This meta-analysis summarizes teaching effectiveness studies of the past decade and investigates the role of theory and research design in disentangling results. Compared to past analyses based on the process-product model, a framework based on cognitive models of teaching and learning proved useful in analyzing studies and accounting for…

Background/Context: Although prior research shows that the nature and extent of private tutoring practices vary significantly from country to country, differences between Eastern and Western countries in terms of their cultural and institutional aspects of private tutoring choice have not been closely examined. We need to bridge the gap by…

Background/Context: In recent years, state legislatures, state education departments, and advocacy groups in over 30 states have sponsored education adequacy studies, which aim to determine objectively the amount of funding needed to provide all students a meaningful opportunity for an adequate education. Not surprisingly, because of their growing…

Rigorous research provides information that will allow other schools and districts to select interventions that have a scientifically based track record of effectiveness. All Striving Reader grants include the mandate to evaluate literacy intervention(s) targeted to adolescents who are reading significantly below grade level. Although all studies…

The research literature provides important guidance to counselors working to keep abreast of the latest thinking regarding best practices and recently developed counseling tools. The purpose of this digest is to highlight a few errors that seem to recur within the literature, and to provide some helpful references that further explore these…

This analysis illustrates how alumni survey research can assess outcomes for graduates of master's degree programs and also be responsive to program goals, policy concerns of administrators, instructional values of the faculty, and standards of professional practice. Issues related to survey design and analysis are discussed, based on a study of…

There is a growing sense of frustration among members of the science education research community that results from the fact that the impact of research in science education on classroom practice has been disappointing. In this theoretical paper, the questions of relevance and accountability in science education research are first reviewed and…

Findings from a survey that examined the vast scope of research training in counseling psychology programs and topical areas that are addressed in dissertation research are presented in this paper. The questionnaire included both open- and closed-ended questions and were completed by 166 recent graduates of doctoral programs in counseling…

This manual explains how to construct a questionnaire. It is intended for the novice researcher who has little experience in questionnaire construction. The first seven chapters discuss the following seven stages in questionnaire development: (1) establishing the guiding questions; (2) operationalizing and clarifying the guiding questions; (3)…

The Prince George's County Public School District is a multiculturally diverse district in Maryland serving a heterogeneous population of students, most of whom are black (70.3%) and many of whom qualify for free or reduced-price meals (40%). The school system welcomes the opportunity to participate in research projects, but has acknowledged its…

The Federal Government has sponsored job training for the unemployed and economically disadvantaged for more than three decades. The National Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) study is the first evaluation of a major ongoing national program that uses a random assignment experimental design in which only program experience divides participants…

This paper examines the meaning of "rural" in rural education research and the relationship of this meaning to the research project's design and purpose. In traditional, comparative research designs, "rural" becomes a part of research that involves or implies comparisons with the nonrural. In contrast, emergent, interpretive…

Investigations of changes in conceptions during physics instruction are the logical and necessary steps to follow successful international research on students' preinstructional conceptions. The theoretical perspective integrates currently available frameworks of cognition, cognitive states, and cognitive processes in physics. Particular emphasis…

The Texas Poll of Elementary School Teachers was a statewide telephone survey designed to accurately describe the current science teaching practices in Texas public elementary schools, and the extent to which these elementary teachers feel prepared for the task. This paper focused on the survey sampling procedures and questionnaire design used in…

A theoretical framework can provide coherence and direction to an ongoing series of research activities conducted in a variety of settings by collaborative investigators. An adaptation of the PRECEDE health education model provides the theoretical framework for research activities conducted by The Healthy Kids Project, a cooperative effort in…