Data on implementing Night of the Notables Program © Night of
the Notables Services Brisbane Australia
Dear Educator,
Thank you for your enquiry.
We have many anecdotal accounts of satisfaction and pleasure with this excellent program from students, parents and school administrators. Please find some at the testimonials page, testimonials.
My master's thesis (The University of Melbourne) hypothesised a raised self esteem in children taking Night of the Notables. I found that it did raise self esteem: "Inspection of the data suggests that the experimental group displayed higher levels of both cognitive and affective perceptions than the control group. . . these data indicate that the experimental group's gains were bigger." Gregory Smith Night of the Notables: A program for gifted and talented students intended to provide modelling for life from the lives of the eminent and famous for use as gifted education in schools" The University of Melbourne 19 December 1994, page 91.
I gathered quantifiable and qualitative data:
Hypothesis 1: that cognitive skills could be raised
Hypothesis 2: that a discernible difference in self understanding and self esteem as a gifted person would be achieved.
Results: The experimental group perceived an improved level of cognitive skill and a small but reasonable affective improvement.
Data in detail: The average experimental gain in affective responses was +8.5% (n=90) on 15 questionnaire items: such as enjoying the program, identifying with a character, feeling more confident, relate better with peers, value collaborative research, perceived ability to write a biography, more able to monitor own progress, better motivated, cope when others don't accept my ideas, value my gifts and goals, accept my learning style, value my approach to problem solving)(p. 85)
The average experimental gain [post-test score] in cognitive responses was +32.5% (n=90) on 9 questionnaire items such as "more sure they could write and present a biography, do research, communicate well, propose questions for research and value others' thinking." (p. 83).
Conclusions:
"A validation of the Night of the Notables [as I implemented it over many years, this study focused on one year's implementation in the usual way] has been carried out against standard educational literature . . Its capacity to meet the various learning needs of individual gifted and talented children [in upper middle class suburban Melbourne] was demonstrated . . . and that because in its design, students evaluated that this program is an effective program to meet their special needs." (p. 77)
It shows a hawthorn effect in comparison with other programs and in the context that school work is usually not considered enjoyable [2009 hindsight] because uniquely 'Notables' raises self esteem. I can't find any other theses on Australian database websites dealing with it.
Of course educational measurement is a very contested area and comparing programs is indeed controversial if not well nigh unquantifiable. It is all horses for courses, that is, what works in particular contexts. The variables are so multiple.
To further validate its worth, my study also rates Night of the Notables [as I envisaged/ implemented it] according to Abe Tannenbaum's (1983:443) ten Aims for gifted programing:
Against these criteria, Night of the Notables scores 22/30 = 73% which is considerable when you consider that school programs are not focused on individuals and broad cultural interests. Compared with other programs this is quite high. It could be said to enhance a commendable internationalist and vocational attitudes, is high in morale, and staff rated the program best for its monitoring processes.
On the local Victorian [Government] Education Department Frameworks criteria:
Notables scores 11/15 remarkably 73.3% also.
Return to notables website and pages
First posted: 12 December 2009