The Total Survey Error (TSE) paradigm provides a framework that supports the effective planning of research, guides decision making about data collection and contextualises the interpretation and dissemination of findings. TSE also allows researchers to systematically evaluate and improve the design and execution of ongoing survey programs and…

Narrative data yield rich detail, insight, and information, but the personal and situational characteristics of coders (called value inertia and cognitive limitation biases) can affect data reduction. The effects of coder exposure to expected project outcomes and the level of coder research methodology sophistication were investigated. Coders,…

The value of the grounded theory approach to inquiry for the study and practice of higher education is discussed. It is suggested that there is a need to identify approaches to inquiry that maintain scientific validity while revealing meaningful responses to the complex problems of higher education. An approach that may be employed for this…

The development of procedures by which test publishers can screen individual purchasers to minimize the possibility of test misuse is described. The Test User Qualifications Working Group (TUQWoG), an outgrowth of the Joint Committee on Testing Practices, was formed to address the prevention of test misuse through improved methods of screening…

Considers the doubts the author has had about the design of an award winning study, focusing especially on a researcher's obligation to help the teachers with whom the researcher is working, even at the risk of jeopardizing a study's design. Traces the way that her engagement with that question has led to her current professional commitments. (SC)

Frequently, the behavior of researchers reflects important and otherwise unrecognized aspects of the phenomenon which is being studied or evaluated. In other words, the "processes" of the researcher are "parallel" to the "processes" of the entity being studied. These parallel processes are illustrated with examples…

The focus of this paper is on women with respect to three themes: the reasons why women are attracted to ethnographic research, the problems they may encounter in making this choice, and the prospects for women researchers to influence the future direction of educational research. Four interrelated psychological aspects seem to attract women to…

Analysis has become especially challenging as researchers become more aware of their positions as subjective participants as well as analysts of their own research projects. Four female researchers involved in a study of gender and literacy analyzed their own disclosures from the recent past, and found the concepts of subjectivity, transaction,…

The susceptibility of observations of adult-child interactions to bias due to the physical attractiveness of target persons was examined. Facial features of target persons were occluded in one version of a videotape and unoccluded in another, otherwise identical version. Using a global rating system and a molecular coding strategy, 38 trained…

Educational researchers have claimed that the quantitative and qualitative approaches to educational inquiry are, indeed, compatible. However, it would be unfortunate to discontinue this debate. The quantitative-qualitative debate began with the interpretive approach to social inquiry. Dilthey argued that since cultural/moral sciences differ from…

This paper discusses 10 reasons why outdoor education research needs more and better methods and measures. These reasons encompass the following areas of discussion: (1) the researcher's theories and values influence the research methods and measures chosen; (2) measurement must be relevant to the phenomenon measured, and multilevel phenomena may…

The workings of a research group trying to implement the concept of wait time in high school classes were examined, with comparisons drawn between policy constraints on the researchers and policy constraints on the teachers who were their subjects. Focus is on the development of research ideas; the subjective meaning of the research as work to the…

The perspectives of researchers, teachers, and students in a research project attempting to implement wait time in high school classrooms were examined. This study investigates, via participant observation, the inner workings of a highly successful research group. Observation, interviews, and surveys were used to study the workings of the research…

In exploring the role and status of the ethics that govern communication research, the two parts of this paper examine the practices of researchers and the role of deception in their methodology and conclusions, and the role of communication research as a whole to the society that it is supposed to benefit. At the end of both discussions are…

This paper discusses the power that qualitative researchers can hold in how participants perceive, structure, and interpret experiences, particularly through interviews. Examples from a pilot study illustrate how the author influenced participants' views, interpretations, and constructions of the text of the interviews. This paper also presents a…