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Perhaps the most depressing thing about education research is the total absence of historical memory and the continual reinvention of the wheel.

A librarian calls for the banning of reading lists (¡°Ban reading lists to drive teaching innovation, librarian says¡±, News, 23 March), but these lists were often demanded by librarians in the first place while academics protested that they undermined research skills; two academics ¡°experiment¡± with ¡°seen exams¡± and discover, as academics did in the 1980s, that they produce high-quality, engaged results (¡°Unseen benefits¡±, Opinion, 23 March); and the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovers (¡°¡®If we don¡¯t know how we learn, how on earth do?we know how to?teach?¡¯¡±, Features, 23 March) that the model of studying independently, then discussing and applying, which was used by naval academies from the 18th century onwards, is a highly successful way of encouraging students to be actively engaged.

Farah Mendlesohn
Staffordshire University

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