This applied research methods report is a guide for state and local education agency policymakers and their analysts who are interested in studying teacher mobility and retention. This report provides the foundational information needed to answer policy-relevant research questions related to teacher mobility and retention and presents the decision…

This applied research methods report is a guide for state and local education agency policymakers and their analysts who are interested in studying teacher mobility and retention. This report is the second in a two-part set and builds on the foundational information in report 1. This report presents guidance on how to interpret differences in…

This paper presents phenomenology as an alternative approach in conducting educational research. The aim of phenomenological research is the exploration of the fundamental consciousness of the person or people being studied so that their perceptions can be identified and interpreted. Today's phenomenology comes from the work of a group of European…

Advocates the use of interviews in conducting research on child learning and development. Explores some of the difficulties inherent in interviewing children (e.g., suggestibility, unwillingness to respond to strangers), interviewer bias, situational variables, uses of the self-report, and ethical considerations. Also outlines approaches used by…

This publication is intended to help people find the documents most suited to solving their researchable problems. It begins by discussing how to approach research and then outlines such sources of documentary evidence as current books, indexes, periodicals, bibliographies, and the ERIC system. (Author/IRT)

Intended for agencies concerned with planning for service delivery to Virginia's children and youth, the last in a series of four documents provides an overview of needs assessment. An introductory section includes discussions of what a needs assessment is and why it should be conducted, what has already been done in the field and is presently…

This booklet is intended to aid curriculum developers in designing and conducting pilot or field tests that yield useful information and sound evidence about the effectiveness of new curricula. Although it was prepared specifically for use by projects funded by the Curriculum Development Branch of the federal Bureau of Occupational and Adult…

With the advent of online searching, the terminology available for topic searching has greatly expanded and deepened. CD-ROMs and computerized databases available through online search services offer a variety of approaches to research in physical education. The article explains the use of computerized databases in an interdisciplinary field. (SM)

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…

In this manual, both methodological and practical guidelines for conducting field research in urban desegregated schools are discussed. Strategies for negotiating access to and studying all participants in the educational system (students, teachers, administrators, other personnel, and parents) are suggested. Fieldwork styles, philosophies, and…

Collaborative action research, conducted by teams of practitioners, is a process that enables teachers: (1) to improve student learning, (2) to improve their own practice, (3) to contribute to the development of their own profession, and (4) to overcome the isolation commonly experienced by classroom teachers. By promoting collegial relationships…

Argues that a position should be taken on which future research initiatives on learning and instruction will be most worthy if grounded in general systems theory and multiple research methods are employed. Presents an application of general systems theory to research on learning and instruction, including a system of research methods and…

This manual was designed for the administrator who has the responsibility for conducting all or part of an evaluation or is responsible for using evaluation results in program planning. The manual provides step-by-step guidelines to help: identify the purposes and audiences of an evaluation; prepare a basic description of the program or activity;…

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…

Materials contained in the 16 Volumes that make up the Rural America Series suggest practices through which rural schools can meet local community needs and realize their potential for career program delivery. This procedural handbook, one of five program development process documents for the series, provides information on why and how to conduct…