[Physltest] [Phys-L] Re: "Effective" teaching methods

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

 "Change is hard, but it does happen when people change their paradigms.  This would be
essentially a scientific revolution in education if it happens.
 Remember that medical doctors at one time did not believe that
cleanliness improved outcomes, despite clear evidence that cleanliness
dramatically decreased the death rate during childbirth.  A number of
people made this connection including  including  a physician
Semmelweis and our own Oliver Wendall Holmes, but nobody paid any
attention.  Semmelweis even demonstrated in the hospital that
cleanliness worked.  It finally took the germ theory and even more
dramatic results using carbolic acid to convince physicians.  But even
then some persisted in disbelieving it and continued to wear their
prestigious blood stained coats."


A bit more about Semmelweis:

[A University is named after him, too.]

I first hear this story as the subject of an editorial in the Saturday Review of Litt.  The same mag. that popularized the urban myth of the student with the barometer.

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi622.htm

bc

John M Clement wrote:

> You are describing the classic Hawthorne experiment.  However, the
> data from that experiment was lost, and only the summary report
> remained.  There is now a great deal of doubt that the experiment was
> correctly done.  I think that one needs to actually find the paper and
cut

> As a result there is some hope that permanent improvement can be
> achieved by changing the teaching methods.  Change is hard, but it
> does happen when people change their paradigms.  This would be
> essentially a scientific revolution in education if it happens.
> Remember that medical doctors at one time did not believe that
> cleanliness improved outcomes, despite clear evidence that cleanliness
> dramatically decreased the death rate during childbirth.  A number of
> people made this connection including  including  a physician
> Semmelweis and our own Oliver Wendall Holmes, but nobody paid any
> attention.  Semmelweis even demonstrated in the hospital that
> cleanliness worked.  It finally took the germ theory and even more
> dramatic results using carbolic acid to convince physicians.  But even
> then some persisted in disbelieving it and continued to wear their
> prestigious blood stained coats.
>
> Then there was Boltzmann who committed suicide before his theories
> could become the standard dogma.  Of course one can always go back to
> the atomic theory which appeared at various times, but was never
> widely accepted until there was more evidence...
>
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX
>
>
>
> On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 10:12:44 -0600
>  "Frohne, Vickie" <VFrohne@BEN.EDU> wrote:
>
>
> > A colleague of mine is a former industrial physicist.  He told me of
> > a study in which a firm was trying to influence employee's
cut
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