This special issue's editors invited discussion of three broad questions. Slightly rephrased, they are: How well do self-report data represent theoretical constructs? How should analyses of data be conditioned by properties of self report data? In what ways do interpretations of self-report data shape interpretations of a study's findings? To…

As pressure builds to assess students, teachers, and schools, educational practitioners and policy makers are increasingly looking toward student perception surveys as a promising means to collect high-quality, useful data. For instance, the widely cited Measures of Effective Teaching study lists student perception surveys as one of the three key…

This essay discusses the design of the quantitative component of the "Young People's Attitudes to Religious Diversity" project, conceived by Professor Robert Jackson within the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, and presents some preliminary findings from the data. The quantitative component followed and built on the…

Six stages are hypothesized that define the behavior of returning mailed questionnaires: receiving the questionnaire, opening the mail, forming an overall impression, answering the questions, returning the questionnaire, and dealing with nonrespondents. The researcher must provide incentives at each stage if potential respondents are to complete a…

In this article, the author discusses Deliberative Polling as the most credible and practical method of public consultation. As compared with self-selected forums or samples of convenience, it employs scientific random samples. As compared with the snapshots of an inattentive public often offered by conventional polls, it assesses informed public…

Presents guidelines about how to conduct a public opinion poll and discusses such specific areas as the sample, the questionnaire, the interviewers, and the poll report. (DF)

Introduces the process of survey research, focusing specifically on the questionnaire method. Lists and discusses eight essential steps in the process, reviews the relevant literature, and ends with the hope that readers will become better consumers of research and possibly researchers themselves. (SR)

Globalisation has extended the competition between nation-states to that between metropolises of the same or different nations. Many studies have shown how nation-states respond to the challenge of globalisation by reconfiguring their citizenship education curriculum into a multileveled framework comprising personal, social, local, national and…

Provides eight guidelines for the effective design of questionnaires to be used in the assessment of training needs. Highlights include cost effectiveness; the use of surveys; front-end analysis; and examples for each guideline. (LRW)

Surveyed opinions on the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Proposal 42 using a convenience sample of 872 persons. Most respondents felt that college admission tests are biased. Concludes that the controversy will be resolved when American society comes to grips with inequalities in educational and socioeconomic opportunity. (DM)

In this article, Sarah Lohnes and Charles Kinzer argue for a more nuanced understanding of Net Generation students and their technology practices than received wisdom currently offers. The realization by college and university administrators that Net Generation students, having grown up digital, will learn differently and make new demands of their…

The purpose of this paper is to give evidence for the thesis that if teachers using a questionnaire as a data collection instrument have the questionnaire items translated from one language into another, they cannot assume that the translated items are valid simply because they were translated. Even if the original questionnaire items were…

Provides survey questions designed to be used to gather information required in library decision-making process for selection of automated circulation system. User library profile, system profile, hardware and software profiles, interactive workload, service, staff support requirements, educational support, bibliographic/item database, patron…

This study evaluated the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Word Processing Center by surveying faculty and administrative use of word processing and personal computers. Questionnaires were sent to all faculty and academic and administrative departments, and 130 responses were received from faculty, 33 from academic departments, and 47 from…

Teacher effectiveness is an issue that has received increased attention in recent years, as researchers have become aware of limitations in models that see the school as the key arena for improving pupil learning outcomes. This renewed interest makes it timely to look again at the methods used in teacher effectiveness research. This article…