Critiques the current debate on adult education. Discusses adult education as an academic discipline, the function of theory in adult education, the clientele, and questions of professionalization in the field. (RW)

Subjected 81 research studies on Ivey's (1971) microcounseling program to a comprehensive meta-analysis, assessing the relation between effect size and the sampling distribution of several important methodological and substantive characteristics. Results suggest that the microcounseling program is educationally effective for teaching simple,…

Reports on meta-analysis of 183 experiments comparing the effect sizes (average amount of change observed) of measurement techniques for assessing the effectiveness of public speaking anxiety treatments. Shows differences between self-report, observer, and physiological measurement techniques. Finds no interaction between type of therapy and type…

Discusses the cost effectiveness of training interventions for industry and education. Highlights include the differences between cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis; measuring effects; the development of meta-analysis; cost and its measurement; cost-effectiveness ratios; and an example of the cost-effectiveness of computer-based…

Findings based on a meta-analysis of 16 individual studies conducted in Israel are reported. The study investigated how enhancing instruction may affect motor learning in students on various grade levels (K-11). (IAH)

A review of 25 studies found that demonstrations of successful generalization of skills by persons with profound mental handicaps were characterized by: several trained exemplars, trained behaviors likely to be reinforced in natural settings by natural consequences, use of training stimuli common to the generalization setting, and training in…

Considers two ways of conducting the search for generalizations about messages: (1) single-message research designs used with meta-analytic summaries; and (2) multiple-message designs treating messages as a random factor in the statistical analysis. Contends that the treatment of messages as a random factor is statistically appropriate. (MS)

Replies to Sally Jackson, Daniel O'Keefe, and Scott Jacobs' article (same issue), maintaining that randomness requirements can not be relaxed for generalizing from message samples, since systematic samples are not truly random. (MS)

Compares results of Hunter-Schmidt meta-analytic technique with results of Glass meta-analytic technique on three meta-analytic data sets chosen from the literature, hypothesizing that the Hunter-Schmidt mean effect size would be significantly larger than the Glass mean effect size because of correlation for measurement error. Results confirmed…

Two new methods of estimating the mean population correlation (M) and the standard deviation of population correlations (SD) were suggested and tested by Monte Carlo simulations. Results show no consistent advantage to using the Pearson correlation or Fisher's Z in estimating M or SD; estimates from all methods are similar. (SLD)

Summarizes a 10-year Chinese secondary school chemistry teaching experiment, programmed elicitation, which was found to be more effective than traditional Chinese elicitation. Includes sample programmed elicitation textbook section and lesson. (Author/MKR)

Explores the nature of meta-analysis by placing it in the context of research synthesis. Methods of meta-analysis are described and compared with other forms of research integration, and findings for several meta-analyses are provided to show advantages of quantitative review methods. (SLD)

Factors that might bias outcomes of meta-analytic reviews are discussed. The role of meta-analysis in theory development is considered, describing three types of meta-analytic tests of theory. A final section discusses the applicability of meta-analysis in the assessment of convergent and discriminant construct validity. (SLD)

Some guidelines are offered for interpreting and evaluating meta-analytic reviews of research. The choice of unit of analysis, the issue of fixed versus random effects, the meaning of heterogeneity, the determination of appropriate contrasts, and the choice of measures of central tendency are discussed. (SLD)

Basic rules are suggested to replace the signed coefficient rule to infer the form of moderator effects in terms of slopes of regression lines. Steps are provided to interpret the form of moderator effects that can be achieved using only the regression coefficients of the predictor variable and interaction term. (SLD)