This paper contends that much of what passes as "educational research" has all the appearance, but little of the substance, of scientific research and that the educational community should realize this fact and condemn the imitation, while working to improve scientifically based and conducted projects. Problems in the field center around (1) the…

The Guidelines for Educational Program Auditors in Utah were prepared to help educational program auditors (EPAs) deliver high quality services with a minimum of effort; they were intended to serve as a text for EPA training sessions, as a handbook and policy guide for EPAs and their assistants, and as a standard for judging the quality of EPA…

Discusses a study designed: (1) to examine the attitudes of white junior college students towards authority, minority groups, social change, welfare, and racial discrimination and to study correlates of such attitudes and (2) to experimentally determine the amount of attitude change produced by reading material containing the essence of the…

In reaction to the 1977 Survey of the American Professoriate by Everett C. Ladd and Seymour Martin Lipset, Serge Lang began a file of letters expressing concern over and opposition to the study. The controversy began when Lang wrote a letter to the researchers expressing his opposition, with copies to members of the academic community,…

This document provides a copy of the materials submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to obtain clearance for instruments used in a study funded by the Administration for Children, Youth and Families. The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of the educational services component of Head Start and the Basic Educational…

While the rationalistic approach traditionally employed in research and development efforts in the social sciences may be the best method of inquiry to use in the physical sciences, social scientists, and, more particularly, vocational education researchers, would do better to adopt a naturalistic method of research. The naturalist approach to…

This document is a guide for use by the practical researcher concerned with conducting studies of transfer of learning from pretraining of pilots in ground-based environments to performance in aircraft. While the material addresses principally transfer of learning of pilots, many of the issues should be applicable to other contexts, to include…

This article assimilates and critically reviews 10 reports between 1960 and 1980 in which hypnosis was used with non-retarded children, aged 6 to 17, who had learning problems. Studies are reviewed in terms of the major deficit focused on by the researchers, i.e., reading deficits, self-concept and academic achievement, academic behavior problems,…

Research strategies used to study human aggression include laboratory study, experimental simulation, field experiment, field study, judgment task, sample survey, and less empirical strategies such as computer simulations and formal theory. The context of these strategies can be classified as either contrived, natural, or irrelevant. Major issues…

The overall purpose of the national Head Start evaluation is to assess the impact, on the children and parents being served, of: (1) the educational services component of Head Start, and (2) a new demonstration program within Head Start, Basic Educational Skills (BES). The evaluation deals with a total of 65 Head Start programs and their families.…

A simulation study to determine appropriate linking methods for adaptive testing items was designed. Three basic data sets for responses were created. These were randomly sampled, systematically sampled, and selected data sets. The evaluative criteria used were fidelity of parameter estimation, asymptotic ability estimates, root-mean-square error…

Surveys of dental student values are described that were designed to assess value ratings by four dental classes in 1976, annual value ratings of a freshman class as they progressed through their four year program, and the usefulness of the cross-sectional design versus the longitudinal design. Each of the two surveys, which were conducted by the…

This report describes the technical assistance rendered to the NIE-sponsored R&D Utilization Program (R&DU) by the contractor working with the NIE staff, the Center for the Study of Evaluation, and the seven R&DU projects, to develop cross-project instrumentation, develop mutually acceptable plans for data collection and analysis, and…

Intended for those who are concerned with evaluation but do not have an extensive background, this textbook helps students, scientists, evaluators, and administrators conduct and interpret evaluations. It deals with evaluations in all social action programs--health, education, and welfare. The focus is on basic procedures, rather than on theory,…

This paper outlines the objectives, perspectives, methodology, and educational significance of a research project being undertaken to analyze and evaluate black post secondary education. The major objective for undertaking this research is to determine whether, within selected social science disciplines, "client-centered" undergraduate teaching…