Reports results of a study on the effectiveness of various methods of teaching metric linear measuring concepts to educable mentally retarded junior high school students. Contrary to expectations, superiority of the industrial arts treatment using physical measurement activities over the workbook method was not demonstrated. (MF)

A personalized competency-based instructional strategy was designed and evaluated as an alternative to the traditional teacher-directed method. There was no difference in mean gain scores between the two groups for cognitive objectives, but the experimental strategy was superior in teaching psychomotor competencies. Student responses to the PSI…

A study comparing the use of the Silent Way technique in an experimental setting with its use in a real classroom setting suggests that results of experimental research cannot necessarily be transferred directly to the classroom. Student compositions based on ten Silent Way worksheets and an editing task are appended. (MSE)

Presents findings from a comparison of traditional classroom lecture on lecture-replacement stand-alone PLATO-based delivery made to learn Fortran. Two semesters were examined separately, semester one (n=54) and semester two (n=36), using a two-tailed t-test at .01 level of significance. No difference was found. (JM)

Presents 17 research paradigms students might employ for doctoral dissertations on instructional design, makes suggestions for students evaluating the literature and developing a conceptual framework for research, and summarizes dissertations developed by University of Florida doctoral students, classifying them into three research paradigms which…

Demonstrates how case study evaluation concentrates on a single situation to present a holistic view of an experiential learning program and reveals unique and unanticipated features. Outlines steps of planning, gathering, analyzing, synthesizing, and reporting data and considers the advantages and disadvantages of the case study approach. (LFL)

A study was conducted to determine the efficacy of computer-based simulation versus observation in a laboratory nursery school. Results indicate students in the computer-based simulation were better able to observe and record descriptions of child behavior in the video tape sequence after training than students in the control group who received…

In this new edition, the author explains quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods, and incorporates the viewpoints of various research paradigms (postpositivist, constructivist, transformative, and pragmatic) into descriptions of these methods. Special emphasis is provided for conducting research in culturally complex communities. Each chapter…

This position paper aims to clarify the International Reading Association's stance on methods for teaching beginning reading (i.e., reading methods). The paper first defines a reading method as a set of teaching and learning materials and/or activities often given a label, such as a phonics method, literature-based method, or language experience…

Paper examines the case method in light of both the reasoning of case method authorities and significant research findings. (Author)

This study of seventh-grade girls replicated a 1975 Blatt and Kohlberg study. Experimental subjects received a ten-week moral education program; controls discussed nonmoral issues in English class. Results indicated that the moral education program, even in this brief time period, increased moral judgment. (Author/SJL)

This paper reports on an emerging technique that yields the kind of knowledge about cause-and-effect connections between teaching practices and student achievement on which teacher education should be based. That knowledge comes from the completion in recent studies of what has been termed the "descriptive-correlational-experimental loop."…

Audio-taped lectures by male or female professors were produced in four versions: no humor; sexual humor; other-disparaging humor; and self-disparaging humor. Male and female students rated lecturers' intelligence and appeal. Intelligence ratings were unaffected by humor variations, but significant lecturer-student sex interactions were found on…

Provides a detailed introduction to the variety of purposes for which evaluation research may be used and to the range of methods currently employed in the practice of that field. Uses specific examples, where appropriate, to provide concrete illustrations of both the goals of evaluation researchers and the methods used. (Author)