Over the last decade, the idea of societal impact resulting from publicly funded research has changed from being a relatively fringe concern related to high-technology entrepreneurship and spin-off companies to becoming an increasingly important public policy concern. This has stimulated academic science policy research to investigate the impact…

The authors extend findings from qualitative research on the effects of action research by reporting two linked quantitative studies (N = 80 and 105). They found that teachers who participated in collaborative action research experienced statistically significant improvements in attitudes to educational research and teacher efficacy. The pre-post…

Students live in an information and knowledge management economy in which the dissemination and analysis of information requires intellectual, technical and interpersonal skills. As a direct response to higher education's challenge to produce more engineers, scientists, and business professionals, universities have increased the numbers of…

In an attempt to move, if not balance, the scales of activity toward increasing scientific capability across a diverse national population, U.S. federal funding agencies are purposefully linking research funding to broad national impact. Among United States federal agencies, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has led the way in the integration…

The mission of the National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (NAIRTL) is to ensure that all higher education students are exposed to cutting edge research in their classrooms, and that students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels are actively engaged in relevant and authentic research in their chosen discipline. To…

Few researchers think in terms of their role in translating their findings into action in the field or in programs. The author recalls, when she was Director of Research and Evaluation for the Administration for Children Youth and Families, HHS, how much of the research was not being applied to what goes on or what was needed at the Head Start…

This report summarizes a study of the effectiveness of the National Science Foundation's Research Opportunities for Women (ROW) program in encouraging female scientists and engineers to initiate research careers. Study findings are based on telephone interviews conducted with 657 ROW-eligible women: 255 who applied through the ROW program, 302 who…

In accordance with the Education Amendments of 1976 (P.L. 94-482), this document contains the plans proposed by the National Institute of Education (NIE) for undertaking a thorough evaluation and study of vocational education programs in the United States. Divided into four parts, the plan addresses four areas which were mandated by P.L. 94-482:…

As part of Project IMPACT's effort to identify and develop procedures for complying with the impact requirements of Public Law 94-482, a field study was conducted to identify and validate variables and their order of importance in predicting and evaluating impact of research and development (R&D) projects in vocational and technical education.…