There are two reasons that ethnographic research in education produces good results but has a bad reputation. First is the way that scientific research has been used to justify the faults of educational institutions. Second is the inability of ethnographic research to be useful to educational practitioners. (Author/GC)

The social sciences tend to address easily quantifiable aspects of human life and produce statistical findings of value only to scholars and scientists. The Hite studies, which address ordinary human concerns and present their findings in a form easily understood by the general public, represent a model for the future. (Author/RM)

This exploratory paper analyzes the federal policy for an impact study of research and development projects in vocational education. Positive effects were found on student outcomes, project personnel, and on occupational education practices. (Author)

Discusses legal, ethical, and pragmatic issues concerning psychologists' willingness or unwillingness to share data from Federally sponsored research projects with other researchers and the public. Presents a proposal to mandate data sharing, and discusses technical and ethical costs and benefits of such a proposal. (Author/MJL)

Charges that social scientists have generally failed to integrate the results of their research into a coherent body of knowledge becasue traditional methods of research integration are inadequate for the task. Suggests that meta-analysis provides a greatly improved approach for integrating accumulations of research findings. (Author/JAC)

Reflections on possible implications from the English Mathematics in Employment Project are given. Considered are the need for varied curricula; school syllabuses; the importance of context; a reduction in mathematical demands; calculators; changes for fractions, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry; and reasons for studying mathematics. (MNS)

Suggesting the critical examination of primary sources of evidence, offers guidelines (in the form of four questions) for teachers wanting to use research reports on teaching/learning to guide/justify their classroom activities. Caution in using research claims is recommended if negative answers are obtained to any of the four questions.…

School research should be more social in nature, i.e., contextualized, interactive/dynamic, and sensitive to participant conceptions. To explore the possibilities and limitations of the social study of social studies, a conception of social research is delineated, using recent social studies classroom research as illustration. Research utilization…

A language arts teacher discusses presentations of reading experts who attended the most recent convention of the International Reading Association. The presentations are criticized for a lack of relevance to classroom instruction. (PP)

A developmental psychologist describes her experience in testifying at Congressional hearings on proposed revisions in child labor legislation. The testimony argued that proposals to increase job opportunities for school-going teenagers are a threat to their development and to the job prospects of unemployed out-of-school youths and adults.…

Three explanations are given for the "apparent lack of congruence between theory and practice in educational administration." After defining theory and outlining debate surrounding the role of theory and practice and the proper relationship between them, the author urges that theory increasingly reflect the practical realities of…

Inservice teacher education is divided into three domains. The procedural domain includes political questions of control, support, delivery of inservice activities, and negotiation. The substantive domain involves technical issues, as in what sequence to teach skills. Within the conceptual domain, the questions are philosophically oriented. (JN)

Educational researchers cling to the goal of a science of education although this objective is unlikely. Research should focus on a conception of the teaching-learning process that confronts the full complexity of educational phenomena. (CJ)

Two instructional coordinators, working with elementary teachers in low-socioeconomic-status schools describe how they reviewed research on two relevant instructional areas (strategies which increase students' time-on-task and direct instruction) and condensed their findings into a form usable by teachers--an inservice slide/tape presentation.…

In a simulated adversary-advocacy evaluation of a computer-assisted school guidance program, the evaluation audience's reaction to different forms of data, the order of argument presentations, and the rated attitude of the evaluator are shown to influence audience agreement with evaluation recommendations. (CM)