In recent years, the rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into education has sparked intense academic and public debate regarding their impact on students’ cognitive development. One of the central concerns raised by researchers and practitioners is the potential erosion of critical and independent thinking skills in an era of widespread reliance on neural network-based technologies. On the one hand, AI offers new opportunities for personalized learning, adaptive content delivery, and increased accessibility and efficiency in the educational process. On the other hand, growing concerns suggest that overreliance on AI-driven tools in intellectual tasks may reduce students’ motivation to engage in self-directed analysis, diminish cognitive effort, and lead to weakened critical thinking skills. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of current research on this topic, including empirical data, theoretical frameworks, and practical case studies of AI implementation in academic settings. Particular attention is given to the evaluation of how AI-supported environments influence students’ cognitive development, as well as to the pedagogical strategies that can harmonize technological assistance with the cultivation of autonomous and reflective thinking. This article concludes with recommendations for integrating AI tools into educational practice not as replacements for human cognition, but as instruments that enhance critical engagement, analytical reasoning, and academic autonomy.

WhatsApp Messaging: Achievements and Success in Academia

The problem of academic fraud has recently grown and includes plagiarism, the use of cellphones, copying from others, and writing by use of artificial intelligence (AI). The objective of this study was to examine the connection between academic dishonesty, class attendance, self-efficacy, and the use of digital tools. The study focused on higher-education students in Israel and included 121 participants. It was a mixed qualitative and quantitative study based on a structured questionnaire and on the previous literature. Studies showed that academic dishonesty increases when students fail to attend classes, have low self-efficacy, and attend classes remotely via communication platforms such as Zoom. In the current study, 50% of the participants reported that academic dishonesty was perceived as legitimate among their peer students. Preventive measures such as strengthening the students’ self-efficacy during tests and other stressful situations and emphasizing the importance of acquiring professional knowledge and skills may more effectively eliminate fraud than the common method of disciplining wrongdoers.

This paper focuses on students’ reading habits — whether traditional reading habits (print books) or modern reading habits (using a computer screen). We review the changes in students’ reading habits over time, as part of other global changes, and explore whether corresponding digital pedagogies have evolved to address these changes. We examine generation Y students’ motivations and study habits, a generation that shows indications of changes in its academic values and priorities, and cracks in its research skills for a global world. We focus on a case study of the reading habits of students in one academic institution and discuss the implications of the findings for academic teaching and the academia’s traditional role of training researchers.

The current study seeks to examine the perception of the three main populations that have a part in the educational and pedagogic domain: teachers, parents, and elementary school students, while comparing between religious and secular schools. The major hypothesis of the study is that teachers, parents, and students do not have congruent views on the aims and effectiveness of homework. Another hypothesis was that differences would be found between parents’ views of homework by religiosity. In addition, a negative association will be found between the teacher’s years on the job and attitude towards homework assignment–such that the more years of experience the more negative their attitudes towards homework assignment. Finally, differences will be found in the respondents’ views on homework assignment by the school’s geographic location. The research findings show that the first hypothesis was partially confirmed. Teachers are the most positive about homework, followed by students and finally parents. The confirmation was only partial, as the hypothesis was that students’ views would be the least supportive. The second hypothesis was not confirmed, as no significant differences were found between the views of religious and secular parents on homework. The findings concerning the third hypothesis found a significant negative correlation; such that the more experienced the teacher the more negative his or her attitude to homework, confirming the hypothesis. The conclusions of this study indicate that the homework format is in dispute and there is no consensus on this topic. It appears, at times, that it may be customary to act by force of habit in formal education, as in other areas. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct further research on the subject and to explore whether there is a need for change in the educational world, following the many changes that society has undergone over the years.

The span paradigm is commonly used to assess working memory (WM), predominantly through the visual and auditory routes and less often through the tactile modality. The current study aimed to validate the “Tactual Span”, a new task developed to evaluate WM in the tactile modality. Participants were 140 healthy young adults, who performed the Tactual Span alongside span tasks in three additional modalities (auditory, visual, and visuospatial), as well as a selective attention task and a semantic verbal fluency task. The Tactual Span and other span tasks were found to correlate, while correlations with the selective attention and semantic fluency tasks were largely nonsignificant, indicating good construct validity. Cronbach’s alpha for both stages as well as skewness and kurtosis were also adequate. An exploratory factor analysis for the forward stage showed that the Tactual Span and Visuospatial Span were loaded on one factor, whereas the Auditory and Visual Spans were loaded on another factor. In the backward stage, all span tasks were loaded on a single factor. The findings provide an initial indication that the Tactual Span task is a feasible and valid tool for assessing WM in the tactile modality.