A study identified the behavior and attitude of three science education graduate students assigned to two different science education professors. These professors taught separate sections of the same science methods course at a university. The symbolic interactionist and functionalist positions were taken as a theoretical perspective. Data…

The increasing use of job training or retraining and employment programs in response to high rates of unemployment in France has spurred interest in program evaluation to see what results have been achieved. The contribution of traditional standardized evaluations and of emerging methodologies is being examined. Traditional evaluation methods…

This study evaluates and examines teaching strategies used by Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a program developed by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District. Through a planned curriculum, uniformed law enforcement officers present information to fifth- and sixth-grade students on substance…

This paper evaluates the effects of using the NUDIST (Non-numerical, Unstructured Data Indexing, Searching and Theorising) computer program to organize coded, qualitative data. The use of the software is discussed within the context of the study for which it was used: an Australian study that aimed to develop a theoretical understanding of the…

This book examines the role of the professional practitioner-researcher and the relationship between practice, practical knowledge, and theory. It is divided into five parts. The three chapters of Part 1 review the emerging role of the practitioner-researcher, the education of professionals in light of the theory-practice relationship, and…

As part of an 8-year study of education reform in rural Kentucky, this report examines the primary program that has evolved in six rural elementary schools as a result of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), which requires that grades K-3 be replaced by a nongraded program. This change aimed to eliminate failure in the first 2 years of…

This document contains four papers from a symposium on evaluation in human resource development (HRD). The first paper, "HRD Evaluation as the Catalyst for Organizational Learning" (Hallie Preskill), argues that HRD practitioners must stop considering evaluation a periodic event focused on a narrow set of variables and begin viewing it…

This Policy Research Brief explores the strengths of qualitative research and the types of information it can make available to policymakers concerned with issues affecting persons with disabilities. The naturalistic methodology employed in qualitative research is described. Three specific studies using qualitative methodology are excerpted and…

This 3-year study examined how primary grade teachers and their teacher assistants taught reading and the language arts to a boy with multiple disabilities in inclusive classrooms. Qualitative research strategies are used to describe and explain the boy's participation in literacy activities from kindergarten through second grade. Findings are…

This paper describes the development and implementation of the first private nonprofit day care program serving children with disabilities in Malaysia. Preliminary information describes Malaysia's economic, ethnic, and cultural situation. The naturalistic inquiry approach used to prepare this report, involving interviews and observations, is then…

This qualitative assessment of tenth-grade students' (n=17) problem solving focused on the nature of students' thinking, their problem-solving strategies and heuristics, the mathematical approaches they selected, and the ways they monitored their own progress. The problem, presented orally and with photographs in a task-based interview, involved a…

This case study presents findings from a year-long ethnographic study of a principal of an elementary school in a stable, urban environment. It concludes one of seven studies conducted in elementary and intermediate schools in urban, suburban, and rural settings to investigate the instructional management role of principals. Although previous…

A case study used focus groups to examine employee attitudes and concerns. Subjects, about 60 employees and managers of a major university teaching hospital in the southeast, were formed into 4 focus groups to discuss their attitudes. Employees hoped that management would use the information gathered to improve the communication environment and…

The view that values play a crucial role in how principals conceptualise and interpret school leadership is not new. However, very little of the research underpinning this view has been conducted in developing countries. Drawing on qualitative case study research into how principals in Jamaica conceptualise school leadership, this paper explores…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of selected teacher education faculty members engaged in electronic portfolio development. The research questions driving this study were (a) What are the faculty members experiencing as they adopt eFolios? (b) How do these professors understand and make sense of the role eFolios…