A study developed and tested a model that examines the relative powers of support and work stress indicators in explaining faculty research productivity. Empirical examination indicates the model is most influential in physics, least in education, and that different indicators are significant in determining publication in hard and soft sciences.…

The practice and methods of federal research impact assessment are described. Three areas of evaluation (selection of research project, research review, and postresearch assessment) are examined, and different evaluation methods (qualitative, retrospective, and quantitative) are compared. Peer evaluation, the most common assessment method, is seen…

An Australian action research project to explore the construction of gender in elementary education experienced difficulties resulting from external management and funding. Some project managers had expectations of the participants that resembled a top-down approach to change. (SK)

Examines the University of Michigan between 1945 and the early 1960s as a case study of the physical and philosophical changes that occurred to usher in the process of university corporatization. Focuses predominantly on one major research project, the Phoenix Memorial Project, that set in motion many of these changes. (DSK)

Rural schools in Preble County (Ohio) are the focus of an Ohio University research project on the prevalence of violence among high-risk rural students. Previous studies have shown that rural areas are not safe from violence. Such information may help rural educators design prevention initiatives and help neglected rural areas get funding for…

A case study investigated the research processes and authentic learning experiences of 10 junior high students as they completed independent research projects. Students experienced the most difficulty in exploring and forming a focus. Only three students demonstrated all of the characteristics of authentic learning in their final products.…

Explains a Martin-Luther-University at Halle research project that aims to learn about the effects of restructuring and transformation following the political change in the new Bundeslaender on the professional and biographically determined convictions and structures of pedagogical practice of male and female teachers in Sachsen-Anhalt (Germany).…

The articles in this special issue from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of nearly lethal suicide attempts represents an important contribution to research on suicidal behavior. This commentary highlights certain aspects of this line of research as well as comments on the findings of the CDC study and their relationship…

Revisits and reviews Imre Lakatos' ideas on "Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes." Suggests that Lakatos' framework offers an insightful way of looking at the relationship between theory and research that is relevant not only for evaluating research programs in theoretical physics, but in the social…

An ongoing study has found that the "basics" in contemporary educational theory are actually the smallest, most easily isolated and most easily testable fragments of knowledge in a discipline--abstractions produced by complex analysis. The project is exploring an alternative version of "basicness" in which the complex, often ambiguous realm of a…

Discusses PRESTIGE, the project funded by the European Commission within its Training and Mobility Researchers program, describing the research design of the Oxford part of the project. Describes a comparative study of the implementation of the 'European Dimension' in education in England, Scotland, and Wales. Considers the methodological and…

The goals of the National Assistive Technology Research Institute are discussed, as well as ongoing research projects that address the status of school-based assistive technology (AT), AT policies and procedures, AT decisions made by Individualized Education Program teams, integration of AT into learning environments, effectiveness of AT, and…

This paper reports a research project funded by the State Library of NSW and the National Library of Australia which focuses on the training needs of public librarians for using electronic databases, and the subsequent development of training modules to address them. The paper discusses literature relevant to training issues in database use for…

This article provides a theoretical discussion of the concept 'object' within Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). It also introduces some of the methodological considerations that are raised in the study of the formation and transformation of objects of activity. A research project is described in which a theoretical discussion concerning…

The results of the Research Assessment Exercises of 1992, 1996 and 2001 were reviewed with a view to investigating differences in the distributions of ratings awarded between years and between Units of Assessment (i.e. subject areas). The results show that mean ratings have improved markedly over time, particularly between 1996 and 2001, but that…