Much of recent research in postsecondary developmental education leaves the distinct impression that most remedial courses in community colleges are unsuccessful in helping students and that they should be entirely overhauled. Legislators and administrators are now taking these recommendations very seriously and are ready to cut programs that are…

This study presents the results of a teacher research project. The analysis aimed to explore both the four teacher researchers' interpretations of conducting research in English language teaching and the nature of their collaboration with their supervisor in the procedure. The results showed that qualitative data analysis and interpreting the…

Two basic data sources required for research studies have been secondary and primary. Secondary data collection helps the researcher to provide relevant background to the study and are, in most cases, available for retrieval from recorded sources. Primary data collection requires the researcher to venture into the field where the study is to take…

The critical and interpretive phenomenological approach is underutilized in the study of crime. This commentary describes this approach, guided by the question, "Why are interpretive phenomenological methods appropriate for qualitative research in criminology?" Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to describe a model of the interpretive…

REL Southwest received a request to review the report "Avoidable Losses: High Stakes Accountability and the Dropout Crisis" to assess the soundness of the study methodology and the appropriateness of the conclusions drawn in the report. The review found that conclusions drawn in this study cannot be generalized and are significantly…

Good quality data is paramount for applied economic research. If the data are distorted, corresponding conclusions may be incorrect. We demonstrate how Benford's law, the distribution that first digits of numbers in certain data sets should follow, can be used to test for data abnormalities. We conduct an analysis of nine commonly used data sets…

Discusses problems researchers face when they want to describe relationship between several predictors and criterion variable. Considers ways of addressing problem of contribution of each predictor depending on which other predictors are in regression equation. Focuses on parallel information for each variable, examining initial and final…

We reviewed a "Mental Retardation" article by Conroy et al. (2003) on consumer outcomes following the closure of the Hissom Center in Oklahoma. In this article the authors misconstrued their 254 subjects, implying they are representative of the Hissom Focus Class while failing to account for 128 subjects included in an earlier analysis.…

In cross-cultural child development research there is often a need to translate instruments and instructions to languages other than English. Typically, the translation process focuses on ensuring linguistic equivalence. However, establishment of linguistic equivalence through translation techniques is often not sufficient to guard against…

Tests the hypotheses that overconfidence occurs when strength is high and weight is low and that underconfidence occurs when weight is high and strength is low in 4 experiments with 153 students. Discusses weighing evidence, overconfidence/underconfidence in intuitive judgments, and item difficulty's effect on overconfidence. Relates the…

How is the usefulness of research assessed as university research becomes more and more commodified? The question is addressed through an analysis of how the results of a particular research project were received in a large private company that had provided the main funding for a research project on gender and top management, a project based on…

R. D. Howell, E. Breivik, and J. B. Wilcox (2007) have argued that causal (formative) indicators are inherently subject to interpretational confounding. That is, they have argued that using causal (formative) indicators leads the empirical meaning of a latent variable to be other than that assigned to it by a researcher. Their critique of causal…

Addresses concerns about the trustworthiness of research results derived from image-based data, particularly questions of validity assessment. Compares examples of such research to provide an illustration of these issues. Presents a tentative strategy for ensuring trustworthiness based on five criteria: completeness, interpretive adequacy,…

Numerous misuses of statistics are described and illustrated, and ways of recognizing and avoiding such misuse are discussed. The following five categories of statistical misuse are identified: a lack of knowledge of the subject matter, the quality of the basic data, the preparation of the study and the report, the statistical methodology, and a…

Written in response to an article (Horn, 1983) that appeared in special Developmental Behavioral Genetics section of CHILD DEVELOPMENT (Volume 54), this commentary (1) notes some issues concerning Horn's analysis and interpretation of data and (2) highlights the potential for interpretational bias in behavior genetics research. (Author/BE)