Currently, findings of educational research are of little consequence to the curricular/instructional decisions of social studies teachers. Four basic conditions have created this inconsistency. (1) Since social studies teaching takes place among value and factual assumptions, decisions about educational practice are based more on value judgments…

School people are accustomed to researchers soliciting their participation in studies; and they feel, with some justification, that these studies end up rewarding the researchers and not the subjects. We tackled this problem by designing a study where each teacher was the researcher and the object of study was her own teaching. This approach gave…

A "GUIDEBOOK" WAS DEVELOPED AS A CONTRIBUTION TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON EDUCATIONAL MEDIA. ONE OF ITS MAIN AIMS WAS TO PROMOTE BETTER UNDERSTANDING, AMONG BOTH SPONSORS AND INVESTIGATORS, OF THE ART IN EDUCATIONAL-MEDIA EXPERIMENTATION. THE BOOK GUIDES THE READER IN TWO WAYS--(1) BY PROVIDING A "PRIMER" OF…

This document is a compilation of 10 papers exploring various aspects of the new and growing field of intercultural communication. The 11 authors are educators and researchers from institutions of higher education, research centers, and the Peace Corps. The papers are presented in two sections. Section I, Basic Issues in Intercultural…

Federal legislation mandates that applicants for research and development contracts in vocational education demonstrate a reasonable probability that the contract will result in improved teaching techniques or curriculum materials. To facilitate the impact of research activities, one must develop procedures to predict and assess research impact.…

There are many problems in the teaching and learning of ethnic studies. Several teaching approaches have been used in an effort to meet some of the educational needs of various ethnic groups. Some problems of research and teaching in the field of ethnic studies include: lack of awareness of the current social meaning of ethnicity; data…

This special journal issue contains the proceedings of the Workshop Exploring Qualitative/Quantitative Research Methodologies in Education, held July 21-23, 1976, in Monterey, California. An introductory overview comments on the epistemological nature of the quantitative and the qualitative approaches to educational research and compares several…

The unparalleled residue of unsifted primary materials relating to the nineteenth century London theater present tremendous opportunities and challenges for theater historians. The histories of individual London theaters may be studied for insights into changes that distinguished nineteenth century theater from that of the eighteenth century; and…

In 1976, a study determined that student retention had increased markedly following Barstow College's transition from a semester to a quarter system. In 1979, another study was conducted to determine: (1) the accuracy of the 1976 figures; (2) the effect of the shortness of the time period considered in the 1976 study on its reliability; (3) the…

Criteria for the evaluation of quality technical educational programs must be identified if follow-up studies are to be effective. Current research shows that problems in the development of such criteria include the tendency to evaluate programs on the basis of organizational structure rather than on the quality of the instructional program…

Statewide assessment data available from two school years, two grade levels, and five sources (achievement tests; student, principal, and teacher questionnaires; and principal interviews), were aggregated to more closely investigate the relationship between student/school characteristics and student achievement. To organize this large number of…

This paper reports survey results, from a sample of 76 women past child bearing age with varying numbers of offspring, which suggest that not only sibling absence but also distinctive characteristics of mothers would be considered in studies of the personal and social characteristics of only children. (Among the maternal characteristics mentioned…

The activities at the President's Assembly on State Policy Research at the University of Illinois, which was convened to explore a series of questions related to the interaction between universities and the agencies that create public policy, are reported. The report of the assembly, which is a statement representing general agreement among the…

The recent conceptualization of organizations as "open" adaptive systems rather than "closed" systems has lead to increased interest in the relationship between the organization and its significant environmental influences. In order to study the perceived sources of internal (organizational) and external (environmental)…

This essay discusses methodological and ethical problems in the implementation and evaluation of home-based intervention programs for young children and their families. Part I notes the difficulties in (1) selecting an appropriate research design to evaluate a program (e.g., preventing sample bias), (2) specifying precisely the intervention method…