This paper outlines and analyzes the important methodological and experimental design considerations uncovered by recent inquiries into the effects of alcohol on human behavior. The major issues discussed include: (1) the need and technique for complete manipulation of subjects' beverage expectancies in conjunction with alcohol and placebo…

This paper describes a field study of the "Personalized System of Instruction" (PSI) as it was used in an undergraduate communications research course. On the basis of statistics from two years of the program's implementation and from student responses after completing the course, the study draws five conclusions. (1) Most students did…

Four different procedures were used for estimating the proportion of persons who would be classified consistently as either passing both of two parallel tests or failing both. These four methods were applied at each of four different mastery level scores for each of three different length tests. Data were based on 50 replications of each procedure…

In 1969, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) empaneled a Task Force on Research Training and charged it with (1) building a relevant knowledge base about training needs and problems and (2) developing procedures to attack these problems. During its two years of study, the Task Force carried out a series of three USOE-supported…

The document contains proceedings from a seminar on the education of gifted and talented children in Australia. The keynote address, "Expectations for Educating the Gifted and Talented" delivered by R. Strom, is divided into five main sections: school expectations (goal setting and motivation, scope of learning, mental health and…

In part stimulated by the information needed by the Private Industry Councils (PICs) under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Amendments (1978), a growing number of groups and agencies have conducted surveys of local employers to gather various types of occupational data. Such activities may be useful and productive, if the data collection…

The document contains the second annual report of findings from a longitudinal study of 17 local education agencies (LEAs) on the implementation of P.L. 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act). An introductory section describes the content of the report and design of the study. Chapter II considers the observed changes in the…

The abstracts published in this volume are of research projects conducted between 1975 and 1980 by graduate students fulfilling requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Education at Dayton University (Ohio). Over half of these projects were conducted in elementary schools and, of these, the majority deal with reading instruction. Other…

This paper discusses several interrelated features of microethnography that are relevant and useful for the study of bilingual schooling. It is argued that an interactional approach provides a powerful way to study systematically the organization of bilingual learning environment, identify areas of difficulty, and suggest concrete interventions…

To assess structural coupling in schools, investigators must first have measures with established reliability and validity levels. Structural coupling refers to the mechanisms and norms in organizations that influence interactions among individuals. For three structural coupling measurement techniques--participant observation, interviews, and…

This report describes a study of two small-to-middle-sized midwestern school districts, each observed for about one year. The aim was to clarify the nature of the organizational form of school systems and to examine the organizational processes, using qualitative rather than quantitative methods. Two central concerns of the study were to explore…

Due to certain inconsistencies between students' reports of monthly versus yearly drug use, further analyses of self-reported drug use by high school senior classes of 1976-1979 were conducted. Previous reports of drug use frequency during the past month were roughly three times larger than estimates based on usage reports during the past year, a…

This document addresses issues raised during the Research on Teaching Mathematics Conference, examining them in view of the central tenets of the Institute for Research on Teaching at Michigan State University. It explains why teacher judgment is the focus of IRT research and discusses the concept of "the wisdom of the practitioner,"…

A policy capturing approach was used in a study that investigated teacher judgment during the selection of instructional activities. This approach uses a simple (usually linear regression) model to reproduce the inferential responses of a particular judge. Central to the approach is the manner in which the judge weighs and combines information in…

A program designed to provide students a background in computers and computing that was implemented by the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Millikin University, Illinois, is described. The program was implemented in three overlapping stages: faculty preparation; course preparation; and course implementation. The development of faculty…