Teach Effectively!

Recently I got a note from a colleague whom I trust for his (it’s a guy) adherence to evidence-based therapy and methods of teaching. He wondered whether it was sensible to devote valuable research funds and time to evaluating interventions that sensible beings would dismiss out of hand. For example, why waste cycles (not his term, but it fits my geekiness) on examining whether hyperbaric oxygen therapy, learning styles, vitamin regimens, facilitated communication, neurological organization therapy, and etc.?

My correspondent’s point is a good one. Instead of debunking bogus therapies, it probably would be more helpful—at least, to those of us who understand the logical-deductive path of science—to devote our efforts to (a) promoting procedures that have been documented to produce benefits for children and youth who have learning and behavior problems or are at risk for developing them and (b) refining promising practices for those individuals.

Despite my agreement with this view (and it is my characterization of the view, not necessarily the view of my colleague), I still find the examination of bogus methods worthwhile. It is those studies that allow me to make semi-syllogistic statements such as these:

1. “True, people find the Puke Treatment appealing for this and this reason. However, 9 of 10 studies of PT show it doesn’t help.”
2. “I agree that people buy the Hugs-and-Holds Helpers because it promises a gentle and considerate approach, but none of the studies of its benefits have shown that children respond lovingly to it, let alone learn to speak, stop injuring themselves, or start eating a balanced diet.”
3. “The PooPoo Method makes sense at the belt-buckle level, but none of the evaluations of it have shown that it’s more helpful than doing nothing, so I suggest you do something else.”
4. “You may find the systematic, explicit, directive methods inconsistent with your personal philosophy, but they are the only ones that have resulted in objective improvements in children’s social and academic behavior. I ‘d skip a, b, and c, and go for d.”

We need the negative examples to make sense of the positive examples. I don’t have my copy of L. Wittgenstein’s Blue and Brown Books here, but if I did, I would note that he started his course with an illustration of the power of not examples.