Educational researchers have claimed that the quantitative and qualitative approaches to educational inquiry are, indeed, compatible. However, it would be unfortunate to discontinue this debate. The quantitative-qualitative debate began with the interpretive approach to social inquiry. Dilthey argued that since cultural/moral sciences differ from…

The purpose of this study was to determine how cognitive style instructions to respondents of a survey instrument affected the resulting psychometric properties of the scale. It was hypothesized that a group which is instructed to carefully respond will have a mean score further from the neutral point, a larger standard deviation, and a higher…

Following is an example of a realistic problem and how one teacher successfully moved her students toward resolving themselves. (Author/RK)

An analysis of the research in adult education undertaken in the 1960's in Quebec Province found the majority to be short term studies low in scientific theory and financially supported by sponsors who determine the direction and objectives. (The article is in French; an English abstract is appended.) (AJ)

Ringelmann's classic finding - that the addition of co-workers in a rope-pulling task leads to a linear decrement in the individual group member's average performance - was re-examined experimentally. (Editor)

The main features of a general-purpose experimental language are described, followed by an account of its implementation. (Author)

Tips on constructing survey instruments and examples of alternative formats for questionnaire items are provided in this paper. The 18 tips cover such areas as instructions for respondents, wording of questionnaire items, grouping of items, handling of difficult or sensitive questions, fixed-response items, open-ended questions, and questionnaire…

This report makes available in condensed form the methods for performing longitudinal studies of attitude change and the issues associated with these methods. It represents a state-of-the-art review of such methods, and the material covered spans the disciplines of psychology, sociology, and statistics. It is meant to provide a brief description…

Covers research areas that do not look promising, and research areas and methodologies that should receive future emphasis. (Author/ND)

This study deals with the problem of relating externally developed assessment procedures to the requirements to one company. (Author)

This paper argues that communication researchers could benefit from incorporating a rules approach as a supplement to more traditional methods of organizational analysis. Two major flaws in the methodology of traditional organizational analysis are noted: failing to account for actor or participant meanings--how the actor interprets relationships,…

This paper presents a coherent account of affect based on the functional properties of the nervous system. The paper begins with a brief discussion of the nature of a structural theory and contrasts it with a functional view. Then the functional view is discussed in more detail. The following two assumptions of the functional view are described:…