A bibliographic study was made of current research on class size, providing an historical overview of selected class size studies and a review of conclusions applicable to class size. A central theme which runs through the literature concerning class size reduction is that academic achievement does not necessarily improve when student-faculty…

A study was conducted to provide descriptive information about the quantity of classroom time used for teaching reading and the interruptive events that occur during the scheduled reading time. Data were gathered from 148 public and private school teachers representing all grade levels and a wide range of teaching experience. The subjects each…

Studies of elementary school social studies since the late 1970s, largely from an objective-quantitative perspective, have painted a dire picture but have paid little attention to what teachers are actually doing in the classroom. Researchers have found that little instructional time is spent on social studies, that the textbooks on this subject…

This report discusses "Readings in Educational Research," a project that resulted from a discussion of the 1986 professional development staff of the Washington Education Association, who showed an interest in bringing teachers closer to the research process and their own professional development. The difficulties of using educational research as…

Aims of classroom-centered research on second language learning and teaching are considered and contrasted with the experimental approach. Attention is briefly directed to methodological problems of experiments, such as controlling classroom events in various ways, and to conceptual weaknesses with study variables. In contrast, classroom-centered…

Colleges of education and public schools are often involved in a "love/hate" relationship due to their interdependence. One university and public school system are seeking solutions through collaborative programs. Texas Tech University leases research services to the Lubbock Independent School District in the form of graduate assistants…

This paper argues the merits of including the topic of classroom psychosocial environment in the curriculum of science teacher education programs, on the assumption that having a positive classroom environment is an educationally desirable end in its own right. Discussions focus on the potential of the classroom environment as a way of: (1)…

In education, action research is research carried out by practitioners with a view to improving their professional practice and understanding it better. This paper concentrates particularly upon classroom action research by inservice teachers, although the approach can also be embodied in preservice training courses and can embrace a very wide…

As more and more writing process oriented teachers must oversee, design, and execute classroom intervention studies, a discrepancy arises from the inappropriateness of the process style to the product orientation of research. In establishing experimental procedures, researchers try to account for all variables, but for process-oriented teachers,…

Learning style preferences of a group of nursing students was analyzed to determine whether the development of self-instructional modular learning packages would be an educationally sound means for presenting didactic content to students. A total of 38 junior baccalaureate nursing students completed the Canfield Learning Styles Inventory. Results…

This paper introduces a research series recently initiated to begin to describe and interpret curriculum as practiced and experienced at the classroom and individual student levels. Curriculum is defined as whatever a student learns. A multi-year series of studies is planned to combine naturalistic and survey methods to generate theories about how…

The extent to which advance organizer instruction about social behavior could affect preschool children's social problem-solving abilities was investigated. The study followed a pretest, training, posttest, and delayed posttest format and included periods of observation of children's spontaneous social behaviors before, immediately following, and…

The problem of spurious significance in multivariate exploratory research is discussed. When a very large number of statistical tests are performed, many tests will be significant on the basis of chance alone. To counter this problem, the use of two sign tests to analyze sets of results has been suggested; the chance expectation [CE test] assesses…

Classroom research is caught between lack of rigor and lack of richness. When multiple classrooms are used, and when the performance of different groups or levels of students is regarded as "repeated measures" (or split plots) and analyzed accordingly, much of the descriptive richness of the interactions may be regained. (Author)

Four second-grade teachers completed the Classroom Behavior Inventory for every student in their class (N=101). Subjects were classified as either reflective (N=32) or impulsive (N=32) by using the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF). (Author)