Joellen Killion reports on the results of a five-year professional development intervention consisting of workshops and curriculum units conducted in six elementary schools in an urban district to gauge teacher knowledge and practices in science instruction for English language learners. The study looked at predictors of teacher change that…

The purpose of this research was to investigate the construct validity of the Children's Music-Related Behavior Questionnaire (CMRBQ), an instrument designed for parents to document music-related behaviors about their children and themselves. The research problem was to examine the hypothesized factorial structure of the questionnaire. From a…

The primary purpose of the study was to investigate the extent to which students who entered kindergarten are deficient in reading readiness skills; to determine the outcome of parental involvement in children's early education; and to gain a clear, holistic understanding of the research problem. The research methodology selected for this study…

This monograph addresses the issues in phenomenology as applied to educational research. The first chapter discusses problems with the following traditional goals of scientific methodology when applied by social scientists to educational research: measurement, control, objectivity, generalizability, and prediction. The second chapter explains the…

Conducting observational research in a cross-cultural context invokes a unique set of difficulties. This paper describes sources of bias and threats to validity that are specific to cross-cultural research. It describes problems of cross-cultural research designs for descriptive studies, comparative research, and experimental research and outlines…

Investigators were surveyed on the topic of side effects coincident with baseline naturalistic observations of children. Reported side-effects usually involved exacerbation of problems already occurring. Children in clinical samples were more likely than those in naturalistic samples to display side-effects. (Author/BB)

The shortcomings of the three main approaches to measuring teacher effectiveness (systematic observation, participant observation, and questionnaires) are discussed and problems of research design and analysis considered. The development of better measures of educational benefits to complement the emphasis on test scores is suggested. (Author/SK)

Sharp limitations on measuring the impact of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) can be largely overcome by developing an improved system and techniques for planning projects and their likely effects. The distinguishing characteristics of VISTA for measurement purposes are: a large number of volunteer program activities and sponsors, hence…

Describes issues which are common to all research methodologies and some that were unique to the assessment techniques used in the Child Development Project (CDP) in San Ramon, California. Looks at the limited amount of time given assessments and the "fluid" nature of measurements. Notes that CDP issues involved observations,…

This study was conducted to examine teachers' knowledge of teaching mathematics and writing to diverse learners, and knowledge changes that occur over time, particularly during and after formal teacher education programs. Commonplaces of teaching were articulated as subject matter, learners, learning, and context. Three measurement instruments…