Effect Sizes (ES) are an increasingly important index used to quantify the degree of practical significance of study results. This paper gives an introduction to the computation and interpretation of effect sizes from the perspective of the consumer of the research literature. The key points made are: (1) "ES" is a useful indicator of the…

Personal interaction between health policy makers and researchers is widely seen as the key to enhancing research use, but there are also increasing demands that policies be based on syntheses of the available evidence. A potential paradox arises in that whilst interaction may result in greater use of the evidence it might also lead to a partial…

In recent years a number of writers have expressed concern that teachers fail to engage with published educational research, and that this failure rests in part with the research producers' disconnection from their users. In the context of these criticisms, this article considers how our knowledge of teachers' life cycles, from their early days in…

Objective:: To help close the gap between health promotion research and practice by using systems thinking. Methods: We review 3 national US tobacco control initiatives and a project (ISIS) that has introduced systems thinking to tobacco control, speculating on ways in which systems thinking may add value to health promotion dissemination and…

As my playful title suggests, I am referring to the process where the statement, "send reinforcements; we're going to advance," is said to have become, "send three- and fourpence; we're going to a dance." This quotation springs to mind when asked to think about how research gets picked up and recommendations from research are…

A. D. Mitchell's work on the phosphorus(I) reduction of the halogens and of mercury(II) and copper(II) chlorides is examined. A review of some salient characteristics of the Mitchell mechanism is presented, together with a discussion on how a student might benefit from a case study of the phosphorus(I) reduction of iodine or the similarly behaving…

Since 2002, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has funded more than 400 research grants through the National Center for Education Research. This document lists the publications that have resulted from these projects. Publications from IES grantees include articles intended for scientific audiences, as well as articles written for general…

This paper makes a case that when teachers and school leaders (administrators) engage in site-based action research they become more efficacious leaders. This paper reviews eight years of research work of site-based research projects completed by school-based personnel as well as the experiences of teachers and school administrators who have…

This keynote address argues that in order for baccalaureate and masters degree students to apply research to make better judgments and decisions in their life-affecting practice and in response to the information revolution, the helping professions need to redesign (from the bottom up) not overhaul (make a few changes in) the way research methods…

As the evidence-based practice movement gains momentum, continuing education practitioners increasingly confront the challenge of developing and conducting opportunities for achieving research uptake. Recent thinking invites new approaches to continuing education for health professionals, with due consideration of what knowledge merits uptake by…

For many researchers and developers in information and communication technology in education (ICTE), the transfer of knowledge from research into educational practice is slow and limited. For most researchers concerned with changing practice, the failure to make a significant impact is attributed to those who practice in education, whilst those in…

The accountability imperative requires schools to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs. Florida answered the accountability imperative by instituting statewide objective assessments and assigning grades to schools. The latter move led to several initiatives concerning the practices that improve schools in Florida. This article…

This chapter describes the National Student Clearinghouse and discusses opportunities and challenges for tracking community college students. It also presents a system perspective on using clearinghouse data to promote more comprehensive student and graduate tracking. (Contains 2 tables.)

There has been an increasing focus on evidence-based practices in special education with efforts underway to authoritatively identify those practices that are evidence based. However, the identification of evidence-based practices is only the beginning of the process of implementing evidence-based special education. The professional wisdom of…

Fred N. Kerlinger has been hailed as having contributed to the transformation of the way that behavioral scientists and educators read research reports, design and execute research, and draw conclusions about research. In 1960 he introduced the notion that educational research is fraught with mythology. Three of the research myths that he…