Student ratings of instruction are widely used as a basis for personnel decisions and faculty development recommendations. This digest discusses concerns about the validity of student ratings and presents a case for their use in teacher evaluation. There are several strong arguments for using student ratings to evaluate teachers. Students are in a…

This book is the third in a series aiming to promote international exchange of ideas, experiences, and studies relating to technical and vocational education. Intended to assist educators in the evaluation of vocational education curricula, the guide is designed for both experienced evaluators and novices. Section I describes the purpose,…

This paper describes how visual media technologies have been used to support research into the way technical diagrams are represented in people's minds. Two groups of subjects participated in this research, individuals with either a high or a low level of expertise in meteorology, specifically professional meteorologists and non-meteorologists.…

Historically, data have been collected from survey participants through a paper-and-pencil questionnaire or through interviews in person or on the telephone. This study compares the use of a new approach, interactive telephone data collection (ITDCT) to traditional paper-and-pencil collection. ITDCT administers survey items through a digitized…

A preliminary analysis of information collected from historical archives and long-time leaders in gifted education reveals a wealth of data about five women researchers who worked in various capacities during the initial establishment and data collection of Dr. Lewis Terman's classic longitudinal study of the "Genetic Studies of Genius."…

This paper provides an overview of telephone survey research by colleges and universities and reports on comparisons between mail survey respondents and non-respondents who were later contacted by telephone. After an introduction, the paper discusses the various steps of a telephone survey project. These include: (1) identifying the population to…

A study examined the feasibility of measuring employment in high-technology sectors at the regional level. First, the effect of definition of the term "high-technology" on survey results was considered along with potential effects of using 2- and 3-digit classifications of technology occupations from the Nomenclature of Economic…

This manual familiarizes data users with the procedures followed for data collection and processing of the second followup parent component of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. It also provides documentation necessary for use of the data file. Chapter 7 and Appendix E in particular contain essential information that allows the…

The conferences generated comprehensive updates of changes in the CRCM database-monitoring system and described some successful CRCM programs that are based on using the database. The CRCM activity is a comprehensive approach that enables eligible organizations to institute systemic change to address issues of precollege minority achievement in…

This article tabulates doctoral research activity in social studies education as found in "Dissertation Abstracts" published between 1982 and 1991. In this computer-based search, 499 dissertations were identified using "Dissertation Abstracts OnDisc" which is available on CD-ROM. A variety of descriptors were used, one of the least helpful being…

The purpose of this study was to gather further insight into a previous investigation of the relationship between self-chosen and program-controlled segment length of an interactive videodisk program, and performance on post- and retention tests. The initial study by Verhagen, which questioned what is the optimum length of well-designed…

This document presents the text of a study required by Section 105 of the Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act of 1990. The study addresses the feasibility of collecting and reporting national data from institutions of higher education on revenues and expenditures in intercollegiate athletics and athletic departments on a sport-by-sport…

The nine-volume Survey Kit is designed to help readers prepare and conduct surveys and become better users of survey results. All the books in the series contain instructional objectives, exercises and answers, examples of surveys in use, illustrations of survey questions, guidelines for action, checklists of "dos and don'ts," and…

This article considers arguments for and against the use of coding systems in classroom-based language research and touches on some relevant considerations from ethnographic and conversational analysis approaches. The four authors each explain and elaborate on their practical decision to code or not to code events or utterances at a specific point…

This report addresses the three issues of concern with national surveys expressed in the report "School Library Media Centers in the United States: 1990-91." These issues were: (1) numbers of schools with libraries; (2) levels at which these libraries are staffed; and (3) the role libraries and their staffs play in schools. Data came…