This article addresses ethical dilemmas experienced by street-level research and evaluation workers recruiting and gathering data in community-based research projects. The authors focus on a subgroup of street-level research workers, whom they call research extenders (REs), employed because they share important characteristics with the target…

This highly readable text demystifies the qualitative research process--and helps readers conceptualize their own studies--by organizing the different research paradigms and traditions into coherent clusters. Real-world examples and firsthand perspectives illustrate the research process; instructive exercises and activities build on each other so…

The dominant literature on research synthesis methods has positivist and neo-positivist origins. In recent years, the landscape of research synthesis methods has changed rapidly to become inclusive. This article highlights methodologically inclusive advancements in research synthesis methods. Attention is drawn to insights from interpretive,…

Since the very beginning of Petnica Science Center students do small research projects in order to learn the basic scientific methodology. Preparing reports and papers is unavoidable part of such learning. After 25 years of work, it is perfectly clear that students learned how to present their results and write papers. However, such results do not…

Formative and design experiments represent a methodology uniquely suited for educational research. Providing a practical overview of this emerging approach, the authors address the following questions: What is the origin of formative and design experiments and how do they compare to other approaches to investigating interventions in classrooms?…

In this brief article, the author talks about what--other than money--works to widen higher education (HE) participation for adult learners. He also discusses the problems in trying to discover what works to widen participation for adults. One problem is that the decision to participate in any formal learning episode, including HE, is not a simple…

The unabashedly messy aspects of the research process are often hidden from published view, and are therefore not available to encourage and instruct. The authors tell specific stories about "messy" research, arranged around: (1) evolving research questions; (2) methodology or methods surprises; (3) problematic answers; and (4)publication…

Since 1980, over 70 studies have explored the causes, responses, and consequences of administrative stress. Few studies have used physiological measures to decipher administrative reactions and consequences of stress. This document briefly traces the historical development of stress and reviews various approaches, models, and definitions used in…

Research findings may be more publishable if significant results are reported. This type of publication bias would increase the likelihood of "chance" relationships being disseminated. The implications of these assumptions are empirically investigated in a correlational analogue study. (Author)

For the Shine-Bower single-subject ANOVA the numerator and demoninator of all F tests based on the Shine-Bower error term are independent of each other. The same property holds for all such tests in the Shine Combined ANOVA except for the test for the trial by subject interaction. (Author/RC)

This article is meant to summarize development in the field of computer-aided research in early German. (Author/RK)

Discussed in this paper are elements of an empirically adequate definition of social conflict, issues of conflict, and interactions between conflict and social relationships. Social conflict is initially defined as overt opposition between at least two people. Additional implications and facets of unilateral and mutual opposition are subsequently…

The choice of a common metric for the meta-analysis (quantitative synthesis) of correlational and experimental research studies is presented and justified. First, a background for the problem of identifying a common metric is presented. Second, the percentage of accounted variance (PAV) is described as the metric of choice, and reasons are given…

Since 1972, the issue of human rights protection has grown in complexity and intensity. Congress has passed four laws: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974; Freedom of Information Act, as amended; Privacy Act of 1974; and National Research Act of 1974. From 1971-1980, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (DHEW) and then the…

Ethnographic methods can be a valuable supplement to our understanding of the limits and possibilities of social science research by addressing the question of subjectivity directly. When ethnographers enter a social situation, they explain themselves and participants see them primarily in the role of fieldworker. But field researchers also have…