Though models of quality research in education have abounded in the past decade, educational technologists have consistently made the same mistakes in attempting to measure the effects of multimedia approaches to teaching: 1) using a treatment that is not a valid implmentation of theory; 2) inadequate observation; and 3) disguising weak findings…

This report briefly describes the procedures for assessing children's psychological development and the data analytic framework used in the New York City Infant Day Care Study. This study is a 5-year, longitudinal investigation in which infants in group and family day care programs and infants reared at home are compared. Children in the study are…

Marital adjustment over the family life cycle is reexamined using data from probability samples of married couples studied in coordinated research projects in three different states--Iowa, Ohio, and Georgia. A total of 1,584 respondents completed the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale and responded to questions about stage of the family life…

An attempt has been made to show how the problem of data bias had been approached, conceptualized and studied. A review of some of the major studies in the area of research artifacts is presented. Following each major topic, suggestions for future research are discussed. The difficulty in complying with the current APA guidelines on ethics is also…

The results of this study were a series of propositions dealing with the cost-effectiveness of instructional technology. The propositions were developed by collecting and sythesizing existing studies on the subject through use of a propositional inventory research design. Approximately three hundred studies were reviewed and evaluated in terms of…

This paper describes a series of longitudinal experiments which dealt with the development of object awareness in infants, ages 6-18 months. The experiments were designed to document and evaluate Piaget's account of this development. The studies focused on two types of phenomena: (1) when infants first find an object hidden in one place, they will…

In a public school setting administrators are frequently under local pressure to make a new project service available to all eligible children. However, comparable control groups for project evaluation are often absent, and although random assignment to treatment groups remains the most systematic method of providing controls, this is not often…

Two elements are necessary in any systems theory. The first is a correct definition of the structure of the system in question; the second is an explication of the processes of the system functions over time. A comparative methodology is required for understanding changes in a system over time and for defining differences between two or more…

This paper deals with the problems of rigorous research within the dynamic organizational context. Definitions and axioms establish the natures of a social problem, a social intervention program, continuous program monitoring, a method of describing alternative treatments, treatment effect testing, and programmatic change. These definitions and…

The terms evaluation, assessment, and appraisal are often used interchangeably in research on schools and pupils. Guidelines for their use and some of the similarities and differences in their meanings are explicated. The concept of evaluation is narrowed to refer to use of information on pupil behavior. Four separate components of…

A state-wide study is reported on the utilization of classroom, laboratory, and physical education instructional space in private and state-controlled higher educational facilities in Virginia. The report is quantitatively based and includes a discussion of its scope and criteria for validity, summary statements of findings as well as definitions…

Educational evaluation and design are discussed. Five essential steps in evaluation are: (1) define educational objectives in behavioral terms, (2) translate the objective into descriptions of behavior, (3) identify situations in which the designated behavior can be observed, (4) establish an interpretative device which can measure the desired…

A research team from the School of Journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, designed a research methodology for tracing the flow of interpersonal communication in a community in a crisis situation. They devised a completely detailed research plan including advance arrangements, a trained research team, a suitable survey instrument, and…

This is a response to the criticism of "Sesame Street" by Herbert A. Sprigle in the December, 1972, issue of "Childhood Education." It is maintained that Sprigle misconstrued and misrepresented the program's mandate and objectives and that the design and reporting of his study are so flawed that his conclusions are virtually…

Interim national standard procedures for deriving per-student costs in postsecondary educational institutions are discussed in this staff paper. The interim procedures are intended to develop a national data base on the average annual cost per-student by level of instruction and field of study. The proposed procedures classify students by…