Four needed changes to break down the barriers to equal access to education for disadvantaged students and out-of-school youth are given: Modification of the definition of "disadvantaged"; incentive money to local school districts; attitudinal changes in teachers, counselors, and students; and research to document the value of vocational education…

Argues that the combined forces of recession, inflationary fears, social tranquility, the eschewal of crusades both domestic and foreign, and a commitment to leaner and more frugal government all seem to militate against a dramatic upsurge in support of the social sciences. This pattern is ominously paralleled by a decline in undergraduate…

Asserts that the social science business is here to stay. The use of survey research, of invoking the learned as a form of symbolic action, of obfuscating the realities of limited budget and limited throughput and limited drive by "researching the problem," all provide a flywheel that shows every sign not merely of stability but of acceleration.…

The author sees a serious need to encourage training and research activities relating to long-term normative change in social, economic, political, and cultural systems, especially of transnational and global scales. He makes the judgment that we are in the midst of a transition process as fundamental as the convulsive process that accompanied the…

Author states that "...potential /of lifelong education in the arts/ for helping to add to and define meaning in human life would be vastly expanded if it...were treated as a basic skill in constant need of refurbishing." (Author/RW)

Critically analyzes recent research studies that examine background variables, cognitive style, and psychological type as influences on performance in college-level computer science courses. Implications for matching curriculum and instructional strategies with student characteristics are presented, recommendations for further research are made,…

Introduces the concept of "developmental niche" as a framework for examining the cultural structuring of child development. Focuses on (1) anthropological perspectives on human development, (2) psychology and the environment, (3) subsystems and other aspects of the developmental niche, and (4) changes which occur in niches as individuals…

The article summarizes the methods and results of studies pertaining to the meaningfulness of the Purpose Process Curriculum Framework for adult participants. Program recommendations and research possibilities are suggested. (CB)

This article highlights three common problems with assessment research, including the following needs: (1) to adopt a hypothesis testing approach; (2) for research to be guided by available formal and informal theory, and (3) for research to be consistent with general school psychological practice. New research methodologies and new research…

Develops a framework for analyzing the value of information, information products, and services from the viewpoint of information use, and analyzes the practical values of different types of information to study the problems involved in assessing their value-in-use and exchange value. Existing research studies are analyzed using this approach.…

"If the research in higher education ended, it would scarcely be missed." This is the time when excellent research and scholarship about higher learning and its institutions is needed, yet the study of this national resource is at a low ebb. The reasons for low appraisals of research are discussed. (MLW)

Tested the hypothesis that the vocabulary of a discipline emphasizing concrete phenomena will have fewer synonyms per concept than vocabulary of a discipline emphasizing abstract phenomena. Although concreteness and abstractness of a discipline were found to be contributing factors in terminological consistency, at least one other factor exerts…

This article reports on a study of current home economics programs in the secondary schools in Canada. Results of the survey are presented and concern four areas: program delivery, relationship of home economics courses to other courses, statistics concerning student/teacher populations, and issues, concerns, and emerging directions in curricula…

In October 1983, the National Institute of Handicapped Research (NIHR) released its report on the state-of-the-art meeting on the Special Rehabilitation Needs of Learning Disabled Adults. This article presents the seven research priorities forwarded to NIHR and the method by which they were generated. (Author/CT)

Explains the Every Teacher a Researcher (ETR) program and invites teachers to participate in classroom research on students' problem-solving abilities. Reviews previous approaches taken to investigations of problem solving in science. Identifies characteristics of successful and unsuccessful problem solvers. (ML)