In our continued effort to bring additional perspectives to Eduflack’s discussion of education reform, following is a guest blog post from John Jensen, Ph.D. We’ll be seeing a few more posts from Dr. Jensen later this week …
There are at least two good reasons for doing research about educational methods. One is for adults to decide whether or not to employ a particular strategy or condition. The other is to motivate students directly to alter what they do. If, for instance, you tell a boy playing basketball You completed 70% of your passes today. Lets see how you do tomorrow, he is likely to think for the entire game about passing accurately so he gets to 80%.
By stimulating this motive, we can engage students in many ways to take objective account of themselves, teaching them communication skills, concentration, and classroom cooperation by means of specific, countable behaviors. I note several in my book (cf. below). To help adults decide what to do with classroom time, however, Id like to suggest a study that could be valuable to your district.
First you need an idea or hunch to test out that makes theoretical sense. Your selection depends on the limitations you accept in your thinking. For a while after I discovered that the ERIC files contained over a million references, I was overwhelmed at the prospect of research. Then I discovered that it seldom influenced anyone; that instead people usually had an idea about what they wanted to do and chose the research that supported it. I surmised, maybe incorrectly, that we might just cut to the chase and do what we want to in the first place.
But to encourage rationality, Im moved to welcome research. The fact that education has not yet been transformed despite the million pieces in ERIC hints that the field still awaits a transforming idea.
What theory do we want to test out?
We want something completely under our power and control to alter, first of all. Theres no point in studying the height and weight of our students if theres nothing we can do about what we find; or their parentage or race or a myriad of other characteristics of students, teachers, and the situation. We want something that we can vary due to the data we get, so we look carefully at our own options, our flexibility of response..
One thing we can vary is our use of classroom time. We can specify so many minutes for this and this, alter the numbers, and see what happens to our results. If more of this and less of that shows different results in learning, then wed like to be able to tell that to our teachers because, come Monday, they might shift gears that way.
The study Id like to propose first is about the amount of time students spend recalling what they learn. The outcome can lead directly to something controllable, a specific use of time, this over that. And the conduct of the study can be objective and fair, measured with minutes spent and tallied.
And the theory? Making it a good candidate for a study is a core understanding about skill development: practice makes perfect. And practicing knowledge essentially means calling it up and expressing it. I was impressed many years ago when undergoing training as an ROTC officer. One class concerned how to train recruits in skills they needed. Our instructor passed on to us a statistic developed by the militarys long experience. To train someone in any skill, he said, spend 5% of the time explaining, 10% demonstrating, and 85% practicing. Applying this to a classroom, one uses about five times as much time practicing whats presented as time spent presenting it. This fit with a report I encountered back in the 1960s in which researchers investigated the uses of time in the classroom leading to the most permanent learning. Their finding was that the most effective means was the effort to recall used with between 40% and 80% of class time. .
Despite the long-established effect of practice (top performers in any field practice more), there appears to have been a decision made decades ago by the teaching profession to avoid it. Its role instead was to present knowledge and it was up to students–if they were so motivated–to practice and learn it through completing the homework assigned (an assumption that has not proven out). Teachers were led to believe that class time was so limited that they could not allocate any significant portion of it just to deepening students learning.
So how could you set up a study about practice during class time? A district with two or more of any kind of school could do it this way: Select one school for the study and another with matching characteristics as a control. Pair up classrooms with comparable results, teacher competence, and teaching methods by subject and grade.
Reading. Students in the study school spend half the allotted time explaining to a partner what they just read (a quarter of the total time for each partner), and connecting it to everything they read before. In the control school, all the time is just for reading.
Math. Students in the study school spend 1/3 of the time per hour listening to the teacher explain ideas or reading in order to input definitions, formulas, and explanations; and 2/3 of the time explaining to a partner what they gathered. In the control school, teachers use their customary methods.
Social studies: Students in the study school read or listen to lectures or media presentations and take notes on them in question and answer form for 1/3 of the available time. For 2/3 of the time they ask and answer the questions with each other. In the control school, teachers use their customary methods.
If teachers experience discipline problems and object that they cannot hold their students to specified times at anything, this simply stretches the spectrum of results. Provide all teachers with a kitchen timer and ask them to track to the second the key variable, the amount of time students do spend explaining their learning to a partner. My prediction is that a correlation will hold along the entire spectrum–the less practice time, the less learning.
The district staff may want to assess many outcomes, but the primary one should be the sheer retention of learning. A valid way to do this is, at the end of the study period, with no preparation nor forewarning, to make a single request of students about each subject–reading, math, and social studies: Write down all you can remember about the subject that you have learned since the beginning of the study.
What you will get is a direct report of the conscious, usable knowledge students possess (distinct from their passive knowledge dependent on someone else asking them a question or giving them hints). It can be quantified by (e.g.) their number of lines of writing, the time it takes them to write it, and (if you want to be more particular) the number of points of knowledge their writing contains. A point of knowledge here is a question answered at the level one would put it on a test, essentially one sentence of independent knowledge. The only caveat is to apply the same measure to both the control and study schools.
After such a study, the district should be able to tell its teachers If you adopt the 1/3-2/3 method, youll increase student learning by 50% or some such figure. Im optimistic here, since students retain almost no proactive knowledge without the practice and typically rely on forewarning so they can cram.
If you want to nudge your district in this direction, please let me know. We need more empirical thought in education, and the ERIC database is working on its second million.
(John Jensen is a licensed clini
cal .psychologist and author of The Silver Bullet Easy Learning System: How to Change Classrooms Fast and Energize Students for Success (Xlibris, 2008), which he will email without charge as an ebook to anyone requesting it. He invites comments sent directly to him at jjensen@gci.net. The opinions are strictly Dr. Jensen’s.)
Online pharmacy oxycodone.
Buy oxycodone online. Online pharmacy oxycodone. Online consultation oxycodone. Oxycodone online.
Buy fioricet online from usa pharmacy.
Fioricet fioricet best us pharmacy online. Fioricet fioricet cheap pharmacy online. Buy fioricet with codeine online. Fioricet fioricet link online order. Cheap fioricet online. Codeine fioricet online.
Buy ephedrine online.
Ephedrine buy online.
Generic viagra buy online.
Buy viagra online. Buy online viagra. Best place to buy viagra online. Low cost viagra online. Viagra online uk. Buying viagra online. Viagra prescription online. Viagra online cheap.
Vicodin 7.5 online.
Vicodin online. Prescriptions drugs pharmacy online vicodin. Buy vicodin online. Buy vicodin online without a prescription. Buying vicodin online. U.s. pharmacy online vicodin. Vicodin order online.
Buy ephedrine.
Ephedrine to buy. Buy ephedrine hcl guafenison.
Buy viagra online.
Buy viagra online. Cialis canada online pharmacy viagra. Buying viagra online.
Cheap viagra.
Cheap viagra. Buy cheap viagra online uk.
Buy soma.
Buy soma tablets. Buy cheap soma.
Buy cheap phentermine online.
Buy cheap phentermine. Cheapest place to buy phentermine.
Phentermine buy phentermine online.
Buy phentermine.
Carisoprodol phentermine online.
Carisoprodol buy cheap carisoprodol order online. Buy cheap carisoprodol online. Carisoprodol carisoprodol onlinenmru onlinenmru site. Carisoprodol buy cheap carisoprodol online index. Buy carisoprodol online.
Buy taladafil viagra.
Buy viagra online. Buy viagra. Buy cheap viagra. Buy viagra pill.
Oxycodone addiction.
Oxycodone addiction. Detection time oxycodone in urine. What does oxycodone look like.
Buy soma online.
Buy soma without prescription. Buy soma online.
Ephedrine cheap.
Cheap ephedrine. Ephedrine cheap.
Buy tramadol.
Buy tramadol. Tramadol hci online buy cheap tramadol hci online. Tramadol buy.
Buy soma online.
Buy soma tablets. Buy cheap soma. Buy soma online. Buy soma bloghoster. Soma online soma buy soma online. Buy soma watson brand online 150 tablets. Buy domain onlinevcvpl soma. Soma buy soma cheap soma soma online. Http pills.viptemplates.com p buy soma.
Cheap oxycodone.
Cheap oxycodone.
Mg buy phentermine.
Buy phentermine. Buy cheap phentermine online. Buy phentermine online without prescription cheap. Buy phentermine on line.
Buy amoxicillin online cheap amoxicillin.
Amoxicillin online. Buy amoxicillin online cheap amoxicillin. Order amoxicillin online. Amoxicillin online no prescription.
Phentermine.
Cheap phentermine. Phentermine diet pills. Phentermine. Phentermine 37.5. Online phentermine. Phentermine tablet. Phentermine cod.
Cheap viagra lowest prices online.
Online pharmacy viagra overnight. Buy viagra online. Online viagra approved. Buy online viagra. Viagra online. Viagra online versandapotheken. Viagra buy online.
Order phentermine.
Phentermine.
Ultram buy ultram online order cheap ultram.
Buy ultram cheapest site. The mondego group wiki xwiki buy ultram. Ultram buy ultram online order cheap ultram. Buy ultram. Buy ultram international pharmacy.
Watson soma cheap.
Buy cheap soma. Cheap soma. Buy soma cheap. Watson soma cheap. Cheap soma indice.
Drug soma.
Soma. Drug soma. Soma fm.
Phentermine no prescription.
Online phentermine. Phentermine. Discount phentermine. Phentermine ingredient.
Buy soma online without rx.
Buy soma online. Soma online. Buy soma online no prescription.
Cheap valtrax.
Cheap valtrax.
Buy ephedrine online.
Where can i buy ephedrine online. Buy ephedrine online.
Tramadol wellbutrin retin-a cheap ultram.
Cheap ultram. Cheap prescription ultram without. Order ultram cheap pharmacy. Buy cheap online ultram.
Viagra online stores.
Viagra online stores. Cheap viagra online. Buy viagra online. Buy viagra online australia.
Cheap viagra.
Cheap viagra. Cheap herbal viagra. Cheapest viagra in uk. Viagra online cheap.
Cheap phentermine online.
Purchase phentermine online. Phentermine 37.5 mg online prescription. Cheapest prices phentermine online.
Viagra online.
Online pharmacies discounted viagra. Online viagra. Phorum shows viagra online. Purchase viagra online.
Online gamble.
Gamble online. Online gamble. Where can you gamble online. How to gamble online.
Where to order vicodin with no prescription.
Vicodin. Effect of vicodin. No prescription needed vicodin. Lorcet vicodin online.
Oxycodone.
Oxycodone addiction. What is oxycodone.
Tramadol cheap no rx.
Cheap tramadol shipped by c.o.d. Cheap tramadol.
Cheap viagra online.
Is viagra cheaper in mexico. Cheap viagra online. Cheap viagra. Cheap generic viagra.
Cheap abilify.
Cheap abilify.
Low cost phentermine.
Phentermine no prescription.
Cheap phentermine.
Cheap phentermine. Cheap no prescription phentermine. Phentermine cheap. Buy phentermine cheap. Cheap phentermine online. Cheap phentermine free shipping. Buy cheap phentermine online buy. Extra cheap phentermine.
Buy tramadol index.
Buy tramadol. Tramadol hci online buy cheap tramadol hci online. Tramadol buy.
Buy soma online.
Soma online cod payment. Soma online sales. Buy soma online without rx. Soma buy soma cheap soma soma online. Soma online. Soma online next day.
Buy cheap viagra.
Buy viagra online. Buy australian viagra. Buy viagra. Viagra buy. Buy discount viagra online.
Buy carisoprodol online lowest price guarantee.
Buy carisoprodol online lowest price guarantee.
Buy viagra in canada.
Buy cheap viagra online uk. Buy viagra online. Buying generic viagra online. Buy cheap viagra. Buy viagra per pill. Buy viagra online 35008. Buying viagra online uk.
Cheap phentermine.
Cheap phentermine free shipping. Phentermine cheap online pharmacy. Phentermine cheap no prescription. Cheap phentermine no prescription. Cheap phentermine.