This publication contains reports on eight research studies proposed, developed, and conducted by special education teachers in their own classrooms. The projects are: "Chapter 1 and Special Education Working Together To Activate Students' Participation in Applying Math through the Use of Technology" (Megan Haynes Blancett and Carol…

To overcome public skepticism, government agencies and policymakers are increasingly appropriating the term "research-based" to describe their work. This paper examines how educational leaders should respond to the politicization of their field, implicit in such characterizations, by examining how the field might look if the words…

The overall segregationist milieu of the educational enterprise serves to forestall movement in the search of a comprehensive theory of literacy and literacy instruction. Building such a theory mandates a democratically disposed, pluralistic research community. Sociologically, the theory-to-practice norm sustains an artificial hierarchy within the…

The policy of the Rehabilitation Services Administration is to encourage research and demonstration projects to involve users in appropriate roles in order to assure greater use of findings. This article stresses participatory planning and outlines the roles and responsibilities of both the researcher and the user in a research activity. (Author)

Recommended institute publications, outside readings, and library holdings dealing with academic freedom and civil liberties at the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute in Berkeley, California, are provided. (DE)

Controversy over the proper place of significance testing within scientific methodology has continued for some time. The suggestion that effect sizes are more important than whether results are significant is presented. Effect size can be defined as an estimate of how much of the dependent variable is accounted for by the independent variables.…

Qualitative and quantitative research approaches are generally considered to be mutually exclusive. It is possible, however, that a synthesis can be achieved at the level of interpretation and explanation of findings. This paper is divided into four sections to provide: (1) an understanding of explanation and the explanation problem in research;…

A professional journal, written by teachers and read by curriculum researchers, may help the collaborative process needed to produce effective curricula that teachers will use in their classrooms. A journal of this kind could help researchers understand teachers' thought and planning processes and why curricula may have been adapted in a special…

Meta-analysis is a quantitative or statistical method for doing a literature review which replaces the traditional narrative method of reviewing literature. Statistics are taken from individual empirical studies and then statistical formulas are used to combine and test hypotheses. For feminist psychology, meta-analyses have usually been directed…

This paper addresses one major question: What unique perspectives and skills does the university researcher, in interaction with the teacher/practitioner, contribute to help a collaborative research/evaluation team identify its research and achieve its goal? Case analysis of a recently completed National Institute of Education Project (Action…

This paper contains informal remarks on action research in social psychology from its post World War II origins to its current status. Kurt Lewin first described action research in the 1946 article, "Action Research and Minority Problems," as a three-step process of program planning, program execution, and follow-up evaluation. Ronald Lippitt and…

This study examined the interrelationships between research, policy, and practice. A year-long observation study was made of the lives and activities of a group of educational researchers collaborating on a nationally funded research investigation. The researchers were trying to implement wait time in high school biology and chemistry classes.…

Most, though not all, qualitative research is naturalistic in that the researcher enters the world of the participants as it exists and obtains data without any deliberate intervention to alter the setting. The resulting accounts of what people say and do form the basis for inductive rather than deductive analysis--theory is created to explain the…

The development and operations of the North Carolina Association for Institutional Research (NCAIR) are traced, with attention to specific meetings and activities. Events that led to the establishment of NCAIR are noted, including the work of the 1972-1973 planning committee. The association's mission is identified as: promoting professional…