This special issue's editors invited discussion of three broad questions. Slightly rephrased, they are: How well do self-report data represent theoretical constructs? How should analyses of data be conditioned by properties of self report data? In what ways do interpretations of self-report data shape interpretations of a study's findings? To…

There are infinitely many ways of talking about infinity. The assortment of discourses on learning infinity is infinite as well. When the author says "way of talking" or "discourse," she is concerned with much more than the question of how words are chosen and combined. Ways of talking are not just innocent "auxiliaries" to thinking--they shape…

Quantum mechanics is often thought to be a difficult subject to understand, not only in the complexity of its mathematics but also in its conceptual foundation. In this paper we emphasize students' depictions of the uncertainty principle and wave-particle duality of quantum events, phenomena that could serve as a foundation in building an…

Cultural anthropology's methods of "emic" and "etic" analysis have potential applications in the theory, research, and practice of educational administration. In "emic" analysis the native informant is made the ultimate judge of the researcher's descriptions and analyses. In "etic" analysis, however, the…

Suggests that in applied linguistics there has been a collective ignorance of the social constraints operating on exchanges between research interviews and informant interviewees. The article discusses literature from sociology and social psychology that has dealt with this aspect of research interviews. (Author/CK)

Discusses the focus group interview as an effective method of eliciting public opinions at three points in the media production process--concept development, script completion, and completion of rough cut. Interview characteristics, objectives, respondent characteristics, moderator role, physical arrangements, interview techniques, and data…

A survey done properly by accepted and scientifically justifiable techniques can provide information on behalf of the goals of institutional advancement in academe. Deficiencies in institutional research are seen as the result of the lack of guidance on survey design, questionnaire construction, or problem definition in education research texts.…

Presents an interview with Chris Spatz who is a professor of psychology at Hendrix College in Conway (Arkansas). Discusses the null hypothesis statistical texts (NHST) and the arguments for and against the use of NHST, the changes in research articles, textbook changes, and the Internet. (CMK)

The relationship between mathematicians and researchers in mathematics education has often been fragile. Yet it is crucial. We conducted a series of themed Focus Group interviews with mathematicians from six UK universities. Pre-distributed samples of mathematical problems, typical written student responses, observation protocols, interview…

Federal statistics form the foundation and are the standard for private statistics. Reliable and accurate statistics are increasingly used in complex models of the economy and society that have become important tools for management of large business concerns and for policy planning in governmental bodies. Reductions in government funding threaten…

Examines the basic tenets of qualitative, or naturalistic, research methods in terms of their grounding in social science and their value to library and information science research. Topics discussed include the research problems; data collection, including interviews; data analysis, including content analysis; theory development; and ensuring…

Ethnography provides a means to carry out interpretive science; it offers an alternative research perspective for vocational education and can be used to address questions concerning larger issues in the field. Interpretive science provides the appropriate research paradigm for those research questions studied by an ethnographer. (Author)

This paper describes data gathering and analytic procedures, and then presents examples regarding how each fits into the naturalistic research model. From the interactionist perspective, called symbolic interactionism, meaning is of central importance. Naturalistic inquiry is a way of doing social science research which provides the methodological…

Discusses methodological issues in cross-cultural studies of diverse communities, including language problems, data collection and analysis, sample size, and dissemination of findings. A study of the information-seeking behavior of ethnolinguistic gatekeepers in several communities in California is described. Suggestions are given for public…

Argues that acquisition of English-as-a-Second-Language research must take into account social context and power relations in order to explain language learning processes. Uses interview data and writing samples to demonstrate how a student in South Africa is influenced in his written discourse in English by his power relations and experience as a…