Featuring 11 articles of original research, this collection presents selected works from the proceedings of the ninth Annual Communications Research Symposium. Following are the titles and authors of the articles included: (1) "Issues in Inferring Media Effects from Surveys" (S. H. Chaffee); (2) "Expectancy Value Theory and…

The process used by one researcher in developing an inventory of specific tasks performed by language teachers is described. The objective was to facilitate research on language teachers' jobs in a variety of countries and under differing teaching conditions and to provide job profiles for use in teacher education and by teachers, their unions,…

Phase III of the Louisiana School Effectiveness Study (LSES-III) was designed in part to obtain rich, qualitative data on the characteristics of more and less effective schools in the Gulf South. Data were gathered on eight matched outlier pairs of schools during the 1984-1985 school year. Of the eight historically ineffective schools in LSES-III,…

A project was undertaken to develop and field-test new methodologies for collecting follow-up and placement data on completers of Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC). Strategies used in the study included exploration of such nontraditional data sources as in- and out-of-state private university transfers, state university system tapes for all…

A computer program for classifying elements of a language corpus for large-scale analysis is discussed. The approach is based on the assumption that there is a natural unit in speech processing and production, called a tone unit. The program "tags" the five grammatical phrase types (verb, adverb, adjective, noun, and prepositional) to…

The Institute for Research on Educational Finance and Governance (IFG) has designed and implemented a major survey of public and private schools in the six-county San Francisco Bay Area which focuses on organizational dimensions in elementary and secondary schools. Private schools include Catholic parochial and private schools, independent…

This exploratory study was conducted to investigate the potential interaction between the media attribute, horizontal screen placement, and a learner's cognitive aptitudes, fluid ability, and visualization. The primary hypothesis tested was that low-ability learners who are without well-developed assembly and control operations should perform…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between graduate education in educational psychology and instructional design programs in view of the common interest of the two disciplines in certain content areas. Program administrators (chairpersons) of instructional design and technology programs at 22 institutions with doctoral…

This study was conducted to determine whether young children, given the experience of Logo programming, would acquire problem-solving skills and be able to transfer those skills to other areas. The study also investigated Logo's effectiveness in teaching certain fundamental geometric concepts to children who were supposedly not developmentally…

Empirical findings from reports appearing between 1949 and 1984 were studied to determine (1) whether research activities contribute to perceived effectiveness of classroom teaching and (2) to what extent good teaching and scholarly productivity contribute to salary improvements. Based on previous content analyses found in the literature search, a…

This manual includes strategies for conducting wave 4 of a longitudinal follow-up study. Part 1, Procedures for Researchers, outlines steps to be used in guiding the research process to achieve indepth, qualitative interviews with a group of the original sample members who were studied over a 15-year period. It includes guidelines and procedures…

Designed to assist Illinois public community colleges in satisfying state and federal reporting requirements, this handbook provides guidelines for conducting vocational education follow-up studies and reporting data. Following introductory information, an overview is presented of the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) Management Information…

A Monte Carlo study of five indices of dimensionality of binary items used a computer model that allowed sampling of both items and people. Five parameters were systematically varied in a factorial design: (1) number of common factors from one to five; (2) number of items, including 20, 30, 40, and 60; (3) sample sizes of 125 and 500; (4) nearly…

This document is intended to provide evaluation researchers with information about vocational education as a substantive area to be evaluated, existing methodologies for evaluating vocational education programs, and the theoretical basis for a proposed evaluation method termed critical inquiry. Addressed in the individual chapters of the monograph…

Policymaking is a subjective, cultural, and intellectually complex activity in a democracy and should be researched with the multidisciplinary approach. This paper focuses on theoretical implications of the multidisciplinary approach and on its opposing position, the structural-functional approach, in educational policy research. The paper briefly…