Teachers engaged in action research are involved in a process that focuses on how they and their students construct and reconstruct learning experiences, thereby extending professionalism and creating additional learning opportunities for students. This paper describes the evolution of an action research project involving an elementary school…

Learner diaries, or dialogue journals, are popular in second language teaching. Numerous teaching, learning, evaluative, and research-related uses for them have evolved. Pedagogically, they are used to identify and allay anxiety, offer advice on specific difficulties, provide study skill and individual feedback, encourage student self-assessment,…

This review and synthesis of dissertations and other research literature published between 1987 and 1993 focuses on K-12 and teacher education in technology education. It begins with an overview of the research base. The review examines the status of and curriculum development in secondary technology education and technology teacher education,…

A pilot study was undertaken in preparation for a longitudinal study of the influences of early childhood experiences on children's competence. The pilot study was designed to try out the interviews, observations, and other record-keeping procedures to be used in the main study. The pilot study sample consisted of 19 families with a child 4-to-5…

The suggestions offered in this paper are based on the experiences of two scientific researchers of how evaluations undertaken in a competitive arena, in which true experimental designs are not viable, can be designed in such a way that meaningful comparative data can be examined. Case studies of the Science and Engineering Research Semester and…

This paper documents the multistep procedure used by the Louisiana Department of Education, Bureau of School Accountability to correct and verify the data that drive the state's statewide school performance indicator program, the "Progress Profiles." The paper also reports the findings of a nationwide survey in which state departments of…

The National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) of Special Education Students provides ongoing information to the special education community regarding the transition of youth with disabilities from secondary school to early adulthood. The sample for the study began with a 1987 survey (Wave 1) involving more than 8,000 youth from the national…

A review of long-term international economic trends and the literature linking education and training (ET) to economic performance reveals no evidence of deindustrialization or falling labor productivity in the United States. Over the last 40 years, the nation has experienced lower growth rates in gross domestic product and productivity but…

The report on women with non-English-speaking backgrounds (NESB) in the Australian labor force was prepared to review the experience and needs of this population in recent years and to examine the various available sources of information. The first section reviews the standard statistical sources and their research methodologies. The second and…

While acknowledging the research that suggests that women approach their education with lower levels of self-confidence than men, this paper raises fundamental questions about how self-confidence has been described and measured during the last two decades. The validity of work on women's attitudes toward academic success is shown to be undercut by…

This instructor guide for a unit on marketing analysis in the PACE (Program for Acquiring Competence in Entrepreneurship) curriculum includes the full text of the student module and lesson plans, instructional suggestions, and other teacher resources. The competencies that are incorporated into this module are at Level 1 of learning--understanding…

In 1986, the New York City Public Schools adopted a cohort methodology for determining dropout and graduation rates. The Class of 1990 was the primary cohort studied in this report; it was the fifth cohort to be studied for at least 4 years using this methodology. Follow-ups are reported for three preceding classes. The 1990 cohort, who entered…

Participatory evaluation is an assessment approach that involves the participants of a study from beginning to end. The evaluation strategy was implemented in a public school district to assess teacher involvement in decisionmaking, determine whether teachers desire more participation, and evaluate the assessment strategy itself. Data were…

An evaluation of Manitoba's French immersion programs at the levels of grades 3, 6, and 9 focused on program effectiveness in teaching listening comprehension and speech skills. The results for grade 6 are presented here. The first section describes the framework of the immersion curriculum and the listening and oral skills targeted in it. The…

Since attrition is often a problem in adult training programs, a study was conducted to investigate the relationship between locus of control and course completion of adults enrolled in a retraining program. Rotter's Social Learning Theory of Personality was used as a starting point for the study. The study population was a sample of 108…