Education researchers use surveys widely. Yet, critics question respondents' ability to provide high-quality responses. As schools increasingly use student surveys to drive local policy making, respondents' (lack of) motivation to provide quality responses may threaten the wisdom of using questionnaires for data-based decision making. To better…

Assessing pragmatic knowledge in the instructed setting is seen as a complex but necessary task, which requires the design of appropriate research methodologies to examine pragmatic performance. This study discusses the use of two different research methodologies, namely those of Discourse Completion Tests/Tasks (DCTs) and verbal reports. Research…

This manual provides guidance and documentation for users of the longitudinal kindergarten-fourth grade (K-4) data file of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011). It mainly provides information specific to the fourth-grade round of data collection. The first chapter provides an overview of the…

As the number of online degree programs continues to grow, one of the greatest challenges is developing a sense of community among learners who do not convene at the same time and place. This study examined the sense of community among medical professionals in an online graduate program for healthcare professionals. We took the sample from a fully…

Over the past three and one-half decades, ACT has dedicated itself to conducting research that collects information from colleges and universities that will help them identify and better understand the impact of various practices on college student retention and persistence to degree-completion. Conducted in the spring of 2009, ACT's most recent…

This article provides a broad overview of the definition of web-based surveys examining some of the benefits and burdens related to using the Web for data collection. It draws upon the experience of two years of data collection on 10 university campuses demonstrating that there are noticeable differences in the speed with which web-based surveys…

Academic failure among first-year university students has long fuelled a large number of debates. Many educational psychologists have tried to understand and then explain it. Many statisticians have tried to foresee it. Our research aims to classify, as early in the academic year as possible, students into three groups: the "low-risk"…

The purpose of the "International Civic and Citizenship Education Study" (ICCS) is to investigate the ways in which young people are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens in a range of countries. The study will report on student achievement on a test of conceptual understandings and competencies in civic and citizenship education. It will…

This paper (1) presents observations about the major paradigms and assumptions that have historically shaped media research; (2) encapsulates the activities, thinking, and paradigms of the present; and (3) reports on a study in which 100 theoreticians and researchers were asked to respond to 50 hypothetical statements about media in the learning…

This study attempted to secure information about some personal and social characteristics of the undergraduate psychology majors at Marquette University. (Author/RK)

Using a matched sample of students who stay in school and those who drop out, or leave early, an attempt was made, via multiple discriminant analysis, to identify the significant characteristics which distinguish "drop outs" from their peers who remain at school. Results indicated that both types of students have similar value orientations and…

To determine demographic characteristics of students enrolled in a variety of telecourses and some of the factors that led to their enrollment, the Annenberg/CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) Project funded a study in which 8,000 students enrolled in 42 telecourses were surveyed during the spring of 1984. Data from the study were tabulated…

The objectives of this research were to test deficit and resilience models of adult students' experiences by: (1) determining the relative influence of chronological age and age stress on their academic performance and campus comfort; and (2) considering earlier educational experiences and social support in relation to their performance and campus…

In an effort to determine differences between students who respond to surveys and those who do not, New Mexico State University at Alamogordo (NMSU-A) undertook a study of students in fall 1992. Students were asked to complete an 18-item questionnaire while waiting in lines during registration. The 1,618 out of 2,114 (76.5%) students who completed…

This volume contains 11 appendices to a user's manual that provides guidance and documentation for users of the public release data for the student component of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). The general aim of the NELS, a continuing long-term project, is to study the educational, vocational, and personal development…