Research coordinating units (RCUs) were created by Congress in 1968 through passage of the Vocational Education Act Amendments. RCUs were state-level agencies for coordinating research and development projects for occupational and vocational education. After RCUs were disbanded in 1984 under the Perkins Act, many of their former research and…

The purpose of this study was to develop a survey instrument that could be used to determine the degree to which faculty members perceive themselves to have knowledge and skills that they can use to help their adult students learn how to learn. Informal surveys of students at the Anderson Adult Education Center in South Carolina, which has a high…

This book of collected papers and essays addresses issues of research in multicultural education and aims to facilitate production of this research and to meet the needs of researchers in this area. Part 1, "The Marginalization of Multicultural Discourse," contains three papers on the barriers, needs, and limitations inherent in doing…

A study investigated whether the academic writing task surveys conducted at American universities reflect accurately the need for student academic writing skills. These surveys are used as a basis for designing composition courses for both native English-speakers and students of English as a second language. The study is restricted to surveys in…

This paper examines the problem of experience level versus compensation level of college faculty via a study of 129 faculty members at Ashland University (Ohio). It presents the procedures that were used to identify faculty salary compression (in which new faculty may be paid more at equal or higher levels than existing senior faculty) at the…

The case study, the use of ethnography, and phenomenological methods and techniques of research are introduced as approaches to qualitative research in the area of educational technology. Both ethnography and phenomenological research are interpretive and descriptive forms of research. The ethnographic investigation focuses on the social…

In the tradition of critical ethnography, this study demonstrates the development and use of a structured approach to the qualitative study of an urban alternative public high school. It responds to the need for research that begins to connect the language of possibility in critical educational theory with an emerging language of possibility in…

Interest in Total Quality Management (TQM) at institutions of higher education has been stressed in recent years as an important area of activity for institutional researchers. Two previous AIR Forum papers have presented some of the statistical and graphical methods used for TQM. This paper, the third in the series, first discusses some of the…

This report reviews the research and development (R&D) structures and practices for vocational education, training, and employment in the United States, Germany, France, Sweden, and England. The organization and management of each country's R&D system as well as R&D agendas and priorities are analyzed. General observations and…

In 1989, the Australian state of Victoria introduced a major curriculum reform in postcompulsory education. Curriculum requirements are set out as guidelines to allow schools to vary content and approach while still meeting prescribed work requirements. Assessment responsibilities have shifted from externally set and examined tasks to school-based…

A framework is provided for asking research questions and implementing an applied urban research project. Chapter 1 gives a brief overview of the term "urban" and the field of urban research. Chapter 2 discusses how different levels of analysis can be used in doing urban research. Chapter 3 suggests the need for strategic thinking in the applied…

The methodology developed for the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications' evaluation of the "New Pathways to a Degree" projects funded by the Annenberg/CPB Project is described. This methodology provides an approach for conducting a valid, reliable evaluation effort that is sensitive to specific institutional issues and…

A study reviewed the effects of the whole language movement. Two forms of analysis were used: meta-analysis, and a simple "vote-counting" procedure. Quantitative studies that compared a whole language and a traditional (or basal reading) approach, published between 1988 and 1993, were selected for analysis. A total of 45 studies were…

This Research in Brief describes the scientific methodologies used to perform a review of crime prevention programs and then discusses what research has shown to work, what it has shown not to work, and what approaches seem promising for crime prevention. The first step was to identify and review reports evaluating the effectiveness of crime…

The Communication Theory and Methodology section of the Proceedings contains the following 20 papers: "Information Sufficiency and Risk Communication" (Robert J. Griffin, Kurt Neuwirth, and Sharon Dunwoody); "The Therapeutic Application of Television: An Experimental Study" (Charles Kingsley); "A Path Model Examining the…