The conceptual groundwork needed to examine the impact of technology, primarily microcomputers, on student learning is presented. Medium, method, and context are tied with a science of design. In section I, research on technology in higher education is reviewed, medium and method are defined, and interaction with context is discussed. Taxonomies…

Efforts to integrate the gathering of student outcome data with the long-range planning efforts of Xavier University, Louisiana, a traditionally black college, are described. Attention is directed to the need for measurement of key performance indicators as perceived by students. Rather than soliciting students' views, their participation in…

A major problem in mainstreaming and implementation of Public Law 94-142 has been in establishing evaluation criteria to determine appropriate learning environment placement. Providing appropriate education in the least restrictive environment is primarily the classroom teacher's responsibility, requiring decision-making based on these questions:…

Participants in a working conference on changing teacher practice made recommendations for future research. Two broad classes of recommendations were sought: findings from research on teaching most amenable to translation into staff development activities, and how that translation might occur so as to be most useful in bringing about desired…

This guide for writing research or technical reports discusses eleven basic elements of such reports and provides examples of "good" and "bad" wordings. These elements are the title, problem statement, purpose statement, need statement, hypothesis, assumptions, procedures, limitations, terminology, conclusion and recommendations. This guide is…

The failure to find strong instructional effects of simulation is usually attributed to poor measurement and faulty research design. However, weak implementation of simulation into the classroom, rather than methodological inadequacy, is presented here as the primary reason for finding insignificant effects. The types of environments under which…

Methods of achieving compromises between the classical laboratory experiment, and the constrictions affecting educational researchers conducting experiments to build upon correlational process-outcome data are suggested. Ecological validity is achieved through partnership relationships between researchers and the teachers implementing treatments,…

A systematic approach to disseminaton of vocational education research and development program improvement efforts is comprehensive, effective, and efficient. Systematic dissemination is a prerequisite link to assessing impact of research and development--for program improvement to occur, successful dissemination is crucial. A systematic approach…

A study provided a systematic review of employment demand studies in agriculture and agribusiness in the United States during the past 22 years and generated recommendations for the development of a consistent reporting format for use in future employment demand studies. Researchers examined 29 studies with respect to the following areas:…

Information processing, beliefs, and motivations can be coupled with the principle of causal attributions to provide a framework for assessing the causes to which individuals attribute their own behavior. For example, an elderly man who forgets to buy something at the store presents himself with an identity based on cultural stereotypes--in this…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to measure the impact of a specific style of parent education on parental behavior with their children. Six families, chosen by invitation from among parents participating in the Carbon County, Utah parent education programs, participated in the study. A BAB-ABBA single case experimental design was…

Existing data are reviewed and synthesized that speak to the extent to which Consumer and Homemaking Education (C&HE) programs at secondary and postsecondary levels contribute to student knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Differences in program design that were found in the research literature are described before findings about effectiveness…

The Supervisory Behavior Description Questionnaire (SBDQ), Form 2, is a modified semantic differential scale using five pairs of bipolar adjectives to describe supervisory behavior. Form 2 of the instrument was field tested to determine which supervisory behaviors 60 graduate students in education perceived as satisfying or motivating. These…

The National Centre for Research on Rural Education (NCRRE), located at the University of Western Australia, was established in November 1980, to undertake research on educational problems in rural Australia, which include isolation, cultural heterogeneity and underdevelopment, insufficient resources, technical inadequacies, and economic…

Designed initially as a way of understanding the often anomalous rhetoric of movement leaders, the Requirements-Problems-Strategies (RPS) framework for analyzing the rhetoric of social movements has been applied in recent years to analyses of other collective rhetoric and leadership roles in collectivities. RPS has also been used in conjunction…