The aim of the 15 collaborative projects conducted during the new funding phase of the German research program Modeling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education--Validation and Methodological Innovations (KoKoHs) is to make a significant contribution to advancing the field of modeling and valid measurement of competencies acquired in higher…

Research on engineering practice is scarce and sharing of qualitative research data can reduce the effort required for an aspiring researcher to obtain enough data from engineering workplaces to draw generalizable conclusions, both qualitative and quantitative. This paper describes how a large shareable qualitative data set on engineering…

The ability to reason scientifically and communicate research appropriately is central to psychological literacy. Scientific research has little value unless scientists are able to convey results and their consequences clearly to others. In this study, we outline a method of assessing the development of psychological literacy in undergraduate…

School communities find themselves within an overall ideological and epistemological controversy with regard to a drive for goal-oriented and "evidence-based" practices on the one hand and emancipative bottom-up developmental strategies on the other, treating empirical data as information to be analysed according to context, with…

Data derived from an administration of the Death Anxiety Scale to Australian samples are analyzed with a view to providing comparative cross-cultural observations, as well as some indication of reliability and validity in the Australian context. (Author)

Self Directed Search (SDS) raw score and same-sex normed standard score codes were obtained on a sample of 16- to 18-year-old New Zealand high school students. The 59 boys and 59 girls who showed differences in the first letter of their codes rated the attractiveness of selected DOT job descriptions. (Author)

Evaluates the Bardis Familism Scale. Data were collected in 1975 from 586 Indian college students. Results indicate that the scale consists of two separate subscales, labeled Nuclear Familism and Extended Familism, which coincide exactly with Bardis' revised subscales. The scale strongly indicates two dimensions of familism. (Author/BEF)

A previous paper argued that issues of validity in self-study research are first and foremost moral arguments about educational practice. It also asserted that if a self-study is to be valid, then the educational merit of the practice studied must be appropriate. Considering the responses of symposium participants to these assertions has resulted…

In Canada's Exemplary Schools Project, a national committee designed and coordinated 21 case studies. A committee member recounts decisions made about design and method, and highlights differences between method and methodology, as well as variations in conceptualization of qualitative research. Discusses the meaning of "exemplary,"…

Workplace assessment (WPA) of New Zealand's National Qualifications Framework (NQF) competencies has become a significant alternative pathway for vocational adult education. This article reports on a research project which compares stated intentions for workplace assessment with evidence of its practical realization. The perceptions of the…

This handbook, which was written by researchers with expertise in Australia's technical and further education (TAFE) system, provides background information about the following: approaches to research in vocational education and training (VET); the range of methods normally used in research and their the application to VET; and procedures for…