Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical framework that derives from critical humanism through social psychology and is presented as an alternative to sociological and psychological views of social reality. This paper analyzes the general arguments of symbolic interactionism, its portrayal of people as responsible agents, and its interpretive…

An ethnographic study of a Philadelphia elementary school program in English as a second language focused on the way children's first and second languages were used in the classroom, and how this use of language was connected to the learning process. It was found that despite teachers' claims of emphasis on communication skills, a number of…

Research on content area reading in English as a second language (ESL) has focused on the psycholinguistic and educational aspects of reading. Psycholinguistic research has found that reading comprehension is not solely a result of text variables such as sentence complexity and length or vocabulary, but is largely dependent on reader variables,…

The proposal put forward in this presentation centers on the use of the microcomputer for the generation of educational research, both as a powerful tool for information collection and as a means for analyzing the generated data. The microcomputer-based laboratory (MBL) principles described in this paper may be used in rural classroom settings as…

This manual outlines a coding system for the categorization of social action performed in talking, in the context of mother-infant interaction. The system, constructed for investigating the acquisition of language for social-communicative purposes, codes talk on two levels: the single utterance, and the interchange. Both kinds of units are defined…

The theory underlying qualitative research design and a specific formative evaluation study that includes qualitative methods are discussed. The focus is the data analyses methods and procedures employed in the evaluation study, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the inquiry. Qualitative research focuses on the idiographic and operates on…

A study examined Carol Gilligan's theory of moral reasoning, seeking evidence to either support or deny the claim that individuals primarily use one of two different sets of sex-related constructs to arrive at decisions when faced with moral dilemmas. Subjects, 20 young lawyers and psychologists (equally divided as to men and women), were…

The report describes second-year project activities of the Early Intervention Research Institute (EIRI) at Utah State University, relating to a 5-year project to conduct 16 longitudinal studies of the effects and costs of alternative types of early intervention with handicapped children. Six of the studies are to investigate effects of varying the…

The monograph summarizes findings from two research areas: teacher effectiveness and teacher decision making practices. Paradigms for research on teaching, characteristics of an effective teacher, generalizations about teachers' decision making, decision making models, and the relationship of teacher self-efficacy and teacher behaviors are…

Experiences in teaching a research methods course to Master of Library Science students at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) are reported. Outlined are somewhat controversial teaching and learning considerations, based on the broad objectives and content of the research methods course taught in Ibadan's library school since 1977. These…

A model of student persistence that considers the role of student finances and student financial aid was investigated in 1980, with a focus on federal campus-based aid. Linear Structural Relations (LISREL), a more versatile technique than traditional path analysis, accounted for 42 percent of the variance in the persistence of 343 new freshmen…

Several approaches to determining a new formula for the allocation of faculty positions (and associated salary and operating funds) are discussed. These approaches are: weighting schemes used at peer institutions, faculty workload measures, and use of a state funding formula. A survey was used to solicit data concerning weighting schemes used at…

Issues that are central to science when the object of inquiry is the human being need clarification and analysis. These issues can be formulated as a question, such as, "How can researchers in adult and continuing education conduct research that is empirical human science; that is, how can they study human beings as persons with values, will,…

Defining the media experience as the media and social interaction involved in any person's viewing of television and the consequences of that viewing for oneself and others, this paper examines how phenomenology and psychodrama--methods of experiential learning focusing on the feeling and imagining functions of communication--can be used to teach…

This executive summary of a research project explores the general question of how school districts change their domains through the management of major proposals ("issues"). The study, which focused on case studies of three suburban superintendents' management of five to seven major issues, used raw data consisting of interviews with…