Various formats of online discussion have proven valuable for enhancing learning and collaboration in distance and blended learning contexts. However, despite their capacity to reveal essential processes in collaborative inquiry, current mainstream analytical frameworks, such as the cognitive presence framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer,…

Paper presented at the Merrill-Palmer Institute on Research and Training of Infant Development (Detroit, Mich., Feb. 15-17, 1968).

When an interview is used as a research technique, the process of the dialogue between the experimenter and the subject is a part of the experimental conditions. The dialogue can be extensively structured, or it can be open-ended. Though the latter situation may provide more information about the subject's thought processes, there is a greater…

Bytheway discusses the problems of representation and sampling methodology found in the Three Generation Family Study directed by Hill at the University of Minnesota. Hill responds to this criticism and challenges Bytheway to provide a better sampling design. (Author/HLM)

Written transcripts of spouses' discussions were coded using two different systems. Findings indicate that the results obtained from one coding system cannot easily be compared with results obtained from the other system. Author calls for resolution of differences in coding procedures if relational communication research is to be usefully…

The existing empirical literature on the outcomes of marital and pre-marital enrichment programs is critically reviewed. Six specific issues are addressed in an effort to improve the quality and utility of further research and practice in this area. (Author)

Discusses assignments in discourse analysis and students' recurring methodological errors. (PD)

Summarizes Karl Weick's Model of Organizing including its advantages and limitations and tests one of the claims fundamental to Weick's argument. (MH)

This paper presents a rationale for observing black mothers during semi-structured play activities with their toddlers. It appraises the strengths and weaknesses of such situational assessments of mother-infant dyads, arguing that in addition to observational data the collection of introspective interview data from mothers is essential. Interview…

Repeats an earlier study by the authors concerning informants' ability to report their communication accurately and confirms results indicating that people do not know those with whom they communicate. Expands the original experimental design and offers recommendations for future research. (MH)

Research is reviewed on the interaction patterns of individuals using augmentative and alternative communication systems. Major findings and limitations of interaction studies are highlighted, focusing on methodological approaches, subjects, partners, contexts and sampling procedures, and measures and data analyses. Directions for future research…

Suggests that dominance can be defined as asymmetry in predictability in social variables of importance, and bidirectionality as symmetrical predictability. Procedures which address the concepts of cyclicity within a person and synchronicity between people and which assess asymmetry and symmetry in social interaction are discussed. (Author/RH)

This inquiry was conducted to develop indigenous research methodology aimed at minimizing the gap between educational research and practice. The intent was not to produce a final or complete solution to the problem, but rather to suggest a procedure which would provide partial closure. Alternative methods, including various types of linkage…

Reports on a study designed to determine the proportion of the communication research studies published in seven journals in the 1970s that obtained their data from, and based their conclusions upon, student populations in general and undergraduate college student populations in particular. (GW)