Learning is most effective when accompanied by doing. If someone desires to become a baseball player, being told how to play the game, watching others play and even understanding the rules of the game are mostly ineffective if the individual never "swings the bat". This paper outlines the implementation of this method (swinging the bat)…

In an increasingly competitive economy, the capacity for self-motivation, problem-solving skills and an ability to think critically are core graduate attributes. However, the capacity to create an educational environment that develops and harnesses such skills is a distinct challenge as resources become increasingly restricted. Geographical Skills…

A fieldwork procedure that enables students to design and conduct meaningful evaluation research in one semester is described. The procedure has been used in a 13-week program evaluation course in a master's program in community psychology and industrial/organizational psychology. About 2 months before the course begins, administrative units…

Types of assessment, five assessment techniques, and issues related to assessing experiential learning in career education are discussed. The following six points should be considered before an assessment program begins: (1) assumptions; (2) goals; (3) outcomes; (4) learning environment; (5) role of assessors; and (6) focus. Two basic types of…

The Mary Reynolds Babcock Project (MRBP) is a school improvement effort implemented at the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools during the 1990-91 school year. A total of 24 elementary school teachers, called visiting teachers, visited designated lab sites within the system for 2 weeks each to observe exemplary instructional programs and be…

This paper focuses on nine inservice elementary teachers who received training in the Youth Empowerment and Self-Sufficiency (YESS)!/Mini-Society program at the beginning of the 1996-97 school year. The purpose of the project was to explore these teachers' impressions of the program before and after program implementation. All subjects…

This paper provides practical information to help experiential educators from varying backgrounds effectively use program evaluation. Program evaluation uses specific and systematic procedures that result in findings that are useful to decision makers for achieving program goals. The purpose of any program review process must be clear, including…

An overview is presented of a research symposium that was structured to present a summary of major findings relative to the assessment of three teacher preparation-induction strategies implemented at Memphis State University during the 1986-87 academic year. Papers presented in the symposium summarized selected program features and addressed the…

There are training dilemmas which are characteristic of medical settings. Clinical psychology students interning in a hospital setting are unfamiliar with the hospital culture, and the demands of patient care require a practical active approach. Experiences with training clinical psychologists to consult with pediatricians are reviewed. Disparate…

A conceptual model based on three frameworks--traditional functionalist, micropolitical, and adult learning--for evaluating clinical experiences in administrator education is developed in this paper. Surveys mailed to 74 students in a university educational administration program elicited 40 responses, a 54 percent return rate. Statistical and…

This paper describes how undergraduate student interns were utilized in a one-person institutional research office on a small college campus to improve productivity and provide real-life experiences for upper-class students. The pitfalls and benefits of such use of students are discussed from both the students' and institutional researcher's…

Questionnaires completed by 53 high school age students from the Voyaguer Outward Bound School (VOBS) were analyzed to determine how well the program met the perceived needs/expectations of the students. Prior to the course, participants ranked the 17 course components in order of perceived importance, and following the course they indicated how…

Action-learning, activities designed to give students the opportunity to acquire and apply knowledge in practical situations and to learn via participation, is a popular concept aimed at restoring relevancy to the public schools. Vocational and occupational curriculum, experience-based academic programs, and various volunteer and career education…

School-based outdoor and experiential programs face an increasing demand from outside interests for research-based accountability. This paper suggests that both research and practice are strengthened by researcher-practitioner partnerships and by practitioners conducting their own research. Three modest qualitative research designs are explored as…

The procedures of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry's Office of External Educational Programs are reviewed to show how quality assurance techniques can be categorized. The format was designed to evaluate quality assurance procedures for both the educational and service aspects of eye care. (MLW)