This paper describes world perspectives on gifted education, focusing on definitions, identification procedures, and attitudes. It then examines key areas in gifted education that require further clarification and rigorous examination. (Author/JDD)

Discusses common beliefs and flaws in classroom research. Distinguishes among three kinds of empirical educational investigations. Suggests research designs which are considered to be sensible, selective, sound, sensitive, and simple. Describes designs using multiple classrooms for instructional-intervention experiments. (KS)

Schachter's "An Error in Error Analysis," is reviewed in light of subsequent research on avoidance. Hypotheses based on her figures suffer from the lack of methodological detail in her original study. To establish whether avoidance is a feasible explanation for learner underproduction, first language form, distribution, and function of…

Conceptual rationales from five research contexts are presented, which all posit unmeasured variables that interact with observed independent variables to produce a complete model of the dependent variable. Strategies for overcoming related difficulties are outlined, including increased longitudinal assessment, oversampling of levels of…

Argues that a definition of interactional argument based primarily on disagreement should be rejected in favor of a more traditional definition based on reason giving. Argues that views of ordinary arguers need not be given priority over those of experts. (SR)

Rejects Robert Rowland and J. Kevin Barge's conclusion (in an article in the same issue) that defining argument as reason giving is superior to defining argument as disagreement. Maintains that defining argument as disagreement is appropriate for an interpretive argumentation theorist, and that argumentation is a complex topic with room for more…

Addresses Pamela Benoit's response to an article in the same issue by the authors, restating key arguments of why a research focus on reason giving is superior to a research focus on disagreement. (SR)

A school system engaged an acoustical consultant to test designated classrooms to determine whether an acoustical problem existed. The consultant conducted tests and concluded that there was no problem. Findings from an investigation of the data differed appreciably from those of the acoustical consultant. Acoustical design criteria for remodeling…

Suggests a conceptual scheme that helps distinguish among three levels of questions related to three different kinds of problems in curriculum research and practice; and offers illustrative questions in nine categories and three broad curriculum domains. Workers at each level are dependent upon workers at the other levels. Scholars should probably…

A survey of studies in the "Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders" and the "Journal of Speech and Hearing Research" found that only 12 direct replications and 15 systematic replications appeared in a total of 271 studies. Based on the probabilities of false findings in this literature, replication is recommended to verify…

Presents general principles for cleaning data sets. Suggests techniques: check for column shifts, data completeness, marginal frequencies, and selected cross-tabulations; examines a sample of cases. Gives strategies for preventing data processing errors. (SK)

Sketches contours of the postmodern movement and implications for a research agenda in mass media and international communication. Analyzes the furor over Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses" to illustrate the difficulties that result from Western interpretations of events whose origins are distant culturally. Offers a number of…

The 1940 school discipline list, a "national teacher survey" of the top seven offenses has been extensively cited by outspoken school critics. The list, along with its 1990 counterpart, has been traced to T. Cullen Davis, a wealthy Texas businessman-turned evangelical Christian/education lobbyist. The conflation of school discipline with social…

Although sympathetic to the philosophic goal of developing an adequacy conception, this article questions that goal's feasibility for any but the earliest primary grade levels. Suggested reform strategies are a grab bag of untested ideas. As evidence from the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) project shows, little progress has been made in…

Reflects on the process of problem solving in the particular case of light reflection physics and abstracts objectives, methods, and values that can help identify and solve problems in the human sciences and judge the value of those solutions using the Strategy Learner, Interactive Model as an example. (11 references) (MKR)