Research methods used in articles published in the "American Educational Research Journal" (AERJ), "Educational Researcher" (ER), and the "Review of Educational Research" (RER) were studied for the years 1978 to 1997. Articles were read to identify and categorize the research methods and statistical techniques used in…

The methodological issues associated with life-history research are explored from the perspectives of researcher and teacher of qualitative research methods, and from the perspective of a participant in a life-history study. The author illustrates with her own experiences how different research can look from both sides of the microphone and how…

Introduction: This paper proposes a model of information behaviour of women during their lifelong struggle to maintain normal weight. Method: The model is integrative and contextual, built on existing models in information science and several other disciplines, and the life stories of about fifty Israeli women aged 25-55 and interviews with…

Introduction: The aim of this paper is to deal with the information seeking and use problem in a professional context and understand how activity can influence practices, by taking as examples, the research undertaken by economic analysts. We analyse the relationship between the situational approach, described by Cheuk, the work environment…

This qualitative research study utilized the grounded theory tradition to examine organizational structures and processes in a purposefully selected sample of American universities that have established and maintained partnerships with industry. Institutional leaders from the corporate relations offices from fifteen of the top research…

Using a qualitative research methodology, known as the Delphi Method, an interactive panel of experts was convened to work toward a consensus on the role of critical thinking (CT) in educational assessment and instruction. In Delphi research, experts participate in several rounds of questions that require thoughtful and detailed responses.…

This report discusses the nature of research in the context of distance education and suggests that qualitative research be included as a research methodology for distance education research. Noting that qualitative research represents a shift toward more perceptual, context-embedded interpretive inquiry, the paper argues that it is well suited to…

Utilization of focus groups, commonly used in marketing research, as the first step of program needs assessment, is examined in this report. Focus groups are useful in generating new data that have not been constrained by a preconceived evaluation format. The goal of focus groups is not consensus building, but identification of a variety of needs.…

This chapter advocates the use of naturalistic inquiry as a method for undertaking unobtrusive research in instructional development. The advantages of naturalistic inquiry are listed, and it is suggested that these advantages make this form of research very useful to the field of instructional development. It is argued that both naturalistic…

Despite growing interest in the use of anthropological or cultural research models, these approaches are not commonly understood by the higher education community. Because anthropological research differs significantly from other techniques, this paper first explains the rationale for using anthropological models to study higher education and…

The concept of a qualitative model provides a unifying perspective for understanding how expert systems differ from conventional programs. Knowledge bases contain qualitative models of systems in the world, that is, primarily non-numeric descriptions that provide a basis for explaining and predicting behavior and formulating action plans. The…

Recent research suggests that a key educational reform step is developing interdisiplinary collaborative inquiry activities. Bringing together professionals representing diverse, interrelated disciplines yields a more thorough understanding of organizational systems. Despite widespread support for interdisciplinary collaboration (IDC), few…

This discussion of the development of database management systems specifically created to support qualitative research identifies two main problems in qualitative approaches, i.e., the issues of data collection and analysis, and the cumbersome nature of traditional qualitative approaches. These problems are reviewed with a comparison of the…

The study examined the meaning of outdoor education experiences and the role photography plays in assisting students to make connections from their outdoor experiences to their everyday lives. Specifically, this exploratory qualitative study utilized photo-elicitation interviews to investigate the inner significance of structured university-based…

The review of some recent studies on use of microcomputers in early childhood special education highlights methodological issues including the qualitative quantitative distinction and the interdependence of research design and interpretation. Imbedding qualitative methods into quasi- or true-experimental designs can provide more information than…