This paper reviews Participatory Action Research as an approach to teacher professional development. It maps the origins of Participatory Action Research (PAR) and discusses the benefits and challenges that have been identified by other researchers in utilizing PAR approaches in conducting research. It draws ideas of combining the features of…

The article reports on the findings of a review of empirical studies examining the implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP) in the human services. Eleven studies were located that defined EBP as a research-informed, clinical decision-making process and identified barriers and facilitators to EBP implementation. A thematic analysis of the…

This comprehensive review of Social Story[TM} literature included (a) a descriptive review, (b) an analysis of research quality, and (c) a meta-analysis using percentage of nonoverlapping data. In the review, 28 studies were included; 18 were included in the meta-analysis. Descriptive results highlighted information on participants, dependent…

Design-based research (DBR) evolved near the beginning of the 21st century and was heralded as a practical research methodology that could effectively bridge the chasm between research and practice in formal education. In this article, the authors review the characteristics of DBR and analyze the five most cited DBR articles from each year of this…

Background: Empathy is an individual's capacity to understand the behavior of others, to experience their feelings, and to express that understanding to them. Empathic ability is an asset professionally for individuals, such as teachers, physicians and social workers, who work with people. Being empathetic is also critical to our being able to…

Although the general conceptual basis appeared far earlier, theory-driven evaluation came to prominence only a few decades ago with the appearance of Chen's 1990 book "Theory-Driven Evaluations." Since that time, the approach has attracted many supporters as well as detractors. In this paper, 45 cases of theory-driven evaluations, published over a…

This article addresses a void in the literature about social work research and evaluation (R&E) designs, in particular related to the quality of its published work. Data were collected by reviewing three empirically oriented journals, "Research on Social Work Practice", "Journal of Social Service Research", and "Social Work Research" over three…

The purpose of this article is to synthesize the available studies regarding responsive interaction intervention (RII) for children with or at risk for developmental delays with a focus on six dimensions: (a) the characteristics of participants, (b) the features of RII, (c) the measurement of treatment fidelity, (d) the overall effectiveness of…

The present meta-analysis examines the effect of grade retention on academic outcomes and investigates systemic sources of variability in effect sizes. Using multilevel modeling (MLM), the authors investigate characteristics of 207 effect sizes across 22 studies published between 1990 and 2007 at two levels: the study (between) and individual…

This article introduces the "Schools and Continuing Professional Development State of the Nation" study (SoNS). Discussion of English policy together with an account of the study's aims and research design provide a context for the other articles included in this special issue. A key assumption behind the research, and the prevailing CPD…

This article explores the applicability of interdisciplinary research on the implementation of technological innovations to the field of e-learning research. Arguing that there are important ways in which e-learning systems can be treated as "technological innovations," this article presents a review of several key theoretical and research design…

This review of research focuses on the impact of race and on learning and development in the U.S. workplace from 1980 to 2005. Specifically, we take a historical perspective on race and ethnicity in the United States; summarize and synthesize research in the areas of career development, training, promotion, performance appraisals, mentoring, and…

As learning and performance improvement continues to dominate the training research landscape, so does the need to justify the results of relevant interventions. One area in training research that has continued to elude practitioners and researchers is enhancing the use of trained skills back on the job (i.e., training transfer). Relapse…

This article focuses on the research and scholarship dealing with the assessment of the experiential approach in both its computer-based and human-based forms. It covers two forms of assessment. First it covers explicit attempts to assess the validity of experiential learning, and second it focuses on measuring the effectiveness of the…