This article presents outcomes of a 15-month project to integrate portfolios in one undergraduate special education preparation program. The process of defining portfolios, how they will be used, evaluation of portfolios, and the benefits of portfolio use are discussed, along with recommendations for future research on the efficacy of portfolios.…

This article reviews the studies that used microswitches and speech output systems with people with severe/profound intellectual or multiple disabilities during the 1986-1999 period and discusses the encouraging research findings and the economic practicality of these two forms of technology. Research needs are addressed. (Contains references.)…

Investigates ways in which people group or categorize documents associated with a voluminous work to guide the construction of organized displays for information retrieval systems. Discusses results of cluster analyses based on "A Christmas Carol" (Charles Dickens) and suggests implications for metadata standards and digital libraries as…

Explores the intellectual subject structure and research themes in software engineering through the identification and analysis of a core journal literature via two expert perspectives: the author, through cocitation analysis; and the indexer, through subject terms selected to facilitate retrieval. Topics include cluster analysis, multidimensional…

Elaborates on the basic thesis developed by Rothbaum et al., underscoring the significance of the co-constructive process of the self and social relationship. Discusses implications for future cultural psychological inquiry in this area. (Author/KB)

The researchers who conducted a review of 995 journal articles on mainstreaming reflect on the finding that there has been much more survey research than direct measurement of teacher and student performance. The need for empirical research on instruction and learning in inclusive settings is stressed. (DB)

Reviews research about the uses readers and writers make of text structure schemata and, additionally, about what reading-writing relationship research and collaborative learning research suggest for designing instruction to build schemata for text structure. Describes one in-process research study that attempts to address these issues. (SR)

Describes program delivery through the Cornell Cooperative Extension Satellite Network (CCESN) as a new educational initiative in the information age. Results of a questionnaire survey sent to 375 educators are discussed, including effectiveness of teaching techniques and communication channels, and factors that encourage and discourage…

Discussion of relevance provides an overview to this special issue on relevance research. Topics addressed include user-centered criteria that affect relevance judgments; information-seeking behavior; the need for appropriate research methodologies; models for system design and evaluation; and approaches to facilitate further research, including…

Examines the information seeking and evaluative behavior of attorneys and explores the dynamic mental models attorneys construct. Highlights include domain-specific relevance; cognitive maps; current research on the retrieval performance of two full-text legal databases, LEXIS and WESTLAW; and implications of attorneys' mental models for legal…

Discusses topical relevance and situational relevance, which takes into account the impact of the retrieval system on the user, in the context of medicine. Topics addressed include scientific validity; limitations of current evaluation methodology, including recall and precision; and a framework for future retrieval research based on an…

Reflects on the rise of AIDS cases in gay male adolescents and addresses the need for more research-derived data on the sexual practices of this group. The authors provide an overview of unsafe sexual behaviors and review the literature on gay male adolescents' perceptions regarding safer sex. Implications for counselors and educators are…

Examines why fathers tend to be underrepresented in research on child and family functioning. Recommendations for encouraging more nonsexist family research that includes both mothers and fathers are explored, and the implications for the inclusion of fathers in prevention and clinical interventions are discussed. (GR)

Five studies that measure abstinence-only programs' effects found no significant evidence that these programs help delay onset of intercourse. Evaluations of 30 abstinence-plus programs for sexuality and HIV education show these programs do not increase adolescent sexual intercourse. Common curriculum characteristics are outlined. (Contains 18…

This commentary discusses study results that indicate the nonselective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) clomipramine is more efficacious than the relatively selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor desipramine and placebo in treating repetitive or ritualized behaviors in children with autism. The need for concurrent genetic and biochemical…