The proceedings of a July 1989 conference of directors of research grants and research-based contracts funded by the Division of Innovation and Development of the Office of Special Education Programs are presented. The meeting featured a combination of general sessions, small-group discussions on research issues and content areas, and a panel…

In March 1990, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) carried out a study of the potential that technology offers to education at all levels. This project was known as The Vision: TEST (Technologically Enriched Schools of Tomorrow). Data for the study were collected via a review of the applicable literature, visits to schools…

Designed to identify research methodologies suitable for the qualitative evaluation of media support services, this 1-year prototypical study used ethnographic research methods to evaluate media services within a school of nursing. Objectives were established in the areas of needs assessment and evaluation of the condition and context of media…

Observing the teaching of revision from the teacher's perspective, a study conducted case studies of three eighth grade language arts teachers who taught writing by a process approach, but who used different instructional techniques, comparing what each teacher believed and said about the revision stage with how she actually taught the process.…

If professionals are to learn how to maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative effects of day care, they must focus their efforts on the ways caregivers interact with children. This research provides a detailed and intimate look at the conditions under which caregivers interact with low income toddlers. Fifty subjects, ages 24 to 30…

The revolution in hard sciences is explored, from the Cartesian-Newtonian worldview to the Heisenbergian universe, and consideration is given to whether the conventional, Cartesian model is a serviceable one for research in the social/applied sciences. Five axioms comprising the existing paradigm of logical positivism are outlined (reality,…

Focusing particularly on messages transmitted by socializing agents in preschool settings, this exploratory study investigates (1) the incidence of communication events in which standards for achievement are expressed, (2) the nature of the standards, and (3) variations across settings in the nature of standard-setting events. The relationship of…

The prosocial behavior of 52 preschool children was assessed using three different approaches: naturalistic observation, laboratory measures, and teacher ratings. During the naturalistic observation, an observer, either male or female, focused on one child at a time and recorded any examples of prosocial behavior demonstrated by the child as well…

A field study was conducted to investigate classroom management from the perspective of high school students. Findings suggested that students use six strategies to achieve two major goals during classroom events and that the combination of strategies used by students is based on different context features of each classroom. (Author/BS)

Evaluated the effects of an inservice education program on 47 elementary teachers in three Kansas school districts. Information pertaining to several research questions was collected by assessing demographic factors, teachers' knowledge of reading instruction, teachers' attitudes toward reading-related issues, teacher implementation of specific…

This study explored how elementary students employ help seeking as a means of problem solving in the classroom. In-depth naturalistic observations were made of high-, average-, and low-ability students in first, third, and fifth grade reading and math classes. Implications for children's achievement, learning, and social adjustment are discussed.…

This ethnography explores the academic practices of three lesbian faculty members at a public research university. The book seeks to rethink constructions of identity and knowledge in an academic setting by looking closely at how these women are defined by and redefine the terms "lesbian" and "academic," and it examines how…

Analyzes some of the mistakes made and the lessons learned doing participant-observation research on six special congressional elections. Briefly describes seven of these lessons including schedule strategically, get multiple perspectives, do not overlook details, be a pack rat, and recognizing that some goals and processes are antithetical. (MJP)

Three bilingual Mexican-American children labeled language disordered were observed at home and school. Linguistic, discourse, and social competencies differed between the two children not judged language disordered by their parents and the one child who was, suggesting that only the latter was truly language disordered. (21 references) (SV)

The following methods of estimating school-level experimentation with drugs by adolescents at 20 California continuation high schools are compared: (1) self-reports; (2) prevalence estimates from students; (3) prevalence estimates from school staff; (4) naturalistic observation; and (5) refuse (garbage) analysis. Advantages of refuse analysis are…