This commentary reflects on the contributions to learning analytics and theory by a paper that describes how multiple theoretical frameworks were woven together to inform the creation of a new, automated discourse analysis tool. The commentary highlights the contributions of the original paper, provides some alternative approaches, and touches on…

Notes that national information is seriously lacking concerning the number and types of board and care homes, their residents, and the quality of services provided. Examines shortcomings in current living arrangement classification procedures used in federal surveys. Proposes definition and classification system that transcends state and local…

Questionnaire and interview methods are described as reactive because when these methods are used, the participant's reactions to the research process may influene his or her responses. Nonreactive methodology refers to unobtrusive methods of collecting data in which participant reaction to the process of data collection does not interfere with…

This poem, with stanzas in limerick form, refers humorously to the many threats to validity posed by problems in research design, including problems of sample selection, data collection, and data analysis. (SLD)

Age is often ranked as a significant variable in research studies concerned with the measurement of intellectual and linguistic capacities, including reading. In fact, age is often cited as the cause of a decline in performance on such tasks. However, determining the social, psycho-social, and physiological status of subjects and applying…

Examines these questions: What are life histories? What problems and people are best suited for them? What motivates people to write them? Does the collection procedure affect the content? and How should the material be analyzed? (Author/SK)

A dilemma faces the ethnographer whose discipline forces the creation of an objective text from an intimate participatory experience. There have been three ways in which ethnographers have attempted to solve the dilemma of producing the objectivity of a scientific text while acknowledging their presence in the field. The first approach is the…

After the terms "qualitative research" and "quantitative research" are defined, this paper considers why it makes sense to integrate these approaches, at least under some circumstances. This discussion necessitates attention to the issue of whether quantitative and qualitative research are inextricably linked to incompatible…

Educational research has been excessively atheoretical and has not produced an accumulating body of systematically observed empirical facts. Much of the best work has been reductionist, partly because it has been rooted in paradigms of the behavioral sciences and partly because of the fragmentation of the community of professional researchers.…

Ethnography has raised various issues for the educational research manager (the person responsible for directing a large-scale research and/or evaluation project). These include selection and management of ethnographers, negotiation of ethnographers' onsite roles, communication and coordination of ethnographers, and ethnographic data processing…

Responding to critique of "The Economic Consequences of State Lotteries" (Praeger, 1991), coauthor praises reviewers' analysis and deplores their harsh criticism. Income coefficient used is justifiable, since, in Florida, number of children attending state-funded schools is positively associated with income. Would have received even…

In this article, the author comments on an article by Dunn, Kadane, and Garrow, "Comparing Harm Done by Mobility and Class Absence: Missing Students and Missing Data." He believes the research reported in that article should serve as a model for future applications of Bayesian methods in important educational research problems. The author lauds…

Analyzes data from a juvenile diversion program which seem to indicate that as program services increased, the likelihood of participant recidivism increased. Maintains that the unexpected findings resulted from flaws in data recording within the program and suggests that program designs should incorporate evaluation strategies in order to ensure…

Raises concerns about using interview data in phenomenological research, arguing such data are more related to discourse and the interviewee's perception of what is appropriate to say in the context than to "ways of experiencing," which is the object of study in phenomenography. Also argues that in important respects, discursive…

In the conduct of field studies, there are three different points at which data may be collected unobtrusively. The first is when there is a "search" for an area of study. The second point in which data may be gathered unobtrusively is when the researcher is attempting to further the analysis. The third point in which data are collected…