An Undergraduate Research Program has been established at Cornell to provide a tutorial in which students can become involved in faculty research and learn first-hand how it is done. They earn credit for their participation. (Author/LBH)

Using on-campus facilitators to distribute and retrieve an 11-page questionnaire administered to a nationwide sample of humanities faculty and nonhumanities department chairmen in two-year colleges resulted in an 84 percent return rate. Pilot procedures, selection of the college and faculty samples, and the use of facilitators are described.…

Emphasizes that research into classroom life, and into the preparation of teachers for it, is not easy. Stresses the need for detailed conceptual analysis and rigorous research methodology, the need to face up to the complex realities of schools and classrooms, to establish more immediate relationships, and to take full account of the insight and…

University administrators are expected by federal agencies to detect, investigate, and judge scientific fraud and misconduct on their campuses. Both National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health place primary responsibility on universities for spotting cases of scientific misconduct. (MLW)

This reply to an article on educational research by Chester E. Finn agrees that the U.S. Department of Education does not give enough support to research, but disagrees with Finn's analysis. What is needed is a strong infrastructure for educational research. This in turn will inspire educators to identify and examine the important questions. (VM)

Describes the goals of the Fort Worth (Texas) school district's Keystone Project as follows: (1) to improve the knowledge and teaching skills of classroom teaching and (2) to prepare teachers to work with their colleagues either as consultants, trainers, or coaches. (JAD)

Relativism is an inevitable consequence of our interpretive mode of being in the world. This is so for both our daily lives and our professional lives. What does not overly concern us at the former level should likewise not concern us at the latter level. (Author/BJV)

Institutional research that examines the influence of organizational and administrative factors on student learning may be critical in improving educational performance. The role that institutional researchers might play in reducing semantic confusion and enhancing understanding of how colleges and universities improve student learning is…

Reviews the traditional academic library services offered to faculty researchers and describes patterns of the academic research process. A more active librarian role in the research process is proposed, to be accomplished through understanding research in the information transfer process and the role of the researcher. (17 references) (CLB)

Claims literacy expectations need to be examined and interpreted by teacher-researchers at the local level in order to make sense of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results, suggesting this information will provide a factual base from which to plan programs. (NH)

Investigated the effect of similarity and reciprocity on dyadic friendship choices in third- and sixth-grade students. Reciprocal (mutual) friendships were more similar in proximity, popularity, and self-concept than those in nonreciprocal (nonmutual) dyads. Results are discussed in relation to the interpersonal attraction theories. (Author/DST)

Despite evidence that researchers seek information by intuitive, illogical means, librarians approach research in a static, product-oriented way. In performing searches for scholars, librarians need to understand the organic nature of research and facilitate online searching's capability to enhance that process. (CDD)

In preparation for a national survey of clinical nurse researchers (CNR), important issues from the literature were identified and used in designing a telephone interview guide. Thirty-four CNRs and their respective chief nurse executives were interviewed. The results were compared with the issues identified in the literature. (Author/MLW)

Sources for thinking about and doing new paradigm research are reviewed. A variety of nontraditional approaches that address the role of subjectivity and consensus in research are discussed. The effect of personal and social processes on the researcher, including how one's construction of reality depends on the chosen methodology, is emphasized.…

Online information services (e.g., DIALOG, ORBIT) and computer databases (e.g., Social Sciences Citation Index, Historical Abstracts) that historians can use in their historical research are discussed. The important differences among representative databases are described. (RM)