A human ecological approach to the study of children's television viewing raises questions that researchers have largely neglected. Does television influence the interaction patterns of socializing agents with children and with one another? Are there long-term, psychological consequences of unintegrated and competing influences from television and…

Recent findings in the literature on child abuse have been inconsistent and often contradictory, perhaps in part because most researchers treat child abuse as a homogeneous psycho-social phenomenon and commit the error of group averaging. One methodology which deals directly with the problem of homogeneity error is the typology approach. This…

Some of the problems in research on aptitude treatment interactions (ATIs), are discussed. Among these problems are the inconsistency and lack of generality to many ATI findings, especially in classroom-based ATI investigations. It is suggested that such investigations may be of limited generality due to the nature of the phenomena. The importance…

Over 40 papers presented at an Australian conference on curriculum evaluation are included in this publication. Among the topics are: evaluation models; the relationship of reliability to the amount of observation; Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I evaluation; designing policy-oriented research; methodology in evaluating teacher behavior;…

THIS PAPER EXAMINES SOME OF THE MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN RESEARCH ON STUDENT-LED SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION TEACHING PROCEDURES. IT FOCUSES UPON PROBLEMS OF CRITERION EXAMINATION, USE OF RATING FORMS TO ASSESS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VARIOUS METHODS OF INSTRUCTION, AND METHODS FOR CHARACTERIZING CLASSROOM PROCEDURE. THIS PAPER…

CHANGES IN ARMY TRAINING PROGRAMS AND PROCEDURES ARE DESCRIBED TO ILLUSTRATE INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE RESULTING FROM IMPLEMENTATION OF APPLIED RESEARCH. SERVING SINCE 1951 AS A RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCY UNDER CONTRACT TO THE ARMY, THE HUMAN RESOURCES RESEARCH OFFICE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HAS IDENTIFIED INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE THROUGH…

Schools are often reluctant to be watched or studied, especially when their interests do not coincide with those of researchers. The development of good site relations can improve the chances of successful data gathering in such circumstances. In addition to acting with courtesy and respect, research teams can organize their site relations…

Five myths permeate the counseling and psychotherapy literature. Two of these myths concern the absolute and differential effects of counseling and psychotherapy. Contrary to the conclusions of Smith and Glass's (1977) meta-analysis, it has not been established that aggregated counseling and psychotherapy schools are effective at all, much less…

A method was developed for characterizing and comparing the semantic content of picture-text combinations used as stimuli in research on reading procedural instructions. The written directions for assembling a toy model were analyzed, and sets of propositions in the instructions were constructed using C. H. Frederiksen's discourse analysis model.…

Assumptions held by sociologists concerning the role that women played in their own mobility has resulted in a variety of creative operationalizations in measuring female mobility; however, the assumptions can no longer be accepted as applicable to the present generation of younger women. Some research on social mobility has simply excluded…

In human communication research today, two fundamental issues must be addressed. The first issue concerns the need for study of communicative relationships as events that change over time. The second issue involves the nature of the data currently gathered in such research and its adequacy in providing information concerning change. In order for…

This symposium presentation outlines the activity of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in regulating the use during pregnancy and lactation of drugs which affect the fetus and neonate. When presented with an unexpected adverse effect of a drug or of a class of drugs, the FDA can take several steps. These steps include ordering total removal…

This manual is intended to improve both the design of longitudinal studies and analysis of the resulting data. Issues related to educational and developmental research have been emphasized in these eight chapters. Topics of particular interest to longitudinal researchers include stochastic models of developmental change, mathematical…

Based upon the theory of moral stages devised by educational psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, this report examines the influence of the social situation on principled moral reasoning and on cheating. Research assessed the level of moral reasoning for 152 college juniors and seniors using Rest's Defining Issues Test (1976) in which levels of low,…

The point is made that educational research must become classroom-oriented instead of remaining university-oriented. The suggested manner of accomplishing this is to focus on the development of inservice teachers into practicing educational researchers as part of a staff improvement program. Case studies of a New Hampshire junior high school's…