Steve Vainker

Crisis at the Review of Education It appears all four editors have published LLM-written work; seven out of eight papers in current issue LLM-written

Despite the business-as-usual #BERA2025 conference, there's clearly a crisis.

In the current Review of Education issue, 7 out of 8 articles appear LLM-written.

Even worse: all four editors appear to have published LLM-written work (including a fake reference).

open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...

John Hattie explaining in his own words how AI writes his papers: "there's a new tool out that actually writes the essay for me, and I constructed one, read it... the first one I though 'ah', then I realised I was at fault... so hone, hone, focus, quality control."

www.youtube.com/watch?si=YpW...

I've read some absurd AI-written claims but this one from Hattie takes some beating:

'Online survey tools such as Kahoot! and Quizizz are effective tools to assist students in writing assignments, collecting data, and searching for research [19]'

Love that it cites a source!

There are now two more AI-written articles co-authored by John Hattie. It makes sense a plagiarist would turn to LLMs, but it is still shocking that the most prominent education researcher of the 21st century is turning out AI slop, together with fake references.

open.substack.com/pub/stephenvai…

Haven't checked, but IMO the false positive issue seems to be a lot less serious now...

Winston AI is 💯 certain that the article was AI written (see below)

Also see selected results from Google Scholar showing use of post-LLM phrases:

"Addressing these concerns is crucial to ensure"
Before 2022: 0
Since: 80

"engagement and personalised learning experiences"
Before 2024: 0
Since: 23

The following reference he included does not exist:

Núñez, J. C., Suárez, N., & Rosário, P. (2015). The relation between university students’ academic performance and teaching practices. Effectiveness of professors in higher education. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 829.

Also...

John Hattie used LLM to write contribution to handbook, included fake reference Further evidence of lack of academic integrity

Before AI, John Hattie plagiarised.

Now, it appears he uses LLMs. A recent contribution to a handbook, published by Elgar, included a fake reference.

The evidence could not be clearer...

stephenvainker.substack.com/p/john-hattie-used-an-llm-to-write?r=695xb6

BERA journals publish 131 LLM-written articles A tragedy and a scandal

My final report on 131 LLM-authored articles in BERA journals:

BERJ: 46
BJET: 59
Review: 22
Curriculum: only 4

These are staggering numbers & show that BERA, marginalised in the national discussion about education, has seriously lost its way. Change is required!

open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...

The University of Melbourne's sham investigation into John Hattie's plagiarism How an incredibly cynical process played out

Universities have definitions of plagiarism etc. so that it can clearly and fairly hold students & professors to account.

So it's scandalous when Melbourne University didn't use it own definition in an investigation of John Hattie, & instead used a far softer one.

open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...

Visible Learning: evidence-based obfuscation How John Hattie's disavowal of ideology became a template for today's influencers

Today's education establishment think they're FAR more sophisticated than John Hattie.

But they've adopted his obfuscatory delusion of being purely evidence-based & non-ideological.

We can't tackle the educational crises we're facing without addressing this.

open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...

Ah thanks very much! Never read AG, but will check it out...

John Hattie plagiarised extensively There's no debate

If you have a passing interest in John Hattie's plagiarism but don't want (for some strange reason) to read an over-long academic article on it, you may be interested in this 👇

open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...

BERJ special issue edited by authors with LLM-written articles in journal BERA-affiliated journals appear to have operated in effect an open-door policy for LLM-written articles, resulting in well over a hundred LLM-written articles appearing across the four journals.

open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...

You might think a university would use its own definition of plagiarism when investigating a professor.

You might also think a university would look at all allegations of plagiarism in its investigation.

You'd be wrong.

open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...

You might think a university would use its own definition of plagiarism when investigating a professor.

You might also think a university would look at all allegations of plagiarism in its investigation.

You'd be wrong.

open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...

Al articles are a road to nowhere, involving a great deal of pain.

Beginning: shameless platitudes

Middle: dense technical description of elaborate relationships between endless variables.

End: shameless platitudes

57 AI-written articles in the British Journal of Educational Technology 57 is too many

One AI-written article is a tragedy, 57 is a farce.

stephenvainker.substack.com/p/57-ai-writ...

57 AI-written articles in the British Journal of Educational Technology 57 is too many

One AI-written article is a tragedy, 57 is a farce.

stephenvainker.substack.com/p/57-ai-writ...

(PDF) THE CAREER OF JOHN HATTIE: PLAGIARISM, MISCONDUCT, AND THE COARSENING OF EDUCATION PDF | John Hattie, treated by policymakers as a ‘messiah’ (Evans, 2012, n.p.), committed plagiarism and academic misconduct on a grand scale throughout... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...

I've updated the paper on John Hattie to include plagiarism from 2005, 2021, & 2025. I've now shown that he has plagiarised over 19,500 words across 11 different works, from 1981-2025.

It's been 5 months & I've received no indication of any errors.

researchgate.net/publication/...

This has to be a low point. An article in the BERJ about the experience of playing 'TargetShootingMania' with 21 fake references going into granular detail about the movement of the cardboard boxes that need to be shot.

The research questions? Nothing to do with education. At all.

This is madness.

Five articles with fake references found in the British Educational Research Journal They are not good papers

If we allow our flagship journals to fill with AI slop (presumably pushing out excellent or at least competent work in the process) then we are making a better case for our marginalisation than any critic ever could.

open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...

It's the subtle symbiotic choreography of it ...

Any worse writing style than AI florid?

Every article partially AI-written in an upcoming special issue in the British Journal of Technology of Education

open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...

The irony:

"Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the..."

Google Scholar before 2021: 35
Since: 2,385

Sadly, this is on of the better articles on AI published in the journal. They published 16 on AI that were written by...AI.

bsky.app/profile/step...

As I say, I am highly confident each of these is substantially AI-written.

My hope is that a more focused and relevant BERJ will emerge from this.

doi.org/10.1002/berj...
doi.org/10.1002/berj...
doi.org/10.1002/berj...
doi.org/10.1002/berj...
doi.org/10.1002/berj...
doi.org/10.1002/berj...

doi.org/10.1002/berj...
doi.org/10.1002/berj...
doi.org/10.1002/berj...
doi.org/10.1002/berj...
doi.org/10.1002/berj...
doi.org/10.1002/berj...