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

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

At 10:12 -0600 11/16/04, Frohne, Vickie 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 productivi=
> ty.  For example, they found that playing music  improved productivit=
> y. Turning off the music a month later also improved productivity.   =
> They tried changing the color of the walls, and I don't know what els=
> e. The final analysis: It was change itself that improved productivit=
> y, not the specific nature of the changes.  IMHO, teaching fads are s=
> ort of like that.  Teachers get bored, especially if they're cycling =
> through the same material year after year.  Students get bored, too. =
> Change perks up everybody. =20
That sounds like the "Hawthorne Experiment" from the 30s. I believe
it was the GE plant in Hawthorne, NJ, where the experiment was done,
in which they started giving breaks at more frequent intervals, then
increased the frequency of breaks for a while, each time,
productivity went up, then they started taking the breaks away, and
productivity kept climbing. This is a classic story from industrial
psychology. I first heard about it in college during the 50s.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
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<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

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