The New Literacy Studies (NLS) is an approach that places literacy in its wider context of institutional purposes and power relationships. The NLS has been suggested as offering a useful theoretical basis from which to proceed in developing sustainable lifelong learning in relation to literacy. The first of three issues related to this suggestion…

Educational researchers have employed various self-efficacy instruments in a wide spectrum of disciplines and academic settings. However, self-efficacy measures specific to the online environment have not been developed yet. This paper provides a brief history of the online environment and discusses the development and validation of an instrument…

A study examined what adult literacy tutors believe about literacy and how their beliefs affect the learner-tutor matches. It began with the assumptions that tutors are important actors in the tutor-learner relationship and that their beliefs and behavior will affect the tutoring relationship. The research site was a literacy program organized and…

The first stage of research into the impact of part-time employment on young people in full-time education analyzed questionnaires from 555 young people aged 14-19 in 7 secondary schools and in 7 further education sector colleges in Britain. A literature review focused on issues involved in combining part-time employment and full-time education.…

This collection of papers covers, from a European perspective, the basic aspects of investments in physical educational facilities, as well as important issues in the economics of education. Four themes are covered. The first presents the art of the economic analysis of educational projects. The second focuses on the contribution of performance…

This document consists of two papers on theory building from a conference on human resource development (HRD). Both "Theory Building Research in HRD--Pushing the Envelope!" (Richard A. Swanson, Susan A. Lynham, Wendy E. A. Ruona, Richard J. Torraco) and "The Role of Theory Building in Maturing the Human Resource Development…

The ways in which potential problems in terms of validity were addressed by a beginning researcher conducting research into teacher attitudes are described. The researcher, a doctoral candidate, studied the beliefs, attitudes, and values of four experienced high school biology teachers. Principles and practices of research were set into place…

This study assesses the extent to which student services within California's community colleges assist students in maneuvering through challenge, and to see whether student services programs nurture students' personal and emotional development. Using Chickering and Reisser's theory of student development, this study asked students to rate the…

This document consists of articles 1-20 published in the electronic journal "Educational Policy Analysis Archives" for the year 1999: (1) "Ethnic Segregation in Arizona Charter Schools" (Casey D. Cobb and Gene V. Glass); (2) "Educational Research in Latin America: A Response to Akkari and Perez" (Mariano Narodowski);…

This booklet, which was developed for adult literacy educators in Australia, summarizes selected research on health practices, communication, and literacy and outlines some issues that adult literacy teachers might consider in their work. The booklet begins with three anecdotes previewing the practical everyday challenges that literacy poses for…

The conference papers examine higher education reforms in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe from several research perspectives: political, economic, pedagogical, and sociological. Papers are organized in three sections: Higher Education Policies and Institutional Change; Central European Higher Education in Transition; and Higher…

A total of 199 students from a school in Hong Kong responded to 25 items in a survey. Principal components analysis found four school motivation factors consistent with the Task, Effort, Competition and Praise scales of the McInerney, et al. (1997) Inventory of School Motivation, one education aspiration factor and one career aspiration factor.…

This digest is drawn from "Transfer Students: Trends and Issues," the summer 2001 issue of New Directions for Community Colleges. Although community colleges in the United States have complex academic and vocational goals, the transfer function is of central importance to maintaining access to higher education. Community colleges provide…

This document consists of the first four volumes of the annual serial publication "Perspectives: A Journal of Research and Opinion about Educational Service Agencies." Educational service agencies (ESAs) have various names and characteristics across states, but all provide services to local education agencies in a specific geographic region. ESAs…

This paper describes a German project that developed students' capabilities for understanding and valuing biotechnology and genetic engineering, focusing on practical fieldwork with schools by an interdisciplinary team. The paper identifies the characteristics of individual and structural preconditions and their development during active project…