In response to "Can Distance and Classroom Learning Be Increased?"
[Hake (2008)], Gary Lane Bertrand, in his Chemed-L post of 12 Jan
2008 16:54:39-0600 wrote:
"There is plenty of anecdotal evidence, and I'm sure there have been
formal studies as well, that students retain little of what they have
'learned' from one semester to the next with traditional methods and
exams. Have there been any studies on retention of concepts over an
extended period with concept tests?"
The answer is "Yes, there have been a few."
In "Lessons from the physics education reform effort" [Hake (2002)] I wrote:
". . . there is some preliminary evidence that learning in
Interactive Engagement (IE) physics courses is substantially retained
1 to 3 years after the courses have ended [Chabay (1997), Francis et
al. (1998), and Bernhard (2001)]. I see no reason to doubt that
enhanced understanding and retention would result from greater use of
IE methods in other science, and even non-science, areas, but
substantive research on this issue is sorely needed."
Bernhard, J. 2000. "Does active engagement curricula give long-lived
conceptual understanding?" Paper accepted for publication in the
proceedings of GIREP2000 "Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000" in
Barcelona 27 August - 1 September 2000; online at
<http://staffwww.itn.liu.se/~jonbe/fou/didaktik/papers/girep2000_active.pdf>
Hake, R.R. 2002. "Lessons from the physics education reform effort,"
Ecology and Society
5(2): 28; online at
<http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol5/iss2/art28/>. Ecology and
Society
(formerly Conservation Ecology) is a free online "peer-reviewed
journal of integrative science
and fundamental policy research" with about 11,000 subscribers in
about 108 countries. For an update see Hake (2007).
Hake, R.R. 2007. "Six Lessons From the Physics Education Reform
Effort," Latin American Journal of Physics Education 1(1), September;
online at <http://journal.lapen.org.mx/sep07/HAKE%20Final.pdf> (124
kB).
Hake, R.R. 2008. "Can Distance and Classroom Learning Be Increased?"
IJ-SoTL 2(1): January; online at
<http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/v2n1/essays_about_sotl/hake/index.htm>.
The "International Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning"
(IJ-SoTL) <http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/> is an open,
peer-reviewed, international electronic journal containing articles,
essays, and discussions about the scholarship of teaching and
learning (SoTL) and its applications in higher/tertiary education
today.