Teacher evaluation models focusing exclusively on the quantitative recording and coding of observable behaviors may not assist teachers in improving the quality of their instruction. Teacher evaluation should place more emphasis on qualitative dimensions of what teachers say during instruction. Includes four references. (Author/MD)

Discusses how to analyze qualitative data, presenting rules for unbiased data analysis, describing how to think about analysis, and explaining the five steps of doing the analysis: tidying up, finding items, creating stable sets of items, creating patterns, and assembling structures. The paper concludes by discussing the importance of making sure…

Suggests why qualitative research is frequently neither discussed nor used by the broad public, considering five barriers to making research more accessible, discussing how to make it more germane to problems faced by diverse groups in their everyday lives, and offering constructive ways to make qualitative research findings more accessible to the…

Demonstrates how nonacademic interviewing talents can inform how qualitative researchers perform and produce interviews, outlining key concepts and practices for better qualitative interviewing from journalists and other researchers and examining four elements of interview practice (background information, interview analysis, protocol creation and…

Discusses the link between personal involvement by researchers and good data, focusing on subjective qualitative researchers and research. The paper explains that getting close to subjects can: enhance the breadth and depth of the study; provide context for subjects; merge the subjects and the phenomena being studied; and merge passion and…

This book is a guide is for school practitioners who want to know more about planning and conducting focus groups as an aid to decision-making. It emphasizes practical and cost-effective ways to ensure accurate results. After defining the focus group, chapter 1 offers ways focus groups can be used in schools and reasons for using them. Chapter 2…

This article explores two issues in conducting qualitative research: (1) the essentials of data collection, and (2) the unique role of the researcher in the data collection process. The author's own research study on use of health and medical information by various members of a classroom team for special education students is used to illustrate…

This article is designed to make qualitative research more understandable by providing details about the procedures that were used in one project to develop grounded theory. Interviews with 16 gifted students (grades 1-8) participating in pull-out programs found they were dissatisfied with the pace of their regular classroom. (Contains…

This article suggests the use of structural equation modeling in special education research, to analyze multivariate data from both nonexperimental and experimental research. It combines a structural model linking latent variables and a measurement model linking observed variables with latent variables. (Author/DB)

Guidelines for the implementation of qualitative methods in special education research are offered, addressing rigor, sample selection, data collection, and data management/analysis. Five possible pitfalls are identified, including the quantitative-qualitative methods debate, premature data collection, the tendency to use a linear procedural…

Helping school, district, and/or community leaders facilitate discussions with community members about improving schools, this guide discusses how to use informal focus groups to gather information about what is important to people in the school community. The guide helps users gather information in a systematic way, organize what they hear,…

This book, in its second edition, is intended as a practical guide to conducting action research in schools--it outlines the process of designing and reporting an action research project. Contending that action research can be used as a powerful tool that can contribute to school renewal and instructional improvement, the book defines and presents…

This introductory level text provides a background for understanding the uses of qualitative research in education, its theoretical and historical underpinnings, and specific methods of educational research. This revised edition places qualitative research into the context of current discussions of research methods and alternative ways of knowing.…

Ethnographic research methodology is reviewed as an emerging methodology in special education, with application made particularly to understanding regular classrooms into which students with learning handicaps may be integrated. Suggested descriptive questions for an ethnographic interview are given, for use in research investigations and in…

This paper examines the educational implications for students with Tourette syndrome (TS) and outlines a multi-dimensional approach for improving their education. It presents data from two qualitative studies in Australia. TS is a debilitating neurological disorder that causes involuntary vocal and motor tics. The first study investigated the…