The role of external agents in educational knowledge utilization, the factors affecting agent impact, and future research needs comprise the topics of this literature review. Based on existing definitions, the author identifies the external agent as an individual or group outside the client system whose objective is to help the clients enhance…

To give an overview of the National Institute of Education's Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program, this report summarizes the program's goals, structure, and evaluation study and discusses the educational policy issues the program seeks to answer. Designed to enhance local school improvement efforts in the areas of basic skills and…

Basic science is a process by which new knowledge is discovered; engineering is the process by which this new knowledge is made useful for practical situations or to solve particular problems. In education, new products are developed, research is completed, and the knowledge base is expanded, but there is no corollary to the engineer to make…

This publication is a collection of commentaries on a published monograph entitled "Teacher Competence and Teacher Effectiveness: A Review of Process-Product Research" by Donald M. Medley (1977). Medley's stated purpose was to provide teacher educators with access to the meaningful findings of research in teacher effectiveness. The papers here…

The problems of relating research to practice are discussed in the context of what, why, and how. The what of recent research is illustrated by examples which suggest that media-related research is becoming more rigorous, analytical, and theoretical, and thus more reliable and generally applicable. The why is briefly argued with reference to the…

A group of experts on population and development planning met in Bangkok, Thailand in July, 1977. The meeting was organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. This report is the result of background papers used at the conference, reactions to the papers, and further writing. The purpose of the meeting…

An analysis of data collected from 30 urban districts indicates that there are encouraging developments in urban education which are exemplified by a number of successful programs. These include work-study programs, arts in education programs, programs which incorporate community resources, and alternative education programs. Five generalizations…

Knowledge of the magnitude of effect(s) of an experimental study in science education should be of utmost concern to researchers in the field, but is often not reported. This document describes the concept of "explained variance" in analysis of variance designs and then explains how it can be calculated and reported. Reporting the magnitude of…

As a planning and evaluation specialist in a state education agency, the author of this paper understands the types of assistance that researchers can provide the public schools. He argues that local school personnel want practical information that will help solve current problems, and are more frequently concerned with immediate, unexpected…

The role teacher educators may play as participants in teacher centers is discussed. It is pointed out that teacher center programs and services would be enhanced if they were linked to the educational research community generally and the research on teaching community specifically. The suggestion is made that this linking function can be provided…

The California Commission for Teacher Preparation and Licensing, responsible for teacher certification and approval of programs of teacher education, is conducting a major research effort to identify teaching behaviors that are related to student learning of reading and mathematics in the elementary grades: The Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study.…

Implications for the planning of children's physical education programs are threefold. A philosophical statement should underlie the curriculum development. The objectives of the programs should reflect input from the practitioner and the researcher, as well as from the student. Teachers must become sensitive to the cognitive and affective aspects…

This publication reports on the proceedings of a symposium convened for the purpose of examining the relationship between medical technology and health care costs. The proceedings of this symposium are comprised by a series of papers that were presented at the conference covering a variety of topics, including statistical evidence of the…

Two NIE objectives are to increase educational opportunities by addressing issues of educational equity, and to improve educational practice. Educational equity involves reducing the predictive value of race, sex, and social class in determining educational achievement. There are three major problems in improving urban education: (1) lack of…

The use of graphics as an effective method of data communication is discussed for various types of research reports in higher education. The need to display information in a concise format and the importance of the stratification of data are stressed. The authors illustrate and discuss some of the types of graphs that can be used to communicate…