A field study was conducted to determine whether a general systems model was applicable to an antipoverty agency. The primary criterion for auditing the effectiveness of such an agency was "communication adaptation." The uniqueness and universality of the methodology employed allowed for accurate auditing. Ideal and empirically-derived…

Attrition, or the loss of study subjects, confounds the subject identification process. Design attrition occurs when subjects initially involved in the study are excluded because of changes in study focus or rationale. Data collection attrition occurs when subjects are excluded because they were not contacted by the data gatherer, or because the…

This unit is part of a series of materials produced by a project to develop locally applicable class, lab, and field materials in ecology and social studies for Guam junior and senior high schools. While the materials were designed for Guam, they can be adapted to other localities. This unit introduces students to basic techniques for studying a…

This paper summarizes the results of a field study conducted by the Center for Research in Scientific Communication at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, which concerned the effects of a technology-monitoring program on communication activities, behaviors, and attitudes of employees at a multinational, Minneapolis-based company. It was…

Summarily discusses the norms of group formation and behavior developed by third, fourth and fifth graders at a racially integrated elementary school during their lunch recesses, and suggests that Kid Society effectively minimized real fighting, which tended to occur in the presence of adults. The Kid Society was a mostly integrated, comfortable,…

This article reports the results of a study which sought to analyze and explain the selection of particular individuals for leadership roles by members of their work group. The authors find four factors important in peer leadership: task leadership, maturity, social influence, and flexibility. (NG)

Major changes in the methods and contents of research are needed. Promising trends in the design and conduct of studies include: (a) macroscopic rather than microscopic levels of study; (b) field rather than laboratory studies; (c) focusing on the total individual; (d) developing a contractual relationship between researcher and subject. (Author)

Examines distance, axis, and tactility patterns of people engaged in dyadic communication in Germany, Italy, and the United States and concludes that contrary to Edward Hall's position, the cultures studied are too behaviorally diverse to be classified as strictly contact or noncontact cultures. (MH)

Describes geological field trip credit courses presented at Weber State College. (SL)

The Coleman Report, Equality of Educational Opportunity (EEOS), and several reanalyses of its data are reviewed. The methodologies and results of several field studies of the effects of school desegregation upon the academic performance of black students are evaluated to determine whether they support the conclusions drawn in the EEOS. (EVH)

Concludes that if we do find ourselves in a situation of multiple paradigmatic perspectives on educational research, then it is not appropriate to think in the near future of there being a 'ground synthesis' of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. If the two major paradigms do exist as outlined here, and neither finds its present framework…

The Experimental Schools (ES) program is one of a series of federally funded projects designed to stimulate and study planned change within local educational agencies. This paper presents the goals and methods of the ES program and of research being conducted under its jurisdiction. It considers exclusively issues in the design and implementation…

Notes that one-semester field methods courses in sociology often lack adequate time for students to learn appropriate techniques and still collect and report their data. Describes how undergraduate students bypass this problem by using multiple observations of a single event to quickly form a corpus of ethnographic data. (JDH)

The monochromatic view of early anthropologists tended toward oversimplification, reductionism, and the notion that all cultures were internally consistent. This view must be replaced by a "dual vision" which sees field research as an intercultural exchange. The dual vision can also apply to education, another field concerned with ethnicity,…

Discusses intergroup relations, focusing on three issues: the social psychology of intergroup relations; the value of a cross-cultural perspective; and the contributions of this issue of the "Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development." (SED)