Summary of Koret Task Force report on the state of elementary/secondary education. Highlights findings of 1983 National Commission on Excellence in Education report "A Nation at Risk" and the response thereto. Discusses why educational change efforts have resulted in so little improvement in student performance. Highlights findings and…

Discusses the context in which F. N. Kerlinger (1960) developed his perspectives on educational research, his ideas about mythology in educational research, and the importance of his "methods" myth for education dissertations. Makes some recommendations for research methods in dissertation writing. (SLD)

Reports research on analyzing and visualizing the impact of government funding on the amount and citation counts of research publications. Provides an example using grant and publication data from Behavioral and Social Science Research at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) using the VxInsight[R] visualization tool. (Author/LRW)

A review and meta-analysis were made of placebo control groups in educational experiments. In all, 125 studies were clustered into procedures that included (1) explicit manipulation of attentional elements; (2) explicit description of the placebo activity plus implied reference to attention; and (3) exclusive reference to the activity. (SLD)

Current policies concerning popular dissemination of research results are critiqued, and the formal induction of the press into the scientific process is discussed. Repercussions of a "New England Journal of Medicine" article on the effects of oat bran and low-fiber wheat on health are used to illustrate the issues. (TJH)

This meta-analysis examined effects from 126 studies that used organizational development (OD) interventions to modify satisfaction and other attitudes. Multi-faceted interventions were found to be more effective in modifying satisfaction and attitudes than were OD interventions that used a single technique. Team building and lab training were the…

Presents a method for abstracting scientific documents based on a psychological model of a problem solving process. Each component of problem structured abstracts--document problem, problem solution, testing method, related problems, and content elements--is described. When compared with INSPEC abstracts, problem structured abstracts were shown to…

Synthesizes 10 school- and family-based studies of cardiovascular health behaviors in youth, including sociodemographic characteristics, study designs, interventions, measures, and results. Use of results as components of school health programs is addressed. (SK)

Describes a study that empirically tested the citation behavior model of Moravcsik and Murugesan and examined the hypothesized relationships between three variables: reported citation type, reported utility level, and citation location. It is concluded that studies focusing on elements of information cited are needed to develop models reflecting…

Written reports still constitute the primary means of communicating institutional research findings. They may have a variety of formats, but should always rest on a well-documented research process. (Author/MSE)

Reviews the development of theory and programs for child sexual abuse prevention and the evidence regarding the efficacy of current child sexual abuse prevention programs. Suggestions are provided for expanding prevention efforts to include public and parent education, life-skills training for young adults, support groups for vulnerable children…

Describes a course designed to teach agricultural students the skills needed to be successful future researchers. The three models of the course include development of a research proposal; research presentations; and research perspectives, including issues of perception, prejudice, and fraud as related to scientific research. (JRH)

Increasingly, papers in scholarly journals are listing over 100 researchers as coauthors. In 40 years, the average number of authors of scientific papers has doubled. Some say the problem reflects the growing complexity of the research process in many disciplines. Journal reviewers find these papers generally of high quality. (MSE)

Discusses a hermeneutical approach to science education that deals with the "misconceptions" problem. Addresses text interpretation and ontological phenomenology, the role of original papers and textbooks, hermeneutics and the history of science, and the use of a hermeneutical approach that bridges the life world and science world for the student.…

Assessed who had published in the "AMHCA Journal" since its inception in 1979. Tracked the history to identify publication practice patterns and evaluated which institutions had contributed the most articles by providing a rank ordering of contributors. Academics, persons affiliated with mental health centers, and private practices were…