Information provided in five major dimensions of the field of normal child development can be useful in increasing the understanding and effectiveness of those who work with preschool children with special needs. The especially relevant dimensions of the child development field are : (1) child development theories, including the theories of…

Federal and state roles in higher education and possible actions and priorities for the federal government with regard to research are considered. Federal sponsorship of research is directed to better inform policy-makers who share responsibilities for the national interest in higher education. Attention is directed to the following concerns:…

In presenting a historical overview of trends in vocabulary research, this paper emphasizes the importance of word knowledge as a critical component in reading comprehension. It describes research examining current psychological and pedagogical models as they relate to vocabulary knowledge, and explores vocabulary research in the area of specific…

This paper reports on a two-year study of a junior high school that was attempting to implement a new approach to student discipline. The study investigated the kinds of interventions that occurred during the two years and how the influence of these interventions were perceived by teachers. Implementing the new discipline plan involved university…

As a collaborative process, action research begins when educational researchers, university faculty, and teachers assist each other in developing the skills to identify and conceptualize problems. The fundamental principle of collaborative research is that the research process is based on a system of discussion, investigation, and analysis in…

This paper examines the strategies involved in planning, organizing, developing, administering, evaluating, and providing materials for replication for a teacher-to-teacher network program. The data for this paper was collected as part of IMPACT II, a program designed to identify, support, document, and disseminate successful classroom-based…

This study assessed the impacts on 58 schools and 379 on-site visitation team members participating in a Wisconsin Secondary Vocational Education Program Evaluation during three years, 1978-80. To accomplish this, a methodological mix was chosen, so that impacts could be documented quantitatively through questionnaire data, and qualitatively…

This collection stresses the need for informed and more sophisticated marketing techniques for college admissions officers to help them cope with the decreasing number of prospective college students. The importance of the college admissions office is increasing as admissions becomes a more crucial element to the colleges' financial well-being.…

Currently, findings of educational research are of little consequence to the curricular/instructional decisions of social studies teachers. Four basic conditions have created this inconsistency. (1) Since social studies teaching takes place among value and factual assumptions, decisions about educational practice are based more on value judgments…

An overview is presented of the background and proceedings of a conference planned to share information on dissemination and utilization research conducted by National Institute of Education sponsored projects in educational laboratories and R&D centers in order to form a community among those who share similar research objectives and problems.…

School people are accustomed to researchers soliciting their participation in studies; and they feel, with some justification, that these studies end up rewarding the researchers and not the subjects. We tackled this problem by designing a study where each teacher was the researcher and the object of study was her own teaching. This approach gave…

While there is general agreement that stronger university-industry interactions are desirable and in the public interest, these interactions are only means to other ends. The promotion of industrial innovation is the goal of most immediate interest to government, but closer links can also support regional economic development, improve research and…

The erosion of the credibility of the classical diffusion paradigm by recent challenges to its fundamental assumptions has resulted in a "paradigmatic crisis" as related to research on the diffusion of agricultural innovations. Such basic assumptions as that of a harmonious and cooperative society and of agricultural research guided by endogenous…

Statewide assessment data available from two school years, two grade levels, and five sources (achievement tests; student, principal, and teacher questionnaires; and principal interviews), were aggregated to more closely investigate the relationship between student/school characteristics and student achievement. To organize this large number of…

The recent conceptualization of organizations as "open" adaptive systems rather than "closed" systems has lead to increased interest in the relationship between the organization and its significant environmental influences. In order to study the perceived sources of internal (organizational) and external (environmental)…