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[Phys-L] FW: [math-learn] Randomized Trials: Answer What Works?



In his post of 17 Apr 2005 14:29:41-0500 titled "FW: [math-learn]
Randomized Trials: Answer What Works?" to Phys-L and PhysLrnR John
Clement wrote [bracketed by lines "CCCCCCCCCC. . . ."]:

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Here is a cross post that brings up the issues fairly well.

**************************
From Science, Volume 307, Issue 5717, 1861-1863, March 25, 2005. See
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/307/5717/1861. Note: This
article was brought to our attention by Richard Hake in a posting
Saturday, April 16, 2005.
**************************
U.S. EDUCATION RESEARCH: Can Randomized Trials Answer the Question of
What Works?

By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

A $120 million federal initiative to improve secondary math education
hopes to draw on an approach some researchers say may not be ready
for the classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

The post that John forwarded from Math-Learn was by Jerry Becker.
Becker's statement "This article was brought to our attention by
Richard Hake in a posting Saturday, April 16 [sic], 2005," evidently
refers to my post of April 15 "Should Randomized Control Trials Be
the Gold Standard of Educational Research ?" [Hake (2005)].

The last two sentences of Hake (2005) are:

"Two recent articles [Bhattacharjee (2005), Stipek (2005)] discuss
the pros and cons of RCT's and may be of interest to subscribers. I
thank Larry Woolf for bringing the Bhattacharjee reference to my
attention."

My first reaction was that John's post might be superfluous because
Bhattacharjee (2005) (with academic referencing by Hake) is available
to all by simply clicking on
<http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0504&L=aera-l&T=0&O=D&P=1708>.

But on second thought I realize that John's post is essential. The
reason is that few subscribers ever:

(a) read through to the second sentence, much less the last sentence,
of my tedious posts, and

(b) bother to scan my pedantic and useless references.

BTW, in my references for Bhattacharjee (2005), I gave Anderson et
al. (1977) as a reference to John Anderson's ACT-R theory of human
cognition. (ACT-R = "Adaptive Character of Thought - Rational.") A
much better introduction is Anderson (1993).

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
Anderson, J. R., M. Matessa, & C. Lebiere. 1977. ACT-R: A theory of
higher level cognition and its relation to visual attention. Human
Computer Interaction 12(4): 439-462; online at
<http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/publications/>.

Anderson, J.R. 1993. "Rules of the Mind." Lawrence Erlbaum.

Bhattacharjee, Y. 2005. "Can Randomized Trials Answer The Question of
What Works?: A $120 million federal initiative to improve secondary
math education hopes to draw on an approach some researchers say may
not be ready for the classroom," Science 307: 1861-1863, 25 March,
currently online at
(a) <http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/307/5717/1861>,
(b) <http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/307/5717/1861.pdf> (208 kB), and
(c) the archives of AERA-L (Politics and Policy in Education) with
academic referencing by R. Hake at
<http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0504&L=aera-l&T=0&O=D&P=1708>.

Hake, R.R. 2005a. "Should Randomized Control Trials Be the Gold
Standard of Educational Research ?" online at
<http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0504&L=aera-l&T=0&O=D&P=1945>.
Post of
15 Apr 2005 to AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-G, AERA-H, AERA-J, AERA-K, AERA-L,
AP-Physics, ASSESS, Biopi-L, Chemed-L, EvalTalk, Math-Learn, Phys-L,
Physhare, POD, STLHE-L, & TIPS.

Stipek, D. 2005. "Scientifically Based Practice," Education Week
24(28): 33-34; currently online at
(a) <http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/03/23/28stipek.h24.html>;
(b) as a Math-Learn post of 2 April 2005 10:56 am by Jerry Becker; online at
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/math-learn/message/7659>
(unfortunately one must subscribe to Math-Learn
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/math-learn/> in order to access its archives);
(c) as a post with a one-paragraph comment by Susan Ohanian at
<http://www.susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.html?id=3914>;
(d) the archives of AERA-L (Politics and Policy in Education) with
academic referencing by R. Hake at
<http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0504&L=aera-l&T=0&O=D&P=1840>.
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