Much pedagogic research undertaken in geography and other disciplines relies on post-hoc methods such as surveys or interviews to investigate the student experience of higher education (often based on self-reports of behaviour). However, observation of students provides a far more direct route to obtain information about their behaviour, and there…

An abundance of academic research has focused on identifying, explicating, operationalizing, and analyzing variables used to understand the dynamics of customer service. Despite this scholarly attention, applied researchers and the popular press have long reported consumers' dissatisfaction with the service received during their customer…

While numerous publications signal the merits of collaborative research, few studies provide interpretive analyses of collaborative-research practices or collaborative relationships. Through this multiple case study design of collaborative-research teams, the authors attempt to provide such an analysis by focusing on the collaborative-research…

Developments in lifelong learning and learner autonomy have given fresh impetus to the debate about learning without formal teaching. This paper concerns the educational relationship between learner and adviser in self-directed schemes. Two French self-directed language learning set-ups were observed, one situated at university level (Systeme…

Many academics do not view community engagement as a priority in their work. Yet, in an increasingly competitive funding environment, there is evidence that many benefits arise from the creation of university-community partnerships. This paper describes a study that documents the experience of seven academics successfully establishing community…

Describes the rationale and method of research in natural settings explaining the concept of systematic observation and discusses the uses of this type of research in the classroom. (MH)

Purpose: This article explores distributed leadership as it relates to two teacher teams in one public secondary school. Both situational and social aspects of distributed leadership are foci of investigation. Methods: The qualitative study used constant comparative analysis and discourse analysis to explore leadership as a distributed phenomenon.…

Arguing that by identifying rules, researchers can understand and explain behavioral and communicative processes in specific contexts, this paper outlines a formal method for conducting a rules analysis of a conflict case. The first section of the paper defines and summarizes the basic concepts relating to conflict, organizational groups, and…

Presents a method of defining cooccurring constellations or "packages" of maternal facial-visual engagement and head or hand stimulation during face-to-face play with an infant. The functional relevance of these packages is documented in case studies of one four-month-old infant playing with his mother and a stranger. (Author/CB)

Recommends and explains why case studies are a good way of evaluating curriculum and giving direction and a rationale to policy decisions about curriculum development in schools. Describes and analyzes various descriptive, analytical, and deliberative case studies. (CK)

Conveying information to clients has a variety of purposes in professional-client interactions. It has a clear relationship to client access to participation in the decisions made about a presenting problem. Speech-language pathologists tend to assume they do this competently and to the advantage of their clients, but rarely has this assumption…

Recognizing the power of the Internet to connect people, regardless of place or time, we explore the notion of a virtual form of ethnography, suggesting online, textual interactive interviews are worthy of research consideration. This paper reports on three research projects, drawing examples from almost ten years in the evolution of Internet…

This research is a case study examining numeracy teaching and learning practices in an early childhood multiage setting with Pre-Primary to Year 2 children. Data were collected via running records, researcher reflection notes, and video and audio recordings. Video and audio transcripts were analysed using a mathematical discourse and social…

The practice of interviewing individuals rather than groups has been based largely upon methodological concerns for preventing contamination of data. The assumptions that (1) the data provided by individuals can, in aggregate, yield social truth; (2) individuals are conscious of social phenomena; and (3) the whole of social reality is equal to the…

A DESCRIPTION IS GIVEN OF CONCEPTS, METHODS, AND A STRATEGY TO AID TRAINING OFFICERS AND OTHERS RESPONSIBLE FOR PROGRAMS OF CHANGE IN CONDUCTING EVALUATION STUDIES INVOLVING SYSTEMATIC PLANNING, CONTROL, AND ASSESSMENT OF THE PROCESS OF CHANGE. BEGINNING WITH A MODEL OF PERCEPTION AND OF ITS APPLICATION TO LEARNING, THE AUTHOR DISCUSSES A TYPOLOGY…