The Center for Education of the National Research Council (NRC) has undertaken a series of activities to address issues related to the quality of scientific education research. In 2002, the NRC released "Scientific Research in Education" (National Research Council, 2002), a report designed to articulate the nature of scientific education research…

This text provides a solid introduction to the foundations of research methods, with the goal of enabling students and professionals in the field of applied linguistics to become not just "casual" consumers of research who passively read bits and pieces of a research article, but "discerning" consumers able to effectively use published research…

What means can we use to predict the success or failure of the future English teacher? Authors subject a number of assumptions to rigid statistical tests and conclude that it is difficult to find an answer. (RB)

Results of work of Centre for Catalogue Research into usability of library catalogs with different levels of content of entries and users' needs for bibliographic data elements suggest that much information normally included in catalog entry is rarely used, and its inclusion makes catalog use difficult. Twelve references are provided. (EJS)

Identifies some of the problems and issues endemic to research studying career patterns in student affairs. Suggests more promising avenues of research. Discusses the conditioning effects of the higher education environment, recent developments in conceptualizing career research, experimental design issues and opportunities for studying work…

Presents a brief survey of contemporary research in psychology within a tripartite schema: remediation, developmental counseling, and prevention. Addresses methodological issues that focus on designs and trends. Offers suggestions for future research. (Author/RC)

Reviews psychological research suggesting that conditioning and social modeling procedures contribute to the formation and modification of the affective components of eating behavior. (DS)

Summarizes several issues concerning research in nutrition education. Examines several research perspectives such as behavior modification, social learning, information-processing, health belief, and ecological system perspectives. Suggests three areas of research directions including assessment, strategies, and evaluation. (DS)

Three limitations of the Barnes and Clawson review (EJ 135 379), which concluded that advance organizers do not facilitate learning, are discussed. Several theories of the effects of advance organizers on internal cognitive processes are presented, and theory-related studies provide evidence that advance organizers can affect learning in…

Articulates a fundamental rationale for the practice of qualitative research in music education. Argues that knowledge and experience are by definition subjective and constructed, thereby validating research methodologies that incorporate and acknowledge these realities. Identifies eight "processes" that offer productive research opportunities.…

Explores what focus groups are, how they have been utilized by researchers, and some of the practical and theoretical implications for incorporating focus groups in the design of educational research. Includes verbatim transcripts from interviews and specific examples of various focus groups. (MJP)

This study surveyed 12 journals in the field of emotional and behavior disorders to explore trends in five dimensions of research: (1) subject characteristics; (2) settings; (3)research design; (4) dependent variables; and (5) independent variables (interventions). Negligible trends were found and few studies reported interventions that were…

Argues that comparative studies in higher education are helpful in conceptual restructuring and in understanding how higher education is shaped by common international trends, reforms based on comparisons, increasing trans-national cooperation, and some supra-national integration of systems. Recommends a semi-structured research design allowing…

Includes four articles that provide librarians with basic pointers on writing and publishing. Highlights include generating ideas; journal articles; collaboration possibilities; potential publication sources; copyright concerns; citations; statistical design; peer review; relevance; the library science market; pricing; publishers; and book…

The seven articles of this special issue focus on theory and research related to survey methods and whether evaluators need information that is absent from the larger survey literature. These articles reflect the view that the considerations relating to good survey research apply also to using surveys in evaluation. (SLD)