Describes two QuickBASIC programs that provide students direct experience with interpreting correlation scatter-plots. Maintains that the programs can be used in classroom exercises to highlight factors that influence the size of a Pearson correlation coefficient. (CFR)

Describes a QuickBASIC program for demonstrating the differences between main effects and interactions in factorial designs. The program can be used in conjunction with a traditional lecture to improve student understanding and develop skills in recognizing main effects and interactions from graphic displays. (CFR)

Describes a graduate research methods course in which students were taught electronic communications skills. Lists three course requirements involving electronic mail, subscriptions to electronic journals, and participation in electronic academic lists. Discusses six problems that emerged and the student evaluations. (CFR)

This paper presents a detailed description of the experimental design and the subjects of the Central Institute for the Deaf (Missouri) Sensory Aids Study. Thirteen triads of matched children (ages 2 through 12) with hearing impairments (one child wearing a cochlear implant, one wearing a tactile aid and hearing aids, and one wearing only hearing…

This review examines research that has investigated the complexities of the associations among families, schools, and children's school outcomes. General categories of studies are (1) social-arithmetic environmental research; (2) family and school structural characteristics; (3) the environmental press of families and schools; and (4)…

Features of the design of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are discussed, with emphasis on the design of the 1992 assessment. Student sample designs for the NAEP and the Trial State Assessment are described, and the focused-balanced incomplete block spiraling method of item sampling is discussed. (SLD)

Examines practices and training of historians and sociologists. Cites problems in both fields for graduate students interested in social science approaches to historical questions in developing generalized interests into well-defined research topics. Suggests that collaboration will help sociology students ground research in historical evidence…

Presents a prototypical case illustrating what positivist research means and argues that even critics of positivist research are logically committed to propositions that can be tested only through positivist research paradigms. The relationship between the nature of a community's research enterprise and its educational provisions must be causal.…

Educational researchers are not engaged in discovering mechanistic universal truths sought by positivists or tidy prescriptions about what works. Instead, they provide guidelines and interpretive material to liberate the teacher's intelligence so that the teacher can use whatever ability he or she can achieve. (SLD)

Reviews elements of traditional scientific method and trends among Native American and other scholars to include intuitive, spiritual, and personal categories of understanding. Suggests four areas of focus to evaluate the new scholarship: importance of the research, integrity of the process, explanation of the methodology, and acknowledgment of…

Describes the community-based research approach of Barbara Bowman, a non-Indian studying psychological issues at Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. Reviews tribal-researcher relations at the reservation and discusses tribal requirements for research, including approval of the study, tribal ownership of the data, and formal presentations of…

Compares 3 research strategies used over the past 25 years involving cooperation among Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the North Carolina Department of Community Colleges, i.e., traditional researcher-dominated strategy, researcher-dominated with limited client involvement, and researcher-client collaborative strategy.…

Reexamines definitions of and explanations for the Hawthorne Effect in research subjects. Notes that the Hawthorne Effect was tested in a study of the effectiveness of paired classroom reading among students. Challenges the notion that subject's behavior is modified by participation in research. Reviews various research studies that question the…

Evidence is presented that strengthens the argument against comparison group research strategies. Results from a study of youth attitudes related to the California Conservation Corps involving 528 participants and 668 comparisons indicate that the comparison group may not adequately represent the nontreatment state. (SLD)

Critiques the attempt by David Pariser and Axel van den Berg to apply the author's methods to a cross-cultural study. Argues that their study is too flawed to be definitive. Suggests means to test the universality of the U-curve as a cognitive development pattern or an artifact of culturally defined aesthetics. (DSK)