This study addresses the issue of whether trust among members of an educational institution is related to: (1) accurate information flow; (2) upward, downward, or lateral information flow; or (3) completeness of information. The study also considered whether a low level of trust is associated with inaccurate, incomplete information. A…

A study tested the hypothesis that the majority of family day care providers do not continue in their job for more than 5 years. It was expected that those who continued as providers or went on to do other things in family day care would: (1) belong to professional organizations; (2) have had training in family day care; or (3) be in family day…

Possible bias due to sampling problems or low response rates has been a troubling "nuisance" variable in empirical research since seminal and classical studies were done on these problems at the beginning of this century. Recent research suggests that: (1) earlier views of the alleged bias problem were misleading; (2) under a variety of fairly…

Two basic methods exist for drawing probability samples to be used in telephone surveys: directory sampling (from alphabetical or street directories) and random digit dialing (RDD). RDD includes unlisted numbers, whereas directory sampling includes only listed numbers. The goal of this paper is to estimate the effect of failure to include…

In socio-cultural field studies the professional investigator encounters problems which raise questions about the researcher's role and influence in the field. A study investigating how a lower and lower-middle class suburban socio-cultural society and an art teacher influence high school students' assumptions about art, also examines the…

This study was designed to look for patterns of parental behavior by assessing styles of child rearing in a novel way--through responses on an interactive computer program simulating an average day in the life of a mother and a preschooler. Presented to each subject (39 mothers of preschoolers and a control group of non-mothers) were 30 common…

This paper focuses on the lack of productive knowledge-building in social education research by raising issues related to the place of scholarship in the field, the nature of its goals, and whether empirical-scientific research can be carried out to meet those goals. Attention is drawn to the limits of educational research based on untenable…

Without support, financial, organizational and otherwise, the U.S. national IEA writing study would never have been conducted; however, implementation of the study was difficult. Planning for the study and its support commenced in 1980, coterminous with two important occurrences: the National Institute of Education pulled back on its interest in…

This hearing addresses the topic of violence in media as it may affect children. Testimony given concerns ways television influences preschool children's play behavior and classroom activities, positive and negative effects of television on children, the causal link between television violence and children's aggressive behavior inadequacies of…

Dissemination of educational knowledge to practitioners can best be improved by creating contexts in which practitioners are able to participate in the research and in the interpretation of the knowledge gained through the research. It is noted that the distinctions between researchers and practitioners are beginning to break down, largely as a…

Arguments and research studies examining whether people prefer arbitration or mediation to resolve a conflict between disputing parties are discussed, critiqued, and compared. In both mediation and arbitration a presumably neutral third party is involved, along with disputants, as an element of the dispute-resolution process. Mediation and…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in its expansion of data reporting, should consider approaches for studying the curricular content of elementary and secondary instruction and student achievement of curricular goals. More specific information is needed about the curricular content of U.S. education. For example, data collected…

Building communication theory in terms of three-variable relationships is a promising route to developing better theory, because three-variable relationships stand midway between sometimes overly simplistic two-variable relationships, and the more complex path analysis. The analysis of three-variable relationships has been done in many previous…

This paper examines and critiques several learning style inventories (LSI) in an effort to find the optimal research instrument for a proposed empirical study of both the quality of courseware and the impact of courseware characteristics on variations of learning effectiveness due to learner characteristics. Five LSIs are examined: (1) Dunn LSI;…

This paper reviews critical issues in the assessment and modification of children's social competence and reports on preliminary data collected in a longitudinal study of children's social behavior. A number of unanswered applied research questions concerning assessment and modification of social competence are noted: (1) Specific behaviors of…