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Informative study looking at how what students get out of a demonstration can vary widely depending on how it is approached. I think this shows very effectively that demonstrations given without background instruction, context, or guidance can fail to show the intended concept. Observers need to know what to look for.

Crouch et al., published in the American Journal of Physics, evaluated students understanding of concepts with different modes of demonstrations (passive, active, or no demonstrations). Traditional (passive) demonstration was no more effective in enabling student learning then students that didn't see the demonstration. The study further found that students that were active or engaged in the demonstration had significantly greater understanding. Thus this study showed that it is more effective to have active demonstrations rather then passive (traditional) observations.

The study shows that the level of interaction of a demonstration can range from passive (more entertainment purposes) to engaged understanding. The greater the engagement, the better the learning. Predicting and discussing a demonstration resulted in better retention (correct prediction and explanation of the same demo on a test) than simply observing it.