
How students really use AI, and the limits of survey research.
January 11, 2027 - Theme 07Upcoming
Built for learning: tutors and simulations
Purpose-built AI tutors and simulations, compared with general chatbots.
January 25, 2027 - Theme 08Upcoming
Writing, voice and authorship
What AI does to student writing, ownership and voice.
February 8, 2027 - Theme 09Upcoming
Feelings, trust and the human relationship
Student emotions, trust in AI, wellbeing, and the human side of the classroom.
February 22, 2027 - Theme 10Upcoming
AI literacy and the AI divide
What students need to know to use AI well, and who ends up able to.
March 8, 2027 - Theme 11Upcoming
The instructor's side
How AI changes faculty work, course preparation and the teacher's role.
March 22, 2027 - Theme 12Upcoming
What should graduates still be able to do?
How disciplines and degrees are redefining what graduates must be able to do.
April 5, 2027
How it works
How Chalk & Spark works
01
A question first
Each issue opens with an honest question about teaching, not a verdict. The research is where the conversation starts.
02
Read, listen, check
A short and a long edition, an audio conversation, and a link to every study, so you can judge the evidence yourself.
03
Talk it through
Respond under your own name, online or at the lunch and learn that follows each issue. Challenge the findings as much as you like.