Numerous studies exist that report the behaviors of elite athletes, but little research exists which describes the experiences of students within public school physical education classes. The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences articulated by ninth graders participating (n=67) in their last semester of required physical…

Emerging criteria are reported for judging the trustworthiness of action research studies as compared to the criteria established for judging the trustworthiness of other forms of naturalistic inquiry set forth by Y. S. Lincoln and E. Guba (1985). Differing conceptions of the nature of action research are delineated, and their accompanying…

This paper explores the variety of qualitative methods available, in the context of a larger quantitative-qualitative debate in the field of educational evaluation. Each approach is reviewed in terms of the work of its major proponents. The dominant forms of qualitative evaluation include: (1) ethnography; (2) naturalistic inquiry; (3) generic…

Preschoolers' expression of various emotions and overall social-emotional competency may be related to mothers' emotional responsivemness to children's emotions. This research investigated, through extended naturalistic observation, (1) how maternal emotion displays differ according to antecedent child emotion (happy, sad, angry, or afraid) and…

Naturally occurring interactions recorded during participant observation in two preschools were analyzed in order to develop a distinctively sociological theory of gender identity acquisition. Attention was focused on the use of sex-categorical terms and the "grammar" of sex categorization practices underlying this usage. The analysis…

The applicability is explored of the Bayesian random-effect analysis of variance (ANOVA) model developed by G. C. Tiao and W. Y. Tan (1966) and a method suggested by H. K. Suen and P. S. Lee (1987) for the generalizability analysis of autocorrelated data. According to Tiao and Tan, if time series data could be described as a first-order…

Education is identified as one of the major goals of zoos. Research studies of the educational goals of different audiences associated with zoos and aquaria are reviewed in this report. These audiences include: (1) the zoo staff; (2) volunteers or docents; (3) general community members in formal programs; (4) students (elementary through graduate…

Application of the natural science-technical research model to the study and development of teaching has had a distorting and disintegrating effect on education. Teachers must be encouraged to participate in the study and development of their profession, and learning environments must be studied singly and in their full context. (JC)

The study presents a methodology for collecting detailed naturalistic data on preschool teachers' instructions and children's compliance as well as a descriptive analysis of variables related to instruction rate and compliance probability. The study also illustrates the effects of context on teacher and child behavior. (Author/DB)

Policy issues for early childhood special education programs in the areas of exit decision-making and follow-up procedures were generated through extensive naturalistic case studies of four early childhood education programs. Guidelines for exit decision-making and follow-up procedures conclude the report. (Author/DB)

Scientific inquiry used in special education research has limited effectiveness and applicability to practice. Three interrelated areas are discussed in the context of improving research methodology and utilization: alternative approaches to research in special education; the class distinction between teachers and researchers; and practical…

Through a description and comparison of standards for evaluation and criteria for judging naturalistic inquires some potential conflicts in using naturalistic methods are identified. Analysis of problems suggests that compromises in the use of evaluation standards and criteria for naturalistic procedures are usually necessary. (Author/JAZ)

Describes two types of feedback (explicit and implicit) in the responses of four mothers to their two-year-old children and investigates whether these mothers respond differentiallly to their children's well-formed and ill-formed utterances with either type of feedback. Results demonstrate that a high proportion of maternal responses qualify as…

Differences in agreement between observers and analysts of naturalistic narrative data cause problems in observation research. This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of several possible solutions. (Author/GDC)

Results of a naturalistic, observational analysis of 43 self-contained classrooms serving severely handicapped students indicated that during designated instructional periods, slightly less than half of all student time was spent on-task. When students were on-task, almost two-thirds of their time involved nonfunctional instructional tasks.…