A way to support the educational ethnographer in developing a perspective on the art of qualitative research during an introductory course on qualitative research methods is explored through a study of how novice researchers begin to learn the elements and processes of qualitative research. A second purpose of the study is to investigate the use…

Analyses of questionnaire data from a program evaluation indicate that the two dichotomous items "Would you recommend this to a friend?" and "Would you choose to do this again?" are not as interchangeable as might be expected from the survey literature. As part of the evaluation of a university program, a survey of graduates…

Teachers are being encouraged to use observational strategies for a variety of professional purposes in assessment and evaluation. Observation differs from just "looking" in that the personal experience of looking is transformed into a public event by the systematic recording of what is seen and by subsequent analysis and interpretation.…

This report evaluates the conduct, validity, and uses of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Trial State Assessment (TSA). The report addresses such pressing problems as how participation in NAEP can be maintained and appropriate samples can be achieved; how errors can be minimized in the complex process of scaling and analyzing…

This paper summarizes an experiment conducted to examine the counting performance of 7- and 8-year-olds. Analysis of variance was computed on counting errors produced when enumerating a set of squares on a computer screen. The factors included in the analysis were age, gender, array size, error type, proximity, and error form. The primary…

Because of the lack of error-free, on-task performance by young children, cognitive modeling has not generally been considered an appropriate technique for characterizing computer use by young children. It is argued that cognitive modeling can be a useful strategy for organizing data on children's performance when the domain being studied is…

This paper describes the approach used successfully at California State University, Dominguez Hills, to instruct college students in the research paper writing process. To achieve the results, the instructor followed a specific set of steps during a class meeting set aside for this specialized training. This paper details each step in the…

This manual was designed for Catholic Relief Services staff who want to improve the health and nutrition component of maternal and child health programs. The methodology presented had already been used in two country programs in Africa, and the experiences in those program evaluations made this guide to participatory evaluation useful for other…

Many organizations and agencies collect data related to postsecondary education. To improve the coordination of data definitions and surveys, guidelines have been prepared to define the best survey practices for data collectors and data providers. The first section of this document, "Best Practices for Data Collectors," covers the…

The CHAT transcription standard of the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES), the world's largest computer archive of child language data, is critiqued. CHAT is being considered as a possible standard for the field of child language as a whole. It is argued that CHAT is biased toward three views that are no longer current in the field: (1)…

Computer software that is intended to assist the qualitative researcher in the analysis of textual data is relatively new. One such program, the Data Collector, is a HyperCard computer program designed for use on the Macintosh computer. A tool for organizing and analyzing textual data obtained from observations, interviews, surveys, and other…

The collection of observational data in natural settings and in real time requires equipment that is light and easily used, and programs that permit rapid and flexible encoding of data. This paper describes a set of four programs for collecting and analyzing continuous time sample, focal-individual data as described by J. Altmann (1974), using a…

This report provides results of a study that measured lender profitability in the Guaranteed Student Loan (GSL) program and compares these results with the profitability of other types of lending. Data analysis reveals credit card lending to be the highest average level of profitability over the 5-year period considered. Other lending types, in…

Much composition research, even qualitative research, posits a world "out there" waiting to be understood and seeks causes of phenomena without considering the subjective states of researchers or study participants. Because of this, many researchers consider social phenomena as "things" which coerce human behavior. But even…

Multiple group factor analysis is described and illustrated through a simulation involving 5,000 examinees. The estimation process of the group factors were implemented using the TESTFACT program of Wilson and others (1987). Group factor analysis is described as a special case of confirmatory factor analysis. Group factors can be computed based on…