We undertook a research project consisting of four interrelated studies, in order to shed light on ways educational professionals make sense and make use of educational data in general and school performance feedback in particular. Theoretical insights illuminate why a sensemaking perspective is an appropriate and valuable lens to study data use.…

This research aims to make a methodological contribution to the mixed methods literature by investigating the value-added of empirical studies that are explicitly framed with the purpose of interrogating divergent findings. Case studies introduce the role philosophical paradigms can play in reconciliation process and reveal the potential to…

My privileged opportunity to work with renowned Drama theorist, Dorothy Heathcote, in Melbourne in the 1970s, set a foundation for what I now call Theatre as Education research. Formerly a teacher of Secondary Drama, I became very experienced at creating plays with my students, based on their own ideas, or inspired by the stories of the community.…

The rush to do qualitative enquiry in education in the past decade has spawned a variety of methodologies and non-methodologies. The desire for absolute rules and lawlike procedures lingers and the current search is for certain rather than good judgments about educational phenomena. A methodology described as "quasi-historical" is…

This report discusses the nature of research in the context of distance education and suggests that qualitative research be included as a research methodology for distance education research. Noting that qualitative research represents a shift toward more perceptual, context-embedded interpretive inquiry, the paper argues that it is well suited to…

Use of "special" orthonormal mean contrasts and mean contrast variances can help educational researchers interpret a wide variety of repeated measures data. Most statistical packages allow educational researchers to test for differences across repeated measures using both the univariate mixed model F test and a multivariate test.…

Despite growing interest in the use of anthropological or cultural research models, these approaches are not commonly understood by the higher education community. Because anthropological research differs significantly from other techniques, this paper first explains the rationale for using anthropological models to study higher education and…

This paper explores the issues surrounding the study of higher education, usually involving the analysis of structural-functionalism, to less tradition-bound areas representing idealism. It examines these issues through the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism which, it is noted, rests in the interpretive paradigm. The paper begins…

The use of terms to describe and interpret results from canonical correlation analysis has been inconsistent across research studies. This study assembled the terminology related to the use and interpretation of canonical correlation analysis from research articles, textbooks, and computer manuals. Research articles using canonical correlation…

The purpose of this paper was to examine evidence-based procedures in medicine and to demonstrate that the same protocols can be used in English language instruction. In the evidence-based methodology, studies are divided into those that address specific language problems. Integrated studies are presented as a systematic overview, meta-analysis,…

This paper examines the problems caused by relying solely on statistical significance tests to interpret results in contemporary social science. The place of significance testing in educational research has often been debated. Among the problems in reporting statistical significance are questions of definition and terminology. Problems are also…

A study investigated the effect of writing in statistics classes on students' interpretation skills (translating the results of data analysis into verbal interpretations that are accessible to non-statisticians). One hundred twenty-two students in three statistics classes received either low, moderate, or high instructional emphasis in…

When conducting a two-year college program review, there are several advantages to supplementing the standard quantitative research approach with qualitative measures. Qualitative research does not depend on a large number of random samples, it uses a flexible design which can be refined as the research is executed, and it generates findings in a…

Monte Carlo studies of statistical tests are prominently featured in the methodological research literature. Unfortunately, the information from these studies does not appear to have significantly influenced methodological practice in educational and psychological research. One reason is that Monte Carlo studies lack an overarching theory to guide…

Paralleling the interest among researchers in naturalistic inquiry is a resurgence in action research, and particularly in research which involves the collaboration of researchers and research subjects. This paper locates the negotiation of research outcomes between researcher and subject on a continuum, with the separation of researcher and…