Program development evaluation should focus on articulating theoretical rationales for program design and activities. To assist the managers of 17 school-based delinquency prevention projects (School Action Effectiveness Study) in developing theories of action, the Program Development Evaluation (PDE) method was utilized. To construct the…

Written for students, educators, and researchers, "Methods in Educational Research" offers a refreshing introduction to the principles of educational research. Designed for the real world of educational research, the book's approach focuses on the types of problems likely to be encountered in professional experiences. Reflecting the…

A case study of an educational action research oriented project in Quebec--a continuing education project at the elementary level (EPEL)--is described to show the contributions of the case study method to human development, needs assessment, curriculum development, and innovative teaching. The case study method is suggested as a means to pinpoint…

This report shares insights on varied experiences in action research at the university level and describes methods for involving subjects in research. Examples used include case histories of two projects: the Projet de recherche et d'intervention a la maison (PRIM), a research project on home intervention; and the Ford Teaching Project. Based on…

This book is about an approach to curriculum development and evaluation in which teachers and students worked with parents, local communities, politicians, and a major international organization, to carry out research and bring about improvements. The participants were part of the Environment and Schools Initiative (ENSI), a major international…

Methods of identifying effective special education practices are analyzed to help practitioners identify and adopt such practices. The contents of this guide include a flowchart for effective practice identification (EPI), an analysis of decision-making steps in this process, and two examples of identification procedures. The decision-making steps…

This quantitative/qualitative evaluation of an 80-hour course integrating the SCOPE Computer Program in Mathematics and Science into the curriculum for students, grades 6-12, was conducted to: (1) provide immediate feedback to facilitate improvement of the program; (2) determine course effects; and (3) provide practitioners with an effective…

This document is intended to provide evaluation researchers with information about vocational education as a substantive area to be evaluated, existing methodologies for evaluating vocational education programs, and the theoretical basis for a proposed evaluation method termed critical inquiry. Addressed in the individual chapters of the monograph…

Current efforts and methodologies to evaluate vocational education programs are plagued by a number of problems. Included among these are the following: disagreement over the primary role and function of vocational education, too great an emphasis on summative and product evaluation as well as on labor market outcomes as indicators of program…

This Northern Illinois University College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (CEET) initiative represents the authors' first attempt to prepare engineering and technology professors for teaching to improve student learning and the Scholarship of Teaching. This college portfolio is nontraditional in that it combines a learning paper approach…

A curriculum project is described which illustrates the use of collaborative inquiry, a cooperative effort between university researchers and educational practitioners. Four tenets of collaborative inquiry are outlined. (1) Researchers and school practitioners work together on all phases of the effort. (2) The effort is focused on real world as…