Vermont's town meeting tradition is flourishing and will help determine the future of curriculum development for the state's half-million residents. The Vermont Common Core, a compact with rigorous expectations for educational planners, faces two challenges: remaining open to new ideas and reigniting grass-roots involvement. (MLH)

Focus groups with diverse low-income women generated ideas about cardiovascular disease interventions. Women preferred programs that: addressed multiple risk factors; emphasized staying healthy for themselves; taught skills for adopting heart-healthy behaviors; and offered choices in effecting behavior change. Women stressed the need for health…

Explores the perceptions and views of primary school children in exploring, discussing, and rationalizing their use of computers in the classroom based on focus group interviews with students in Wales. Considers work processes; effects on learners' abilities; the finished product; and concerns over originality and authenticity. (Contains 59…

This article provides guidelines that educators can use to evaluate their own inclusion programs. The advantages of questionnaires, interviews and focus group interviews are reviewed, and tips are included for conducting interviews and focus groups. Sample interview questions, and possible concerns of teachers and recommended solutions are also…

Describes the use of focus groups to determine young adult needs in public libraries, based on experiences at the Johnson County Library system in Kansas City. Highlights include the benefits of focus groups over surveys, time involvement, how to design questions to ask, and compiling data. (LRW)

Developed and evaluated a mail survey measuring population attitudes toward substance use and potential receptivity of communities to different prevention efforts. Developed through a literature review, consultation with practitioners and experts, and focus groups, the survey was administered to about 3,000 adults from 30 participating…

Presents results from two research studies, one using focus groups and the other using surveys, that explored the process and results of educating inservice art teachers in the Artistically Talented Program at Indiana University to become empowered and take on leadership roles. Describes the experience of empowering the teachers to develop their…

This article examines the practices of home-school communication in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) phase in South Africa. The aims of this qualitative investigation were to determine the nature and effectiveness of home-school communication practices and to make recommendations on how communication can be improved to facilitate better…

It is well established in the literature that college students have poor eating habits and that many barriers exist to achieving optimal nutrition for this busy population. Little is known about students' perceptions of this problem or suggestions for improving their dietary habits. Similarly, college health professionals need innovative…

Integration of new students into the university has been widely studied from both psychological and academic perspectives. Much less, if anything, is heard from the other party in the integration process--the teachers. At the heart of this study is the voice of university teachers. Staff from 12 departments in three faculties (n = 52) in one…

This paper is based on a case study of an Australian university involved in the delivery of transnational programs in an educational environment that has been increasingly characterized by commercial considerations. The researchers conducted focus group interviews with both general and academic staff to ascertain the personal, academic and…

Results are presented of a series of focus-group sessions held at Lancaster University during May 2002. Participants consisted of 12 undergraduate geography students chosen from amongst those identified as having strong antipathy towards quantitative material. The intention was to mine these students' perspectives on courses covering quantitative…

This article reports research results concerning one of the most important areas of leadership theory and practice, educational change and its impact upon teachers. Drawing on individual interviews with 50 varied teachers in 15 Canadian elementary and secondary schools, as well as supplementary focus groups, the article analyses teacher's…

Student affairs practitioners often rely on anecdotal evidence when asked to demonstrate their contributions to the community college, but their future may depend on their ability to become more data-based and outcomes-oriented. This chapter discusses the need for a culture of evidence in student affairs, describes how to build such a culture, and…

Having worked and learned together, and shared many conversations about common goals and assumptions that guide their teaching and learning, the authors seek to construct a collaborative research project that will investigate how they were acting on, and building on, their shared pedagogical and political beliefs. In this article, they address the…