This article addresses a gap in methodological writing, concerning typical practice in designing qualitative inquiry, especially in research on educational leadership. The article focuses on how qualitative research designs are actually developed and explores implications for scholars' work, especially for new scholars and for methods teachers.…

Purpose: The expansion of alternative education, globally, has coincided with a shift towards greater accountability for ensuring educational access and opportunity, high academic standards and increased graduation rates. While studies suggest the pervasive influence of accountability may be redefining how school leaders provide meaningful…

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…

An investigation of Ontario high school students' understanding of acids and bases with quantitative and qualitative methods revealed misconceptions. A concept map, based on the objectives of the Chemistry Curriculum Guideline, generated multiple-choice items and interview questions. The multiple-choice test was administered to 34 grade 12…

This study compared three spelling interventions to increase the spelling accuracy of elementary students with learning disabilities. Thirty-six randomly selected third, fourth, and fifth grade students with learning disabilities were assigned to three interventions: (1) the traditional spelling procedure; (2) a multisensory procedure without…

The theory underlying qualitative research design and a specific formative evaluation study that includes qualitative methods are discussed. The focus is the data analyses methods and procedures employed in the evaluation study, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the inquiry. Qualitative research focuses on the idiographic and operates on…

Critical pedagogy, an ideology which opposes education as domination, views knowledge and learning as constructed by the student and teacher together. Its goal is personal and social emancipation and empowerment. The purposes of this paper are to (1) indicate problems in science education which can be addressed by teaching science from a critical,…

This paper reports on the use of qualitative methods to determine first-year student perceptions of the Orientation program delivered by North Carolina State University. One hundred thirty freshmen were interviewed, in groups of 6 to 10, to learn about their orientation experiences, and why they felt some sessions were helpful, and where sessions…

Math Works is the fifth grade component of the "Mathematics for the '80s" project, a series of 28 video programs and related material developed by a consortium of state and provincial education and television agencies. A formative evaluation of Math Works programs (9 and 25) was conducted to assess the instructional effectiveness and general…

Designed to describe effective computer inservice programs and to determine the components that contributed to their effectiveness, this study identified eight school districts from across the country that appeared to be providing outstanding computer training for teachers. Case studies of these eight model districts were conducted in which…