Qualitative research is a model for systematic, data-based inquiry. It has been used widely in the social sciences, and it has a growing acceptance in educational research. Its purpose is to describe and understand a particular, bounded social setting. The differences between quantitative and qualitative research involve the methods employed at…

Focusing on conversational stories of personal experience (SPEs), this paper explores the narrative skills of preschool-aged black children in a low-income, urban community. Although linguistic and anthropological work attest to a flourishing tradition of story telling among black adults, little is known about the ways in which children become…

Since about 1962, researchers have explored the effectiveness of educational software in the schools under various conditions, and many have concluded that computer assisted instruction (CAI) is effective. Many of the studies reviewed to support this conclusion, however, had design flaws. Reviews of educational software effectiveness studies have…

Several problems exist with the rural knowledge base as it is traditionally conceived: (1) there is no useful rural definition with the diverse rural reality; (2) rural is undervalued as reflected in teacher education and training and in the stereotyping of regions in the country; (3) issues of sparsity, scarcity and size are disregarded, and (4)…

This paper identifies the general shifts in curriculum research from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Information is drawn from periodic reviews or summaries of the research literature. A comparatively larger number and variety of individual studies have been reported, but places to publish state-of-the-art curriculum reviews have become more…

The term "ipsative" refers to measurement based on intra-individual comparisons. The research literature in the social sciences contains many cautions about using ipsative data in multivariate analysis. The purpose of this paper is to identify the problems associated with the multivariate and regression analyses of ipsative data and to…

This paper argues that a human science approach should be included in the American Psychological Association's (APA) pending reconsideration of accreditation specifications. Psychology's curriculum will remain incomplete and sterile until it assimilates this approach. Some of the key procedures of human science research methodology are outlined,…

This paper examines some ethical problems that arose in a study of secondary curriculum, where educational criticism was used as a primary research strategy. A study on the subject of curriculum consonance was conducted in three tenth-grade history classrooms. In its original design, the study was primarily concerned with the correspondence…

The communicative approach to second language instruction has gained disproportionate publicity in the language teaching profession through the Communicative Teaching Project in Bangalore, India. Because of a series of articles and books and presentations at conferences advertising the project's alleged innovativeness and effectiveness, it has…

This study guide provides an overview and model of business research. First, introductory material defines research and discusses the benefits of studying business research methods for both producers and consumers of research. In the next section different types of research are discussed, including experimental, ex post facto, quasi-experimental,…

Student objectives do not always coincide with curricular labels that reflect statutory language or the public's agenda for community colleges. Studies show that nearly half of the students enrolled in so-called transfer curricula may have no intention of transferring, and that sizeable percentages of students enrolled in occupational courses go…

Reported at a symposium generally concerned with values and adolescents are discussions of (1) socialization issues and the impact of values on adolescents, and (2) dimensions of Asian youths' confrontation with the problem of modernization. In the first study (by Jan de Witt), the conceptual shift in socialization research to a focus on…

This paper provides an up-to-date review of the relationship between item response theory (IRT) and (nonlinear) common factor theory and draws out of this relationship some implications for current and future research in IRT. Nonlinear common factor analysis yields a natural embodiment of the weak principle of local independence in appropriate…

Given what is known about cognitive development, how well prepared are 4-year-old children to succeed in school? This paper addresses the question by describing three areas in cognitive development, highlighting major themes in the research, and suggesting implications for teaching practice and social policy. Classical and contemporary views of…

Current U.S. policies toward Central American nations motivated this examination of the presentation of the region in 12 social studies textbooks. In order to determine if each text's treatment of Central America was representative of the entire book, three regions, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean were selected for comparison purposes. The…