This article reports on the results of a pilot study exploring whether and how the meal situations of persons with intellectual disabilities (PWIDs) in need of help and support during meal situations were affected by an eating aid. This article also analyzes how PWIDs and their assistants perceived their experiences of using an eating aid during…

Conducting qualitative research in any discipline warrants two actions: accessing participants and eliciting their ideas. In chemistry education research (CER), survey techniques have been used to increase access to participants and diversify samples. Interview tasks (such as card sorting, using demonstrations, and using simulations) have been…

Context: Mentorship is a developmental process whereby a novice individual, as he/she becomes inducted into his/her area of expertise, is guided by a more experienced person. Speculation exists that years of experience can impact this relationship. Objective: To determine the impact mentoring can have on athletic training student development and…

Instrumentation rigor and bias management are major challenges for qualitative researchers employing interviewing as a data generation method in their studies. A usual procedure for testing the quality of an interview protocol and for identifying potential researcher biases is the pilot study in which investigators try out their proposed methods…

Minnesota Statutes 122A.40, Subdivision 8 and 122A.41, Subdivision 5, require that all districts evaluate teachers beginning in the 2014-2015 school year. In response to the statutes, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) convened a work group in early winter 2011 to consult with the MDE Commissioner to develop a state model for teacher…

The study reported here, one part of a larger study on doctoral education, describes a pilot study that used Activity Theory to shape a methodological tool for better understanding the tensions inherent in the doctoral experience. As doctoral students may function within a range of activity systems, we designed data collection protocols based on…

The newness of the iPad device creates a phenomenon unique and unstudied in the academic environment. By merging the innovations of electronic text, e-reader, and multi-modal functionality, the iPad tablet device can act as an e-reader providing digital course materials as well as a range of other supplementary academic applications. This…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 13th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2016), October 28-30, 2016, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS), co-organized by the University of Mannheim, Germany, and endorsed by the…

Background: Adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities need dietary monitoring but are not likely to be able to provide accurate dietary intake data via traditional methods. Pilot study efforts to meet their support needs with a novel and practical approach to dietary intake data collection are described in this brief report. Materials…

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES OF THIS PILOT PROJECT WERE TO (1) DEVELOP AND TEST INSTRUMENTS FOR GATHERING DATA RELEVANT TO QUANTITY AND TYPES OF ENTRY JOBS AVAILABLE IN A SELECTED COMMUNITY AND THE CONCOMITANT TALENTS DEMANDED BY BUSINESS FOR THESE JOBS, AND (2) DEVELOP AND TEST INSTRUMENTS FOR GATHERING DATA CONCERNING WORK ACTIVITIES OF RECENT DROPOUTS…

This paper first examines different conceptions of collaborative research. It then reviews problems and benefits in collaborative research as perceived by teams of researchers and teacher center/teacher personnel in 14 projects funded by the Teachers' Center Exchange at the Far West Laboratory. Criteria for effective collaborative research are…

This report describes the pilot data collections and post-questionnaire interview activities of the Council on Library Resources (CLR)/Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) Online Public Access Project. The background of the project is briefly described, the purpose and adminstration of the post-questionnaire interviews are outlined, and pilot…

The ECFMG[R] Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA[R]) was developed to evaluate whether graduates of international medical schools (IMGs) are ready to enter graduate training programs in the United States. The patient note (PN) exercise is specifically used to assess a candidate's ability to summarize and synthesize the data collected in a simulated…

The techniques and accompanying problems of collecting data on interventions are explored. As a result of the analyses of two previous studies (Colorado and Kentucky Ethnographic Studies, 1979; and Texas, 1981) a hybrid-method of documenting interventions was developed for use in the Principal-Teacher Interaction Study (PTI). This paper traces the…

This paper discusses the importance of pilot studies in the development and implementation of a research project, focusing on the use of a pilot study to revise conceptual and methodological issues in dissertation research on higher education leadership. It examines the hermeneutic circle, as described by M. Heidegger, that stresses the importance…