The origins of institutional research and its association with a planning function are reviewed. The role of values, politics, and social pressures in regard to the planning function are examined. Planning is likely to be more directed to attaining administrative and faculty aspirations than to meeting educational and social needs. (Author/MLW)

Revises the concept of verifiability of life events by requiring that they be verified. Presents three design issues which interact with verifiability and event qualification, which may result in threats to their validity. Suggests all three types of objectivity-subjectivity should be considered in designing life event studies. (Author/JAC)

Guidance task performance data from 303 secondary vocational teachers and 265 secondary guidance counselors in Tennessee were collected through a mail survey. Results showed vocational teachers perform tasks (appraising, consulting, counseling, presenting educational and occupational information, and placing graduates) to a higher degree than do…

This paper outlines a procedure for compiling a Natural Resources Inventory to be used in college-level environmental education classes. Topics for lectures, laboratory projects, materials and equipment lists, and alternative information sources are included. (AM)

Presents a model for assessing children's psychosocial difficulties based on developments in family, crisis, and systems theories, as well as on ideas in environmental and social psychology. Major components for assessment are identified: life crises, immediate environmental influences, broader environmental influences, individual characteristics,…

To provide a meaningful research experience for undergraduate methods students, students participated in an ongoing research project. The progress of the project to encourage the adoption of a curriculum in which theory building informs methods, and in which actual field experience is provided, is described. (MLW)

Accounting for verbal reports requires explication of the mechanisms by which the reports are generated and influenced by experimental factors. We discuss different cognitive processes underlying verbalization and present a model of how subjects, when asked to think aloud, verbalize information from their short-term memory. (Author/GDC)

Examined are questions pertinent to the use of the Position Analysis Questionnaire: Who can use the PAQ reliably and validly? Must one rely on trained job analysts? Can people having no direct contact with the job use the PAQ reliably and validly? Do response biases influence PAQ responses? (Author/KC)

Describes a procedure for identifying a group of potential users from among current nonusers in a sample of adults drawn from the library's community. This procedure was designed for use in conducting marketing surveys for public libraries. (Author/CHC)

Possible biasing influences on student ratings of instruction brought about by students' precourse expectations are examined. Student and course demographic instruction brought about the students' precourse variables were analyzed and affective entry data were compared to course and student demographic information in terms of relative influence on…

This paper describes procedures that resulted in a 90 percent return in a random sample survey of inner-city youth. Included are: selection of interview sites; recordkeeping; call-backs; techniques for dealing with reluctant interviewees; and composition of interview teams, including sex and ethnic matching with sample members. (SJL)

A description of the use of experiments used as a teaching strategy in mathematics is given. (MK)

The Center for Educational Administrator Development (CEAD) utilizes a multifaceted, ongoing evaluation design to measure the impact of administrator inservice on personal growth and school climate. The Center's use of evaluative data for needs assessment, program monitoring, and summative evaluation is described. (SJL)

Describes the learning processes experienced by six language teachers within the context of a three-year research project in which they worked and in the context of doing their Ph.D.s as research assistants. These processes involved learning specific research skills, understanding teaching practices, development of theory and concepts, links with…

Presents an instructional framework for real-world, problem-based studies that can be used in a variety of settings. Discusses background knowledge, problem exposition, data collection and analysis, data synthesis and solution presentation, and career information. (JRH)