In this commentary, we argue that literacy research would be more productive if researchers had a clearer, more nuanced understanding of theory. Specifically, we argue that theory in a practice-oriented field is most fundamentally productive when it provides instrumental guidance for literacy beyond academic understanding about literacy. Premises…

Having stepped down as editor of Educational Technology Research & Development after 15 years of service, and having learned much from Steve Ross, who served as editor for 18 years, and from many of the leading scholars in the broad and multidisciplinary field of educational technology, I have been thinking of the value added by the research…

The significance of Noel Entwistle's paper lies in the fundamental question raised regarding the purpose of research into higher education. The article eloquently charts the development of research into student learning and its contribution to the field of educational psychology, but what has been the impact in terms of improvement into the…

The purpose of this letter to the editor is to comment on several review papers recently published in the current "Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Special Issue on Technology: Software, Robotics, and Translational Science." These reviews address a variety of aspects relating to technology-aided intervention and instruction…

The article aims at improving the quality of higher and technical education in India to world class standard. Institutions in knowledge economy are reckoned to be the drivers of development. Indian institutions are making efforts, investing money, appointing professors, students are studying hard but due to the lack of marketing strategy, their…

We appreciate the thoughtful reactions of our colleagues to the "no prescriptives, please" proposal of Robinson et al. (2013), as well as the opportunity to respond to them. For the most part, our colleagues seem to agree that a problem exists in terms of unwarranted recommendations for practice appearing too often in educational…

The need to articulate and validate creative practice has been made more urgent by the inclusion of the creative arts in the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) process. The proof of research quality is tied to government funding and universities have strategically sought to increase their share of funding by targeting their own research…

Our commentary responds to the five articles of the special issue on multidisciplinary collaboration to support struggling readers. From our perspectives informed by experiences working with diverse student and family populations in urban settings, preparing pre- and in-service educators and specialists to do the same, and working in federally…

As school districts move toward systemic approaches to instructional reform, they are increasingly collaborating with outside organizations in this complex work. While emerging research touts the benefits of insider-outsider collaboration, we know little about the underlying processes by which partnerships are negotiated and maintained at the…

Applied research and development activities at regional state colleges and universities bolster their primary mission of undergraduate education as well as contribute to local and statewide economic growth. As states boost efforts to fund and stimulate research as part of an integrated economic development strategy, they should seek to fully…

In recent years a number of reports have raised alarm over the deteriorating state of U.S. science and technology (S&T) competitiveness. But a recent report by the RAND Corporation, "U.S. Competitiveness in Science and Technology," argues that the U.S. continues to lead the world. RAND's report has been interpreted to suggest that the "clarion…

Demonstrates the importance of standards for the competitiveness of U.S. companies and for international trade. The value of standards in research and development, marketing, design, purchasing, manufacturing, installation, and service is explained. Examples of specific standards and their application to the computer industry are included. (10…

Pedagogical inquiry on teaching and learning in higher education is best served by methodological approaches that produce purposeful questions and engage in systematic analysis. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Although important, traditional basic-to-applied research methods have provided an insufficient basis for advancing the design and implementation of innovative collaborative learning environments. It is proposed that more progress may be accomplished through development research or design research. Development research protocols require intensive…

Examines the claim in a recent paper that biotechnology develops in a self-organizational mode, which is empirically supported by a multivariate analysis of documents from core biotechnology journals showing a relationship between title words and region of origin. This paper argues that this claim is an artifact of the method used. (Author/MES)