The purpose of this paper is to summarize some of the author's logical and empirical reflections on the practice of using naturalistic techniques to conduct evaluations. The main assertion to be supported by these reflections is that naturalistic evaluation is possible and in some cases powerful. This assertion is supported through a review of (1)…

This paper discusses different approaches used by researchers to acquire a comprehensive picture of what family life is like when one of the family members is handicapped. Researchers must determine the best time to get a "true" picture of what family life is like and must determine whether parents describe the true family situation or react to…

Provides an illustration of the contribution of serendipitous happenings to scientific information and relates this to a consideration of social and technical problems confronting mankind. The author decries an unfortunate tendency in science today: that of discarding observational aspects of field activities which cannot easily be made…

This paper is based upon a thesis presented to Purdue University by the senior author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the master's degree.

Observation and interview forms for a study of the design of child care facilities and outdoor play areas are offered in this document. Researchers were interested in obtaining a general overview of facilities and conducting both informal observations of children's use of space and informal, semi-directed interviews with parents, staff and two…

The purpose of this study was to examine child-selected play activities of three-, four-, and five-year-old children to determine whether the choices reflected society's traditionally sex stereotyped labels. Subjects were 50 students enrolled in two nursery school programs at a midwestern university during the autumn of 1979. Three observers…

The focus of this paper is on the theory of ethnographic methodology. A body of observational studies in social science and educational research is noted, demonstrating methodological statements about ethnography. Methodological procedures are described, along with possible standards of adequacy for their use. The use of the methodology is…

Sequenced Peer Teaching/Video-Tape Recording: Playback (SPT/VTR: P) is a short-term, in-service program for the augmentation of instruction. It offers a way for instructors to observe their own instruction and that of their colleagues in a context that provides for maximum attention to teaching. An instructor plays a sequence of videotaped…

Data from three classroom observation instruments (Florida Taxonomy of Cognitive Behavior, Reciprocal Category System, and Teacher Practices Observational Record), used simultaneously by three-member teams to observe 117 teachers and their students, were subjected to factor analysis to identify and define their discrete and overlapping areas and,…

A study was designed to determine whether the presence or absence of a classroom observer and the prior knowledge or lack of knowledge that an observation was to occur would affect the verbal behavior of teachers as measured by the Flanders System of Interaction Analysis. The variables were dichotomized yielding a 2 x 2 x 2 experimental design…

A scheme of student cognitive growth is suggested by a combination of Piaget's developmental stages and Bruner's imagery-related stages: the concrete level, for which imagery is not necessary; the concrete-imagery level, with imagery for enrichment of the concrete; the representational level, for which imagery is needed to make the translation to…

A 3-week summer institute was conducted for 84 cooperating teachers, half of them elementary and half secondary teachers, 85 percent of them from the DeKalb area. Objectives were to develop their desire to work with student teachers and their concern for quality student teaching and to develop technical and human relations skills necessary for…

Four indices for investigating inter-observer accuracy in observational instruments (contingency coefficient, Scott's pi, Bernstein's coefficient, and percent agreement) are reviewed concerning their assumptions, formulation, and tables indicating numerical functioning. Three of the four indices (excluding the contingency coefficient) are compared…