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Re: Monster Classes



In his PhysLrnR post of 13 Aug 2003 16:47:28-0400, titled Re: Monster
Classes Edward Adelson wrote (bracketed between the lines
"AAAAAAAAAAA. ..":

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Just one grammatical point about what you wrote below:

"Lesson #3: High-quality standardized tests of the cognitive and
affective impact of courses are essential for gauging the relative
effectiveness of non-traditional educational methods."

As stated, Lesson #3 does not include traditional courses, but of
course you mean to include them too. You might say "...relative
effectiveness of non-traditional and traditional educational methods."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Edward's' comment indicates the advantage of exchanging ideas and
obtaining feedback through discussion groups. It never even occurred
to me that Lesson #3 could be interpreted in an Adelsonian way:

Lesson #3: "High-quality standardized tests of the cognitive and
affective impact of courses are essential for gauging the RELATIVE
EFFECTIVENESS OF NON-TRADITIONAL EDUCATIONAL METHODS RELATIVE TO ONE
ANOTHER."

What I meant is exactly what Edward suggests:

Lesson #3: "High-quality standardized tests of the cognitive and
affective impact of courses are essential for gauging the RELATIVE
EFFECTIVENESS OF NON-TRADITIONAL AND TRADITIONAL EDUCATIONAL METHODS."

A weak defense of my ambiguous wording is that the elaboration in
Hake (2002) that follows Lesson #3, and was partially included in
Hake (2003a), might clarify to some extent my intended meaning of
Lesson #3. In Hake (2002, 2003a) I wrote:

"As indicated in the introduction, so great is the inertia of the
educational establishment (see Lesson #13) that three decades of
physics-education research demonstrating the futility of the
passive-student lecture in introductory courses were ignored until
high-quality standardized tests that could easily be administered to
thousands of students became available. These tests are yielding
increasingly convincing evidence that interactive engagement methods
enhance conceptual understanding and problem solving abilities far
more than do traditional methods."

My recent post "Re: Monster Classes" [Hake (2003a)] has now been
distributed to AERA-D, ASSESS, Biopi-L, Biolab, Chemed-L, EvalTalk,
Phys-L, PhysLrnR, POD, STLHE-L, the NRC's CUSE committee, and to the
distinguished panel of physicists who took part in the workshop
preceding McCray et al. (2003) that totally ignores Lesson #3.

It is interesting that not a single member of the latter two groups
has arisen to publicly defend the report in the wake of my broadly
distributed criticisms [Hake (2003a,b,c,d)].

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>


REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2002. "Lessons from the physics education reform effort."
Conservation Ecology 5(2): 28; online at
<http://www.consecol.org/vol5/iss2/art28>. "Conservation Ecology," is
a FREE "peer-reviewed journal of integrative science and fundamental
policy research" with about 11,000 subscribers in about 108 countries.

Hake, R.R. 2003a. "Re: Monster Classes" post of 13 Aug 2003 12:53:22
-0700 to Biopi-L, Chemed-L, EvalTalk, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, POD, and
STLHE-L; online at
<http://lists.nau.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0308&L=phys-l&O=D&P=4290>.
This post was later sent to AERA-D, ASSESS, Biolab, to the NRC's CUSE
committee, and to the physicists who played a role in the McCray et
al. (2003) report that totally ignores Lesson #3.

Hake, R.R. 2003b. "NRC's CUSE: Oblivious of the Advantage of Pre/Post
Testing With High Quality Standardized Tests?" post of 25 Jul 2003
13:07:23-0700 to ASSESS, Biopi-L, Chemed-L, EvalTalk, PhysLrnR, and
POD; online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0307&L=pod&O=D&P=17145>.
Later distributed to AERA-D and STLHE-L.

Hake, R.R. 2003c. "Re: Designing Pretests," post of 31 Jul 2003
13:38:21-0700 to ASSESS, Biopi-L, 6, EvalTalk, PhysLrnR, and POD;
online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0307&L=pod&O=D&P=22283>.
Later sent to AERA-D, STLHE-L, Phys-L, Physhare, AP-physics, and
Biolab.

Hake, R.R. 2003d. "NRC's CUSE: Stranded on Assessless Island?" post
of 3 Aug 2003 12:52:16-0700 to ASSESS, Biopi-L, Chemed-L, EvalTalk,
PhysLrnR, and POD; online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0308&L=pod&F=&S=&P=391>.
That post was later sent to AERA-D, STLHE-L, Phys-L, and Biolab.

McCray, R.A., R.L. DeHaan, J.A. Schuck, eds. 2003. "Improving
Undergraduate Instruction in Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics: Report of a Workshop" Committee on Undergraduate STEM
Instruction," National Research Council, National Academy Press;
online at <http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10711.html>. Physicists
attending the workshop were Paula Herron, Priscilla Laws, John
Layman, Ramon Lopez, Richard McCray, Lillian McDermott, Carl Wieman,
and Jack Wilson.