Seasonal educational phases with structured, domain-relevant uncertainty are linked to increased collective question-posing across all discussion topics¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Across all topics, seasonal educational phases showed widespread statistically significant effects on question comment counts in negative binomial regression models. → Ali 2026 q2 i? For the Exam Preparation topic, the cosine term increased open, non-possibility question counts by 115% during the Oct-Nov exam period (p < 0.001). → Ali 2026

Evidence¶

Ali 2026¶

Ali, F., Yang, Y., & Poh, J.-H. (2026). Curious behaviors in times of uncertainty: dynamics of student question-posing in online educational discussion. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-026-00440-8

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Negative binomial GLM on monthly question comment counts from the SGExams corpus (2019-2023), with R2 ranging from 0.35 to 0.79. The authors report "widespread statistically significant effects of either cosine or sine terms or both, across types of questions and topics" for seasonal phases.

"the cosine term increases open, non -possibility question type count for the Exam Preparation topic by 115%, suggesting that students tended to pose more open, non -possibility questions coinciding with the Oct - Nov period of exam-related uncertainty (p < 0.001)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• COVID-19 pandemic uncertainty showed minimal and inconsistent statistical effects on student question-posing — related
• Exam-period uncertainty is linked to faster first replies to questions, but mainly when academic stakes are high — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• During exam uncertainty, child question types became dependent on parent question types, with preliminary evidence of possibility-thinking transmission — related