This paper reports on a small-scale introductory study of Australian mothers' experiences of infant day care. Ten employed, middle- and lower-socioeconomic status women with an infant in center-based day care were interviewed. Brief narrative examples from the mothers' accounts are presented. Discussion then concentrates on a new approach to…

Introduction: This paper reports on part of a research project on relationships between learning methods and students' information behaviour in Finland. It has been suggested that student-centred learning methods, such as problem-based learning, influence students' information needs, seeking and use. The focus of this paper is on the concept of…

Using a naturalistic inquiry approach, a study examined the application of whole class instruction as an alternative instructional strategy to ability grouping in first grade reading instruction. Subjects, 57 first-grade students in two classrooms attending an elementary school in a middle-class section of Orem, Utah, used the Companion Reading…

In discussions about qualitative research, questions often arise concerning appropriate research focus, researcher objectivity, manipulation of people or environments examined, study completeness, and value considerations. Goodness questions (reliability, replicability, and validity) get mixed with value questions (generalizability), with…

A debate about qualitative versus quantitative analysis has been waged in the scientific community for several years. A different set of parameters is suggested for this debate, and a logical transformation is outlined that makes the qualitative/quantitative distinction at the epistemological level a non-problem. While the strategy of induction…

The rediscovery of qualitative research in education in the 1970s has fanned the debate among proponents of both qualitative and quantitative traditions. This paper demonstrates implications of each research tradition for educational policymaking. Grounded in finding solutions to practical problems, educational research has had two purposes: to…

Egon G. Guba and Yvonna S. Lincoln were among the first to develop a set of extensive criteria for establishing naturalistic inquiry as a disciplined research methodology. The naturalistic paradigm--also called post-positivist, ethnographic, phenomenological, and qualitative--has gained acceptance as a legitimate alternative to the previously…

Communication scholars have addressed a number of theoretical issues concerning the basis of knowledge and reality. They have not, however, accompanied their theories with parallel empirical studies. Given the important implications such work might have for the interpretation and generalizability of observer accounts, two studies were conducted…

The qualitative dimension of educational research methodology is explored, and the literature of qualitative methodology is reviewed so researchers may (1) understand more fully the qualitative dimension as it, in turn, fits within the parameters of educational research as a whole, and (2) have more informed access to the sometimes daunting array…

An evaluation plan based on the STAR (Sensible Technology Assessment/Research) model will be used to evaluate the Apple Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT). Visits to three ACOT schools and interviews with their teachers, students, and administrators were used to obtain an initial understanding of what ACOT means to the process and outcomes of…

The aim of this book is to assist people who use interviewing as a means of gathering information. It is a practical guide to more effective techniques and provides methods relevant to a variety of contexts. After a review of the psychological bases of interviewing, the types of interview are discussed as follows: (1) personal data reporting; (2)…

Considerations of validity that are central to all disciplines in the social sciences are discussed, and concepts that are an essential part of the intellectual equipment of the social sciences researcher are systematically analyzed. Fundamental methodological concepts underlying decisions made in the research process are highlighted to encourage…

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…

The interview process in qualitative research is discussed, based on the experiences of the two participants in a series of life-story interviews. The interviews were held during a pilot study for a doctoral project, and this account of the process is presented from the dual perspectives of the researcher-interviewer and of the interviewee,…

This evaluation of the LearnerNet Project at Utah State University focuses on teacher reactions to instruction using an expanded syllabus over an electronic system and the effects of such instructional methods on faculty members and their teaching. It is noted that interviewing and qualitative analysis were chosen as the research methods both…