Discusses the following factors influencing the role of community college institutional researchers: the current emphasis on proposal writing and grant management, fiscal constraints, mission expansion, marketing, program evaluations, faculty/administrator relations, institutional credibility and change, college planning, and issues of the 1980s.…

The relationship between the Central Intelligence Agency and the academic world became evident to the author during a 1974 convention of the American Historical Association, at which he found that academic studies could be legwork for policies implemented by the CIA's operational branch. (LBH)

Determinants of grant-getting are explored for a national sample of over 5,000 faculty in all types of fields and senior institutions of higher education. Findings indicate a major dependence of grant-getting on productivity, a secondary impact by interfield favoritism, and minor influence by situational and personal status factors. (Author/LBH)

The current, conventional approach to research does little to strengthen scholars' participation in civic life. However, models of research that promote more democratic inquiry methods, more reciprocal relationships between researchers and their subjects, and new collaborations between research institutions and communities are emerging and being…

Cites Edward Lee Thorndike's influence on the sizable chasm between educational research and practice. Notes recent progress in improving research use (action research, teacher researchers) but suggests there is still far to go. (SK)

Compared 26 large-group research grants (PO1) and 66 individual research grants on mental retardation, focusing on success rates, productivity, costs, impact, publications, and outcome. Results found no overwhelming evidence that one funding mechanism is more effective than the other; however, PO1s had a higher success rate. (Author/CR)

A template for pictorial image description to be used by novice image searchers in recording their descriptions of images was tested; image attribute classes derived in previous research were used to model the template. Results indicated that users may need training and/or more guidance to correctly assign descriptors to higher-level classes.…

A scientific communication model of the emergence of a hybrid research area was tested on 74 researchers in the field of developmental dyslexia. Results show support for a model of Mulkay's model branching instead of Kuhn's model of scientific revolution; evidence points to divergence rather than convergence among the related research areas.…

Teachers in Highland Park, Michigan, conducted research and began an interactive reading-instruction program for students who were not succeeding in school. Reciprocal teaching, which trains students to use four strategies (generating questions, summarizing, clarifying, and predicting) for improving reading comprehension, raised hopes,…

Summarizes issues raised by E. D. Wong (1995) on the teacher as researcher that argued the presence of conflict of purpose and conduct. Argues that while conflict of purpose or conduct may not exist, tension does exist in terms of research time and tasks. Further argues that the conflict-versus-compatibility issue can be transcended. (GR)

Recounts a study documenting the actual learning trajectory of the classroom community and the diversity in eighth-graders' reasoning as they participated in the classroom mathematical practices that constituted this trajectory. Describes the learning of the research team by documenting conjectures about students' statistical learning and the…

Provides an overview of the ENVISION program for enhancing middle school science teachers' understanding of environmental science and inquiry. Focuses on the component of the project that engages teachers in conducting their own environmental research. Describes the theoretical basis for the professional development model, linking the model to the…

Based on findings from national and international evaluations, this article discusses the extent to which goals and reality meet in Finnish teacher education, noting that teacher research produces important information that supports teacher education and asserting that teacher education should be anchored not only in research but also in the…

Discusses ways that family policy conceptions of stability for children are tied to a particular family form and to maintaining continuity in biological parenting obligations, while parenting research has focused on measuring consequences of changing family forms for children. Asserts that stepfamily members have more complex understandings about…

A literary scholar recounts his personal experiences with manuscripts and archival materials of great variety and sees a pendulum shift back toward examining original source materials. Special collections need to reinsert themselves into the mainstream of intellectual life and promote themselves to students and scholars more effectively. (Author)