Students with and without disabilities may be educated across various service delivery models (SDMs): general education, cotaught, pull-out, and self-contained. Still, evidence for their relative effectiveness at scale remains limited. Using longitudinal administrative data from Indiana, we measured the effect of different SDMs on test scores,…

This commentary highlights convergent themes from four articles in the March 2009 issue of "Educational Researcher" on measuring classroom instruction. Classroom instruction is a complex enterprise that occurs at the intersection of teachers, students, and texts within the surrounding classroom, school, and community environments. Progress in…

In response to Howe (2009), the author argues that educational research needs multiple thoughtful perspectives. The author's standpoint is that of a mixed methods research methodologist. Mixed methods research provides an antidualistic and syncretic philosophy and set of approaches or possibilities for merging insights from diverse perspectives;…

The authors advance an argument that placing observation of actual teaching as a central feature of accountability frameworks, teacher preparation, and basic science could result in substantial improvements in instruction and related social processes and a science of the production of teaching and teachers. Teachers' behavioral interactions with…

The author suggests that we apply recent research knowledge to improve our conceptualization, measures, and methodology for studying the effects of teachers' professional development on teachers and students. She makes the case that there is a research consensus to support the use of a set of core features and a common conceptual framework in…

The adversary evaluation model consists of utilizing the judicial process as a metaphor for educational evaluation. In this article, previous criticism of the model is addressed and its fundamental problems are detailed. It is speculated that the model could be improved by borrowing ideas from other legal forms of inquiry. (Author/GC)

Discusses ways to devise training methods to improve students' learning abilities, specifically in rote recall, evaluation of the learning task, summarization, and learning from the text. (EF)

The purposes of this article are to position mixed methods research ("mixed research" is a synonym) as the natural complement to traditional qualitative and quantitative research, to present pragmatism as offering an attractive philosophical partner for mixed methods research, and to provide a framework for designing and conducting mixed methods…

Proposes to show how certain developments in psychology have influenced present educational methods, and how recent work in learning theory strongly suggests new directions for educational research and practice. (DM)

Describes the evolution of national educational assessment in the United States, its present stage of development, methodological and reporting problems, and approaches applicable to assessment data. Examines how proposed approaches can be applied in the California Assessment Program and in the National Assessment of Educational Progress. (MJL)

Presents two related theories for a new paradigm in teacher education. One uses the concepts of "episteme" and "phronesis" to introduce a new way of framing relevant knowledge. The other is a more holistic way of describing the relationship between teacher cognition and teacher behavior. (SLD)

Six deficits of this model are discussed: disparity in proponent prowess, fallible arbiters, excessive confidence in the model's potency, difficulties in framing the proposition in a manner amenable to adversary resolution, "a cat's-paw for biased decision makers," and, excessive costs. (Author/JM)

Discusses research on middle school science learning and instruction that suggests how generative models of scientific phenomena can be developed. The Computer as Learning Partner curriculum is introduced as a curriculum that provides a firm foundation for lifelong learning through the use of authentic questions. (SLD)

Argues that ignorance is a better criterion than truth for determining the usefulness of knowledge generated through educational research. Implications for conceptualizing and teaching research are discussed, illustrating how attention to ignorance can increase understanding in areas such as practitioner research and cooperative research. (SLD)

Dismissing research that is not theory driven, hypothesis testing, or generalization producing does injustice to the variety of contributions that qualitative research can make. Studies conducted through qualitative approaches are reviewed to summarize the desirable outcomes that can result. No research model has a monopoly on quality. (SLD)