French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-95) was something of a cult figure among his university students in the 1970s and 1980s, "telling ghost stories with the voice of an ogre" (Jaeglé, 2005:10). More recently, academic interest in the educational possibilities of his work has grown considerably in Anglophone countries. Perhaps texts…

Creativity has become a hot topic in education. From President Barack Obama to Amazon's Jeff Bezos to "Newsweek" magazine, business leaders, major media outlets, government officials, and education policy makers are increasingly advocating including student creativity in the curriculum. But without a clear understanding of the nature of creativity…

Authors of fiction need not provide accurate accounts of the world, which might generate concern about the kinds of information people can acquire from narratives. Research has demonstrated that readers liberally encode and rely upon the information provided in fictional stories. To date, materials used to demonstrate these effects have largely…

This conversation focuses on a book published in 1983 that examined "animism," the tendency to regard non-living entities as living and sentient. "The Intimate Machine" suggested that animism will be fully exploited by artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, generating artefacts that will engage the user in…

This study explored the value of using a "guided rubric" to enable students participating in a massive open online course in writing to produce more reliable assessments of their fellow students' writing. To test the assumption that training students to assess will improve their ability to provide quality feedback, a multivariate…

This article explores the relationship between hard science fiction and physics and a gendered culture of science. Empirical studies indicate that science fiction references might spur some students' interest in physics and help develop this interest throughout school, into a university education and even further later inspire the practice of…

With the rise of biopolitical modernity, states justify both the existence of zombies and their monopoly on coercive violence via an imperative to care for the populations within their purview. But biopolitics' intrinsic link to the rise of a neoliberal model of governance, demonstrated by Foucault (2008), places a contradiction at the heart…

As science fiction has a way of capturing the human imagination that few other genres can rival, this study sought to investigate the effects of using science fiction on the performance and interest of high school chemistry students. An action research approach was used to guide the first author's practice as she studied two college preparatory…

This manuscript reports on findings from the implementation of the EU project "Science Fiction in Education" (Sci-Fi-Ed). The project provides teachers with tools, training, and guidance that will assist them in enhancing their teaching, making science more attractive to students, connecting it with real-life issues such as the…

This study uses interpretive sociological methods to explore parallels between fictional accounts of cyborgs and educational technology-based practices currently present in some e-learning environments. Specifically, the cyborg in fictional accounts ("Star Trek" and "Doctor Who") and the cyborg in academic accounts (Donna…

This article discusses the main trends of global education and educational problems in the Arctic and Siberian regions. The modern labor markets are changing in the Arctic. The modern labor market requires the creation of new jobs associated with the provision of the Arctic zone with food. Small food productions will be created. We will need a…

Experiment is at the heart of science and this was a consideration in the planning of an Association for Science Education (ASE) conference in the summer term that could be guided, but not controlled, by experience from the Annual Conference at New Year. Different formats for the exhibitions, lectures and practical presentations could all be tried…

This essay explores the career of the understudied writer Pedro Castera (1846-1906), who is regarded as one of the first practitioners of science fiction in Mexico. A man of many talents, Castera is one of the most eccentric and eclectic figures in the intellectual life of fin-de-siècle Mexico City. His career took many turns: While during…

An NCSS Technology Position Statement and Guidelines, published in 2006 (an updated version is published in this issue of "Social Education"), affirms that social studies students should critically examine relations between technology and society. This article describes how teachers can use science fiction to introduce critical questions…

Creatures from science fiction and fantasy can be used to illustrate key concepts and principles in biology. This article describes a project for a university-level general zoology course wherein the students classify, down to at least the phylum level, "animals" from the Alien Species Wiki (2013). This is an online database of creatures from…