Focusing on expanding technical capabilities and new collaborative possibilities, we address 4 challenges for scientists who collect and use video records to conduct research in and on complex learning environments: (a) Selection: How can researchers be systematic in deciding which elements of a complex environment or extensive video corpus to…

Attempting to characterize the research literature on schooling, this paper discusses six possible inquiry perspectives termed analytic, portrait, intentional, structural, societal, and narrative. These perspectives are then analyzed and related to forms of knowledge about educating children. While preferring the narrative approach, the article…

Presents arguments, based on Thomas Kuhn's work, that most research on rural and small schools proceeds from previous scientific achievements, and that researchers' (outsiders') preconceived and approximated reality forces the nature of rural and small schools into an inflexible box. Contains 40 references. (Author/SV)

Spearman's "Law of Diminishing Returns" states that the g saturation of a test is greater for individuals with lower, rather than higher, test scores, and that it decreases with age. A common methodological problem in testing Spearman's "Law of Diminishing Returns" with respect to ability differentiation is how to create the…

Reexamines the studies of K. S. Dobson regarding metaanalysis of cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression using the Beck Depression Inventory as an outcome measure. Confirms Dobson's conclusions but shows that about half the difference between CT and other treatments was predictable from researcher allegiance. Comparable analysis of a later set…

Suggests study by Kuhn and others (PS 524 345) is too ambitious and that the processes described are not wholly representative of developmental stages. Argues the methodology of study was progressive problem solving, and that experimenter's questions resulted in contrived stages. (JW)

Argues for a new approach to empirical work which focuses on classroom thoughtfulness. Proposes a conception of higher-order thinking that synthesizes theoretical literature with the views of practitioners. Offers a conceptual basis for empirical study of classrooms, teachers, students, and institutional leaders. (GG)

In the study, a part of longitudinal research focused on the emergence of mathematical knowledge structures in a learner's mind is presented. It concentrates on the analysis of introspective data gained from the author's study of a non-standard arithmetic structure in terms of the model of abstraction in context (Hershkowitz, Schwarz and Dreyfus).…

This paper explores a wide range of issues associated with research on mental models. Based on a functional perspective, mental models are defined as the mechanisms whereby humans generate descriptions of system purpose and form, explanations of system functioning and observed system states, and predictions of future system states. Specifically,…

This article considers relatively neglected resources for the "bootstrapping" of cognitive growth, including chance plus selection, the affective boosting of relevant schemas, the operation of innate biases, and use of spare mental capacity. Implications for educational research are illustrated with reference to recent work on the…