"Richard Hake points out that after Whitehurst had concluded that
class size DOES matter, Whitehurst billed The Great State of Texas
for 220 hours that he spent researching the opinion he gave in court,
that class size DOESN'T matter. Then HAKE WONDERS "WHAT TOOK HIM SO
LONG" to come to this new conclusion? I can only speculate, but my
speculation is that Whitehurst learned to read in a very large
reading class."
I agree with Huddle that Whitehurst may have been *taught* to read
(NOT *learned* to read) in large classes. He may also have been
*taught* to assess "what's in science education" (see the signature
quotes) in large classes.
BTW, I should like take the credit, assigned to me by Huddle, for
wondering "what took Whitehurst so long," but as I attempted to make
clear in my post, that credit belongs to the perceptive
class-size-reduction crusader Leonie Haimson <http://huff.to/12fHNyy>.
Physics educators have led the way in developing and using objective
tests to compare student learning gains in different types of
courses, and chemists, biologists, and others are now developing
similar instruments. These tests provide convincing evidence that
students assimilate new knowledge more effectively in courses
including active, inquiry-based, and collaborative learning, assisted
by information technology, than in traditional courses."
- Wood & Gentile (2003)
"In science education, there is almost nothing of proven efficacy."
- Grover Whitehurst, as quoted by Sharon Begley (2004)
REFERENCES
Begley, S. 2004. "To Improve Education, We Need Clinical Trials To
Show What Works," Wall Street Journal, 17 December, page B1; online
as a 41 kB pdf at <http://bit.ly/SSmaym>, thanks to David Klahr.
Hake, R.R. 2012. "Grover Whitehurst Testifies Against Class Size
Reduction," online on the OPEN! online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives
at <http://bit.ly/VYtD1l>. Post of 9 Dec 2012 18:34:56-0800 to
AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are
being transmitted to several discussion lists and are also on my blog
"Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/QS016H> with a provision for
comments.
Huddle, J. 2012. "Re: Grover Whitehurst Testifies Against Class Size
Reduction," online on the CLOSED! Physoc archives at
<http://bit.ly/Rpn5Lw>. Post of 10 Dec 2012 12:36:15 -0500 to Physoc.
To access the archives of PHYSOC one needs to subscribe : - (, but
that takes only a few minutes by clicking on <http://bit.ly/dVm2AM>
and then clicking on "Subscribe or Unsubscribe" in the right-hand
column. If you're busy, then subscribe using the "NOMAIL" option
under "Miscellaneous." Then, as a subscriber, you may access the
archives and/or post messages at any time, while receiving NO MAIL
from the list!
Wood, W.B., & J.M. Gentile. 2003. "Teaching in a research context,"
Science 302: 1510; 28 November; online as a 213 kB pdf at
<http://bit.ly/SyhOvL> thanks to Portland State's "Ecoplexity" site.