Highlights effective graphical methods for screening and cleaning data, exploring and identifying models, and displaying data in counseling-psychology publications. Argues that graphs are not ancillary to scientific publications but are essential and, in some cases, sufficient expositions of results. (Author/GCP)

Presents an analysis of 19 studies that apply content analysis techniques to the World Wide Web. Offers how researchers can apply content analysis to the Web with primary focus on formulating research questions/hypotheses, sampling, data collection and coding, training/reliability of coders, and analyzing/interpreting data. (SC)

An analysis of 168 public administration doctoral dissertations revealed substantial improvements over those analyzed in 1990. A substantially higher percentage conducted basic research and reported findings, and more students are using rigorous research designs that involve attention to causal relationships. (Contains 15 references.) (Author/JOW)

Describes and assesses missing data methods currently used to analyze data from matrix sampling designs implemented by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Several improved methods are developed, and these models are evaluated using an EM algorithm to obtain maximum likelihood estimates followed by multiple imputation of complete data…

If money truly does not matter, and disadvantage cannot be quantified in terms of valuable social or economic goods, then questions of justice become aridly academic. How are resources to be valued? Faulty research design skewed Eric Hanushek's results. More precisely designed studies are revealing relationships between school expenditures and…

Asserts that cross-cultural comparison serves a crucial function as a final test of paradigms emerging from intracultural studies of child and adolescent adjustment and maladjustment. Argues that cross-cultural research's doorkeeper function is best performed when a wide range of cultures is sampled, for which core beliefs are measured directly…

Discusses the effects of sampling scheme selection on the admissibility of log-linear models for multinomial and product multinomial sampling schemes for prospective and retrospective sampling. Notes that in multinomial sampling, marginal frequencies are not fixed, whereas for product multinomial sampling, uni- or multidimensional frequencies are…

Attempts to identify all published empirical evidence regarding art therapy effectiveness, as well as outcome trends associated with study design. Results reveal that three types of study designs produce very similar results regarding the positive effects of art therapy, but their conclusions may appear very different. (Contains 23 references and…

Introduces the chicken wing project in which students assess the microbial contamination of chicken wings for the safety of foods. Uses the colony counting technique and direct wash fluid examination for determining the microbial contamination, and investigates methods to reduce the level of microbial contamination. (Contains 14 references.) (YDS)

Introduces an activity in which students design and experiment to determine the mass of a sample of copper without using a balance. Uses water displacement to find the mass of copper. (YDS)

Studied the collaborative strategies used in an experimental design task by 24 high- and low-prior knowledge of medical students in groups of 4. The high prior knowledge group used knowledge to help construct plans, evaluate actions, and stay focused. The low prior knowledge group was less systematic and worked at mapping the connections between…

The importance and relevance of longitudinal research in learning disabilities is addressed, including its value in verification of appropriate hypotheses concerning particular developmental patterns and debunking of misconceptions. Examples from various longitudinal studies are given. (DB)

A teacher and a researcher provide alternate interpretations of the teaching and learning that occurred in an adult English-as-a-Second-Language classroom. They conclude that mutual collaboration must include all phases of a research project. (SK)

Considers the doubts the author has had about the design of an award winning study, focusing especially on a researcher's obligation to help the teachers with whom the researcher is working, even at the risk of jeopardizing a study's design. Traces the way that her engagement with that question has led to her current professional commitments. (SC)

Discusses contemporary theories of adolescence, stressing developmental systems models that integrate individual and contextual levels of analysis. Maintains that adolescence should be studied with multivariate-longitudinal designs, change-sensitive measures, and data analytic strategies capitalizing on triangulation across quantitative and…