<brlewis@my-deja.com> quoted
+---------------
|    Albert Shanker, the former president of the American Federation of
|    Teachers, wrote that "educational experiments are doomed to succeed,"
|    in part because the energy their creators bring to the experiment
|    creates an excitement that encourages success. Given enough
|    enthusiasm, almost any pedagogical approach will succeed as long as
|    its proponents remain committed to that vision.
+---------------

This is probably a variant of The Hawthorne Effect, e.g.:

    <URL:http://www.indwes.edu/Tuesday/s_hawth.htm>
    In an early (1927-1933) productivity study in Western Electric's
    Hawthorne plant near Chicago researchers discovered that their own
    presence affected to outcome of the study. In this case, so long as
    the study was in progress productivity increased. The term "Hawthorne
    Effect" was thus coined to define the influence of the researcher's
    presence on the outcome of the study. Or, put another way, attention
    increases productivity. ...

In particular, it didn't matter whether the experimenters increased the
lighting or lowered the lighting (or later: humidity, temperature, frequency
and length of breaks) -- if they *changed* something, productivity increased.

Also see <URL:http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/history/hawthorne.html>.

+---------------
| The real test is whether the initial success can be sustained when
| the approach is adopted by others.
+---------------

Or more to the point, when the presentation ceases to be "experimental".


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock, 31-2-510		rpw3@sgi.com
SGI Network Engineering		<URL:http://reality.sgi.com/rpw3/>
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy.		Phone: 650-933-1673
Mountain View, CA  94043	PP-ASEL-IA