A researcher observed older adults participating in planning meetings and a Search Conference to identify community needs. Participants were successfully engaged in addressing important health and social needs. Participant observation was validated as a flexible, effective means of collecting data on older persons whose circumstances might make…

When carefully structured and appropriately used, cooperative learning can be highly effective at any grade level. To provide teachers with appropriate feedback, principals observing cooperative-learning classrooms must recognize whether the lesson is worth doing cooperatively, the students demonstrate positive interdependence and individual…

Discusses ethnographic studies in business and technical writing, noting that ethnography comprises four essential, overlapping contexts: the phenomenal context, the site's cultural context, the research community context, and the researcher's interior context. Claims ethnographic accounts should balance the input of each of these areas rather…

The use of functional analysis is demonstrated with a case study of a preschool child with behavior problems in the classroom. Discussion focuses on the steps of a functional analysis: interview, direct observation, systematic environmental manipulations, and development of intervention procedures. (DB)

Describes a study that was conducted to determine the instructional techniques and behaviors that either reduced or exacerbated anxiety in an Internet class for novice adult students. Through observation, interviews, and document analysis it was determined that low self-efficacy played a role in students' anxiety. (Author/LRW)

The Nature Conservancy's Berkshire Program involves community volunteers in monitoring migration routes of amphibians that rely on vernal pools for breeding success. Vernal-pool workshops provide basic knowledge of amphibian lifecycles and detailed monitoring instructions. Nighttime field trips for adults and children and monitoring experiences…

Discusses using questioning to encourage nursery school children to develop skills of observation and communication. An effective way of exploring the ideas children hold is through productive questioning. (Author/CCM)

Examined impact of cued observation and discussion by 24 parents of their young children's play on parental thinking and reasoning about child development and parent-child relations. Found statistically significant changes in reasoning about eight issues after the eight-month intervention, demonstrating change within a range that could be viewed…

A study used a Personal Construct Theory/Repertory Grid approach to examine the work of 12 Welsh primary headteachers. Analysis of thematic work-activity grids suggests principals have a more coherent view of their work (as centered on children and education) than Henry Mintzberg's observational studies portrayed. (Contains 36 references.) (MLH)

Discusses a study that focused on assessing with children the story outline for developing an animated story about children's fear of the dark. Describes interviews and observations that showed children's reactions to fear of the dark and their response toward the planned visuals for the animation. (LRW)

Makes an evocative plea for accepting children where they are developmentally and maintaining a vision of future possibility. Claims that adults are being guided and informed by children, and adjust their behaviors accordingly. Advocates encountering the child with a willingness to learn from the relationship, with the result that the educator…

Valid assessment of physical activity must be unobtrusive, practical to administer, and specific about physical activity type, frequency, duration, and intensity. Assessment methods can be categorized according to whether they provide direct or indirect (e.g., self-report) observation of physical activity, body motion, physiological response…

Examined peer intervention in bullying among 58 first through sixth graders, using naturalistic observations on school playgrounds. Found that peers were present during 88 percent of bullying episodes and intervened in 19 percent. Interventions toward the bully were more likely to be aggressive. Interventions toward the victim or the dyad were…

Examined the temporal relationship between peer rejection and aggression as seen in videotaped encounters among 86 preschoolers from 6 preschool classrooms. Found that acts of rejection were reliably coded. Aggressive acts and acts of rejection tended to occur closely together in time. Found a clear temporal pattern in which children were likely…

A case study of learning transfer demonstrates the possible effect of influential observation on linear regression analysis. A diagnostic method that tests for violation of assumptions, multicollinearity, and individual and multiple influential observations helps determine which observation to delete to eliminate bias. (SK)