The other day I wrote about Houle's The Inquiring Mind article. One of the issues I have with Cyril Houle’s article on The Inquiring Mind, is a problem I’ve had with several other articles I’ve read throughout our classes; simply the sample set used for the conclusions. 

In The Inquiring Mind Houle admits his sample size is small; “Originally it was planned to collect about twenty case studies but the number was increased to twenty-two in order to be sure that variations in all the characteristics mentioned above were included” (Houle, 1961, p.. 13). Having a sample set from which to base conclusions of only twenty subjects hardly seems significant enough for any conclusions to be drawn. Increasing from twenty to twenty-two actually made me laugh. Sure that’s ten percent of the total sample, but when the total case study sample size is so small, the increase hardly seems worth it.

The issue I have is the fact that Houle takes his case study samples from known groups of people. Houle states “they are so conspicuously engaged in various forms of continuing learning that they could be readily identified for me by their personal friends” and “they all had goals which they wished to achieve, they all found the process of learning enjoyable and significant, and they felt that learning was worthwhile for it’s own sake.” This makes the sample set selected seem even more unique and exclusive, hardly a good sample set from which to hard conclusions. 

 In my organization we are running an experiment regarding Virtual Reality simulations vs non VR simulations in terms of in planting long term memory. In just the two months we have been running the experiment we have collected well over 400 data points or users who have been a part of the experiment. This it seems to me is still not adequate to start drawing conclusions on the efficacy of VR, yet Houle drew conclusions based on 22 close friends or colleagues. 

For anyone who wants to read it and determine for themselves, here's the reference:

Houle, C. (1961). The inquiring mind. Knowles, M. (1990). The adult learner: A neglected species. Houston. TX: Gulf Publishing.