A new article explores what constitutes quality teaching in the age of AI and argues that emotional intelligence, creativity, and professional judgment remain central to effective education.

A largely overlooked space between cells in women’s brains — called the extracellular matrix (ECM), which is highly abundant in the hippocampus — may hold the key to understanding memory loss tied to estrogen decline after menopause, reports a new preclinical Northwestern Medicine study. Scientists have traditionally focused on studying brain cells such as neurons and glial cells and have paid much less attention to the space between the cells. This is the first study to examine estrogen loss in the ECM. The findings provide new insight into how estrogen loss may affect the aging female brain and could help explain why women are at higher risk for AD. These findings suggest a possible new treatment approach focused on restoring the brain’s supportive environment — the ECM — to help protect memory and fight this devastating disease.

Reflective practice is often seen as a golden standard in teacher development. This philosophical critique, drawing on Foucault and Aristotle, shows that reflection has been disenchanted from an antique ethics of care of the self into a secularised epistemology, a techne for production, and even a neoliberal governance technology. The authors call for re‑enchanting reflective practice as phronesis that is a three‑dimensional virtue ethics and for teacher flourishing as students' in loco parentis.