Effect Sizes (ES) are an increasingly important index used to quantify the degree of practical significance of study results. This paper gives an introduction to the computation and interpretation of effect sizes from the perspective of the consumer of the research literature. The key points made are: (1) "ES" is a useful indicator of the…

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…

In recent years a number of writers have expressed concern that teachers fail to engage with published educational research, and that this failure rests in part with the research producers' disconnection from their users. In the context of these criticisms, this article considers how our knowledge of teachers' life cycles, from their early days in…

Objective:: To help close the gap between health promotion research and practice by using systems thinking. Methods: We review 3 national US tobacco control initiatives and a project (ISIS) that has introduced systems thinking to tobacco control, speculating on ways in which systems thinking may add value to health promotion dissemination and…

As my playful title suggests, I am referring to the process where the statement, "send reinforcements; we're going to advance," is said to have become, "send three- and fourpence; we're going to a dance." This quotation springs to mind when asked to think about how research gets picked up and recommendations from research are…

A. D. Mitchell's work on the phosphorus(I) reduction of the halogens and of mercury(II) and copper(II) chlorides is examined. A review of some salient characteristics of the Mitchell mechanism is presented, together with a discussion on how a student might benefit from a case study of the phosphorus(I) reduction of iodine or the similarly behaving…

Over the past few years Research Data Services (RDS), part of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), has led numerous large-scale, longitudinal projects. Feedback to schools has been provided for all of these projects, and has been in the form of sets of tables and charts and electronic files illustrating pupil performance and…

In this article, the author explores the role of research in education. Unlike medicine, education is not--and likely cannot be--rooted in scientific traditions. It lacks an explicit knowledge base that professionals rely upon. Opinion can be as powerful as evidence; personal experience more relevant than research knowledge. Indeed research…

Since 2002, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has funded more than 400 research grants through the National Center for Education Research. This document lists the publications that have resulted from these projects. Publications from IES grantees include articles intended for scientific audiences, as well as articles written for general…

Fred N. Kerlinger has been hailed as having contributed to the transformation of the way that behavioral scientists and educators read research reports, design and execute research, and draw conclusions about research. In 1960 he introduced the notion that educational research is fraught with mythology. Three of the research myths that he…

Making every school in America free of drugs and violence and fostering a disciplined environment conducive to learning by the year 2000 is the aim of the U.S. Department of Education's sixth National Education Goal. Research shows that drugs, violence, and discipline are related problems and are influenced by factors within schools, in the…

Several theorists have categorized distance education as an industrial process. Most institutional research can be seen as contributing to this process. This is especially true in the following areas: market research, organization and methods studies, quality control research, the research activities that are components of management information…

On the continuum along which theories of first and second language acquisition are located, the two extremes represent the classic controversy of nature (nativist) vs. nurture (environmentalist), while those in the middle view language acquisition as a result of a more or less balanced interaction between innate capacities and linguistic…

A study was undertaken at Mercer County Community College (MCCC) in New Jersey to establish a human resources development (HRD) utility role for the college's Office of Institutional Research (OIR). The study involved a search of current literature; a survey of OIRs at 14 New Jersey community colleges; interviews with 24 senior faculty members;…

The Project on Secondary Analysis directed its attention to methodology and policy issues, focusing on reanalysis of existing data (1979-82)--surveys, program evaluations, etc.--as a vehicle for learning how to improve methods of obtaining and analyzing data, designing program evaluations, and constructing policy to enhance the quality and utility…