[Newsgroups trimmed by half, to get past Spam filters.] On 9 May 2004 16:01:42 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Herman Rubin) wrote:
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, John Smyth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >Hello all, > >Is anyone able to help with the original reference for this study? > > >"In a classic study in a top university, summa cum laude graduates were > >given their same final exams one month after graduation, and they all > >failed. Researcher Leslie Hart summarised the results: "Final exams are > >final indeed!" > > >Above information given (without any reference) on page 65 of Michael Gelb, > >How to think like Leonardo Da Vinci (Thorsons 1998 London). > > >I skim read two books by Leslie Hart and found nothing about this study in > >them. They were "Human Brain and Human Learning" (1983) and "The Classroom > >Disaster" (1969). > > >Can anyone help with the original reference? > > I cannot help with the original reference, but as a faculty > member, I can agree with the results. Memorizing lots of > details is a losing proposition, and the concepts, which > are not easily forgotten, are rarely taught. On contemplation, that seems like an awkward study. How do you induce summa graduates to re-take their finals, one month after graduation? How avid is their attention? In the quote I found on-line, it did not say "in a top university." In my experience, the summa students were studying their majors before college, and did not need to cram for finals in their major fields. Nor would they forget the subject in 30 days. So that conclusion would be wrong or stupid, it seems now, unless the tests were from Elective courses. (The U.S. system requires and allows a variety of courses, outside the major field.) -- Rich Ulrich, [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pitt.edu/~wpilib/index.html . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
