These four issues of the CSSEDC Quarterly (Conference for Secondary School English Department Chairpersons) represent the quarterly for 1989. Articles in number 1 deal with professional development, and include: "Sharing Expertise within a Department" (Martha R. Dolly); "Empowerment Develops a Computer Writing Center" (Norman…

The Multiple Option Observation System for Experimental Studies (MOOSES) is a flexible data collection and analysis package for applied behavioral research that addresses the needs of researchers interested in live coding of observational data. MOOSES allows the researcher to design a coding system for a particular research question. General types…

Fourteen papers from the 1992 meeting of the American Educational Research Association dealing with collaborative research were reviewed to see if they met the definition of action research. The relationship between the two forms of research is the subject of some controversy. It is argued that some collaborative research can be appropriately…

To increase the supply of mental health researchers from ethnic minority groups, in 1981 the National Institute of Mental Health initiated the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program which was renamed Career Opportunities in Research (COR). In this paper, the Program Director of the MARC/COR Program at California State University, Long…

This report describes a 3-year research project that developed a community-based consumer-researcher training model and subsequently trained an American Indian consumer-researcher team in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. For this project, consumers were defined as American Indians with disabilities, their families, and rehabilitation service providers.…

This paper argues that the fields of education and neuroscience have much to offer one another, suggesting that educators can benefit from neuroscience research by better understanding normal and abnormal behavior and thus creating innovative paradigms of learning and instruction. The paper also suggests that brain researchers might be able to…

The teacher-researcher has assumed many roles ranging from research assistant through collaborator to research director. The benefits of teacher research include the political (it is a vehicle for the empowerment of teachers), the practical (teachers are in the best position to verify which methods work best), and professional growth (they are…

The "Mental Measurements Yearbook" (MMY) series has provided researchers and practitioners with availability and evaluative information about commercially available English-language tests for over 50 years. However, two myths exist that are believed by some users of these resources. The first myth is that there are some minimum quality…

A study was undertaken at Mercer County Community College (MCCC) in New Jersey to establish a human resources development (HRD) utility role for the college's Office of Institutional Research (OIR). The study involved a search of current literature; a survey of OIRs at 14 New Jersey community colleges; interviews with 24 senior faculty members;…

One of the indicators of the health of an organization is the number of individuals participating in its annual meeting. Factors influencing meeting attendance and the relationships between positive attendance indicators and registration were studied for the Mid-South Educational Research Association, using participant data for 1984 through 1992.…

Novice researchers often face more peril than pleasures in the researching process, which can become even more perilous as bicultural backgrounds locate them in ambiguous and fluid positions in relation to the "native" and the research community. Such ambiguity problematizes the techniques of participant observation, revealing it as a…

The paper sets the stage for the effective and efficient use of computers in institutional research. The microcomputer and the mainframe computer are contrasted for those researchers who have a choice of where to process data. General computer use, specific microcomputer and mainframe computing guidelines, and an application utilizing both…

Interest in the application of modern linguistic theory in composition research has faded, possibly because some of the basic principles that inform linguistic study have been misunderstood. For example, a common misconception is that linguists use the term "generate" to mean "produce." However, the purpose of a generative…

This paper first examines different conceptions of collaborative research. It then reviews problems and benefits in collaborative research as perceived by teams of researchers and teacher center/teacher personnel in 14 projects funded by the Teachers' Center Exchange at the Far West Laboratory. Criteria for effective collaborative research are…

The focus of this research was on the question of organizational climate tendencies over time. Andrew Halpin and Don Croft developed the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire and some of the more important research questions raised in conjunction with its development were examined. (Author/RK)