On the Hawthorne Effect, well, I'm not sure that this is correct. I'd like
to think that TBL keeps students focused not because it is different, but
because it provides incentives and rewards for fully engaging the material.
In fact, there is something of a literature that suggests that the
Hawthorne Effect might not exist, or doesn't play much of a role in
education. In "Improved Learning in a Large-Enrollment Physics Class"
http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/SEI_research/index.html (one of my favorite
papers) there is a discussion of its non-existence:
We are often asked about the possible contributions of the Hawthorne
effect, where any change in conditions is said to result in improved
performance. As discussed in citations in the SOM, the original Hawthorne
plant data actually show no such effect, nor do experiments in educational
settings (17).
17. R. H. Bauernfeind, C. J. Olson, Is the Hawthorne effect in educational
experiments a chimera? Phi Delta Kappan 55, 271 (1973).
The "SOM" is the "Supporting Online Material" and it is at
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2011/05/11/332.6031.862.DC1/Deslauriers.SOM.pdf .
It goes into more detail. One of the authors of "Improved Learning," Carl
Wieman, is a leading physics education researcher (both a Nobel Laureate
and a U.S. Professor of the Year).
Also, as an economist, I came across this recent paper: "Was There Really
a Hawthorne Effect at the Hawthorne Plant? An Analysis of the Original
Illumination Experiments," Steven D. Levitt and John A. List,
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/app.3.1.224 . As they put
it in their abstract,
The data from the first and most influential of these studies, the
"Illumination Experiment," were never formally analyzed and were thought
to have been destroyed. Our research has uncovered these data. Existing
descriptions of supposedly remarkable data patterns prove to be entirely
fictional. We do find more subtle manifestations of possible Hawthorne
effects.
Levitt might be a familiar name -- he's part of the "Freakonomics" team.
He's on the faculty at Chicago and some years ago won an award for being
the best economist under the age of 35.
This is certainly an aside, but as many of us conduct educational
research, it seems to be something that we should be aware of.
- Bill
Brent said (in part):
> Thanks for your two cents. I agree; students in a traditional university
> usually need the Hawthorne Effect to keep them focused, especially when
> they are learning fundamental concepts and being reconditioned for
> interdependent processes.
--
Bill Goffe
Department of Economics
SUNY Oswego, 416 Mahar Hall
Oswego, NY 13126
315-312-3444(v), 315-312-5444(f)
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http://cook.rfe.org
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