Critically evaluates the literature on timber-dependent communities. Examines methodological and theoretical concerns with concepts of community and resource-based economies. Suggests timber dependency may represent a special case of resource dependency and that study of forest-based communities can contribute to sociological knowledge of rural…

Some ways in which research on student financial aid can be conducted and used to further institutional goals and objectives are presented. Four topics for inclusion in an institution's research agenda are suggested: recruiting, measuring the aid program's effectiveness, expanding aid resources, and analyzing family financial capacity. (Author/MSE)

Discusses and compares the design and development of computer assisted instruction (CAI) and intelligent computer assisted instruction (ICAI). Topics discussed include instructional systems design (ISD), artificial intelligence, authoring languages, intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), qualitative models, and emerging issues in instructional…

Responds to Philo's article calling for rural studies to focus research on marginalized groups and communities within rural areas. Recommends a reconstructed sociology of postmodernism that would end the use of global concepts such as "rural" and focus on the ways in which power relations contribute to the construction of rurality (and…

Responds to an article by Murdoch and Pratt appearing in this journal issue that questions the view that rural research needs to focus on marginalized groups and communities and that calls for a reconstructed sociology of postmodernism. Clarifies the author's views on postmodernism and the concept of "rurality" and his theoretical…

The methods of 27 studies focusing on toy play among young children with mental retardation were reviewed. Considerable variability was noted with respect to sample characteristics, contextual parameters, and type of measurement. Researchers frequently neglected to provide potentially useful methodological information. Suggestions for future…

The literature on novice-expert shifts in teacher knowledge is examined from the perspective of constructivist learning theory with a view to identifying lessons for teacher educators. Limitations in teacher knowledge are explored, and three requirements are outlined for a research agenda on teacher's learning. (SLD)

This paper addresses neglected questions in item response theory (IRT): measurement of ability or trait parameters and item difficulty in the Rasch model; measurement of individual change based on a Rasch test; and the general framework for detection of differential item functioning under the Mantel-Haenszel procedure. (SLD)

All organizations can be located on a complex continuum whose extremes are total self-management or total control by external agents. School self-management is measured by degree of local community control over inputs, structures, processes, and relations with the environment. Australian schools have significantly decentralized processes and are…

Discussion of the use of sequencing in instructional design focuses on a project that used a multiple strands elaboration sequence incorporating theory and practice in a physical therapy course. Procedures for parallel elaboration of multiple content strands are listed, future research is suggested, and lesson contents are appended. (Contains 17…

Argues that research on father-adolescent relationships must move beyond demonstrations of links between father behavior and adolescent outcomes (phase 1 findings) to research in which the pathway or processes linking father variables to adolescent variables are explicitly spelled out and examined (phase 2 findings). Suggests areas of future…

Current brain research indicates a need for "bimodal" foreign-language instruction. This paper evaluates the bimodality of the theoretical model accepted by advocates of proficiency-oriented instruction and recommends that further research be conducted to ascertain the effects on student proficiency of a bimodal approach. (Contains 32…

Describes a research project designed to examine how training in the use of a systems approach process has affected the planning practices and beliefs of preservice and inservice teachers. Pertinent literature is reviewed, three studies are described, and suggestions for future research are offered. (Contains 22 references.) (LRW)

Presents reflections on the articles in this special issue. Discusses how talk in the classroom has the potential to transform. Suggests that there is much more to learn about how to microanalyze teacher and student behavior, and that the greatest tool for this analysis is talk. (RS)

Proposes that writing centers form relationships with Applied Linguistics/ESL to research cross-cultural and cross-linguistic questions, thus fostering research grounded in the everyday work of the center, but with large cultural and theoretical implications. (SR)