The Austin Independent School District (AISD) Office of Research and Development publishes abstracts of research projects conducted within the AISD by external agencies or individuals. This compilation begins with a roster of external research projects in tabular form showing the AISD project number, title, project director and sponsor, schools…

The evaluation of a school improvement program for elementary schools (School Effectiveness Training) and for secondary schools (Secondary School Development Program) provided an opportunity to determine if user participation could increase knowledge use. It was hypothesized that program staff participation might be a solution to the dilemma of…

In this paper addressed to graduate students in reading, the nature and problems associated with graduate student research are described. It is noted that the purpose of research is seen in different ways by those engaged in it. However, regardless of how a profession defines research, it must contain and reflect scholarship; any other research is…

An analysis of journal publications by members of political science departments in 38 universities in the southern and southwestern United States reveals relatively low research productivity for most institutions. The 2-year study (1980-1981) involved an examination of over 20 journals cited in the Social Science Citation Index. All graduate…

Many people feel that the making of value judgments is an important aspect of the work of science. This paper explores some of the arguments in support of the claim that scientific work requires individual and social values and raises significant moral questions. Discussed here are: (1) the constitutive value of science; (2) the ethics involved in…

To explore the relationship between inquiry and composing, a study interviewed 14 faculty members from several disciplines at the University of California at Santa Barbara, inquiring about the natural history of their research projects; where their ideas originated; what they did with those ideas; where their research took them; and what was the…

Ethnography is increasingly appealing to those who want to study their own literate society and their own discourse communities. As sensitivity to the role of context in the social construction of knowledge increases, ethnography is viewed as a particularly relevant approach for research in schools and classrooms. The participant observer, who is…

The American Educational Research Association's (AERA) Special Interest Group (SIG) on "Creation and Utilization of Curriculum Knowledge" was formed in 1971 by researchers whose work focused upon the advancement of knowledge in curriculum. The interest area for this SIG centered on generic knowledge about: (1) curriculum definitions; (2)…

Teachers do not intentionally use or consider research findings in making teaching decisions. This lack of use is usually blamed on research deficiencies; e.g., educational research does not address the realistic demands of classroom teaching, research findings are inconsistent, and research articles are difficult to obtain and read. A major…

Traditional sex difference research ignores the impact of social forces on the research process. It characteristically interprets sex differences as female deficiencies, also emphasizing the view of sex differences as determined by personal characteristics rather than situational contexts. Since research is a social process with a potentially…

Because research in speech communication is predominantly the study of human behavior, a major goal of researchers in the field is to provide sound communication propositions about people in general or specific groups of people. A review of recent speech communication research reported in journals reveals that researchers in the social and…

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…

A philosophical overview of the place of technology in higher education and especially in teaching is presented. Research can be viewed as the acquisition of knowledge; teaching as its transmission; and service as its application. Technology affects the transmission of knowledge in both the teaching process and the content of teaching. The…

Designed for the student of historical rhetoric who does not have a reading knowledge of Greek and Latin, this book is divided into 6 sections, each written by a specialist in the rhetoric of the different historical periods. Each section (1) provides an overview of the primary works, their authors, and the rhetorical issues of the period; (2)…

This working paper of the Association of American Medical Colleges addresses four issues: the propriety of conducting industry-sponsored research in schools of medicine; necessary institutional safeguards; individual responsibilities of academic scientists; and the implementation and monitoring of the recommendations made herein. The paper was…