Examines the conceptual development of high school students' understanding of scientific research over a school year. Results indicate that students' notions of scientific questioning are uniformed and they have little experience with data analysis or communication of results. Contains 18 references. (DDR)

Argues that neglecting the high percentages of neutral survey responses on some environmental issues may distort the picture of respondents' attitudes toward the environment and compromise valuable information on these issues. (DDR)

Argues that science educators often face the problem of abnormal distributions when conducting large-scale assessments or evaluating national curriculum projects that require complex sampling plans. Examines the precision of science test scores. (DDR)

Reports statewide data on post-college earnings of students who last attended a California community college during the 1992-93 academic year. Presents analyses by age group, vocational major, and economic disadvantage. Discusses methodology, as well as policy implications, for using earnings data derived from administrative databases. Contains 14…

Examines nationally collected data on the placement rates of students with disabilities across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Results indicate that some states have made significant progress toward serving students with disabilities in less restrictive settings, whereas others have made very little progress. (CR)

Enables students to examine the time course for seed imbibition and the pressure generated by imbibing seeds. Provides background information, detailed procedures, and ideas for further investigation. (DDR)

Addresses the Welsh school-effect in which schools in Wales generally have lower school outcome measures compared to England although the growing number of Welsh medium schools in South Wales are doing better. Suggests an alternative way of analyzing school performance data that leads to the opposite conclusion on both propositions. (CMK)

Since many of the important energy-transferring pathways involve synthesis or degradation of biological macromolecules, observations of the enzymes responsible for starch breakdown provide a useful case study. Provides a short, one-step assay for the enzymes amylase and amyloglucosidase. Topics covered include goals, preparation, assay procedure,…

Explains how the graphing calculator can be used in simulations of physics experiments and how its use for plotting graphs requires a shift in emphasis from obtaining an experimental result to evaluating that result. (DDR)

Explores ways in which researchers gathered and analyzed data from time-log diaries kept by further education instructors in order to illuminate the social conditions of teaching. Describes the process of refinement of diaries and the combination of qualitative and quantitative data. (Contains 40 references.) (SK)

Presentation of quantitative research on the family often suffers from a tendency to interpret findings on a statistical rather than substantive basis. Advocates the use of data analysis that lends itself to an intuitive understanding of the nature of the findings, the strength of the association, and the import of the result. (JPS)

Examines whether mnemonic strategies can be successfully applied to the learning of a non-Roman foreign-language alphabet. Students were given materials presenting Russian letters and their English sounds on each page. Beneath each letter was a mnemonic. Findings indicate that these strategies enhance the learning speed of non-Roman…

Proposes a new system of analysis of English-for-Science-and-Technology data. The article reanalyzes data from previous grammatical-rhetorical interpretations and proposes that each grammatical tense/aspect form in English, including the passive, can be reduced to a semantic core that may be combined with one of several types into which predicate…

Based on a 1993 survey of 187 children's librarians in 14 states, this status report summarizes and discusses data representing input measures, output measures, fill rates, and special questions about the relationship between school and public libraries. It makes recommendations for improving the quantity and quality of data used to make decisions…

Data analysis problems, particularly involving the likelihood of obtaining visually ambiguous graphs, pose a barrier to efforts to promote increased use of single-case evaluation by practitioners. Uses findings from an evaluation of a cognitive-behavioral intervention with adolescent sex offenders to illustrate data analysis problems. (JPS)