This article reviews the origins and use of the terms quasi-experiment and natural experiment. It demonstrates how the terms conflate whether variation in the independent variable of interest falls short of random with whether researchers find, rather than intervene to create, that variation. Using the lens of assignment--the process driving…

This book offers a roadmap for developing, growing, and sustaining living-learning communities (LLCs) that promote student success and enhance the undergraduate experience. Drawing on the Best Practices Model presented in "Living-Learning Communities That Work," as well as updated research and rich, real-life examples from LLC…

Over the past decade, but especially in the past few years, programs with a "promise" label have been advanced at the local, state, and federal levels. To advance understanding of the design, implementation, and impact of the many different versions of emerging programs, policymakers, practitioners, and researchers need an organizing…

Character education specialists seem to know it when they see it, but what it means to call something a character education program remains unclear. One possible source for this uncertainty is the manner in which character education has been defined. By identifying certain features as necessary, existing definitions fail to encompass the universe…

The purpose of this article is to help education practitioners and researchers understand that research about rural education is complicated not only by issues of defining "rural," but also by the often dramatic ways that rural schools differ from each other. We briefly address issues in defining rural and describe rural classification…

The Reduced Reparameterized Unified Model (Reduced RUM) is a diagnostic classification model for educational assessment that has received considerable attention among psychometricians. However, the computational options for researchers and practitioners who wish to use the Reduced RUM in their work, but do not feel comfortable writing their own…

Offers illustrations of anomalies and prejudices found in common information retrieval tools: "LC Subject Headings" (9th edition), "Dewey Decimal Classification" (19th edition), "Universal Decimal Classification" (3rd abridged edition). Index terms in areas of sexual bias, social strata, politics, knowledge, customs,…

In the 21st century, the rapid pace and complexity of economic, technological and cultural changes require women and men to adapt and re-adapt throughout their lives--all the more so in the context of globalisation. In this era of the knowledge society--where production structure is shifting towards greater knowledge use and away from reliance on…

Describes and evaluates several fiction classification systems from the perspective of how well they answer likely reader queries regarding subjects of novels, and their utility for browsing. The usefulness of subject headings for card catalogs and print and online indexes to enhance topical access to fiction is discussed. (Author/MBR)

This paper examines the need for a transcription system that allows the symbolization of nonnormal articulations. The paper then describes transcription systems proposed by clinical phoneticians and speech pathologists, especially PRDS (phonetic representation of disordered speech) symbols and extensions of the International Phonetic Alphabet.…

A rapid sequencing method for ribosomal RNA was applied to the resolution of evolutionary relationships among Metazoa. Describes the four groups (chordates, echinoderms, arthropods, and eucoelomate protostomes) that radiated from the coelomates. (TW)

Organizational theorists have been constrained by the overuse of dichotomies. Complex social phenomena cannot adequately be represented through these simplifications of reality. This propensity of theorists to dichotomize is investigated and countered by the advocacy of disciplined naivete in the study of educational organizations. (MLF)

This paper considers meanings used for the terms "affect,""emotion," and "mood" and suggests that feeling states should be defined in terms of duration, subjectivity/objectivity, the role of cognition, and the phenomenological level. A study of patients' facial expression and vocal acoustics is described to offer empirical support for the…

An annotated bibliography of materials published during 1984-1985 on subject analysis covers classification, indexing, subject headings, and thesauri. The major theme is the need for improved subject analysis and the new computer technology is seen as the way to achieve it. (EM)

A taxonomy of computer-based speech training systems is presented, based on the physical source of feedback, standards of evaluation, level and type of detail on which feedback is based, and the form and instructional context of feedback. Reasons for selecting a particular approach are discussed in relation to existing systems. (Author/JDD)