The practical significance, usefulness, and generalizability of research have for years hinged on a finding of statistical significance. Voices of reform have called for the use of effect sizes, confidence intervals, and meta-analytic synthesis of research as a way to judge the practical significance and generalizability of a discovery. This paper…

The authors outline three broad strategies for combining different types of information in a review: quantifying descriptive reports, presenting quantitative outcomes narratively, and allying statistical and descriptive evidence while maintaining the integrity of each. They discuss six ways in which qualitative information is essential to the…

In comparing several research and evaluation studies, the author contends that variation in outcomes may provide clues to valuable information. Five examples are used to illustrate how conflicting findings can be useful. (RLV)

The vote-counting method of research integration disregards sample size and important descriptive information. Meta-analysis allows for integration of vast amounts of information, standardizes measuring scales, and overcomes contradictory findings. Two objections to meta-analysis are inclusion of studies of poor quality and the issue of…

Offers suggestions for retrieval of bibliographic data by those interested in revealing interdisciplinarity and by those interested in creating interdisciplinarity, or interdisciplinary syntheses. Demonstrates Dialog's RANK command as a means of revealing interdisciplinarity in any field, and describes examples of synthesizing work from one…

Used findings from the evaluations of California's Greater Avenues for Independence program and the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies to illustrate why it is important to question the legitimacy of such syntheses. Results show how tempting generalizations are not justified. (SLD)

Provides a synthesis of the critical commentary of each of the contributors to this volume. The field is a long way from a descriptive theory of evaluation, but small, well-defined steps that might be taken are outlined. (SLD)

The purpose of the study was to identify and refine a conceptual foundation for secondary school engineering education. Specifically, this study sought to address the following research questions: (1) What engineering concepts are present in literature related to the nature and philosophy of engineering?; (2) What engineering concepts are embedded…

Purpose: Applications of online Second Life (SL) prevail over the world. The purpose of this paper is to make a review and synthesis of recent research studies on SL. Design/methodology/approach: Documental analysis is employed. Totally, 135 research publications, published in 2006-2008, are reviewed and synthesized. Findings: Findings are as…

This paper considers the bottom-up vision of the learning society. Unlike the top-down approach, the bottom-up approach does not start by specifying the purposes of learning which should direct the development of the learning society, but from observing interactions among learning individuals as agents. While in the relevant literature and…

Major strides have been made in the field of youth development. However, youth transitioning into adulthood have not received similar attention. These older youth have frequently been overlooked by policymakers and practitioners who have been more focused on designing programs and services for adolescents and young children. Because older youth…

Multistep syntheses are often important components of the undergraduate organic laboratory experience and a three-step synthesis of 5-(2-sulfhydrylethyl) salicylaldehyde was described. The experiment is useful as a special project for an advanced undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory course and offers opportunities for students to master a…

A set of highly atom-economic experiments was developed to highlight the differences between acid- and base-catalyzed ester syntheses and to introduce the principles of atom economy. The hydrochloric acid-catalyzed formation of an ester was compared with the 4-dimethylaminopyradine-catalyzed ester synthesis.

The concept of the general linear model (GLM) is illustrated and how canonical correlation analysis is the GLM is explained, using a heuristic data set to demonstrate how canonical correlation analysis subsumes various multivariate and univariate methods. The paper shows how each of these analyses produces a synthetic variable, like the Yhat…

Specialization and reductionism are characteristics of higher education which can not be ignored but which must be related and interpreted in a higher order of disciplined sysnthesis and speculation. (Author/JH)