Systematic reviews have witnessed significant growth across many fields, including education. In this article, we outline the background of this growth, highlight the tendency to focus on methodological considerations, and propose a framework to support education researchers in preparing systematic reviews with broad impact. We draw on our…

Systematic reviews provide high-level evidence but there are barriers to their use by policy makers. This paper reports the preparation and evaluation of an evidence briefing, using systematic reviews and other existing sources of synthesised evidence, to support a possible reorganisation of services for young people with eating disorders in an…

Systemic understanding of potential research activities and available technology seeds at university level is an essential condition to promote interdisciplinary and vision-driven collaboration in an attempt to cope with complex sustainability and environmental problems. Nonetheless, any such practices have been hardly conducted at universities…

This article describes a collaborative self-study undertaken to identify the source of academic writing difficulties among graduate students and find ways to address them. Ten faculty members in a college of education came together to define the problem and to analyze data gleaned from faculty and student surveys, course documents, course…

In comparing several research and evaluation studies, the author contends that variation in outcomes may provide clues to valuable information. Five examples are used to illustrate how conflicting findings can be useful. (RLV)

The vote-counting method of research integration disregards sample size and important descriptive information. Meta-analysis allows for integration of vast amounts of information, standardizes measuring scales, and overcomes contradictory findings. Two objections to meta-analysis are inclusion of studies of poor quality and the issue of…

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a quantitative literature review or research synthesis can be used to aggregate information in the item response theory literature to address specific research questions. The research questions focused on the magnitude of the contribution of the number of items and number of examinees to the accuracy…

Most of the variance in educational effectiveness studies is inexplicable in terms of influences that can be measured and controlled. Nevertheless, it is still possible to design educational policy that will function well under conditions of uncertainty. (Author/RLV)

In response to a recommendation that the Office of Educational Research and Development (OERI) adopt consensus panels such as those used by the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, this paper tries to represent the range of consensus panel applications and to identify the major considerations for OERI application. A…

The manner in which results and methods are reported influences the ability of the synthesis of prior studies for planning new evaluations. Confidence ratings, coding conventions, and supplemental evidence can partially overcome the difficulties. Planners must acknowledge the influence of their own judgement in using prior research. (Author)

The report reviews results of a project to examine pilot approaches to documenting the contributions of research in improving educational practice. The project abstracted 110 currently funded research projects in progress (to facilitate dissemination to the field), processed final reports of field-initiated and student-initiated research funded by…

Personal interaction between health policy makers and researchers is widely seen as the key to enhancing research use, but there are also increasing demands that policies be based on syntheses of the available evidence. A potential paradox arises in that whilst interaction may result in greater use of the evidence it might also lead to a partial…

The six articles of this issue discuss the place of meta-analysis in the health professions and present two state-of-the-art meta-analyses using a variety of innovative methodologies, statistics, and secondary analytic procedures. A survey conducted for this issue and its sequel explores interventions to facilitate meta-analysis. (SLD)

There seems to be a move in the world of education to institutionalize some specific job positions in the development stage of research. One such position is the Research Utilization Specialist, who would bridge the gap between the actual research and its subsequent implementation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to synthesize selected…

Recent advances in theory and research provide a basis for defining higher-order thinking skills and for designing tests of such skills. (MCG)