Argues that the meetings of the National Council of Teachers of English and the Conference on College Composition and Communication should focus on improving the literacy skills of students rather than promulgating superficial results of poorly conducted research. (RS)

Responding to John Fitz and David Halpin's paper "Researching Grant Maintained Schools," this article outlines several aspects of the grant-maintained schools needing further research, including comparisons with foreign initiatives, historical and ideological antecedents, implementation studies, and investigation of educational change…

Suggests that the model by Parke, MacDonald, Beitel, and Bhavnagri (1988) of ways that parents influence children's social development might be used to organize the study of abnormal development in children of depressed mothers. Components of a theoretical model of developmental psychopathology are outlined. (RH)

Reviews "The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action" (1987) and "Educating the Reflective Practitioner" by Donald Schon. Notes that in these works reflection-in-action leads a teacher to an elevated level of professional knowledge. Relates the authors' interpretation to current thinking in teacher…

Two experiments involving students from grades 1-2 and 5-6 found strong connections between development and forgetting rates when the influences of learning ability were eliminated. Findings eliminated a hypothesis based on age variability in overlearning. (RH)

Considers the practice of using research from other fields for application to distance education concerns. Topics discussed include research methods from various social science disciplines; the nature of scientific inquiry; purposes of research; the politics and ethics of research; and research strategies. (24 references) (LRW)

Identifies some sources of theoretical confusion in the field of human development and some ways to think about this confusion. Calls for a reorientation of researchers' perspectives toward themselves and those whom they study. (PCB)

Presents arguments, based on Thomas Kuhn's work, that most research on rural and small schools proceeds from previous scientific achievements, and that researchers' (outsiders') preconceived and approximated reality forces the nature of rural and small schools into an inflexible box. Contains 40 references. (Author/SV)

Three multitrait-multimethod studies are described, which indicated that ill-defined solutions were frequent, and alternative parameterizations tended only to mask this problem. Moreover, method factors sometimes represented trait variance as opposed to method variance. However, specification of method effects as correlated uniqueness proved more…

A four-phase Delphi procedure collected opinions from deans of agriculture and education and directors of agricultural experiment stations. The consensus of these decision makers was that agricultural research missions and initiatives should be focused to take advantage of knowledge and talents in the field; clustered to reflect the focus of…

Multi-element research designs (alternating treatments or simultaneous treatments) are capable of revealing when sequence effects operate, but even more valuably, they can be used to assess the effects of potential multiple treatment interference and to study contextual interactions other than sequence effects. (JDD)

Findings indicated that as the proportion of nominators declines, sociometric classifications become less accurate. Of the groups usually compared in studies of children's social adjustment, the average and neglected groups appear least resistant, and the rejected group most resistant, to classification errors due to nominator attrition. (RH)

The nonnormed fit index's dependence on sample size in covariance structure analysis is discussed. Contrary to K. A. Bollen (1986) (whose alternative index depends on sample size), it is shown that the mean of the nonnormed fit index is independent of sample size for true and almost true models. (Author/TJH)

Reviews some major research issues about ethnic minority families, focusing on conceptual, theoretical, and methodological concerns in study of ethnic minority families. Discusses concerns in relation to their influence on developing and implementing interventions for ethnic minority families. (Author/NB)

In round two of a debate begun in November 1988, this article again reemphasizes the poor quality of Jeanne Chall's experimental phonics research and reporting inaccuracies that invalidate her conclusions. The basic flaw might lie in Chall's belief system. Includes 57 references. (MLH)