This occasional paper introduces the methods of research synthesis and meta-analysis to researchers and consumers of research in the field of adult learning and literacy. To begin, the first section of the paper defines key terms and offers a brief history of how the methodologies developed. The second section provides a conceptualization of…

One of the major series of reviews in elementary and secondary education is the Best Evidence Encyclopedia, or the BEE. Up to now, findings for systematic reviews have largely been restricted to the reviews themselves, with few cases in which lessons learned across many reviews using similar methods can be synthesized. The completion of the Best…

This article systematically reviews research on the achievement outcomes of four types of approaches to improving the beginning reading success of children in kindergarten and first grade: Reading curricula, instructional technology, instructional process programs, and combinations of curricula and instructional process. Study inclusion criteria…

When the subject of scientific analysis is learning, the research needs to be anchored in various nonmonolithic pillars. Several disciplines require a common ground of convergence. An objective observer of the domain can easily conclude that semantic e-learning brings together the three different worlds of learners, pedagogues and technologists.…

A synthesis is developed to make biodiesel from vegetable oils such as soybean, sunflower, and corn oil, as an exercise in the laboratory. Viscosity measurements were used to gain an understanding of an intermolecular property of the biodiesel and that has limited the implementation of biodiesel on a wide scale basis, solidification at low…

Qualitative and quantitative research approaches are generally considered to be mutually exclusive. It is possible, however, that a synthesis can be achieved at the level of interpretation and explanation of findings. This paper is divided into four sections to provide: (1) an understanding of explanation and the explanation problem in research;…

A new approach is presented for the meta-analysis of data from pre-test/post-test designs. With this approach, data from studies using different designs may be compared directly and studies without control groups need not be omitted. The approach is based on a "standardized mean-change" measure, computed for each sample within a study,…

Several developments in the use of the new method of meta-analysis give cause for optimism. First, different meta-analysts are doing work in the same areas, leading to increased confidence in meta-analytic results. Second, meta-analysts are beginning to include raw data in their reports, which helps readers pinpoint the exact studies that lead to…

The patterns of use of computer-based communication technologies in knowledge synthesis are described by looking at the way groups use the technology for efforts that have at least some qualities of knowledge synthesis. A chart of basic options for communication through computers is provided, showing the generic class of systems, examples of…

The divisions between social psychology, naive psychology, and folklore are fundamentally artifical ones. It is argued that all three have many of the same goals--that is, the prediction and control of behavior and the comprehension of the orderly processes of everyday life. Each attempts to understand how social intercourse is to proceed.…

This handbook reviewed various teaching methods used in the matrix of the Greco-Christian-Roman tradition and generally recognized as pedagogically important. The 28 methodologies presented in the handbook were adapted to secondary teaching, but could also be applied to teaching on the college level. The general roles of the methodologies were:…

Two aspects of dialectical psychology are considered: the synthesis of a larger cognitive system from two previously separate parent systems, and a demonstration of how and why dialogue undergoes continual change with occasional eruptions of logical contradictions. (JMB)

Providing practitioners with synopses, illustrations based on classroom experiences, and research findings, this article analyzes the learning models of Jean Piaget, Robert Gagne, Robert Karplus, David Ausubel, and Jerome Bruner in terms of the implications for teaching junior high school mathematics. (JC)

Summarizing President Carter's FY 79 Indian budget, this article presents tabular data describing this budget in terms of: departments and programs (Departments of: Health, Education, and Welfare; Interior; Housing and Urban Development; Commerce; and Labor); FY 78 appropriations vs requests; and the increases or decreases in dollars and…

Concludes that there are advantages to both the theorists' and synthesizers' perspectives of progress. (FL)