Twelve papers were presented at the first student summer conference of the ICA. The introductory paper reviews contemporary approaches to teaching communication theory and research and its application. The papers in Part I, "New Directions in Theory and Research," focus on the following topics: (1) redirection of the focus of…

In 1972 American universities will confer 33,700 doctorates. An essential feature of the process which leads to the doctorate is the submission and defense of a dissertation. The doctoral dissertation must embody the results of extended research, be an original contribution to knowledge and include material worthy of publication. It is surprising,…

The manual is designed to clarify and document procedures now in effect at the Information Center of the Council for Exceptional Children, to assist in training new personnel, and to provide a model for other information centers. Types of information requests received are differentiated, followed by a profile of the typical users of the…

In order to assess the role that research plays in educational decision making and to evaluate the ways in which administrators learn about the educational practices which find their way into schools, a four-page questionnaire was sent to the superintendents of 1000 school districts throughout the United States. Superintendents were asked to…

This document reports the first-year activities of Teacher Corps projects demonstrating the training framework entitled, Adaptation of Research Findings. These projects incorporate into their design the results of research, empirical practices and processes that have proven effective and relevant to the educational processes for schools serving…

This paper describes some of the systematic efforts used in the last decade for disseminating the products of research and development in vocational education and provides suggestions for dealing with problems and issues to facilitate the movement of information resources from producers to consumers. The paper: (1) Traces the history and role of…

The study analyzed the cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses of educational administrators to training materials and information documents, in order to determine whether administrators at State and local levels adopt materials differently. Findings for eight research questions are presented, and implications for dissemination activities…

Defines the technology assessment (TA) movement as an attempt to link research and policy-making communities in federal government. Decision oriented, TA is used to: (1) identify problems, issues, and applicable technologies, (2) establish relevant effects and impacts, and (3) develop and evaluate policy and decision alternatives. Procedures and…

A new approach is described for building a bridge between evaluation and policy-making functions in the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. This linkage, the evaluation analysis and policy development process, has important implications for the utilization of evaluation findings and for the career evaluator. (Author/GDC)

Reports results of a national survey on the use of computerized central registry systems as in child protective services, the perceived advantages and disadvantages of such systems and the extent to which protections have been established against potential abuse of individual civil rights. A need for further study of central registries is…

Comprehensive planning is seen as an ongoing, dynamic process through which decisions about future courses of action concerning the academic, physical, and financial condition of an institution are prepared for and made. Its relationship to information systems, planning staff, administration, and outcomes are discussed. (LBH)

Presents data on the use of microfilm backfiles of 140 periodicals over a three-year period in a community college library, showing 25 percent of titles were unused in each year, with five titles accounting for over 50 percent and 30 titles for over 90 percent of use. Scholarly journals were rarely used. (RT)

Three computer-based scientific bibliographic retrieval systems were evaluated for cleanness (consistency and internal duplication), comprehensiveness, timeliness, and costs. The appropriateness of using one or more of these data bases was found to depend upon the objectives of the end-user. (MA)

Working on an eight-week design problem for a Senior Center in Phoenix, 52 environmental planning students participated in a Gerontological Society-sponsored project to introduce aging content and assess the usefulness to designers of various sources of information. (LBH)

First semester college students (n=92), during their second week of classes, participated in a two (received grade point average information vs. no information) by two (imagined academic achievement scenarios vs. no scenarios) by two (received reattribution information vs. no information) intervention program designed to enhance their academic…