Contends article by K. Smith, V. Reina, and C. Brainerd in same "Kappan" issue demeans author's own evidence based on many years of observing actual children; research preferred by reading skills proponents is derived from experimental situations under manipulative conditions. Context is everything, and teacher's role is central. Evaluating all…

Excoriates Gerald Bracey's "broadsides" against the author's own article in same "Educational Leadership" issue for misinterpreting his conclusions and methodology. Stevenson's learning gap results did not oversimplify ability-effort relationship in U.S. and Asian students; results were similar for U.S. cities with both large…

Reviews the literature on the effect of prior knowledge and text familiarity on document comprehension and usability. Discusses current methods for assessing subjects' topic familiarity. Presents an empirically based method for effectively assessing topic familiarity. Explains that the method includes use of two subject groups and reliance on…

Six articles about evaluating information retrieval (IR) systems and methods are briefly described in this introduction to a special issue and some of the major problems that are encountered in evaluating interactive information retrieval are considered. (two references) (LAE)

Discusses the history of information science and its understanding of and approach to relevance; explains human categorization theory and applies it to the idea of relevance; shows that information science research is flawed because it fails to adequately explain experience; and suggests implications for future research. (17 references) (LRW)

Using Shakeshaft and Hanson's criteria developed in a 1986 evaluation of androcentric bias in "Educational Administration Quarterly" articles published during the 1970s, examines articles published in "EAQ" during the 1980s. Although bias diminished in the gender of contributing authors and use of inclusive language, other less…

This discussion of issues of definition and classification of attention deficit disorder (ADD) emphasizes the heterogeneity of the diagnosis, the overlap of ADD with reading disability, and lack of consistency across studies. A systematic classification study is proposed to develop a unitary, empirically derived classification for ADD. (Author/DB)

A literature review highlighted problems in entrepreneurship education: too much emphasis on knowledge and not enough on competence, not using small group methods, lack of evaluation of effectiveness, lack of research on the development of competence and its transfer, and lack of comparative research. (SK)

To understand trends in Scottish special education statistics, the data must be set against known demographic factors and must take into account changing patterns of age of pupils served in special education, types of learning difficulty, categories of establishment included, and distribution between schools and departments. Concludes that a move…

A comparison of 142 public administration doctoral dissertations from 1981 with 165 from 1990 found that the latter showed substantial improvement in quality based on 6 criteria (purpose, design, theory testing, causation, important topic, and cutting edge). Little improvement was found in selection of topics. (SK)

Data analysis from a sample of 685 responses to the Quality of Employment Survey found that stress from job constraints increases strain regardless of the level of social support. The buffer hypothesis was supported by the finding that stress caused by workload and conflict are dependent on the level of managerial and co-worker support. (SK)

Challenges the pessimistic conclusions of recent studies of longevity and health among the elderly which claim positive trends in prolongation of life have not been matched by extension of healthy life. Examines conceptual issues related to measurement and dynamics of mortality-disability. Uses data from the 1986 Longitudinal Study of Aging to…

An evaluation of one therapeutic service offered to sexually abused children in the United Kingdom exposed the methodological issue of false negatives among the comparison group, suggesting that researchers cannot assume that nonreferred comparison subjects have not actually experienced sexual abuse. (DB)

Two ways of studying lives in context through time are analysis of longitudinal data and secondary data analysis of long-term studies intended to answer questions not originally posed. The opportunities for, and limitations of, these types of analysis; their relevance to policy; and their applicability to interdisciplinary research are considered.…

R. T. Ogawa and B. Malen's article does not meet its own recommended standards for rigorous testing and presentation of its own conclusions. Use of the exploratory case study to analyze multivocal literatures is not supported, and the claim of grounded theory to analyze multivocal literatures may be stronger. (SLD)