This paper presents the results of a study to identify the specific needs graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in speech communication have while teaching. Six GTAs completed a description of their experience as GTAs, maintained a day-by-day teaching log and participated in a group discussion. The paper uses a qualitative-phenomenological approach…

The effect of an educational administration course at Washington State University on graduate students' acquisition of research skills and knowledge base is explored in this paper. The first part discusses the need for student-conducted case studies in educational administration. The second part describes how the course provides students with…

This paper explores technical questions of ethnographic study and uses as an example an actual episode observing college students and the subsequent decisions and steps taken to produce a written account. In particular, the paper seeks to address the question of researcher subjectivity by examining some issues relating to the practice of…

A study examined the personal, social, and institutional factors that facilitated the career development and career choice of 11 African-American and 9 Latino juniors and seniors (12 females and 8 males) who were attending a large Midwest university and who had successfully identified and acted on their vocational plans. The students had all…

This paper describes an ongoing case study of how a group of teachers are becoming researchers and what this means for their classrooms and the professional development school where they work. A collaborative teacher development program was implemented in Dickinson Elementary School of Albuquerque (New Mexico) which serves a mobile and mixed…

This paper uses the occasion of reviewing three books on university issues and higher education to discuss the ability of university faculty to enter into dialogue and discussion about higher education. The paper reviews the following books: "The Idea of a Modern University" (edited by Sidney Hook and others) a book which presents the views of…

This paper has three purposes. First, it places in scientific perspective the growing acceptance in educational administration research of alternative methods to empiricism by an explication of chaos theory and its assumptions. Second, it demonstrates that chaos theory provides a scientific basis for investigation of complex qualitative variables…

This brief paper summarizes a roundtable discussion on the relative lack of use by special education researchers of a variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Discussion addressed: (1) the types of knowledge that could be generated by using a wider range of research methods (e.g., structural equation modeling and associated methods…

Horizontal teacher evaluation increases understanding of teaching through the critical examination of educational goals and classroom practices. This examination includes teachers' classroom observations of one another coupled with in-depth teacher conversations or dialogue about teaching aims and practices. A qualitative case study of a…

This book describes a year-long participant-observer case study of the professorship as a profession. Following an introductory chapter, each chapter examines one aspect of the professor's occupation by recounting the specific experiences of the author, a sociology professor at Wright State University (Ohio). Chapter 2 looks at the department as…

A team of graduate students and educational administration professors, as part of a field-based doctoral program, discovered the "split and fit" culture during an evaluation of the school's Continuous Progress Primary Program (CPPP). According to Pascale (1990), "split and fit" can work to an organization's benefit. Fit…

Focusing on the factors that contribute to success in school, this book provides a vital resource for parents, psychologists and educators. A 6-year study that closely followed high-achieving poor and minority students is described. More than 1,000 fifth and sixth grade students in public and private schools took part in the study. This book…

This two volume document investigates the policies and processes that result in learners failing or passing in grades 1-3 in Ondangwa and Rundu education regions of Namibia. The first volume is a synthesis of the research, while volume two presents the "raw" data provided to help ground the reader in real life school settings. Ondangwa…

This book is intended for a one-semester or one-term course in educational research. It is designed to enable students to become intelligent consumers of educational research and to introduce its basic principles to those who eventually may be involved in research in their work. The chapters are: (1) "Introduction to Research in Education"; (2)…

This study demonstrated the use of self-recorded audiotape to collect data on students' perceptions, attitudes, and use of learning activities in written teaching texts. The process of asking students to respond to questions within the teaching text was straightforward and presented few problems in subsequent analysis. On several indicators…