Provides an orientation to the special journal issue on research methods in science education and lists four questions to which the contributing authors were asked to respond. (PEB)

Many studies measure developmental continuity in terms of an individual's maintenance of position on a given variable relative to the group studied. Such a measure is external to the individual and without reference to the function of the behavior for the individual. Research also tends to deal with variables rather than persons as the entities of…

Although analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) is used fairly infrequently in published research, the method is used much more frequently in dissertations and in evaluation research. This paper reviews the assumptions that must be met for ANCOVA to yield useful results, and argues that ANCOVA will yield distorted and inaccurate results when these…

The primary objective of this paper is to encourage survey researchers not to become overly reliant on the literature for generic solutions to non-response bias problems. In addition, the paper recounts an example of how a non-traditional approach was used to maximize the usefulness of data collected under unusual constraints and with an a priori…

Canonical correlation analysis is illustrated and three common fallacious interpretation practices are described. Simply, canonical correlation is an example of the bivariate case. Like all parametric methods, it involves the creation of synthetic scores for each person. It presumes at least two predictor variables and at least two criterion…

This paper describes issues in early childhood education that were most pressing 5, 10, 15, and 20 years ago, indicates whether these have been resolved, and outlines issues now considered urgent. In 1967, the most salient issues were the following: How important is early childhood for education? When should early education begin? Can early…

Following a summary and critique of the research on the use of computers in education to develop higher-order thinking skills, this paper advances eight hypotheses regarding the failure of research to confirm expected positive effects, and makes two major claims. The hypotheses are as follows: (1) a cognitive chain of consequences of programming…

During the last 15 years, there has been a steady increase in the popularity and sophistication of the confirmatory factor analysis approach to multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data. However, important problems exist, the most serious being the ill-defined solutions that plague MTMM studies and the assumption that so-called method factors primarily…

Although research on argumentativeness appears to confirm the centuries-old "commonsense knowledge" that successful arguers enjoy arguing and are adept at remaining "cool and rational" during an argument, the empirical research itself is based on normative assumptions that underlie this Cartesian "commonsense…

The current prevailing professional opinion is that the prevalence rates of alcohol abuse among the elderly are low compared to the general population. The prevalence of alcohol abuse among the elderly was examined through a review of the empirical research. This review revealed a number of serious methodological problems. The most important of…

In response to community concern about developmental effects on children who play with toys that portray antisocial, violent, or militaristic themes, two government committees were set up to investigate the issue. Psychologists have argued that playing with such toys may increase antisocial and aggressive behavior in children and have long-term…

Qualitative research methodologies employed by the Center for the Study of Evaluation (CSE) Evaluation Use Project over the last six years are reviewed. The report is neither a paean to qualitative methods nor an attack upon them. It represents a self-examination by CSE of its attempts to apply qualitative techniques to an important, and…

Although over 5,000 children and adolescents commit suicide annually, little is known about suicidal thinking of normal children. Due to ethical considerations, researchers must be sensitive to the possibility that they could introduce suicide as an option to a child. A methodology was developed to examine suicidal thinking through projected…

In the area of industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology and physiological psychology, issues of gender have only begun to be addressed. An examination of the recent literatures in I/O and physiological psychology was undertaken to document the extent to which women are used as research subjects, to determine whether or not research relevant to…