Your say: week beginning November 24

Every day, we publish a selection of your emails in our newsletter. We’d love to hear from you, you can email us at yoursay@theconversation.edu.au.

Monday November 24

Junk policy

“There are no consequences healthwise in eating ultra-processed foods until the body says enough! Then we run for medical help. If eating ultra-processed foods was deemed dangerous like smoking, drugs and alcohol when consumed continuously, would this invoke a change in social policy to address our weakness in adopting these pleasurable additions?”

Otto Lechner

Protect CSIRO

“I am very disturbed by reports of planned cuts to CSIRO funding, leading to research job losses. Our national science agency needs to be well funded as an investment in Australia’s future. In an age of political misinformation, science remains as a provider of facts.”

Ralph Carlisle, Brisbane

It’s not a Zoom thing

“Australia should have dropped out of COP31 due to the fact that the air kilometres to get delegates here is self-defeating in our quest to lower emissions.”

Alan Inchley

Tuesday November 25

Thinking about metacognition

“I taught science for 35 years in high schools. My last school explicitly taught metacognition skills. With some time free on the year 7 timetable, once a week kids would be run through a series of activities that focused on (age appropriate) metacognition and boosting metacognitive skills for the whole year. This focus continued with senior students being allocated time in class to write reflections on their exams and reports and think about their thinking.

Unfortunately there was no distinct improvement in exam results, instead we seemed to have more kids with more anxiety, thinking too much about their thinking, and that affected their performance. I remember doing hours of professional development where time and again the cry was that it was "evidence based” and would show measurable results. The evidence in front of me proved otherwise.

Metacognition from my observations and experiences requires a particular mindset and maturity for it to be handled by kids. Having seen the Pandora’s box of mental health (and especially anxiety) opened in schools in the last 20 years, I wonder whether metacognition has caused more harm than good.“

Geoff Holmes

Wednesday November 26

I read it on AI

"Mindless propagation and following of conspiracy theories without any definitive proof is clearly dangerous on a number of levels. Too often, people swallow these theories whole, based on hypotheses that ‘make sense’, or ‘ring bells’. Unfortunately there appears to be a phenomenon where many people, having accepted one theory, go on to accept all others. Who, then, is the arbiter of truth in the design and implementation of AI and its ‘guardrails’? What is the cost to humanity if we get this wrong?”

Ingrid Palmer

Protect our libraries

“As a librarian, I was heartened to read that Australia’s public libraries are thriving – particularly when viewed against the trends in the USA and UK. It’s disappointing to read our libraries are employing fewer trained librarians, even though I understand the reasons. Librarians still have a few skills not covered by Google or AI. However, it’s the decrease in funding which I find most alarming. Libraries are not an optional extra – they are essential to the life and wellbeing of our country.”

Josephine Hennock

Thanks for your support Lyn!

“I have been getting the daily issue of the Conversation since the beginning really, and have on occasion given feedback on my appreciation of the diversity and veracity of the articles. I really value news I can trust. Every now and then, one issue will cover a range of issues that are important, informative and for me, riveting. Yesterday was one of those days. I’m happy to continue my support for the Conversation.”

Lyn Pearson