This guide provides experienced education researchers with suggestions for conducting high-quality effectiveness studies to overcome research challenges common to rural settings. The guide addresses four factors that researchers must consider when conducting educational effectiveness research in rural settings: (1) study design, (2) recruitment of…

This book is intended to give teacher education students and practicing teachers an introduction to research methods and does so by following the procedures and results of a recent study. Chapter 1 discusses the research problem and the procedures for setting up a research design. Chapter 2 discusses the major stages of field work. Chapter 3…

Describes the elements required for a well-designed questionnaire, including appearance, question writing, organization, and cover letter. A checklist for effective questionnaire design is provided, as well as seven references. (BK)

Tips on constructing survey instruments and examples of alternative formats for questionnaire items are provided in this paper. The 18 tips cover such areas as instructions for respondents, wording of questionnaire items, grouping of items, handling of difficult or sensitive questions, fixed-response items, open-ended questions, and questionnaire…

The National Food and Agriculture Council of the Philippines regularly requires rapid feedback data for analysis, which will assist in monitoring programs to improve and increase the production of selected crops by small scale farmers. Since many other development programs in various subject matter areas also require similar statistical…

Educational practitioners tend to resist or avoid doing educational research primarily for two reasons: their prior experience with statistics, computers, and research design has produced insecurity and anxiety; and, they have acquired a basic misunderstanding of the nature and purpose of research. Good research should be both technically sound…

This paper discusses the utility of an ethnographic method that incorporates various participant observation techniques in providing information about family television viewing. It presents arguments for a naturalistic case study approach focusing on family-media interaction and suggests three methods of data collection: interviews and followups;…

This workbook, which accompanies An Evaluation Primer (TM 007 500) consists of 19 practical exercises for applying evaluation skills to hypothetical educational programs. Each chapter corresponds to a chapter in the primer, with answers keyed accordingly. Intended to provide an introduction to evaluation, the exercises include: identifying the…

Designed as a comprehensive guide to the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience (NLS), this handbook is intended for two major categories of readers. For persons who wish to ascertain whether their research interests can be served by the NLS data, the handbook can provide the detailed description of the objectives of the surveys,…

Based on the evaluators' experience with a large-scale curriculum development project, this manual is designed to aid those who plan and implement field tests of educational products (instructional procedures and materials) in natural school settings. Within the procedures discussed, problems likely to arise are described. The steps in…

This bulletin is designed for the researcher, the doctoral or master's candidate, or teacher interested in and/or conducting research. Content is presented in five chapters. Chapter 1 (The Research Problem) discusses what research is, selecting a topic, defining and stating a problem, and identifying the type of study. Chapter 2 (The Literature…

Designed for coordinators of student volunteer programs (experiential learning through community service), this manual provides information on some of the basic research approaches and tools which can be used to analyze a program's activities and effectiveness. The major areas discussed include the following: the reasons for and resources…

This manual contains information for conducting regular student surveys at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. Questionnaires, designed for new, returning, and former student populations, are presented together with the methods by which the instruments should be administered. Guidelines for data analysis and report writing are also outlined. The…

This paper defines a conceptual model for institutional research in the community college and identifies sources of information, programs, and services that provide data necessary for implementation of the model. The model contains four specific subsystems: goal setting, program development, program review, and cost effectiveness. Each subsystem…

Work on the development of the intensive time-series design was initiated because of the dissatisfaction with existing research designs. This dissatisfaction resulted from the paucity of data obtained from designs such as the pre-post and randomized posttest-only designs. All have the common characteristic of yielding data from only one or two…