Thinking about Learning,
Learning about Thinking

10. Experimenting

There is a well known theorem about educational experiments called the Hawthorne effect: Experiments always succeed. This observation derives from studies that show people work harder and more effectively if someone is giving them attention that seems to be “special.” And of course that is always the case when they are the subjects of an experimental approach.

Critics of calculus reform raise questions about whether students wouldn't learn just as much from traditional courses and traditional texts if they spent as much time on them and worked as hard as they do when they are in experimental courses. The questions are silly, for two reasons:

1. Reformed approaches have been in use for five or more years at some schools, and many of these schools no longer have traditional courses. In those cases, reformed calculus is no longer experimental.
2. We already know that students won't spend as much time or work as hard on dull and meaningless courses -- that's one of the primary reasons for reform.

Furthermore, discussions of time and effort tend to focus on student-reported averages without any discrimination among different types of students. My recollection of traditional courses is that the students who spent the most time on the course were those who struggled and never “got it.” At the other end of the scale, many of the A students were breezing through a course in which they had already succeeded once, so they spent little if any time on it outside of class. In our reformed course, time and effort are much more correlated with success, and labels such as “strong” and “weak” much less so.

There is, however, a warning for reformers and would-be reformers in observation (1). It is possible, once the new text and classroom practices become routine, to slip back into a rut, always doing the same things in the same ways. Faculty have an uncanny knack — and lots of practice — at making interesting material dull. Fortunately, the collective reform movement has found many different ways to make the study of calculus fresh and interesting, and the materials from any one project are likely to offer much more variety than can be used in any one year. It's important to keep varying the course to keep from getting stale.

Put another way, the Hawthorne Theorem is not an indictment of reform, it's a prescription for success. Its corollary is that one should experiment with something every time a course is offered. Faculty who are always trying something a little bit new are also always giving their students “special” attention to see how the new thing works. Students will respond to that attention with more work and more time on task. In a reformed environment, this leads to more students achieving at a higher level.

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Last modified: May 17, 1997