by wildcherry on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | Humour, Knowledge, Life

Ralph and Todd Stinebrickner published what they say is the first persuasive evidence that there is a “causal effect of studying on grade performance”.

Ralph Stinebrickner is a professor of mathematics and computer science at Berea College in the US. Todd, his son, is a professor of economics at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Their report appears in the Berkeley Electronic Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy.

People assume blithely that studying affects grades. The Stinebrickners say that there was never any real proof. They tell how others had sought – and failed – to find some:

“The difficulty of providing information about the causal effect of studying is highlighted by an ambitious 10-year study by Schuman et al at the University of Michigan. The authors took four different approaches … but could not uncover a (conditional) correlation which indicated evidence of the ‘hypothesised substantial association’.”

The Stinebrickners tried a new approach, asking students to fill out survey forms detailing how they spent their time during the first two years of college, and then examining each student’s grade point average.

Full Story:Guardian

Tags: college, Getting Good Grades, grades, student, study, study affect grades, university