Both the popular and professional literatures commonly suggest that the more involvement by fathers in their infants' routine care the better. However, empirical support for this position is far from conclusive. Although several researchers have reported a positive relationship between father involvement and father-infant relations, others have…

A study examined the role of talk in the writing act. The study utilized participant observational techniques in an attempt to discover how talk was implicated in all stages of writing. Subjects were three fourth, fifth, and/or sixth grade informants, with one student emerging as the key informant in the study. Results indicated that talk appeared…

This research assessed whether, within the context of a classroom session, the pattern of questioning and discussion used by teachers is related to the pattern of student responses. Clear and comprehensible linkages between questioning and answering behaviors were found in this study. These results indicate that researchers can help resolve the…

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…

Student teaching supervisors have been criticized for failing to assume more active instructional leadership roles in the professional development of their charges. In this article, strategies are presented for expanding the role of the supervisor and thereby enhancing the learning climate for prospective teachers. In general, the strategies…

The main purpose of this study was to trace the development of children's awareness that they can learn and to describe the forms of their ideas of learning. A complementary aim was to account for the extent to which such conceptions can be found at different levels of development. The investigation consisted of two observational studies and a…

"Illuminative evaluation," as defined by Parlett and Hamilton, "is not a standard methodological package but a general strategy. It aims to be both adaptable and eclectic. The choice of research tactics follows not from research doctrine, but from decisions in each case as to the best available techniques; the problem defines the…

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,…

Whereas previous research on writing focused on measurable aspects of written products, more recent research has focused on the processes of writing, using such research methodologies as laboratory case studies, naturalistic studies, quasiproduct studies that interpret results in terms of process, and studies that have unique procedures as a…

Thirty third and fourth grade students were observed over two entire school days to examine the nature of instruction and academic responding time for students of high, middle, and low teacher-perceived behavioral competence. Across all groups, it was found that students spent about 45 minutes in a typical school day actively engaged in academic…

Observations were conducted to identify student behaviors that relate to students' functioning, defined first as social status within the group, and second as behavior problems perceived by the teacher. Fifty-four fifth grade boys and girls, from seven classrooms that were organized into two units, were observed over a 10-week period during both…

A study was made of the relationship between children's play behaviors and sociometric status, with particular attention to the influence of play materials on behavior. Subjects were 95 children, ranging in age from 44 to 60 months, attending 10 preschool classrooms. Sixty observations were made of each child's play behaviors. Sociometric measures…

This evaluation report focuses on a broad range of issues associated with the work of the Electronic Text Consortium (consisting of San Diego State University, University of Wisconsin, University of Nebraska, and WGBH Boston), whose year-long task was to develop and test a variety of electronic text services and to assess which configurations of…

In addition to assessing observed communication behaviors, this paper suggests that SYMLOG--a System for the Multiple Level Observation of Groups--can be used by participant-observers as a foil for interpreting how their own value orientations affect their data collecting and theorizing. The first section of the paper examines the research role…

Developed to provide an alternative system for identifying emotional disturbance in students, the manual begins by briefly reviewing problems in current identification approaches. An emotionally disturbed person is defined in the paper as someone who exhibits either too much or too little of a socially significant behavior. An approach is then…