This qualitative inquiry examined the value of collecting and analyzing preservice teachers' pre- and postsemester metaphors about teaching by comparing the orientational content of the metaphors to preservice teachers' expressed beliefs and practices. Results show the usefulness of metaphors as a source of information about teachers' professional…

Nine oral histories of retired nurses were collected by 18 nursing students, whose attitudes toward nursing research were significantly more positive compared to 20 nonparticipants. Themes elicited from the histories showed the influence of World War II, technology, and intensive care on nursing practice in this century. (SK)

Argues that focus groups provide users with valuable qualitative data not readily obtained with any other data-collection technique. Describes the focus-group process, including participant selection, moderator role, phases of the process, and advantages and disadvantages. Suggests ways that business communication instructors can incorporate the…

Describes a statistics activity involving estimation of length that provides interesting data for analysis and can help students develop an appreciation for experimental design. Teachers can easily adapt this activity to suit a wide range of levels, and the data produced can motivate the practice of a wide variety of statistical techniques. (ASK)

This study examined the representativeness of a time-sampling observational procedure to evaluate students with behavior disorders by examining error in samples of varying size in comparison to a criterion measure. Analyses of both single subject and multiple subject designs suggested that samples of 16 to 20 observational sessions of eight-minute…

Discusses design goals, space requirements, and need for mobile furniture and "imagination stations" at Michigan's Midland Public High School science technology addition. Describes the architectural design, costs, and specifications. Includes floor plans, general description, photos and a list of consultants, manufacturers, and suppliers…

Includes information about the building site, architectural design, master plan, materials, costs, scheduling, specifications, and square footage for the 86-acre Stony Point High School in Round Rock, Texas. Includes floor plan, general description, photos, and a list of manufacturers and suppliers used for the project. (GR)

Grounded teaching and learning based on grounded theory involves continuous collection and analysis of data; hypotheses formed, rejected, and reformed during the process; and the data (learners' self-reporting of their learning experiences) as the focal point of activity. (SK)

These six articles discuss knowledge discovery in databases (KDD). Topics include data mining; knowledge management systems; applications of knowledge discovery; text and Web mining; text mining and information retrieval; user search patterns through Web log analysis; concept analysis; data collection; and data structure inconsistency. (LRW)

Discusses preservation education programs and describes a workshop follow-up program by SOLINET (Southeastern Library Network) designed to measure the effects of training, provide ongoing support, and develop a long-term mechanism for evaluating workshop effectiveness. Presents results obtained after collecting qualitative and quantitative data…

Presents an approach increasingly employed by businesses to track and respond to their customers to provide better and faster services: customer relationship management. Discusses its applicability to the operations of higher education and institutional research and the role it plays in the knowledge management framework. (EV)

Explores whether the fiscal section of this National Center for Education Statistics survey duplicated any data collected by the Office of Library Programs and how selected definitions in the fiscal section should be revised to address problematic responses to certain items. (Author)

Describes an evaluator's experiences constructing a World Wide Web site to collect evaluation data and discusses the technical and design challenges presented by data collection via the Web. Discusses eight lessons of Web-based data collection and outlines the advantages of the approach. (SLD)

Concept mapping is a participant-based methodology that involves three processes: participant generation of ideas or experiences about a specific question, grouping together responses through an unstructured card sort by participants, and statistical analysis of card-sort results using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. A research…

Describes data collection approaches suitable for the Internet: survey research, case studies, and participant observation. Lists areas where research is needed and addresses challenges in conducting research on Internet career sties. (SK)