Focuses on the contribution which African social scientists make, or could make, towards an understanding and hopefully a solution of the problems facing contemporary Africa. (Author/ND)

Three reactions to the paradox in question are given. Generally, some evaluation feedback is considered to hurt more than help, but more often than not evaluations can provide direction and guidance to educators. (AM)

Preparation of this paper facilitated by Grant GS-1741 from the Division of Social Sciences of the National Science Foundation.

There is a growing awareness among scientists and researchers in every field that the selection of problems for research, the guiding theories, the interpretation of evidence, and resulting conclusions can be, and in fact often are, shaped by political or social ideology. If infused with keenly critical vigilance, such awareness affords the best…

Three separate papers are included in this report. The first describes a two-stage procedure for choosing from among several instructional programs the one which maximizes the probability of passing the test. The second gives the exact sample sizes required to determine whether a squared multiple correlation coefficient is above or below a known…

This paper examines the tradition of research within the field of educational technology and cites problems endemic to the dominant research methods. It is suggested that a reexamination of the history of the field has intrinsic merit and is necessary at this time; furthermore, historical analysis may assist in the development of new research…

Current textbooks on reading recommend six scoring systems to be used with cloze tests to find material of suitable difficulty for instruction. These six scoring systems, when applied to a single data source--300 cloze scores obtained from ninth grade students tested with ninth grade content materials--produced varied placements which at present…

The past 20 years of research into the efficacy of advance organizers has resulted in little empirical support for their use. A primary reason for this lack of strong support is the absence of true objective descriptions and definitions of the organizers used and the concomitant poor control over their derivation and construction. This deficiency…

Many students are not skilled "thinkers" or "problem solvers." Extensive research has been conducted to describe the mental processes involved in problem solving in the hope of establishing a theoretical basis for training students to become more adept at reasoning. Certain problems become evident, however, when reviewing literature for designing…

The paper reviews some of the research literature relating to self concept and deafness. In summarizing the relevant research, attention was given to the types of questions to which researchers have sought answers, the theoretical orientations which have guided investigations, and the kinds of methodological problems which have characterized…

Factor analysis can be a valuable tool for assessing validity; however, the reliabilities of identified factors must be attended to. This study examined the impacts of item variance on factor stability and structure. The attempt was to determine empirically whether unnumbered graphic scales scored using a larger number of scale steps produce more…