This paper introduces focus group interview research. It presents a description of the principal characteristics of such research, consideration of some applications by colleges and universities, a description of the planning and implementation involved, and examples from a study using this approach at Carleton College, Minnesota. To begin, the…

Describes the major findings of research on effective principals and identifies the problems preventing its practical application to development of administrative training programs and school improvement policies and practices. Provides three new precise models that portray more accurately the complexity of the principal's involvement as…

Each year, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), asks thousands of schools and students to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Their participation allows NCES to provide accurate information nationwide on how U.S. students perform in a variety of academic subjects. The NAEP uses a multistage…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has been conducting the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) since 1969. In addition to conducting regular assessments in reading, mathematics, science, and writing, the NAEP conducts assessments in other subjects, such as geography, U.S. history, civics, and the arts. Each national…

Considerations of validity that are central to all disciplines in the social sciences are discussed, and concepts that are an essential part of the intellectual equipment of the social sciences researcher are systematically analyzed. Fundamental methodological concepts underlying decisions made in the research process are highlighted to encourage…

The proceedings papers include topics on educational reform and intellectuals, religious education, immigrants, and the history of education as a discipline. The theme of an Editor's Supplement is utopianism and education, and the papers deal with Robert Owen. These three papers are reprinted from the 1973 meeting of the National History of…

One of a series of sixteen knowledge transformation papers, this paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal studies as a method for evaluating vocational programs. First, longitudinal methods are defined for the differences between them and cross-sectional studies are established. The results of a literature search conducted…

Six papers discuss concerns and research in mathematics education and reflect the diversity of approaches used in addressing substantive issues related to mathematics teaching and learning. Student, curriculum, and teacher are considered in empirical and conceptual studies, each of which also presents a review of the literature. (SLD)

This UNESCO newsletter contains six sections concerned with various aspects of population education. Section 1 deals with workshops for monitoring and evaluating population education programs. Section 2 evaluates the programs of six Asia-Pacific countries (China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Pakistan, Philippines, and Thailand).…

The seven articles of this special issue focus on theory and research related to survey methods and whether evaluators need information that is absent from the larger survey literature. These articles reflect the view that the considerations relating to good survey research apply also to using surveys in evaluation. (SLD)

This monograph contains 13 papers on the ethics of planning, conducting, and reporting research in health sciences education. It includes four background papers and nine perspective papers. The titles are: (1) "The Imperative for Ethical Conduct in Scientific Inquiry" (Steve M. Dorman); (2) "Fundamental Principles of Ethical…

This collection contains 24 articles dealing with career counseling and related research. Included in the volume are the following articles: "A Management Approach, Function and Counselling in Guidance/Application in the Federal Penitentiary Environment," by Pierre Dodier; "A Description of the Alternate School in Prince Albert,…