The purpose of this study was to develop and implement a hypertext documentation system in an industrial laboratory and to evaluate its usefulness by participative observation and a questionnaire. Existing word-processing test method documentation was converted directly into a hypertext format or "hyperdocument." The hyperdocument was designed and…

Argues that valid evaluation of reference services should involve triangulation, that is, the systematic use of a variety of carefully chosen research methods. The use of triangulation in conjunction with several qualitative research methods is described and guidelines to the implementation of a qualitative research project are provided. (27…

Examines public speaking (PS) practices within the Osage Nation. Settings for formal occasions of PS and PS within the context of speech act, event, and situation are addressed. Methodological-biographical notes on Pratt as informant, ethnographer, and author and a discussion of learning and speaking among the Osage are appended. (Contains 49…

Ethnographic interviews help researchers avoid assumptions, collect descriptive data, and use language originating with respondents. The rich insights such interviews provide into attitudes, values, and behavior can be useful for survey design and measurement decisions. (SK)

This research focused on the interactionist conceptual ecologies of inservice teachers and how these ecologies influenced these teachers' conceptual frameworks for the nature of science (NOS). The participants in the study were five teachers enrolled in a graduate course focused on NOS. Data included participants' responses to open-ended and…

Pairing dynamic out-of-school-time (OST) programs with zoos can encourage young people's relationships with and sense of responsibility for animals and the environment. The project presented in this article, Animal Rescuers, gave the authors the opportunity to examine how such a pairing can work. OST programs enable learning in settings that are…

The purpose of this study is to explore perceptions of return migration experiences and gain knowledge from rural residents who have left to obtain a college education and start careers in non-rural areas, and who then returned to their rural hometowns with the social and economic benefits of a college education, and other valuable resources. This…

Traditional parent-teacher conferences and student-led conferences are tools schools employ to convey student progress with parents. The student-led conference offers a valuable means for increasing student responsibility which allows students to take ownership in schooling, which in turn helped improve parent involvement and student motivation.…

Despite numerous federally and privately funded initiatives to improve teaching in colleges and universities, research-oriented institutions continue to undervalue scholarly teaching. In this qualitative study, the authors examined how scholarly teachers in a research-oriented institution develop and maintain a focus on teaching and learning. Data…

Head lice infestation is a worldwide phenomenon that affects persons of all ages. For reasons that are not entirely clear, a number of children experience persistent head lice infestations lasting weeks, months, or years. Little is known about the impact of caring for children with persistent head lice on parents/caregivers. The purpose of this…

Being a "student" has been and remains a highly desirable status for young people and their families in Kyrgyzstan. "Giving their children education" (dat detyam obrazovaniye)--meaning "higher education"--has become an imperative for many parents, even in a time of serious economic and social decline. The numbers of…

Knowledge Building is approached in this study from an organizational perspective, with a focus on the nature of school-university-government partnerships to support research-based educational innovation. The paper starts with an overview of what is known about effective partnerships and elaborates a conceptual framework for Knowledge Building…

In this paper, we present data related to how a Portuguese teacher developed the module "A big problem for Magellan: Food preservation." Students were asked to plan an investigation in order to identify which were the best food preservation methods in the XV and XVI centuries of Portuguese overseas navigation, and then establish a…

To examine the implications of paternal occupational conditions for the quality of father-infant interactions, home visits, including interviews and videotaped observations of father-infant interactions, were conducted with 446 fathers living in six low-income, nonmetropolitan counties in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. When a variety of…

Using Conceptual Change Theory, this qualitative study of literacy teacher education investigated how eight beginning teachers developed knowledge about multicultural literacy pedagogy. Teachers' written and spoken language was analyzed from data sources collected during and outside of a preparation course, part of a nighttime alternative…