Support services for students with disabilities is now a distinct field of practice in higher education, with a significant increase in the number of students receiving services, programs to serve them, and professionals who oversee the programs. The field has professional and program standards, a code of ethics, and a disability service specific…

This article highlights key online teacher professional development (oTPD) areas in need of research based on a review of current oTPD research conducted in conjunction with an oTPD conference held at Harvard University in fall 2005. The literature review of this field documents much work that is anecdotal, describing professional development…

It is argued that research settings should be chosen with the whole experimental design in mind and that the availability of appropriate controls (groups or occasions for observation) should be as important as the suitability of the treatment group. (Author/AM)

The first step in aggregating qualitative data is to establish parameters for cross site analysis. Establishing parameters should include: (1) building a conceptual framework, (2) defining units of analysis, (3) developing core questions, and (4) establishing guidelines for handling unique features in each site. Two basic approaches to analyzing…

Explores common conceptions of what constitutes knowledge in educational administration, how knowledge relates to practice, and how individuals in universities might characterize productive research as occupying a multidimensional space along why, who, and how dimensions. Discusses five guiding principles and need for a community of scholars.…

Reports on a program held at the 1986 American Library Association Conference which offered a model for locating and evaluating existing research on libraries. Six guidelines for evaluating research are provided, and small group sessions which evaluated actual research and talked directly with researchers are described. (EM)

Major obstacles to conducting process research with parent education programs exist; new directions for studying how programs interact with participants are needed. In particular, intervention research is time consuming and expensive. The small number of subjects involved are often at risk and under considerable social stress. Self-selection and…

In this paper, a panel of four new faculty discuss the challenges they have faced and the lessons they have learned in attempting to create a research agenda for themselves. To provide a point of reference, brief biographical sketches are provided of the panel members and the responder. The panelists' comments are provided on several principal…

A review found many of the studies that have assessed the efficacy of psychotropic medications with individuals with mental retardation (MR) are methodologically flawed. It details suggestions to improve the quality of medication studies and avoid methodological problems that prevent the scientific advancement of psychopharmacological research…

This article discusses a workshop that explored research barriers in early intervention for children with autism in the United Kingdom. Following a summary of presentations, recommendations are made for the research agenda, basic research design, data collection, data analysis, interpretation of tests, improving statistical power, and a research…

The environmental and interdisciplinary nature of environmental education presents extraordinary challenges to individuals' abilities as a field to clearly conceptualize, theorize and communicate findings about what they have learned about practice, research and theory in environmental learning (Disinger, 2001). Unfortunately, these factors also…

Attitude and opinion research requires considerable planning, careful design of survey procedures and sampling techniques, and practical ways of collecting, analyzing, and reporting results. The following suggestions are based on the extensive public opinion research conducted by the University of Alabama. (1) Decide what specific problem is to be…

This guide for writing research or technical reports discusses eleven basic elements of such reports and provides examples of "good" and "bad" wordings. These elements are the title, problem statement, purpose statement, need statement, hypothesis, assumptions, procedures, limitations, terminology, conclusion and recommendations. This guide is…

This article discusses concerns with the No Child Left Behind definition of scientifically based research and its preference for random-assignment experiments. It proposes that instead of playing the victim, critics should illustrate the important findings that have advanced the field using research methodologies other than randomized experiments.…

Educational research in Asia and the Pacific is examined from the perspective of reform in instructional content and method. Information based on speeches and discussion at a regional workshop held in Japan in 1982 is presented in four chapters. Chapter 1 explains workshop objectives, introduces participants, and presents a general overview of the…