[LINK] 'Online Education Beats Classroom'

[Stilgherrian]

On 24/08/2009, at 8:39 AM, Roger Clarke wrote:
> The fishbowl (or 'Hawthorne') effect arises where the participants
> alter their behaviour because they know they're being watched.  It's
> possible for the change in behaviour to be rejection of the
> intervention that's being studied ('bolshie').  But it's usually
> better-than-normal performance, because of the implicit recognition
> that the participants are important.  It's not easy to avoid
> participants knowing that they're being observed, partly for
> practical reasons (because the act of measurement is generally
> visible), but also for ethical reasons.  Allowing for the effect, or
> waiting until it wears off, is also challenging and expensive.

The Hawthorne Effect may have been debunked.

Steven Levitt (of "Freakonomics" fame) and John List, two economists  
at the University of Chicago reanalysed the data and found that the  
original researchers always made the changes over the weekend, so the  
idea that everyone was refreshed by the change in environment could  
well have just been refreshed by having a day off.

http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13788427

Stil


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