Proposes a number of culture-sensitive practices based on Guba and Lincoln's (1989) criteria for trustworthiness and authenticity when working in Melanesian cultural contexts. Addresses issues of initial contact, ownership of knowledge, prolonged engagement, persistent observation, member checks, language and interview process. Contains 15…

Discusses the effectiveness of computer mediated communication (CMC) in higher education. Highlights include a review of pertinent literature; factors associated with successful CMC resources; activity theory; helping users establish a shared purpose; methodological problems; evaluation methods; a conferencing system; and the patterns and content…

Notes only a small number of widely-circulated studies are central to the idea that teachers should specifically teach phonemic awareness skills to young children. Shows that they selectively and misleadingly cite other studies out of context to support their argument and that their statistical procedures do not support their propositions. Offers…

Review of research on adolescent employment found the following: (1) employment patterns were relatively unchanged in 40 years; (2) emerging literature challenges the assumption that "floundering" is necessarily bad; and (3) increasing amounts of work negatively affect school performance. Methodological issues include selection bias, sampling…

Traces the different paradigmatic pathways followed by educational sociology and educational administration. Educational sociology has followed ideostructural, interpretive, and psychosocial paradigms, with emergent holistic critical perspectives and sociobiological materialism. Educational administration has had one dominant tradition,…

Examines unresolved problems and future prospects for research concerning school quality. Asserts that the proportion of variance among factors such as, school system, school type, grade levels, individual schools, and learning groups makes consideration of the schools as a homogenous whole doubtful. Includes numerous statistical tables and…

Considers the competing demands placed on evaluators in relation to the service (characteristics of the intervention), the sample (people participating), and methodology or research design. Explores compromises that may be required between scientific ideals and real-world limitations, and assesses implications for obtaining meaningful results in…

This commentary on a previous article that demonstrates three ways of analyzing qualitative interview data (content, cultural models, and narrative analyses), discusses the need for greater articulation of the complexities of interpretation and a greater emphasis on verification procedures in early intervention qualitative research. (CR)

This article explores psychometric characteristics of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS), one of the most widely used instruments to assess the prevalence of violent and other high-risk behaviors in secondary school settings. Response patterns were analyzed for a subset of 414 youths who indicated that they had carried a weapon to…

This study examined the influence of survey validity screening on the results from three group-administered school surveys administered to samples totaling approximately 5500 students in 19 schools. The estimated levels of risk behaviors, antisocial behaviors, and victim experiences were substantially reduced when respondents who gave multiple…

This article uses the development of a "Research Quality Framework" in Australia as a focus for reflection on the way in which quality is assessed in relation to education research, and a consideration of the role and situation of a national association of education research in relation to that. The study examines ways in which…

Objectives: To provide recommendations that will build a better foundation for research on youth smoking cessation. Methods: The Youth Tobacco Collaborative Cessation panel evaluated youth tobacco cessation literature and convened meetings to reach consensus. Results: Methodological issues include design, recruitment and retention, follow-up,…

It is often claimed that techniques such as "multimedia" and the use of blended learning environments can be used to achieve powerful interactive pedagogies. Indeed, the advent of easy-to-use multimedia technologies has meant that a plethora of digital learning products is now becoming available. Despite the relative ease-of-use of these new…

Faculty collaboratively developed an on-line Bachelor of Science degree in Consumer Science and Merchandising (CSM). Part-time faculty and technical support services supported the four-member team. Small grants assisted in the creation and redesign of all CSM major courses for on-line delivery. Issues of appropriate learning strategies, student…

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the role of family functioning in the stress process in a sample of caregivers of dementia patients by using a structural family framework. The stress-process model of caregiver distress included family functioning as an intervening variable in the relationship between objective burden and…