Perspectives concerning a field-based inquiry approach to medical education are offered. This approach requires that inquiry tactics more closely match educational and clinical processes. Assumptions about naturalistic and quasi-experimental educational research are considered that indicate a common field-based approach to inquiry. Parallel…

Piaget's last works (1975, 1977, and 1980) add a dynamic aspect to his earlier exceptionally formal structural model. He portrays change in more functionalistic terms and describes conflict, referring to the process of perturbations and compensations to explain the regulations of the network of cognitive cycles. He suggests three types of balances…

A dialogue journal is a series of collaborative, ongoing reflections between a teacher and a student, interacting in a forum of written, informal "conversation". Used at all levels ranging from K-12 to post-graduate contexts and in disciplines such as language, history, biology, mathematics, and teacher education, dialogue journals have…

The investigators in this study were interested in knowing how faculty uses of a course management system (CMS) helps improve content and instruction, and how faculty attitudes may help or hinder that effort. Seven faculty members were interviewed and the texts were coded and analyzed qualitatively. From the analysis, the investigators derived…

Reviews a study which investigated children's predictions and explanations of the formation of images through pinholes by use of extended light sources. Interviews with 9- to 13-year-old children at a science center revealed that a prevalent model for image formation involved light that traveled from the sources as a whole. (ML)

Since current instructional, environmental, medical, and neuropsychological interventions do not yield predictable benefits for learning disabled children, there is a need for naturalistic research on the prevention and correction of learning disabilities and learner differences. School personnel should focus on program development, evaluation,…

To determine the nature of camp for senior citizens, four participant observers (staff members) conducted open-ended interviews with campers at a five-day residential camp in Oregon. Results showed universal satisfaction with the camp experience. Campers valued the wide range of activities, comfortable places to socialize, and staff relations with…

Presents a study that examines the nature and structure of Georgia State Normal School's two-year teacher education program during the 1920s, using oral interviews of four graduates as a resource. Outlaw discusses the school's classes, uniforms, dormitories, and social life, as well as the teaching experience provided. (GEA)

A multimethod (both quantitative and qualitative) investigation of the integration of computer-assisted instruction into the curriculum for mildly handicapped high school students is being conducted. Preliminary findings support efforts in four areas: needs assessment procedures, software selection, inservice training and technical assistance, and…

Presents a brief overview of good research design and related statistical concepts in deliberately non-technical language and argues that an awareness of the basic principles of valid research on the part of teachers and researchers is necessary to put the findings of language and education research into proper perspective. (Author/CB)

Investigates whether dyslexic children use word identification processes which are qualitatively different from those used by normal readers at the same stage of reading acquisition. Results suggest that dyslexics and normal readers use essentially the same processes to recognize words, but may differ in knowledge of correspondence rules. (RWB)

Reviews research into children's use of television and discusses two studies, one from the United States and one from West Germany, that focus on media in families. A study currently being completed is also described that examines the effect of cable television on children's and adolescents' media use in Austria. (LRW)

Reports on interviews conducted with 12 female secondary school home economics students originally from rural East Africa. Interviewers showed each subject photographs of rural women at work and asked for their perceptions and reactions. Presents implications for helping rural women deal with their problems. (CH)

Provides an analysis of the aims, structure, and content of the prevocational curriculum in Great Britain. Devotes particular attention to the issue of whether the spread of the prevocational curriculum is related to higher unemployment. (JDH)

Single-sex education refers most generally to education at the elementary, secondary, or postsecondary level in which males or females attend school exclusively with members of their own sex. This report deals primarily with single-sex education at the elementary and secondary levels. Research in the United States on the question of whether public…