Essay-writing is generally viewed as the primary learning activity to foster independence and analytical thinking. In this article, we show that independent research projects do not necessarily lead to critical thinking. University-level education on conducting independent projects can, in several respects, counteract enhanced analytical skills.…

Randomized experiments are commonly used to evaluate if particular interventions improve student achievement. While these experiments can establish that a treatment actually "causes" changes, typically the participants are not randomly selected from a well-defined population and therefore the results do not readily generalize. Three…

When embarking on ethnographic fieldwork, a researcher must carefully consider how to present oneself when entering the field. Presentations of self become particularly important when the culture under study maintains narrowly defined expectations for personal appearance and behavior. The more defined the expectations, the more important it is for…

This paper will examine questions and considerations regarding research design and methodology. For researchers working within an Indigenous domain, it is important to recognize the historical legacy left by researchers of the past as well as the impact of a new generation of Indigenous researchers who are speaking back to the Academy about…

The article discusses comparative organizational studies, focusing on change in higher education institutions, and in particular (but not only) on studies that compare organizations in different national settings. It first presents and discusses different approaches to comparison based on a couple of typologies that have been developed to identify…

In this commentary, the 3 review papers by Reynolds et al. (this issue), Muijs et al. (this issue), and Hopkins, Stringfield, Harris, Stoll, and Mackay (this issue) on "educational effectiveness", "teaching effectiveness", and "school and system improvement" are discussed. In the text, the 3 papers are occasionally…

Utilizing planned missing data (PMD) designs (ex. 3-form surveys) enables researchers to ask participants fewer questions during the data collection process. An important question, however, is just how few participants are needed to effectively employ planned missing data designs in research studies. This article explores this question by using…

Upward Bound (UB) was one of the original federal "Great Society" programs of the 1960s and remains, fifty years later, the single largest college access program in the country. Recently, Congress has reduced funding and considered eliminating the program because of federal budget pressures and because the first analysis of the only…

In 1994, I embarked on a PhD study to examine, for the first time, what happened inside the classroom during history lessons in pre-Second World War Britain. Previous studies had relied largely on a study of textbook content and official curricula guidance, without stopping to ask how and whether such materials were actually used in pre-war…

This case study presents an overview of the major challenges and tensions I encountered exploring the social-class experiences of university students from low-income backgrounds. The study presented here was a qualitative study using phenomenology and a critical theoretical lens to gain a depth of understanding of low-income university students'…

Hom, Mitchell, Lee, and Griffeth (2012) presented an extensive review of employee turnover research, reconceptualized the turnover criterion to include multiple destinations, and proposed to expand the predictor domain. They illuminated the multiple destinations employees pursue following turnover. By crossing desire to remain and volitional…

This is the second of a two-part article intended to offer teacher educators a cohesive overview of the sprawling and uneven field of research on teacher preparation by identifying, analyzing, and critiquing its major programs. The article discusses research on teacher preparation for the knowledge society and research on teacher preparation for…

Researchers suggest that certain supportive behaviors of mentors could increase the benefits of school-based mentoring for youth. However, the literature contains few validated instruments to measure these behaviors. In our present study, we aimed to construct and validate a tool to measure the supportive behaviors of mentors participating in…

This article evaluates the validity of "theories of change" of anti-polarisation and anti-radicalisation interventions. Assumptions of four dominant social policies are confronted with the literature. In addition, epistemological issues are discussed. Notions of "what works and why", do not equate to straightforward…

Research on immigrant communities has often been reductionist, stereotypical, and simplistic, and even the most well-intentioned researchers are susceptible to using cultural deficit models. This chapter critically evaluates some of the dominant tensions and problem areas with respect to researching immigrant communities. Specifically, we analyze…