Scarr and Weinberg's results (Intelligence, 1977) are compared to those of similar adoption studies and found to be quite similar, despite the transracial adoption patterns in Scarr and Weinberg's sample. The author also suggests that the major contribution of behavioral genetics to psychology may be our increased understanding of the environment.…

Focuses on the utility of well-formulated theory in conducting research, and demonstrates that the problem of transfer of learning is still a tough and subtle one. (Editor/RK)

Survey research has not tried hard to benefit poor people by allowing community members to help shape the design and interpretation of research, upgrading the job skills and employability of indigenous interviewers, or providing referrals or other services to survey respondents. (Author)

Major concerns about conducting research in American Indian Communities are reviewed and discussed. Examples of three research projects conducted with Indian communities are summarized, and procedures found to be sensitive to the cultural milieu of the community are examined. (Author)

Behavioral objectives should be regarded as one of several tools available to educators. Research should be directed toward determining their advantages and limitations, as well as the conditions under which they can be used more effectively. Conditions vary depending upon student awareness of and interest in stated objectives; clarity,…

Contains a debate on research design and methodology considerations of the study. (CP)

The author presents a research-oriented approach to teacher training intended to aid teachers in being able to reason about the content, methods and goals of their teaching activities. The model research procedure is then illustrated by exploring a particular teaching unit in three-dimensional geometry. (MN)

Observer disagreement is important because it limits the reliabilities of observational measures. To avoid this limitation, observers should be trained, and criterion-related and intraobserver agreement measures should be used both before and during a study. Several agreement coefficients are examined for their applicability. (Author/BW)

Self-help groups provide help and support for members in dealing with their problems and improving their psychological function and effectiveness. This paper focuses on the multitude of technical issues surrounding the evaluation of the effectiveness or outcome of self-help groups, especially what, when, and whom to measure. (Author/JEL)

States that statutory requirements of demonstrated medical effectiveness are far from being clearly resolved. Cites some common experimental practices which can provide misleading results. (CP)

Argues that all evaluation research must necessarily rest on significant moral and political value judgments. Evaluation research may play a progressive role if one is prepared to employ research designs that capitalize on inevitable value judgments, rather than ignore them. (Author/AM)

Single subject (N=1) research strategies deserve increased emphasis in the training of school psychologists. Single subject methodology has demonstrated credibility in research and in monitoring effects of professional interventions. Presented at the 8th Annual Convention of the National Association of School Psychologists in Kansas City, Kansas,…

Concludes that if we do find ourselves in a situation of multiple paradigmatic perspectives on educational research, then it is not appropriate to think in the near future of there being a 'ground synthesis' of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. If the two major paradigms do exist as outlined here, and neither finds its present framework…

Concludes that in addition to using multivariate methods to analyze their data, investigators need to begin thinking in terms of large-scale randomized controlled field trails (i.e., experiments). One of the challenges for the ethnographic educational researcher is to demonstrate the superiority of the anthropological field method over the more…

Asserts that quantitative analysis facilitates the linguistic study of variability in language. The implications of such study for education are in the areas of individual diagnosis and placement. Quantitative analysis is less comfortable to linguists when it is used to generalize or obscure linguistic differences. The latter seems to be the more…