Because human beings are different and are necessarily subjective, and because evaluation always involves the human factor, many problems arise. The problems may be compounded in third world settings because they have been studied less, and are less understood, and because evaluators are often from outside the setting and therefore bring…

Research techniques that were used during the last 20 years to examine the homeless were investigated to identify the types of homeless people studied and the advantages/limitations of various research strategies. The objectives of this investigation were to: (1) review and critique the type of data collected and the research methods used by…

The term "problem" has been poorly defined in the literature on the research process. The author has attempted to define the term more specifically than as an instance of indeterminacy. It can be determined as one of four instances of indeterminacy: anomaly, unverified facts, uncharted areas, or conflicting evidence. In each of these…

The concept of organizational goals, although basic to the study of complex organizations, is no longer analyzed frequently by organizational researchers. The discipline of organizational studies began by concentrating on organizational goals, but by the 1960s researchers had found the concept inadequate as an explanatory variable. They moved to…

Paper prepared under Grant RD-2286-P of the Social and Rehabilitation Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

The highlights of articles evaluating the results of media research over the past 25 years are briefly reviewed, and the constructionists' and the reductionists' approaches to media research are described. It is pointed out that for the researcher in media, the implications of a constructionist approach are quite clear, at least from a…

The concept of visual literacy as a performance criterion is briefly considered and difficulties inherent in such a concept are discussed. Previous work in the area of visual literacy is selectively and critically reviewed, noting recurrent problems in research methodology. A rationale is then presented for conducting research which would be…

This study, done in England and Wales, was a first step in developing a model or set of models for describing processes by which agricultural research findings are put into practice. It was decided that the model should be based on actual instances of transmission and use of research. Models by the author and by others were used in developing…

The reanalysis of data collected in large research projects presents problems, mainly because the hypotheses to be tested may be dependent on the hypotheses of the original project. One possible solution to this problem would be to use the data to group subjects into typologies. (HW)

This paper, presented at the Fifth Annual Conference of the Australian Science Education Research Association in 1974, discusses the various strategies for analyzing the data gathered to explore the effect of specific school variables on educational achievement. The discussion centers around the International Association for the Evaluation of…

Educational research is in drastic need of a new and different perspective. Some factors which cause this research to be of limited use to the community are: (a) a great deal of data is unusable because it is either wrong or too meagerly supported to judge its reliability; (b) there is a lack of communication among researchers resulting in a great…

During the past 20 years great efforts have been made to systematize and institutionalize educational research and development. At the same time, changing government priorities, shifting roles of participating institutions, and the politicization of social research have contributed to discontinuity and turmoil. The time has come to consider…

The first part of this report characterizes the many facets of the population problem (including biological, economic, and social aspects), suggests a list of areas in which the Federal Government should emphasize research (reproductive biology; fertility regulation techniques and materials; description, determinants, consequences of population…