Some subscribers to Phys-L and Physoc might be interested in a post
"Re: More Difficult to Read Text Leads to Better Retention #2" [Hake
(2010)]. The abstract reads:
****************************************
ABSTRACT: In response to my post "Re: More Difficult to Read Text
Leads to Better Retention" EDDRA2's Keith Baker wrote :
"Bad fonts slow down reading which means that info has longer to get
processed into long term memory which improves memory of the info. .
. . . . . CP Snow was right. There is no need for physicists to
reinvent the wheel psychology discovered 100 years ago if there is
good education."
2. Regarding physicists "reinventing the wheel psychology discovered
100 years ago":
a. The article "Fortune Favors the Bold (and the Italicized): Effects
of Disfluency on Educational Outcomes" [Oppenheimer et al. (2010)]
was authored by *psychologists* at Princeton and Indiana University.
b. Considering the probable insignificance of "difficult-to-read
fonts" to higher-order learning relative to "interactive engagement"
[Benezet (1935, 1936), Hake (1998a,b)], is the emphasis on fonts
actually a flat tire rather than a wheel? - see the signature quote.
****************************************
"It seems that in education, the wheel (more usually the flat tire)
must be reinvented every few decades"
Lee Shulman, as paraphrased by the late Arnold Arons (1986, p. 24):
REFERENCES [All URL's shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on
31 October 2010.]
Hake, R.R. 2010. "Re: More Difficult to Read Text Leads to Better
Retention #2," online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at
<http://bit.ly/cmFMZr>. The abstract and link to the complete post
are being transmitted to various discussion lists and are also online
on my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/c040Lz>.
Oppenheimer, D.M., C.D. Yauman, & E.B. Vaughn. 2010. "Fortune Favors
the Bold (and the Italicized): Effects of Disfluency on Educational
Outcomes," online at <http://bit.ly/cATcBK>.