Seven articles discuss research by and for practitioners. The topics include demystification of research for practitioners, experiences with helping teacher researchers, an application of a collaborative action research model, one health practitioner's experience, creating a dance research database, basic data analysis for nonresearchers, and why…

The paper addresses the potential of informatics to patient care quality assurance curricula, focusing on (1) terminology and developments related to quality of care evaluations; (2) criticisms of traditional approaches; (3) limitations of existing data sources for quality assurance in dentistry; and (4) quality assurance considerations in…

A confirmatory factor analysis of 61 published data sets from multitrait-multimethod studies provides estimates of the trait, method, and error variances of measures used in the social and behavioral sciences. Traits accounted for less than 50 percent of the variance among construct measures overall. Implications for testing are discussed. (SLD)

Discusses the use of computers for teaching foreign languages and for research purposes. Highlights include the ability of computers to analyze data and transactions with or without interacting with the learner; the learner's acquisition of grammatical concepts; and changes in the discipline and in curriculum development that may result from…

Trends in European practice that relate to qualitative assessment in the evaluation of the impact of research and innovation are discussed and analyzed. To date, European evaluations have been mainly concerned with quality and direct impact with few assessments of medium- or long-term impact. (SLD)

Analyzes employment and wages of recently legalized immigrants using the Legalization Application Processing System file which is based on individual records of amnesty applicants and draws comparisons with sample of foreign-born population from Current Population Surveys of 1983, 1986, and 1988. Among demographic differences of total foreign-born…

Presents an activity in which students investigate the formation of solid ammonium chloride aerosol particles to help students better understand the concept of acid rain. Provides activity objectives, procedures, sample data, clean-up instructions, and questions and answers to help interpret the data. (MDH)

Discusses methods of assessing job preparatory-training outcomes, particularly a product called Data Linking for Outcomes Assessment (DLOA). Contends that through data linking, conclusions about programs, job placement, and salaries for graduates can be drawn with ease. Describes key design features for creating a DLOA. (EMH)

Explores algebraic thinking as children search for patterns while collecting, organizing, and graphing data and as they derive equations describing relationships found in the data. (ASK)

Presents research findings, based on current national data, regarding the differences and similarities between public and Catholic schools. Focuses on fourth graders. (YKH)

Argues that the United Kingdom's National Curriculum recommendations regarding data analysis tasks do not explain the specific activities clearly enough to assist teachers in deciding what practices to follow. Presents research that shows that the range of data-analysis tasks that pupils can perform depends on the type of data as well as on the…

Describes the research questions, methods, and findings for two action-research studies, conducted in 1996 and 1997, about the use of Internet-based resources for the study of the Holocaust. Discusses data and relationships from both studies and offers direction for schools planning to engage their faculty in action research. (CMK)

Suggests a method that allows searchers to analytically compare the Boolean and probabilistic information retrieval approaches. Sample performance figures are provided for queries using the Boolean strategy, and for probabilistic systems. The variation of performance across sublanguages and queries is examined, as well as the performance of models…

Presents a game called Push-Penny, played by pushing a coin and having it land on a line, used to teach students to develop intuitive feelings for the consequences of randomness, including data handling and the construction and use of tables and graphs. (ASK)

Focuses on Subject-Pair Analysis, a technique for comparing examinations in different subjects, to demonstrate that reliance on statistical comparisons of standards between subjects is misplaced. Explicates the fundamental assumptions underlying the Subject-Pair Analysis. Argues that this and related analyses are inappropriate for dealing with the…