Research conducted by Patrick Clancy and by Fitzpatrick Associates and Philip O'Connell on the level of representation of socio-economic groups amongst higher education entrants has been a key element in the development of access policy and practice in Ireland. This article reviews the context for the development of access and explores the…

Increasingly, social work researchers are interested in examining how "place" and "location" contribute to social problems. Yet, often these researchers do not use the specialized spatial statistical techniques developed to handle the analytic issues faced when conducting ecological analyses. This article explains the importance of these…

This study investigated the connection between sport, emotion, and psychological health through an examination of the literature on sports participation and psychological health. The review found that while some of the research supports a relationship between psychological well-being and sports participation, some of it is inconclusive. Many…

Three major methods of survey research, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, and mail questionnaires, are compared with respect to the quality of the data. The literature on experimental comparisons of these methods is reviewed, and the effects of the mode of data collection on aspects of data quality are examined. The effects of the…

Ethnographers have traditionally encountered problems in conducting qualitative research in elite settings. The powerful, in this case, the administrative and political elite in the United Kingdom, have considerable constitutional, legal, and cultural resources that enable them to deflect or channel any research in which they are the objects of…

The General Accounting Office reviewed the Department of Labor's process for determining worker eligibility for the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. TAA provides help in making the transition to new employment to workers certified by the Department of Labor as affected by imports. The program gives workers job counseling, occupational…

This review critiques the use of Lev Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) in quantitative research that focuses on the role communication plays in learning. A study that makes claims in terms of the ZPD should include a pretest, a problem-solving activity, and a posttest. Without these minimal elements, researchers are not…

Since the inaugural meeting of the Southeastern Association of Community College Research in 1975, the research conducted at community colleges, as well as the issues facing researchers, have remained fairly constant. Research has been consistently understaffed and the themes of research have tended to focus on relating student progress to…

Participants in this conference urged that arrangements be made for collecting and preserving information about participants, personnel, and organizations involved in the Follow Through Program, and for conducting long-term review studies of the program. Papers presented at the conference were: (1) "A Brief History" (Robert L. Egbert and…

Conducting observational research in a cross-cultural context invokes a unique set of difficulties. This paper describes sources of bias and threats to validity that are specific to cross-cultural research. It describes problems of cross-cultural research designs for descriptive studies, comparative research, and experimental research and outlines…

This paper presents a critical review of literature concerning research with diagnosed populations who participated in outdoor learning experiences as part of psychiatric therapy. The paper proposes: (1) to clarify the definition of the psychotherapy related to adventure programs; (2) to develop specific training manuals that can be shared and…

After analysis of 88 studies of the antecedents and consequences of teacher efficacy, it was found that personal attributes and organizational characteristics were associated with higher teacher efficacy. There was consistent evidence that teacher efficacy influences teacher and student outcomes. Higher efficacy was associated with: being female,…

The belief that gifted children are more likely to have personality problems than "normal" individuals is not supported by research, but the image of the disturbed gifted child persists. This paper reviews research from a life-span developmental perspective to examine why this image persists. The paper critically examines the research of L.…

This Digest argues that management factors are central to youth program successes and failures and that these factor have been ignored in research on youth programs. Instead, the Digest notes that research and evaluation of programs have focused on the following: (1) whether the right audience is served; (2) whether to make incremental…

The interaction of emotion and cognition has received experimental attention, but the results have generally been weak and sometimes contradictory. Why this work on mood and memory has faltered is discussed, and a more holistic approach to the study of emotion and cognition is proposed. It is argued that a constructivist approach to memory may be…