A historic problem in knowledge use is the gap--the disconnect--between research and practice. This gap is particularly noticeable in the education of children with disabilities and of others who are placed at risk of school failure--areas in which the United States Department of Education has invested significant research and development…

This report reports activities of the Regional Information Exchange (RIE) program under the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research's Knowledge Dissemination and Utilization Program. An overview compares the RIE program with a National Diffusion Network unit--the Joint Dissemination Review Panel, which also focuses on…

This paper reports on an interpretive review of observational research articles published in the journal "Child Development Abstracts and Bibliography" (CDAB) from 1987 to 1991 on the topic of family interaction. A total of 37 adult-child and adult-adolescent interaction studies were located and examined. A comparison of the articles…

Guidelines are presented for the development of computer-based instructional materials. Steps in courseware development defined by M. D. Roblyer (1988) include: (1) instructional design; (2) preprograming development; and (3) programing. The emphasis is on instructional design, the most time-consuming part of the task. Preprograming development…

This book presents an overview of reading/writing research, discussing specific reading/writing processes, instructional issues, teacher research, and directions for future research. Chapter titles are: (1) Alternative Research Perspectives (Sarah J. McCarthey and Taffy E. Raphael); (2) Reading, Writing, and Genre Development (Judith A. Langer);…

A study group meeting was convened by the World Health Organization to enable participants to share their expertise and experience in the areas of research and health personnel information systems, and to identify strategies for the better use of information and research in decision-making for human resources for health (HRH) development. This…

The practice of student teaching is used in this report to describe a structural design model for educational practices and to illustrate applications of the model. Developing such a model involves analyzing research studies and describing related practices. The results of the research analysis in this study are applied to student teaching in the…

The concept of knowledge utilization and the nature of practical decisions are analyzed to investigate how research knowledge and effective teaching practice are related. It is argued that the personal commitments of teachers, common sense, and normative requirements can also be valid bases for action. The author points out that an over-reliance…

Of all cognitive styles, field dependence/independence (FD/I) is by far the most researched and has the greatest application potential to educational problems. Briefly stated, the FD/I dimension refers to people's ability to experience and interpret their environment in terms of a global versus analytic continuum. Field dependents are likely to…

The drawbacks of the common practice of using check-lists for teacher evaluation include inadequate measurement that emphasizes evaluation only, lack of objective data gathering techniques, and lack of reliable and consistent teacher performance criteria. An inservice program for school principals was designed to improve their observation and…

In contrast to early research (such as Coleman's) that concluded schools could not override influences of the home environment, more current research indicates that schools can make a difference. This paper summarizes those research findings (emphasizing the limitations of the research from the practitioner's perspective) and relates them to new…

PROTEACH, an extended preservice teacher preparation program at the University of Florida (Gainesville), is a five-year program that culminates in a master's degree. Four papers describing PROTEACH are included. "PROTEACH: An Extended Preservice Teacher Preparation Program" (David C. Smith) provides an introduction to the program's…

This study examined the roles, functions, and effectiveness of a group of teachers who became Instructional Leaders (ILs), assuming major responsibility for assuring the implementation of a voluntary school improvement program within their respective schools. The program, called SITIP (School Improvement Through Instructional Process), and…

After advising teachers to become knowledgeable and active in educational research, the author lists suggestions for classroom research by the teacher and sources of information concerning research in mathematics education. (SD)

The Research Utilization through Learning Experiences Project (RULE) studied the impact of planned interpersonal meetings as a vehicle of research utilization. Results indicate enthusiastic endorsement of site visits as a means of gleaning new information. Evaluation of the outcomes indicate that visits led to identifiable changes in program…